Wedding Reception Flowers - What You Need to Consider
The formality of the ceremony is over. Now it's time for fun! Your wedding reception flowers will give the room a sense of celebration as well as style.
When we are planning wedding reception flowers for a client, we will consider the following types of arrangement:
Top table arrangements
Wedding table centerpieces
Wedding Cake Flowers
Room decoration and pedestal arrangements
Top Table Arrangements
The top table is traditionally decorated with a large 'long and low' arrangement in the center in front of the bride and groom. If you have a large number of guests on a long top table you could have three arrangements along the table.
Another idea for the top table is to run a garland along the length of the table. This can either be arranged in a straight line along the top of the table, or in swags at the front of the table.
Wedding Table Centerpieces
Table centerpieces can set the feel for the whole room, so it is important to get them right.
They can range from a simple relaxed posy for an informal wedding, to sophisticated and ornate arrangements.
Remember your arrangement should not prevent guests from seeing and talking to each other.
Either goes for low arrangements that you can see over the top of, or tall thin arrangements where most of the flower action is high up.
More examples of our centerpiece wedding reception flowers can be found here
Wedding Cake Flowers
Flower arrangements on the wedding cake can either be small and dainty or large and bold. It depends on the look you are trying to achieve.
Small roses of the same color theme to the bride's bouquet always look good. A design similar to a corsage can be made up and this works very successfully for cakes tops.
I created the cake flowers in the photo on the left to give a nice decorative look without overpowering the cake.
All of the flowers on the cake top are real including the dark red roses. The two lower dark red roses are actually made from icing sugar, but co-ordinate well.
Another tried and tested idea is to have a solid layer of flowers in between the layers of a tiered cake.
Obviously do not use poisonous plants or flowers such as holly berries. Also avoid using flowers or foliage that tend to shed leaves or pollen such as asparagus fern.
If you don't want flowers actually on the cake you can have a small bouquet of flowers placed on the cake table to the side of the cake.
You can get more ideas on wedding cake flowers on this page
Room Arrangements
To complete your wedding reception flowers you need some room arrangements. A cost-effective way to decorate the room is to go for a small number of large arrangements. These create a big impact. You can place the arrangements on pedestals just as people enter the room or either side of the top table.
The arrangement in the photo above is on a traditional pedestal. That's me standing beside it to give a sense of scale. It contains lilies, gerberas and anthodium’s.
Another popular idea is to have an arch of flowers. This is a great idea for the entrance to a marquee. Alternatively you could mark the entrance to a room or marquee by placing a couple of flower trees either side of the entrance.
Flower trees (also called topiary trees) are a great decoration for wedding ceremony rooms and receptions. We commonly use them either side of a doorway to mark an entrance. If you want to make a big entrance this is the way to go!
The photo above shows a pair of flower trees that we created for a wedding at Walton Hall, Warwickshire. The trees were placed either side of the doors that led from the reception room to the beautiful terrace grounds outside. The flowers we used were gerberas and chrysanthemums against a background of silver and dark green foliage.
Flower trees can easily be created so that the color theme coordinates with your bouquet and other wedding flowers.
How Flower Trees are made
Although they are in the shape of tree, flower trees are made from individual flowers that are fixed to either a framework or floristry foam base. They can be of varying height from an 18inch centerpiece, to a 4 feet tall tree as you see in the photo above (or even bigger if you really want to show off!)
A lot of time and effort goes into creating these topiary trees but the results can be fantastic.
If you are thinking of creating some yourself, it's really important to get the mechanics correct. The tree can be top-heavy when filled with water for the flowers. The last thing that you want is your tree crashing to the ground on your wedding day.
Alternatives to Flower Trees
Here are a couple of alternative ideas to mark the entrance to your ceremony or reception room:
Bay Trees - Place a pair of bay trees either side of the doorway. When we hire out bay trees we dress them in stylish planters and finish them with luxurious ribbons that coordinate with the colors of the wedding.
Pedestal Flower Arrangements - A pair of flower arrangements on tall pedestal stands can look striking at the entrance to a wedding. Making the arrangements mirror images of each other can add to the effect.
Kate Andrews,
Scottish Flowers
here are some extra cool flower dirs:
* Greenfield Flower Shop
* DeliverFlower.info - links to Flower directory resources and information websites.
