What wedding flowers will I need? The ultimate wedding flower checklist

Your wedding flowers are the decorative and creative aspect of your special day and add colour, texture and life to your whole ceremony – your wedding would be a very dull affair without them! They can also represent you and your loved ones. You don’t have to have ‘all the things’ of course, but below is a good guide to start the process.

The Ultimate Wedding Flower Checklist

From bouquets to button holes, flower crowns to hanging hoops, there’s a huge array of stunning florals you can have at your wedding, so let’s dive in and see what options there are. Your wedding flowers can be split into three sections:

  1. personal flowers

  2. ceremony flowers

  3. reception flowers

Personal flowers

These consist of:

bridal bouquet

bridesmaids

hair flowers

button holes for groom and groomsmen

corsages for mother of the bride, mother in law to be

flower crowns

flower girl - could be a wand, basket of fresh rose petals or a flower crown

Ceremony Flowers

These consist of:

welcome flowers - could be a pair of churns in the entrance of the church, or an arrangement on top of an easel welcome sign

aisle flowers - could be hanging pew end arrangements or meadow style vessels on the floor next to each pew. Or if you have chairs for your ceremony something to tie onto the back of each one

altar/ceremony end - could be an arch, a pair of large urns or a simple vase

signing table flowers

hanging installation - could be a hoop hanging above the aisle/ceremony area

fresh rose petals in cones/basket for the confetti throw

*please note, the above depends on whether the ceremony is in a church or in the same venue as the reception, but the same aspects can be applied generally.

RECEPTION Flowers

These consist of:

top table arrangements - often the bride and bridesmaids bouquets can be used on the top table with great effect

guest tables - this can depend on what shape tables you’re having. Round tables look beautiful with footed bowls and candles. Rectangular tables work best with smaller arrangements and/or bud vases

wedding cake flowers – due to new guidelines, we don’t place flowers on the cake, they need to be placed by the cake maker only

thank you flowers - you might want to re-use your flowers and have them wrapped into bunches to give to your guests as they leave

tossing bouquet - if you’d like to preserve your bouquet you may want to have a special tossing bouquet made instead, it could be a smaller version of your own or use a bridesmaid’s bouquet instead if they don’t want to take it home after

Other areas to consider for decoration are the lounge area and wedding card/guest book table

This list covers most aspects but naturally it will depend on your budget and how much you want flowers to be part of your day :-) It can be overwhelming initially and this is where I can help you work out what you’d like for your wedding day. Click the button below for an informal chat.

Sophie Warren-Smith