The wedding season is upon us, and many will be planning for weddings, or similar spring/summer events, a year ahead. The costs of weddings are spiraling, with many now costing on average over £30,000 (over $38,000) at 2018 prices. Resourceful wedding foliage, and other tactics, could cut your costs dramatically, yet at the same time add some rustic charm. I’m reminded of when I was thinking about flowers and foliage for our wedding. I wanted to go rustic and natural. I thought this would be a good idea as my vision was one of botanical abundance. Otherwise, I might have to virtually buy out a florist shop for the day to conjure up the vision.
I was pleased about how the wedding flowers and foliage turned out so I thought I would share some tips. You can adopt these for other parties and gatherings.
Tips for Preparation
For our day, the degree to which flowers were centre stage ranged from high (in a traditional centre piece on the head table), to moderate (on guest tables) to low or non-existent in other small ensembles here and there.
I’m lucky that my mother-in-law is very experienced at flower arranging as my creative skills are questionable in this area. She created all of this for the day almost single-handed. My only contribution was to throw out ideas mostly generated from Pinterest. I also ran around during the preparation gathering foliage from the garden. I removed waste trimmings to the compost bin, and made up some mini arrangements myself.
What’s In Your Garden?
I realized, whilst researching my preferred style, that our garden was brimming with the kind of foliage needed. I’m always behind on trimming shrubs and greenery, so why not be resourceful and use it?
At a guess I would say that for the arrangements, we’d gathered 80% overall from three gardens: my mother-in-law’s, my brother-in-law’s and mine.
Here are some tips, relevant, I hope to any event, based on how I went about the DIY approach:
- If you’re not great at flower arrangements, keep your ear to the ground for a willing person who is. If you keep to a simple naturalistic approach, you’ll make your job or someone else’s easier
- Research – try Pinterest, Googling, Wedding/home and garden magazines etc. Try my Eco-friendly Wedding Ideas Pinterest board
- Look around your garden and consider what will be at its best in the month of the event. If you have no garden, have you gardening friends willing to donate to the cause? Gardeners are often keen to showcase what they grow in their gardens.
- Consider foliage – different tones, leaf shapes, plain and variegated. Ideally, choose glossy leaves. Shrub leaves are often good, but not fragile, wilt-prone foliage
- Not enough flowers and greenery available? Try single examples (like a fern leaf or a rose) in a narrow-necked vase or bottle, or small bunches in jam jars
- Try out combinations in advance and leave them out for a few days to test for wilting
Know Anyone With a Creative Turn of Mind?
During the preparations on the penultimate day, we piled the dining room table high with all kinds of greenery. It smelt like the garden – of wet leaves and the faint scent of lavender brought in from outside. It was a hive of industry, but we were waiting for my brother-in-law and Best Man to turn up. His mother and I tisk-tisked and wondered where he’d got to. Eventually he appeared with a big crate of flowers and greenery, claiming there was nothing left in his garden.
We set him to work. I asked him what he could do with some bottles and foliage? His creative mind (day job – product/toy designer) set to work and turned to foliage. After some rustling around with greenery, this is what he come up with.
They made a nice addition to the family history photo table. He was just warming up. With tuition from mother, and flowers from his own garden, next up was….
I made some mini-arrangements myself. Quickly put together, around the place, these added a little herby freshness. The smell of bay, rosemary, mint, lavender and conifer mingled on a mantlepiece.
These were on a mantelpiece in a room which housed the bar, but I don’t know how much guests noticed in their drive to get another glass of wine or beer!
Consider Where to Splash Your Cash
We did splash some cash. We bought hop bines from a Herefordshire farm, which we hung up high. West Worcestershire into Herefordshire is one of two major areas in the country for hop growing, the other area being Kent. So, we thought we would take advantage of a local tradition.
In a way, I think of the resourceful wedding foliage approach as being an act of craftivism and activism. It’s a way of using craft and resourcefulness in refusing to consume.
Thinking about flowers and foliage for an up and coming event? You might look at your garden (or dare I say it, your neighbour’s, or your friend’s) with a different eye.
