Sometimes you can have your heart set on a particular flower only to learn it is not in season, or perhaps it is not available in quite the right shade to work with the wedding colour palette. Maybe your dream flower should be in season during your wedding but you find out weeks out from the big day that something has affected the availability. What can you do in these situations? Well, I have a few ideas for you to give you the wedding flowers of your dreams.
1. Choose another flower
Image: Laura Manariti
Hate to say it, but the most obvious option is to select another (incredible) flower which closely resembles your favourite bloom. We are spoilt for choice.
There are many flowers which look like each other but are not directly related.
Let us look at everyone’s favourite flower, the peony, for example. Peonies have a very short season of six to eight weeks at the end of spring, but should your wedding fall outside of this time, you could opt for a similar looking bloom such as garden roses, double tulips or ranunculus.
2. Import from overseas
Image: Julia Archibald
Chances are the bloom you have your heart set on may be in season in another part of the world.
Although it can work out a little more expensive, your florist could investigate importing your favourite flower from another state or country.
3. Consider premium silk flowers
Image: Laura Manariti
Faux flowers have come a long way since the less than favourable varieties available in your local
bargain store. High quality silk flowers can closely resemble their real life counterpart and your guests will not know they are not the real deal.
We had a bride who requested a particular variety of magnolia bloom in her bouquet for sentimental reasons.
The variety wasn’t available commercially, so we combined faux magnolia blooms with real flowers for her. She was able to keep the magnolia stems as a keepsake after the big day.
4. Make flowers resemble another
Image: Julia Archibald
This option is often laborious and therefore can be more expensive, but sometimes you can use
elements of one flower to make them look like another. We have had brides request branches of blossom outside of blossom season, and what the bride wants the bride gets! We have emulated branches of blossoms by intricately wiring Singapore orchid or stock blooms on to bare branches.
5. Change the colour
You may not know that there is such a thing as floral paint which is used to tint natural blooms. We recently had a client who requested a room full of hydrangea in an exact shade of blue and purple. It had to be exact! Colouring of hydrangea is a bit of a science and dependent on factors such as soil acidity. They were also required at the very beginning of hydrangea season to make the task even trickier!
I was determined to bring our client’s dream to life and found a grower willing to work closely with me to make this happen. The client was kept updated throughout and was informed from the very beginning that although the grower and I would do everything in our power to ensure the hydrangea were the exact hues requested, there was a chance that they may need to be dusted with floral paint.
The grower did a magnificent job at providing hydrangea in the specified shades but not all flowers bloomed in time. White hydrangeas had to be purchased to supplement and needed to be sprayed with colour so that they matched the naturally coloured blooms. The additional blooms were carefully and safely sprayed to match then dispersed amongst the naturally hued hydrangea.
The client was thrilled with the end result!
About Victoria Whitelaw: She is extremely passionate about her craft and over her 35 years in the industry has created her own extraordinarily elegant and individual style. Victoria loves nothing more than creating dream weddings for her clients, transforming their visions into events to remember.
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