Wedding Flowers

Bec Bec

Hi everyone, 
I was hoping for some advice and words of wisdom please. I'm getting married this August, only just set the date, and was thinking of small posies of garden flowers as my centre pieces on the tables. Maybe three or five small vases of jars per table so will need around 24 - 40 posies. It's a very informal, laid back affair in a marquee at the local pub. My plan is to grow my own flowers all being well and would like some recommendations please. I have previously grown cosmos from seed successfully and love them so they are a definite but any other suggestions would be great thanks. I know I need to get a move on time wise so must get onto this weekend. Many thanks, B

Loraine3

sweet peas, pinks, honeysuckle, lavender, cornflower are a few suggestions. I have seen jars wrapped in a strip of hessian and tied with tattered lace or raffia. sounds like you will have a lot of posies to make, hope you get some help!

pbff

Congratulations on your forthcoming wedding @Bec Bec

Sarah Raven's catalogue/website is quite inspirational when it comes to growing flowers for cutting 
https://www.sarahraven.com/flowers/plants/cut_flower_seedlings/+august

I would probably go mostly for hardy or half-hardy annuals; they are the reliables!

Some suggestions (depends upon the conditions of your garden in terms of soil, water and light of course!):

Sweet Peas - literally thousands of choices of beautiful, beautiful flowers. 

Dahlias - I love the single-flowered and collarette types. They are easy from seed and flower freely. If you protect them from frost, you can keep them as perennials and they just get better and better every year.

Love-in-a-Mist (Nigella damascena) - really easy from seed and lovely for cutting.

Zinnias - again, they are easy and great cut flowers.

Tithonia - beautiful vibrant orange!

Calendula (Pot Marigolds) - super easy to start from seed and super easy to grow.

French Marigolds (Tagetes) - they are relatively short-stemmed, but if you have some tiny  vases or other vessels, they are pretty. Again, really easy from seed.

Don't overlook greenery either - fern fronds and herbs for instance.

Just spotted this article that Alys Fowler wrote for the Guardian about flowers for an August wedding that might be useful:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/may/18/alys-fowler-annuals-august-wedding

Bec Bec

Thank you for your suggestions and the link to the Guardian website. will have a thorough read of that. Hadn't really thought of greenery, I like the idea of ferns and herbs. I've got help from sisters and friends to assemble them all, they just don't know it yet. I'm always a bit nervous of growing dahlias, not sure why. I will definitely attempt some this year though. 
Thanks again, 
B

RubyRoss

That's a lovely idea. I grew agapanthus for a July wedding but they did not opened in time. For greenery, some of the cosmos have nice, fern-like foliage.

pbff

If you've never grown Dahlias from seed before, I would suggest the Coltness hybrids. 
They were the first Dahlias I grew from seed, in fact, the first Dahlias I ever grew in general! 
Seeds are quite cheap - £1.75 for a generous sized pack from Chiltern, which is my seed supplier of choice:
https://www.chilternseeds.co.uk/item_433M_dahlia_coltness_hybrids_mixed
The only thing you have to watch out for is slugs.
I grow mine in pots, so the slugs don't tend to go for them as much as when they're in the open ground. 
I can then pop the pots into the borders to fill any gaps 

Fernery

Hi, I got married on the 23rd July 2016 and we did the flowers ourselves. We wanted a huge amount of flowers and got married in a barn in the Yorkshire countryside so the DIY look worked for us. It takes a lot of time to prep all the flowers and make the arrangements though. We had a team of about 8 helpers working on it all day on the day before our wedding. I’ll be honest, it was fun up until the last couple of hours when it got pretty stressful getting everything finished. They were beautiful though and it meant we got exactly what we wanted. I’d definitely recommend going for 50% greenery and 50% flowers. It’s what a florist told us and it definitely helps balance the arrangements and make the flowers themselves stand out. We used lots of ferns because I love them, and then anything with pretty leaf shapes. Himalayan honeysuckle worked really well in it. We didn’t use them but you could also look at ornamental grasses? Could contrast nicely with lavender and your other flowers. With herbs, make sure you really like the scents you choose and that they go well together. Our entire wedding venue smelt pretty strongly of the flowers we chose. I’m guessing it would be similar with any herbs you use so choose your combinations carefully. Good luck, I’m sure it will be beautiful! 

Bec Bec

Thank you all very much for your ideas. They are all really helpful, thanks again 
B

GlendsWSsks

growing dahlias is much more difficult than you might imagineBec Bec said:

Thank you for your suggestions and the link to the Guardian website. will have a thorough read of that. Hadn't really thought of greenery, I like the idea of ferns and herbs. I've got help from sisters and friends to assemble them all, they just don't know it yet. I'm always a bit nervous of growing dahlias, not sure why. I will definitely attempt some this year though. 
Thanks again, 
BB

growing dahlias is much more difficult than you might imagine

CameronAlsopLR3

I still wonder what kind of flower you chose. I can't associate a dahlia with a wedding flower.

GlendsWSsks

pbff said:

Congratulations on your forthcoming wedding @Bec Bec

Sarah Raven's catalogue/website is quite inspirational when it comes to growing flowers for cutting 
https://www.sarahraven.com/flowers/plants/cut_flower_seedlings/+august

I would probably go mostly for hardy or half-hardy annuals; they are the reliables!

Some suggestions (depends upon the conditions of your garden in terms of soil, water and light of course!):

Sweet Peas - literally thousands of choices of beautiful, beautiful flowers. 

Dahlias - I love the single-flowered and collarette types. They are easy from seed and flower freely. If you protect them from frost, you can keep them as perennials and they just get better and better every year.

Love-in-a-Mist (Nigella damascena) - really easy from seed and lovely for cutting.

Zinnias - again, they are easy and great cut flowers.

Tithonia - beautiful vibrant orange!

Calendula (Pot Marigolds) - super easy to start from seed and super easy to grow.

French Marigolds (Tagetes) - they are relatively short-stemmed, but if you have some tiny  vases or other vessels, they are pretty. Again, really easy from seed.

Don't overlook greenery either - fern fronds and herbs for instance.

Just spotted this article that Alys Fowler wrote for the Guardian about flowers for an August wedding that might be useful:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/may/18/alys-fowler-annuals-august-wedding

thanks for your guide

now it's easier for me to choose