FAQ: What flowers are you going to use in my wedding?

Well, it depends!

But there definitely is some rhyme and reason to the it. Read on to learn about the 4 main factors that go into deciding what flowers to use for every item we design. Let’s start with the easy one -

#1 - SIZE

For tiny things like boutonnieres and corsages, our go-tos are small-bloomed flowers like ranunculus and spray roses, accented with a touch of dainty filler flowers. Medium-sized arrangements like bouquets and centerpieces will need a mix of larger and smaller blooms, and big arrangements like arches or elevated centerpieces tend to use larger flowers like hydrangea, roses, mums, and carns.

#2 - SEASON

Most of our favorites are actually available year round, but there are a few notable exceptions. Peonies are traditionally best in May and June, and while the season is expanding with production coming from Chile, Israel, and even Alaska (yep!), we tend to avoid those more expensive and less impressive off-seaon blooms. Dahlias are a great option for late summer into fall, along with the local sunflowers, marigolds, yarrow, solidago, amaranthus, and lots of wildflowery blooms. Winter and early spring is when bulb flowers like daffodils, hyacinth, and tulips really shine, along with hellebores and blooming branches like cherry, forsythia, and quince.

Along with availability, some flowers just feel more appropriate at certain times of year. Kale, cedar, and brunia have a wonderful wintry vibe while dusty toffee roses and burnt orange mums just feel like fall. Even so, odds are we can get them for your July 1st wedding if they’re your favorite flowers!

#3 - STYLE

At Hedonia, we think about style in terms of both the overall shape of the arrangements, and the mix of large bloomed focal flowers, delicate filler flowers and other textural elements, and greenery. Classic style bouquets have mostly focals like roses, ranunculus, hydrangea, peonies or dahlias (in season) with just a little bit of greenery, allowing us to design in a nicely tailored shape. Garden style bouquets mix in a few more small-bloomed flowers like astilbe or waxflower along with more greenery, making them looser and more textured than a classic bouquet. Organic style bouquets tend to be broader and less symmetric in shape. Butterfly ranunculus, stock, snapdragons, and chamomile are a few of our favorites, mixed into the base of roses, ranunculus, and other focals. If it has a wavy stem and a mind of it’s own, it’s a great fit for an organic style wedding. Wildflower bouquets have the most variety, featuring mostly the filler flowers that grow naturally in the area - queen anne’s lace, solidago, asters - along with waxflower, butterfly ranunculus, snapdragons, zinnias, and cosmos. This creates a more upright, “undone” shape that gives these arrangements their vintage charm.

And finally…

#4 - COLOR

Not all flowers come in all colors! And while certain color palettes have an almost endless selection of flowers (white and blush brides - we’re looking at you!), other palettes have to be a little bit more flexible on floral choice.

BLUE is perhaps the most limited color. Delphinium and hydrangea both come in sky and true blue. Nigella and cornflower also are true blues. Tweedia is a charming sky blue with tiny blooms and a weird stinky sap. Eryngium (or thistle) is the best for slate blue or dusty blue palettes. Anemone, veronica, and scabiosa are blue-ish but with serious lavender/purple undertones. Blue roses you’l see everywhere on Pinterest, but they are either dyed flowers or silk flowers and we do not use them unless you’re after something seriously funky :-).

LAVENDER has scabiosa, lisianthus, stock, mums, and statice in cool lavender shades. Roses and spray roses are great warm lavenders, though there are some silvery-ish speciality roses available too. Aster, delphinium, sweetpeas, freesia, hydrangea, lilac, and of course lavender are less commonly used but also gorgeous additions to the palette.

PURPLE has all of the above, plus some great anemone, carnations, kale, and ranunculus. The roses tend to be lighter pinky-purples as opposed to dark or royal purple.

BLACK or very dark burgundy/purples are superstars and tend to be a bit more expensive than their lighter-colored counterparks. Black magic and black baccara roses are velvety deep burgundy-blacks. Scabiosa, ranunculus, callas, and cosmos are inky focals, while privet is a navy berry and anemones have graphic black centers. Agonis and cotinus are our favorite dark foliages.

PEACH as a color can cover everything from creams and blushes to light oranges and corals. It shines in roses, spray roses, stock, hypericum berries, ranunculus, dahlias, carnations, and mums.

CORAL can be tricky when it’s not peony season! Coral charm peonies are the best, duh. Roses, dahlias, godetia, and germinis are also great for that pop of color.

EARTH TONES are super popular right now, but can have a limited palette outside of fall. Quicksand, toffee, and sahara roses, carnations, mums, lisianthus, and queen anne’s lace are available more or less year round. Fall adds spectacular textural elements like bronze amaranthus, scabiosa and echinacea pods, and all kinds of fun foliages.

YELLOW has both classic spring and summer flowers, like tulips, daffodils, sunflowers, solidago, snapdragons, and billy balls. Roses, spray roses, and ranunculus also come in bright and soft shades of yellow.

ORANGE has really fabulous dahlias and mums. Roses, spray roses, ranunculus, and tulips are great year-round flowers, while celosia, zinnia, and marigolds are late summer stunners.

RED roses are a classic, along with anemones, ranunculus, carns, and gerberas for bright true reds. Dark reds and burgundys add peonies, ranunculus, astilbe, snapdragons, scabs, and a whole host of other blooms. Burgundy’s a pretty good one in terms of floral selection, especially in late spring (peonies!) and autumn (dahlias!). It’s also a winner for berries, with hypericum, rose hips, ilex, and holly showing bright and muted shades of red.

Our favorite GREENS are eucalyptus in all it’s forms for a nice soft sage color. Italian ruscus and camellia are go-tos for dark greens, and salal and pittosporum are great for light-to-mid tones. Green flowers include mini hydrangea, mums, green trick dianthus, and amaranthus.

So…what flowers are going to be in my bouquet?

When we order your flowers, we start by writing custom recipes for each arrangement based on these factors, plus your budget and any external concerns. We then place your order with our growers and wholesalers, and about 95% of the time we get exactly what we ordered. We’re more concerned with quality than certain varietals, so our vendors know we’d rather substitute flowers than sell something that’s not up to snuff. That’s why we give you general guidelines about what your flowers might include, rather than specific stem counts. It’s all about picking the best flowers in your color palette and overall vibe for every part of your wedding flowers.

Bonus #5 - Wilty flowers or nah?

We like the non-wilty ones! They also tend to be more affordable since they hold up better during transportation. So hardy flowers like roses, mums, and carnations will always have a place at our table. Delicates like astilbe, astrantia, lilac, and viburnum are also invited but not used out of water.