Grow your own wedding flowers

 

 

It’s no secret that weddings tend to be expensive affairs, and while you can’t afford to cut some corners, decorative flowers are something that you can actually create yourself — and enjoy doing so! Here are some of the types of flowers that would look great at your wedding, as well as some advice on how to style them.

Wildflowers

As silly as it may sound, if you wish to grow wildflowers for your wedding arrangements, you will need to grow them yourself. The laws regarding picking naturally grown wildflowers are murky, and the last thing you want is a fine — yet another expense before your wedding. Poppies, mayweeds and meadowsweet would look beautiful in a wedding arrangement, and would be perfect for a rustic-themed wedding.

Edmund Lowe Photography

March or April is the ideal time to sow seeds for wildflowers, they also love to be in full view of the sun, so don’t plant them in pots next to a wall, or under any cover. These plants will grow to be quite large, so it would be best to allot a specific area of your garden for them. Do not stress much over the fertility of your soil, as these flowers are used to growing in unfavourable conditions, just make sure your soil is free from grass, weeds, and is relatively moist. 1g of pure wildflower seeds is enough to cover one square metre of soil, and you should cover the area with netting to protect the plants from cats and birds

 

Herbs

While herbs are primarily associated with cookery, you can actually produce some fantastic flower arrangements using herbs as the base plant; Lavender, rosemary, peppermint and oregano are great options due to their fragrance. Growing your own herbs is also very easy, and using a gritty fertiliser will encourage the herbs to be tough — an essential quality for arrangement. These herbs from Wyevale Garden Centre come with advice on optimum growth and as an added bonus they will also help you to attract bees and butterflies to your garden.

Image by Morrison

Robust flowers

Generic flowers are fine to use in your arrangements, as long as they are robust. One of the reasons that flower arrangements cost so much is that plants are specially grown to withstand the rigours of transportation and temperature changes. If you are using your own, or a kind neighbour’s flowers, they will need to be particularly sturdy if you want them to last throughout your wedding day.

Image by Antonova-Anna

Flower arranging

This is the fun part of the process, and a reward for your hard work in growing your various plants. Flower arranging is an art as much as it is a skill, and is something you will need to practice quite a lot before the event. Whether you choose you construct your own bouquet, centre pieces for tables, or even a crown of flowers for your head, you should always use an appropriate shape or vessel to build the arrangement in. This could be anything from a shallow vase to an empty wooden crate. The important thing is that you provide stability for your arrangement, otherwise it could be very difficult to manage. This visual guide to flower arranging from Save On Crafts provides you with a step-by-step flower arranging system that you can base your own designs around.

Image by Agnes Kantaruk

Extra features

As well as floral arrangements, you can also use the plants you grow to serve other purposes on your wedding day. Discarded flowers can be picked of their petals to make great natural confetti, whether shredded or intact. Fragrant flowers can be used as decorations, or even flavouring on your wedding cake, especially if you are making the cake yourself. If you have a little one in your family, they could use a flower press, like this one from Great Gizmos, to decorate your wedding thank-you notes — it’s great to involve the whole family in creative projects like this.

Image by AS Food studio

Whether you choose to grow your own wedding flowers to save money, to be ultra-original, or even just because you love doing things yourself, following these tips will hold you in excellent stead for a beautiful and unforgettable wedding day.

Image by Pumbbg