Wedding Flower Trends 2017

Wedding planning is in high gear for floral designers and newly engaged couples. While flower farmers plan for four distinct seasons, many floral designers observe just two: wedding season and wedding planning season. This is the time of year when Instagram feeds and Pinterest boards are flooded with ideas and inspiration for incorporating flowers into life’s biggest celebrations.

Will blush pink continue to dominate color palettes?  What new hues will see in centerpieces? Will bouquets be big and bold, or simple and elegant?  Will we see any new floral statement pieces gracing the aisles this wedding season?  While trends vary slightly from region to region, here are some of the hottest styles we see on the horizon:

FLOWERS

Fresh from the garden, seasonal flowers. For brides, there is nothing quite like clutching a bouquet filled with fresh, fragrant flowers grown with love and harvested by hand by a local farmer or designer with whom they have a personal connection. Thankfully, this trend is becoming more and more common, as awareness and interest in local, seasonal flowers continues to grow, especially among studio florists and style- and eco-conscious couples. A recent Slow Flowers survey and Industry Insights Report also confirmed the uptick in consumers’ and designers’ use of U.S.-grown and locally-grown flowers.

Dahlias, dahlias, dahlias. If the extremely high demand for Floret dahlias is any indication, we’ll be seeing dahlias dominate late summer and fall wedding designs. ‘Café au lait’ is still the queen, but other big beauties such as ‘Labyrinth’ and ‘Peaches N’ Cream’ are increasingly being sought out by discerning designers.

Old-fashioned flowers as “new” favorites. The thought of using common zinnias, carnations or mums for wedding flowers used to make some floral designers and style-conscious brides shutter. But heirloom varieties and new flower cultivars with uncommon forms and colors have turned heads and helped to change minds and attitudes. Heirloom chrysanthemums, frilly scented heirloom carnations, and ruffly scabiosa-flowered zinnias have become in fashion. Farmer-florists across the country are fighting to get their hands on limited seed and plant stock to meet the increased interest and demand.

Flowers by special request. Armed with beautiful images curated from Pinterest and Instagram, brides increasingly are asking for specific and sometimes more obscure flowers for their bouquets. Perennial favorites include: garden roses and peonies, but more recent requests include ranunculus, dahlias, lisianthus, chocolate queen Anne’s lace, seeded eucalyptus and dusty miller. These specific requests can be a challenge—and an opportunity—to explain the seasonal nature and availability of certain flowers.

COLORS

Muted, muddy & moody hues. This year, we’ll see more subdued and muted monochromatic bouquets and far fewer multicolored bouquets in bright or contrasting colors. Shades such as dusty rose, milky coffee, champagne, buttercream, apricot and moonstone will challenge floral designers and flower farmers to source blooms in these complex colors.

Another glass of red wine, please.  Whether you prefer cabernet, merlot or pinot noir, these delicious deep wine tones pair beautifully with a variety of color palettes, from bold jewel tones to soft blush pinks as well as many of the muddier hues mentioned above.  An outgrowth of the popular 2015 Pantone color of the year, Marsala, look for lots of dahlias, chocolate Queen Anne’s lace and other seasonal flowers in these more saturated hues to continue to appear in late summer and fall weddings this year.

Gray on gray. Considered the “new neutral” within the home décor world for the past few years, gray has become a staple in floral design as well. Gray pairs well with most colors and is often combined with perennial popular blush pink. Gray will continue to hold court as a popular accent color, but could move towards center stage alongside crisp white. Look for bouquets with dusty miller, seeded eucalyptus, succulents, olive branches and other gray foliage to fill your Instagram feeds this year.

Greenery as a theme. Pantone’s 2017 color of the year, Greenery, will be reflected in weddings, but in subtle, and less literal and overtly obvious ways. We predict we’ll see less focus of this specific hue of green, and more of the concept of using nontraditional greenery and foliage as a more prominent focal point in wedding decor. Greenery can be incorporated in creative ways, such as garlands of foliage stretching down the middle of Kings tables, sprigs of greens adorning place settings, greenery wreaths, chair decor and foliage backdrops for ceremony sites or photo booths.

STYLE

Wild, ‘gathered from the garden’ bouquet shapes. Traditional tight, round balls of blooms are a trend of the distant past. Stylish brides are opting for large, lush, loose bouquets with more organic forms that tend to be bigger and wider than years past. The continued popularity of boho and gypset-inspired wedding décor also support this this organic aesthetic and design style.

Luxe ribbons & unique finishing touches. A bouquet just isn’t a bouquet without a ribbon finish. Brides are looking for ways to make their bouquet more meaningful or stand out in a special way by requesting unique elements such as antique lace, a charm or cameo of a loved one, vintage handkerchiefs and multiple layers of long, ultra-luxe hand-died silk ribbon streamers.

Stylish floral wearables. Subtle, delicate floral hair accessories, have virtually replaced the big, bold floral crowns from years past. We’ll see more half halos, pretty floral hair “combs” and simple sprigs of foliage woven artfully into hairstyles this year. Another big trend will be elegant cuff wrist corsages that look and feel more like jewelry. These bangle-type bracelets will hopefully permanently replace the often reviled elastic wristlets popular at high school proms. Keep an eye out for other creative interpretations of traditional floral wearables on mothers, grandmothers and other wedding party attendants.  For the guys, this will mean mixing moreinteresting textural elements, including pods, berries & grasses alongside traditional focal flowers.

Bold and beautiful arches, chuppahs & hanging installations. More couples are choosing to say “I do” framed by foliage and flowers. Last year, we said foliage-focused backdrops would take center stage. They did. But so did arches & chuppahs. Look for a continuation of this trend for ceremony site décor. For reception site décor, we’re seeing lots of delicate foliage wreaths, floral chandeliers and other creative floral installations hung above head tables.

Less rustic and more modern décor aesthetic. We’re witnessing an evolution in wedding décor that is greatly simplified, with clean lines and a more contemporary feel. This is part of an overall movement away from country chic (think: less barnwood and burlap) and more toward an urban, industrial look (more gunmetal, mercury glass and galvanized steel).

A mix of high and low. Rather than a sea of carbon copy centerpieces, more couples are opting to mix and match their table décor. This entails alternating elevated bouquets, with long, low centerpieces, sprawling low profile compotes, or clusters of small bottles of single blooms. By choosing just a few larger statement pieces, the mix of elevated and low designs provide vertical interest without busting the budget.

Sweet treats: cake flowers.  The trend away from oversized wedding cakes and more toward sweets tables has allowed for more opportunities to creatively incorporate flowers into cake designs and table decor. Look for live flowers serving as cake toppers and more flowers and foliage used to style cakes, donut and dessert tables.  Sounds good to us!

AFTER YOU GET ENGAGED

10 Things You Should Not Do After You Get Engaged

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This is a crazy time for many newly engaged couples. With all the Christmas, New Year’s and Valentine’s engagements, it probably seems like half of your friends are involved in a wedding in one way or the another. Everybody is either engaged, a member of the wedding party, a parent of an engaged child or making travel arrangements to attend a destination wedding.

With all the crazy going down, brides and grooms sometimes get ahead of themselves and — feeling happy and like they can take on the world — do and say things that cause them stress and consternation down the road. Here are 10 things you should not do after you get engaged and before you get married:

1) Do not adopt a puppy. Do not buy a horse. Do not add anything to your schedule that will require extra maintenance and a babysitter for your wedding week. You won’t have time for it and it’s not fair to the animal. Seriously. Do it after you get back from your honeymoon.

2) Do not decide that it’s time to start house hunting or move unless it’s absolutely, positively necessary. The most stressful times of your life are getting married, moving, changing jobs, having children and getting divorced. Why would you want to double up on the stress when you’re already committed to wedding planning for next however many months? Adding a move to the mess will only make you crazier. Plus, it will smack your budget hard, no matter how well you plan ahead. Also try not to change jobs if you can help it. Why pile on more to worry about?

3) Don’t take an out-of-control vacation within six months of your wedding, unless it’s your bachelor or bachelorette weekend with friends. If you have the money for a fabulous trip, please save it. Put it away and hold onto it for unexpected expenses that may come up with your wedding. Blowing it all on a cruise three months before your big day and then whining because you have 20 more guests than you’d anticipated so you’re over budget is just ridiculous. Plan for the emergency if you have the resources.

4) Don’t spend all of your time surfing wedding websites and buying bridal magazines. After you’ve planned your décor,swear off of Pinterest for a whole 30 days...if thats possible. One way to really make your wedding planner insane and blow the hell out of your budget is to keep messing with the details of the wedding after the decisions have been made, bids obtained and deposits paid. The time to choose was before you signed the contracts and locked things down.

5) Don’t continue shopping for wedding gowns after you’ve already bought one. That’s a really, really stupid thing to do, unless your original intent was to end up with more than one dress (and yes thats a huge trend now).. But if you planned to buy and wear one wedding gown, once you’ve ordered it, stop second-guessing yourself. And stop looking at dresses. I’ve had clients who bought three different dresses (and absorbed the cost of all of them and wore only one) because they made themselves crazy continuing to shop.

6) Don’t share all your wedding details on social media or with all of your friends. There should be some surprises, and it’s tacky to talk about it in a forum where most of your “friends” on Facebook won’t be invited to participate in the festivities anyway. You may find the vast selection of favors fascinating, but you don’t have to post about it. In fact, you shouldn’t. Look forward to having amazing pictures that you can share after the wedding when no surprises will be ruined and those who aren’t invited won’t feel like it’s being shoved up their noses.

7) Don’t solicit the opinion of all of your bridesmaids regarding the bridesmaid dresses. That is the kiss of death and a guarantee that somebody is going to end up unhappy. Include the Maid of Honor and maybe one more bridesmaid (particularly if you have somebody who is going to be a difficult fit), but leave everybody else out of it until it’s a fait accompli. Seriously.

8) Don’t involve your bridal party in your wedding planning, unless it’s to help you make favors or do some other bridal party project. Leave them out of your meetings with vendors and conference calls with your planner. Your fiancé and your mom are the only ones who should participate (and only if you want to include your mother).

9) Don’t put off the stupid little homework assignments that your wedding planner gives you. Do not wait ‘til the last minute to write your wedding ceremony. Do not wait ‘til a month before the wedding to start thinking about your DJ playlist. The marriage license information form you were given at the first meeting could have been completed the first week of planning — the info on there won’t change before your wedding date. Although it seems like you have gobs of time for planning when you’re looking at the “to do” list six or more months out, it’s important to listen to your planner about what should be finished when, or you’ll find yourself with a big old pile of homework a few weeks before your wedding.

10) Don’t let the stress of wedding planning ruin the fun of being engaged. I know brides who never tasted anything at any of their showers or parties and only drank one night of their bachelorette weekend because they were so determined to lose the extra pounds before the wedding. Some of them have even been known to turn on the groom, asking him to diet too. He didn’t ask you to lose weight to get the second ring, why are you asking him to drop pounds to say “I do?” I mean, for real, does that sound like fun? I’m not saying you can’t slim down, but don’t get so stressed out about it that you take away the bubbly fun of all of it. Don’t turn dance lessons into a torture session — go out for cocktails first (it worked for me and my husband Bill). Don’t talk exclusively about the wedding when you’re spending time together — it will make you both a little nutty. Try to be your normal selves and bask in the glow of the shiny diamond. And remember to keep your nails pretty.

At the end of the day, you can make your wedding planning process as easy or difficult as you want to make it — really, it’s up to you. But if you avoid the items we mentioned above, you have a better chance at having fun during your engagement and making fantastic memories along the way.

Until next time, happy wedding planning from Style Guide

WEDDING ETIQUETTE – THE WEDDING SEATING PLAN

Organising the seating plan can often be a dreaded task for brides and grooms. Your Auntie Maude and his Grandma Helen can't stand each other, your friend Diego speaks Spanish only and your pregnant sister needs easy access to the bathroom and on top of all of this there seems a minefield of do's and don'ts! But don't panic! We've got a few tips to guide you through who sits where + with our Seating Planner tool it's super easy!

• Don't split up couples
• Put people with others whom they already know and get on well with.
• Place guests who don't know anyone next to people who are friendly and easy to talk to.
• Don't worry about sticking religiously to male-female, male-female. The most important thing is that guests sit next to people whose company they enjoy.
• Allocate an area for young children and babies if they are going to be at your wedding. This area should be equipped with highchairs perhaps some colouring books and crayons.
• Consider special circumstances like family members or divorced couples who don't get along and make sure they are not seated close to each other.
• If parents have been divorced and remarried, they should be seated next to their new partners.
• The closer people are seated to the bridal table, the more they are honoured. i.e. the closer a relative, the nearer they should be seated to the bridal table.
• If the reception is informal, you can let guests decide where they will sit. Another alternative is to decide who sits at which table but not designate specific seating arrangements at that table. People can then sit next to whom they choose at their table.
• Don't get stressed or fight over the seating plan. Accept that you will not be able to please everyone.

The bridal table is always at the centre of attention. Everybody wants to catch a glimpse of the happy couple. Traditionally the parents of both the bride and groom sat with them on the bridal table along with the best man and chief bridesmaid. Below are examples of bridal table arrangements that include parents

Most couples these days opt to have a parents' table and seat only the bride, groom and bridal party at the bridal table. Below are examples of this.

As with most wedding traditions, these are not set in stone and you can totally disregard these arrangements. It's best to select an arrangement that will make you and those around you happy, whatever that may be!

Traditions

15 wedding traditions you can forget

Here are 15 wedding traditions you could afford to forget when planning your wedding ceremony.

Of course, if you do chose to include any of these traditions in your wedding, do it because you’ve decided too, not because that’s just what happens.

Bridal party

Your marriage certificate requires two witnesses, but they don’t need to be in dresses worth hundreds of dollars and wearing a rented suit that doesn’t fit. It’s totally acceptable to not have a bridal party today. The tradition grew out of superstitions that believed that evil spirits would try and attack the bride, so bridesmaids would be dressed like her to try and trick the evil spirits.

At my wedding we both had about 5 close friends there and in the end I would have been better off not burdening them with the cost of a suit and what not.

For the girls, still invite your best friends to come with you on the journey, and they’ll probably still buy an expensive dress, but don’t make them buy the same dress as four other girls.

The bouquet toss

The intention behind the bouquet toss was to distract guests from tearing a shred of the brides dress as the couple left the reception, because it was good luck to have a piece of her dress. These days it serves to embarrass single girls.

The wedding dress

White, red, long, short, above the knee, Vera Wang, Coco Chanel, or not. Traditionally wedding dresses were seen to be the best dresses of that time, but ever since Queen Victoria got married everyone’s been wearing long white dresses.

Wear the most beautiful dress you can find, and don’t worry about the colour.

Your father giving you away

I’ve covered this in another blog post (Post: Giving the bride away), but there is no reason your father, or your mother, or any other person has to give you away. The tradition is rooted in women being possessions that were to be given to another man. You can make the tradition mean something else, but don’t just do it because it’s the ‘done thing’,

Parents giving their approval

Who gives this woman to be married to this man? No-one does, she made the decision on her own.

Not seeing each other before the wedding

You’ll be no less unlucky if you see your bride or bridegroom on the wedding day before the ceremony. But it might be nice to build the suspense. But don’t do it for luck.

Inviting every man and his dog you’ve ever met to the wedding

I don’t pay $120 for me to eat dinner, you shouldn’t have to. Any married couple will understand if they aren’t invited, they’ve paid the bills before. So don’t feel the pressure to invite every single person you and your parents ever met.

First dance

Do you dance? Is the art of dancing a big part of your relationship? If not, why is your first dance together as a couple an important milestone?

Garter toss

As sexy as it is for the groom to go up his bride’s dress and pull the garter off, I felt so awkward receiving my dad’s new wife’s garter on his wedding night. What are you supposed to do with that thing?

The wedding cake

Two desserts does sound like a great idea I suppose. But why get a cake if you don’t like cake?

The groom waiting at the end of the aisle

There is no reason that the bride can’t get ready early and arrive at the ceremony 30 minutes early like the groom and welcome everyone as well. Why does the bride arrive late and get all the attention anyhow?

Having an aisle

Why is there even an aisle if we’re not in a church or a supermarket?

Wedding rings

I wear a wedding ring as a symbol of my relationship with Britt and so every other girl on the planet knows that I’m taken, I like to show off. But you don’t have to exchange rings, in fact one friend where’s his ‘ring’ on a necklace, why not just have a necklace?

The veil

Brides look beautiful in a veil but they’re no longer warding out evil demons. So maybe there’s a different fashion accessory that you could wear on your wedding day?

Being married in a church

More weddings happen outside of churches today than ever happen inside churches. Embrace the creative opportunities by staging your ceremony anywhere in the world. Imagine being married on a rooftop, a mountaintop, on a boat, or in a tree. You can choose!

Wedding Traditions

Wedding Lore and Traditions

by Elizabeth Olson

"Something borrowed" usually comes from a happily married woman and is thought to lend some of her good fortune and joy to the new bride.

Have you ever wondered why the bride stands to the left of the groom, or why the wedding ring is worn on the third finger of the left hand? The origins and meaning behind some of our most cherished wedding traditions may surprise you. There are, of course, multiple explanations for each piece of wedding lore, and few can be definitively traced back to their roots. Below are some of the more common and popular stories behind these traditions.

Tossing the Bouquet

Tossing the bouquet is a tradition that stems from England. Women used to try to rip pieces of the bride's dress and flowers in order to obtain some of her good luck. To escape from the crowd the bride would toss her bouquet and run away. Today the bouquet is tossed to single women with the belief that whoever catches it will be the next to marry.

Giving Away the Bride

The tradition of the father giving away his daughter has its roots in the days of arranged marriages. Daughters in those times were considered their father's property. It was the father's right to give his child to the groom, usually for a price. Today a father giving away his daughter is a symbol of his blessing of the marriage.

The Wedding Ring

The wedding ring has been worn on the third finger of the left hand since Roman times. The Romans believed that the vein in that finger runs directly to the heart. The wedding ring is a never-ending circle, which symbolizes everlasting love.

The Best Man

In ancient times, men sometimes captured women to make them their brides. A man would take along his strongest and most trusted friend to help him fight resistance from the woman's family. This friend, therefore, was considered the best man among his friends. In Anglo-Saxon England, the best man accompanied the groom up the aisle to help defend the bride.

Bride on Groom's Left

Because grooms in Anglo-Saxon England often had to defend their brides, the bride would stand to the left of her groom so that his sword arm was free.

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue, and a Sixpence in Your Shoe

"Something old" represents the bride's link to her family and the past. The bride may choose to wear a piece of family jewelry or her mother or grandmother's wedding gown. "Something new" represents hope for good fortune and success in the future. The bride often chooses the wedding gown to represent the new item. "Something borrowed" usually comes from a happily married woman and is thought to lend some of her good fortune and joy to the new bride. "Something blue" is a symbol of love, fidelity, and purity of the bride. A sixpence in her shoe is to wish the bride wealth in her future life.

The Tiered Wedding Cake

The origin of the tiered wedding cake also lies in Anglo-Saxon times. Guests would bring small cakes to the wedding and stack them on top of each other. Later, a clever French baker created a cake in the shape of the small cakes and covered it in frosting. It is now known as the tiered cake.

Wedding Bouquet

Flowers are incorporated into the wedding ceremony as a symbol of fertility. The first bouquets consisted of herbs and, later, orange blossoms.

The Bridal Veil

The bridal veil has long been a symbol of youth, modesty, and virginity and was used to ward off evil.

Bridesmaids

The bridal party is a tradition that has been established for many centuries. For a long time the purpose of the bridal party was to fool evil spirits. The bride's friends dressed similarly to her in order to confuse any virulent presences that might be lurking about. Today bridesmaids are there to support the bride in the stressful times during the wedding.

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Marriage insight

Finding the ideal partner inflicts more harm than good, according to psychologists. They reached an insight into how the never-ending search for the ideal love can prevent you from enjoying your marriage or the relationship you have.
Marriage is dead! The strong grasp of the law and prejudice has loosened. We are released from the obligation to preserve the horrible marriage for the sake of the children and for “the people.” The divorce rate has remained constant at around 50 percent in the last decade. The easy way we enter relationships and ruin them, often turns marriage into something like sports.
Once upon a time marriage as an institution was valued due to its practical distribution of roles: the dad that earns, the mother that takes care of the home.
Nowadays a partner who shares our taste and status, who sees us for who we are, who loves us, for all those reasons that we think are worth, who helps us become the person you always wanted to be …
We ran away from the rigid social order and instead adopted the more onerous mandate: to find a perfect match. And anything that we believe is not short of this ideal, it prompts us to ask: “Is that all you can find? Am I as happy as I should be? Could there be someone somewhere better for me? “And often by answering with “yes”to the last question we become victims of our own great expectations.
This “someone” is of course our “soul mate”, the man or woman who will rid us of our weaknesses, will provoke the best in us and will provide continuous support and respect, which is the essence of the contemporary relationship.
The truth is that few marriages or partnerships consistently follow this ideal. The result is a small hell, where we care about our partner but also – secretly – stepped one step at the door to our heart. By doing so we constantly revise our relationship: “Will I be happier, smarter and better person with someone else?”. This is a painful hesitation, characteristic of the modern world.

“Nothing else caused more unhappiness than the concept of the soul-mate” says the Atlanta psychologist Frank Peteman.
He gives the example of “John”, a social worker who married a business woman in his early 20s. He met another woman, a psychologist when he was 29 and after two agonizing years, left his wife – for her. But things did not work out – after four years of cohabitation and increasing pressure from her to marry him, he left her. Now John realizes that the relationship with his wife was strong and with future, but he thinks he was not able to understand that 10 years ago when he left her. “There was always someone better around the corner and it turned the safety and security of marriage in boredom and routine. It was hard to resist the attraction of women who seemed more exciting, “he said. Now 42 years old and still single, John realizes: “I hurt others, and I hurt myself.”
Like John, many of us don’t give up the commitment, but also the right to keep looking. Psychotherapist Terrence Real calls this behavior with the term “stable ambiguity.” “It means to walk along the edge of the relationship – you’re in it but not for it,” he said. There are a million ways to do that: to have a relationship, but not to be sure you want it, you want to keep your eye open for good “deals”, to choose someone that is impossible to be with or is far away.
In fact, commitment and marriage offer real physical and financial “rewards”.
Touting the benefits of marriage may sound like politically rhetoric, but nonpartisan social polls say it: people who have relationships have a lot more than singles, at least on average. Married people are more financially stable, according to Linda Waite, a sociologist at the University of Chicago. Both married men and married women have more “benefits” than those without a partner, for women, the differences are usually very big.
The benefits go beyond the piggy bank. Married people tend to live longer than those who are alone. Couples also live better: “When people expect to stay together, says Waite, they combine their resources and improve their standard of living. They also combine their skills – such as cooking or financial management and achieve better results. Women tend to improve the health of their men by banning stupid bachelor habits and bugging them to exercise and. .. to eat their vegetables. Also – people who do not compare their partner with someone else in bed, have fewer sexual problems and are more emotionally satisfied by sex. The relationship doesn’t have to be wonderful and exciting for a better life – statistics is the same as for mediocre marriages and for fervent as well.