Photo by doug88888

Flowers are some of the most important decorative touches at any wedding. From the bridal bouquet to the table displays at the reception, your choice of floral arrangements is an ideal opportunity to set the style.

The wedding flowers are going to be on demonstration all through the day – as well as appearing in most of the pictures and video. So whether it’s the bride’s and bridesmaid’s bouquets, buttonholes for your guests, or feature displays for the reception, it’s important to choose the right flowers to enhance your wedding theme.

Many brides will turn to a professional florist to create the flowers for their big day, but on such a personal occasion it’s natural to think about preparing the flowers yourself. It’s also likely that flower-loving family members or friends will want to help. Even if key arrangements, such as the bride’s bouquet, are professionally made, there are so many opportunities for floral decorations that this is a lovely way for other people to become involved in the preparations. And if you do decide on professional help for the all-important ceremony, you can have the satisfaction of creating the arrangements for the reception, where timing is less of an issue.

• Crystal bouquets are ultra chic, never wilt, are available in a variety of colors to suit any color scheme and for the DIY bride, they are easy and affordable to make for everyone in the bridal party.

• Kissing balls were once popular in the Victorian era, but they are seeing resurgence. Kissing balls, or pomanders as they are also known, can be made of a variety of materials including silk flowers, crystals, feathers, fabric etc. They are affordable and easy for the DIY bride as well.

• For those brides who would like to be more religious in there ceremony, they may carry a prayer book, bible or a rosary. When superstar singer Christina Aguilera got married she chose to carry a rosary, as a symbol of her Catholic faith.

Whatever the reason for not wanting flowers at the wedding, the bride certainly has many options to choose from, so she can rest assured knowing that her wedding will be just as beautiful as if it had flowers, but she will be comfortable as well.

Photo by babasteve

According to Beyond Blossoms there are some flowers that have a stronger fragrance. One of the most interesting smelling flowers in the world is the NASA rose. Formally it is known a sthe “Overnightsensation Rose” John Glenn took this rose on his space shuttle flight in 1998. The tiny pale pink raised plant, secured in a box, traveled 10 days through space and developed a very unusual scent, which smells like both raspberry and lemon. Shiseido optioned the rights this scent for its first Zen perfume. The rose plant is now sitting safely in the Greenhouse outside of New York where it’s breeding secrets are guarded.

Photo by audreyjm529

Popularly, passion flowers and passion fruit are frequently used with sexual or romantic innuendo. However, according to Wikipedia, the “Passion” in “passion flower” does not refer to love, but to the passion of Jesus Christ. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Spanish Christian missionaries used the flower as, a symbol of the last days of Jesus Christ and the Crucifixion:

The pointed tips of the leaves were taken to represent the Holy Lance.

The tendrils represent the whips used in the Flagellation of Christ.

The ten petals and sepals represent the ten faithful apostles (less St. Peter the denier and Judas Iscariot the betrayer).

The flower’s radial filaments, which can number more than a hundred and vary from flower to flower, represent the Crown of Thorns.

The chalice-shaped ovary with its receptacle represents a hammer or the Holy Grail.

The 3 stigmata represent the 3 nails and the 5 anthers below them the 5 wounds (four by the nails and one by the lance).

The blue and white colors of many species’ flowers represent Heaven and Purity.

If you have a hard time finding this plant, you might want to plant your own. You can buy the seeds at Nature Hill.

The rare red hot poker fower, also known as the Torch Lily is officially called the Kniphofia. This brilliant flower grows up to about 4 feet tall with the signature bright red and yellow flower-spikes.  They kind of remind us of those astropops that we use to eat as kids. The red flowers are the freshly-opened ones, they turn yellow as they age.

These are easy to grow if you are interested, but are used to rocky surfaces, not bogs. They originated in South Africa. They are extremely unique and would make an amazing wedding bouquet, portraying passion and intensity. They bloom in mid to late summer, perfect if you want to grow them for a summer wedding.

These can be purchased in seed form from American Meadows.

At WeddingHydrangea.com, you can find home grown beautiful hydrangea wedding flowers. They are grown and packaged from a family farm in California USA. Many Do It Yourself (DIY) Wedding brides and designers have commented that they enjoy getting to know the family, seeing the service they can provide, and the quality of care that sets them apart because of being a hands on farmer of these fresh hydrangea flowers. Wedding Hydrangea is involved in every detail, from growing the Hydrangea flowers, to harvesting them, carefully packing each of the spring or summer wedding flower orders to be used for your DIY wedding and bridal bouquets, and finally shipping the flowers to you in a timely manner. If interested, please visit their website for more information.