Friends, we are SO excited about a brand new column we’ve been working on for you, featuring one of our most favorite topics: flowers! Our seasonal flower guide will help you plan out your wedding floral design, letting you know if your favorite bloom will be in season on your big day. Or, if you’re flower obsessed (like we are!) and don’t have a date set yet, maybe you’ll even plan your celebration around your favorite florals + foliage!
We wanted to share some fun untraditional varieties that you may not be familiar with, as well as some well-known favorites, to help you achieve the look of some of the amazing bouquets + arrangements you’ve seen here on GWS (you can browse our bouquet galleries for lots of great inspiration!). We’ll be sharing a similar post for each season, highlighting the best of the best of what is available to you during that time. We hope this feature will help you to brainstorm ideas with your floral designer, give you the ability to DIY your own wedding day flowers, or just help inform you a little bit more so you can properly plan for a fun party you’re hosting or so you know what to pick up for your home the next time you have guests in town!
Some of our favorites that are only available in the summer include: Cafe au Lait Dahlias, Clematis, Freesia, Pink Veronica, Blushing Bride Protea, Snow on the Mountain, Poppy Pods, Helios Garden Rose – and one of my faves for a sweet wildflower bouquet, Chamomile Daisies!
Garden roses are one of our favorite flowers, second only to peonies we’d say. Early summer brides might luck out + be able to get their hands on the last few peonies of the season, but for those of you who love the fluffy garden flower look, garden roses are definitely for you! They are the perfect focal bloom – it’s kind of hard to tell in the photos, but some of those romantic antique garden roses actually rivaled peonies in size! – and they look amazing paired with untamed fillers + vines, desert-y succulents + air plants, or really just about anything! There are lots of different types of garden roses and the three above – Helios (orange), Romantic Antique (dark pink) and David Austin Juliet (blush) – are some of our most favorites.
Dahlias are one of the most popular wedding flowers around, and it’s not too difficult to see why. We love that no two are exactly alike and Cafe au Lait is our most favorite variety, with gorge shades that range from blush, to peach, to champagne, to ivory. You can typically get one of the 19 types of dahlias at some point during the year, but lucky for summertime brides, this pretty variety is usually in season from June through September, give or take depending on environmental conditions.
It’s no shocker that we are in LOVE with proteas here at GWS. Some of our most fave weddings have incorporated them in such fun ways. But their lesser known variety, Blushing Bride Protea, is only available in the summer, making it one of the most covetable flowers around – for those who have heard about it at least! We love how unique + textural they are, and their small size makes them perfect for boutonnieres or to add in as an accent stem to your bouquet.
Chamomile Daisies probably win for cutest filler ever. For brides going for that quintessential wildflower look, you practically have to have these guys in the mix to pull it all together!
If your wedding date isn’t set quite yet, but you were hoping to get a feel for what types of stems are available year round, we’ve got you covered, with a little list of our fave finds you can almost always scoop up! Astilbe, Scabiosa, and Lisianthus would pair together beautifully to craft a textural, blush-hued bouquet and lotus pods + leather leaf fern are great for brides who wanted something a little funkier or tropical-feeling! Queen Anne’s Lace is a fun filler for a more wildflower bouquet and of course you can accent with pretty garden roses!
When talking to your florist, or planning out your wedding flowers, always remember that mother nature can be tricky at times, so there is always the possibility that certain items will not be available. Luckily, there is usually always something similar you or your florist can substitute to achieve a similar look!
We hope you guys enjoyed this fun new feature as much as we enjoyed sharing it! We loved getting to play with all the vibrant, pretty blooms available in the summer months, and for brides who are planning a fall wedding, be sure to check back soon for our upcoming fall seasonal flower guide!
If you’re loving the flowers we’ve featured, but don’t live near a great flower market, you should check out BloomsByTheBox. BloomsByTheBox has a wide selection of blooms that can be shipped to you.
Thanks so much to Katie Pritchard for the photos!
What a useful article! When I ordered my blooms, the florist asked me what I wanted and I had absolutely no idea. I think I was expecting some kind of guide, just like this. Just because a bride loves how flowers look and smell, doesn’t mean they have any further knowledge on the subject. When my flowers arrived on the day I loved them. But whilst on honeymoon it occurred to me that they were not the colours I had expected!
Ohhh lovely, as a former florist I just love flowers and didn’t have such pretty guides around back in the day :-) beautiful images
What a fantastic article! This is very helpful. I sadly didn’t know about creating your own bouquet’s when I was getting married. However I have many friends who on their way to marriage and I plan on helping them do just this!
Oh my gosh, this is perfect for me right now. I’m currently planning decor for our June wedding and I am DIYing extremely minimalist arrangements. This is so much great inspiration and will help me choose just a few blooms that will make a big impact!
This is really helpful and useful for those who are going to get married.
Very pretty posting, love these flowers
These are perfect! So romantic and tender :) I’ll this post to a friend of mine that’s getting married in July! :) She’ll need flowers for her bouquet and the restaurant :)
Only stumbled upon this site now and I love it. Very informative and I will be showing this to bridal clients as they can always be lead to beautiful bouquet arrangements.
Thanks,
Herschel
http://www.herschelgutmanphotography.com/
Hard to not like the David Austins :) nice post and great photos Katie!
Great post! I love these flower :D
Having read this I thought it was extremely enlightening.
I appreciate you finding the time and energy to put this short article together.
I once again find myself spending a significant amount of time both reading and
commenting. But so what, it was still worthwhile!