Pismo Beach Wedding Bouquets_0141Here are some tips on how to choose a wedding bouquet.The bridal bouquet is your wow wedding accessories.

Consider the shape and size of your bouquet

When choosing a wedding bouquet, consider the shape and size of the bouquet. The bouquet should fit the style of the wedding and fit the bride.  Here’s what this means: if you are a smaller, petite bride going for a more traditional wedding look, then a smaller to medium size round some whispy bouquet would fit your wedding. If you are a bride going with a boho style dress and barefoot on the beach, then I’d go for a bouquet that is boho and a little more wild style.  Then, for a curvy bride, a larger bouquet would be best to balance out the look of your dress and drawn your eye more towards your flowers and make things look more proportional.

 If you aren’t sure what size bouquet you want, grab an artificial bouquet or a few groupings of flowers from your local grocery store.  Arrange the flowers like a bouquet (grouped together) and see how the size looks on you.  

Trust your florist

Just because a bouquet looks pretty online, it might not fit your style, budget or have the same flowers that your florist can get.  It’s like the dress – it may look good in a magazine but once you try it on, it might not be for you.  Be open minded to choosing a bouquet that fits your personality and style. Your florist might see a different style for you that you might not have thought about.  The florist might also see the whole vision of your wedding – the location, your dress, and the colors you want to use.  If you want your bouquet to be a showcase piece, then a larger size is better or one with more unique flowers and greenery.

Select seasonal flowers

When choosing a wedding bouquet, find out what flowers are in season for your wedding day.  The Knot does a great review on all the flowers and the season they are available.   See their post here for flowers, with pictures, and the season they grow.    I will have to say that even though you will find a flower that you love, that says it grows during the season of your wedding, that flower might not be available or might not look like the photo you saw on line.  Here’s a great example – I love the super large, Cafe O’le dahlia.  It’s color can vary from blush pink to a peach color. Its size can be as largess your hand or as small as a fist.  The size and color can change based on the plant, weather, and variety.  So, just because you saw a picture of a flower you love, doesn’t mean you will get that same exact flower.

Your florist should be able to match the look and feel of a bouquet that you love.  Just know, that getting a certain flower might mean paying a high price or change your expectations and trust that you will get a beautiful bouquet with the flowers that are growing from local growers this season.

For our bouquets, most of our flowers come from local growers.  We try to select fresh stems that don’t need to be shipped in. By selecting locally grown flowers we can help support local farmers, reduce the transportation cost and have the freshest flowers available.

Selecting the color of your flowers

The colors of the bouquet should probably match the colors of your wedding. If you are lost and don’t know where to start with colors, Fifty Flowers has a great resource for looking at flowers and greenery by color. Here is the link for that resource.  

It’s great to see what flowers you are drawn to and see what colors are available.  A popular color for weddings is blue, but there aren’t a lot of blue flowers. When looking at turquoise colors on Fifty Flowers, most of the flowers are dyed blue flowers.  Your florist might advise on your flowers being another color to accent the turquoise color.  See the example below, for going for a white or ivory bouquet.

White or ivory flowers- With an ivory or white wedding dress, a bouquet with the same color is very traditional.  I really like the simple bridal bouquet for the beach weddings.  One of my favorite bouquets was the one with the open garden roses in the ivory color mixed in the another rose variety.  It’s a little softer and romantic.  The greenery would be eucalyptus and dusty miller for a green grey color.

Peachy pink and hint of blue and grey flowers – For a bride with the turquoise color, her bridesmaids were wearing different shades of ocean blue.  She wanted blue roses, but the died version doesn’t really speak natural bouquet.  She trusted the florist and she created a very pretty peachy pink bouquet with a hint of blue and greenery.  The groomsmen and groom wore a royal blue vest and the bridesmaid wore a turquoise dress. Here’s a photo of her bouquet and wedding colors.


Make it personal

Select flowers that have meaning to you. Are there certain flowers that you love? Maybe you have always loves star gazer lilies or light pink roses. Are there flowers that mean something to you in your relationship?  Maybe your fiancé gave you sunflowers for your first date or anniversary. If you still aren’t sure about what flowers you like maybe stop by your local florist and take a look at some flowers there.

Some brides will wrap in memory of keepsakes around their bouquets.  Here’s one from a bride who lost her dad. It also had her something blue on the ribbon with her dad’s picture.

Here are some remembrance charms that you can purchase for your bouquet.

Another idea for a charm is to add something blue, along with your names as a keepsake from your wedding day.  I also encourage brides to save a flower or 2 from their bouquet. The dried flowers and charms can be added to a shadow box displaying special pieces from your wedding day.

Can I keep my bouquet?

Yes, you can keep it! Enjoy your beautiful bouquet and remember you don’t have to toss it. For my wedding, I went to Michael’s and grabbed a small purple bouquet to toss. The funny thing is that my husband’s nephew caught the bouquet, didn’t want it, and then I ended up with it. It’s actually in my box of treasure as a remembrance of the wedding.  Maybe my daughter can toss it at her wedding…lol! You could also ask your florist to make you a smaller bouquet to toss if you wanted to use real flowers like your bouquet.

Another idea for your bouquet is to preserve parts of your bouquet.  Take a few blooms from your bouquet and hang them upside down or preserve them in flower powder called Silica Gel.   Check out a few other options for preserving flowers from WikiHow. You can buy silica gel at Michael’s. 

To keep your flowers fresh after the wedding ceremony, follow these tips: 1.  Keep flowers in a vase at the reception and when you get home. Using your bouquet on the sweetheart table also lets you pay once and use twice. 2. Keep the flowers in a cool place and cut the bottom of the stems. When I got home I took photos of the bouquet with the small top of our cake. Then I dried a few and kept them in a memory box. My best friend kept her bouquet and then gave me the dried flowers as a keepsake ornament for our first Christmas as husband and wife.

When choosing your wedding bouquet, you can have a way to keep it for a very long time!

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