5 Best Wedding Flowers For Every Season

Nothing complements a white wedding dress better than a colorful bouquet. Florals enhance the ceremony with color, fragrance, and all-around elegance. Whether you prefer cultivated blooms or wild, environmentally-friendly flowers, celebrate your nuptials with nature.

Check out these five wedding flowers for every season.

Spring

Spring may be the easiest season to select wildflowers for your wedding. You'll see tickseed, purple coneflowers, and beach sunflowers everywhere you look. But if you're looking for flowers that scream "romance," be aware it's not always easy to grow the cultivars in Southern Florida’s heat zone. That's where The Bride Candy comes in, providing the flowers that symbolize love and romance. 

1. Roses are a symbol of beauty and love. Roses blooming in South Florida during the spring come in many shades and colors. White roses enhance your bridal bouquet with a fresh look.

2. Carnations come in many natural colors, and can be dyed to match your wedding décor. Carnations make hardy floral arrangements.

3. Dahlias make nice centerpieces for buffet and guest tables. Heat-tolerant varieties like “Elsie Huston” can hold up well in outdoor weddings, but they do need to be kept moist.

4. Proteas do well in the Florida heat, and hold up well in outdoor weddings. “King protea,” “blushing bride,” “pin cushion,” and “queen protea” are tropical beauties that won’t tucker out in extra-warm temperatures.

5. Tropical greenery is popular these days, and it handles the Florida heat well. Ranunculus, orchids, and ginger highlight foliage from palms, vines, and groundcovers placed on serving tables and laced through bouquets.

Summer

From spring to summer, these hardy blooms can handle the Miami heat. 

1. Astilbe is a hearty stem in either pink, crimson, mauve, or white. Its feathery look is suitable for boutonnieres.

2. Orchids make stunning wedding bouquets in shades of magenta, purple, deep blue, yellow, red, and everything in between.

3. Anthuriums spice up a wedding bouquet with color and texture. Green heart-shaped leaves with white, red, or pink blooms will handle the heat of the day.

4. Pink roses look great in bridesmaid bouquets or floral arrangements. With so many varieties from which to choose, The Bride Candy can help you decide the type for your nuptials.

5. Tulips withstand heat quite well, and because they grow in so many hues, you can order them year-round for any color scheme.

Fall

Autumn flowers make a nice wedding theme, but they’re tough to find in Florida. Thanks to The Bride Candy, they’re easy to order from other parts of the United States.

1. Lilies, asters, chrysanthemums, gerbera daisies, marigolds, and zinnias add to the bold rich colors of your autumn wedding décor.

2. Color up outdoor garden weddings with toffee or cappuccino roses.

3. Amaranthus feature rope-like flower stalks. Choose from magenta flowers on “love-lies-bleeding,”or “Joseph’s coat,” -- no flowers, but this plant has colorful foliage in shades of orange, red, or green.

4. Sunflowers scream “fall” with bright golden petals and brown seed centers.

5. Fall dressingsof curly willow, fig branches, Indian corn, pinecones, gourds, crabapples, and pumpkins dress up wedding and reception venues.

Winter

White and ivory are popular hues for winter weddings, but you can spice things up a bit with brilliant colors of red, purple, blue, and pink.

1. Christmas collections of mistletoe and “snow” tipped pinecones bring elements of a cold-weather winter to your warm Florida wedding.

2. Holiday flowers like red Asiatic lilies, holly, juniper, and anemone are perfect for bridal bouquets and centerpieces.

3. Dusty Miller blends into just about any color scheme. Silvery leaves pair up nicely with blue and purple flowers, but also work well with orange and hot red blooms.

4. Tweedia covers the “something blue” aspect of your wedding, and you can add these fragrant blooms to the bridal and bridesmaid bouquets.

5. Mixes with gardenias, spruce, eucalyptus, red amaranthus, jasmine, orchids, poinsettias, roses, camellias, and narcissus are perfect for winter weddings -- blend these colorful blooms into backgrounds of ivory and frosted white.

Flower Power

Don’t underestimate the importance of flowers on this special day. They’re more than just an accessory. Florals are an essential part of the bride’s outfit, and often set the scene for the ceremony and reception. Maybe the flowers won’t last forever, but the photos and memories will last a lifetime. 

Ask your floral and event designer for advice on how to arrange these flowers to make your dream wedding into reality.

Kim Hess is a nature lover and wedding planner who enjoys incorporating a hometown feel in the ceremonies and receptions she designs. She also enjoys tasting food at venues around the country, so she can recommend the best wedding day feasts. (Hey, somebody’s gotta do it!) 

Creating a Storybook Wedding Invitation

When planning our wedding, my fiancé and I really cared about our guest’s experience. Since I was very young I dreamt of a fairytale wedding and Jeremy was a history teacher and naturally loves historic venues. We wanted the invitation to echo the essence of our venue: The Ancient Spanish Monastery. I always dreamt of a book-styled wedding invitation and Jeremy, someone who has loved reading books since he was very young, loved the idea. So we put our heads together and came up with the perfect invitation for us. Read how we created our dream wedding invitations with the help of our friend Tasha from Tinta + Pulso.

The first step: Story Books

The very first thing we needed was the actual books! It’s hard to find beautiful ornate books so we searched far and wide for a vintage book shop. We came across this book store called Dunbar Old Books. This hole-in-the-wall bookstore had everything we were looking for, beautiful books with ornate covers in different colors and styles. This part was very fun to do, we loved searching for the books and I love the smell of old library books. All the books varied in price from $10-$20. Some books were almost 100 years old! Once we purchased the books we knew exactly the size we needed the physical invitation to be. Each book was different which made all of our guests feel special and we picked each one especially for them.

Second step: The Invitation 

Now it was time for some professional stationary help. We contacted our friend Tasha from Tinta + Pulso who took our vision and designed these beautiful invitations that took my breath away. She asked me all the details of our wedding, which was very important so she could bring our vision to life. The theme was a storybook wedding but there were two very important elements. The ceremony was geared towards my love for flowers and my childhood of growing up in my fathers garden. The reception was to resemble a library where Jeremy spent a lot of his childhood with his head buried in a book. Tasha loved this idea and since the invitation already resembled “Jeremy’s library” with the book, she added florals to the invitation suite to bring in the “Christopher’s library” element. She presented us with a beautiful proposal. We also wanted a card catalog pocket in each book for the Details and RSVP cards. Tasha had the amazing idea of making them with a vellum material that made them translucent with a floral print, which was one of our favorite parts of the invitation! 

Third Step: The Assembly 

Once we received our beautiful invitation suites it was time to assemble them which was the most difficult and least fun part of the experience. With double-sided tape we attached the vellum packets and invitations to each book. We added a wax seal to the top of each invitation to make it look as if the invitation was secured by the wax seal. Next we added the ribbon strap which forced each guest to look at the inside front cover where the invitation was located. We cut a slit in the folding crease inside the front and back cover of each book, then used wire to feed a ribbon through the spine of the book. It took a steady hand and a lot of patience. We used brass buttons with velcro to close each ribbon strap. I wouldn’t recommend doing this if you have a big guest list. It took us lots and lots of time. Luckily we have a guest list of 40 which meant each household had one book each that equaled to about 25 books. 

With patience, some professional help and lots of wine our beautiful fairytale invitations were created. We wrapped each invitation in beautiful wrapping paper and added a tag with the name of our guests. We loved the reactions we received from our guests. It was the prefect prelude to our wedding and made everyone very excited. Our friends and family could see our personality in the invitation and are now curious to see the ceremony and reception areas we named “Christopher Garden” and “Jeremy’s Library”. I want to take the time to thank our friend Tasha for not only designing our beautiful invitation but for her exceptional customer service. Even during a pandemic she made our experience an amazing one.

My last piece of advice is to remember that your invitation is the first chapter in the story of your wedding. This is your opportunity to make your guests excited, to enhance their experience, and preview your wedding theme. I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as we did! Make sure to visit Tinta + Pulso on instagram for more wedding stationary inspiration!

Micro weddings: Why we are choosing one and how to stick to it

I’ve been in the industry for a very long time and for a while I thought I wanted a big wedding. That is until I started to change as a person. I started liking intimate dinners and gatherings. I also noticed the bigger the wedding, the more expensive it gets. For someone like me that’s bad news since I have expensive taste. When Jeremy and I got engaged we were bombarded with the “I better be invited” sayings from loved ones, distant relatives and friends, and even strangers. So let’s talk about the positives of the micro-wedding! Why are they on-trend and how we can stick to our guns if we choose to have one. 

Why small?

For my thirtieth birthday I had a party. It was wonderful but one thing I regretted was I was too busy playing host. I had to watch my best friends party without me. I was called to all directions. I see that happen way too often at weddings. I had a bride tell me she felt like a ghost at her wedding. With so many photos, traditions, and toasts it can become very overwhelming but most of all it takes so much of your time. You just feel obligated to spend time with everyone. With small weddings you can take your time, have fun and enjoy your wedding. 

The pros of micro weddings

I think the biggest take away is budget. If you’re on a tight budget, you’ll be able to afford a lot more and if you have a decent budget it will go way further. Talk about being able to afford a mini over-the-top wedding! Let’s not forget more money for the honeymoon and maybe a house! Millennials are now focusing on buying houses rather than hosting the old school big weddings of the past. Which is why micro weddings are becoming more trendy! Not to mention after these crazy pandemic times it’s also safer to have a micro wedding.

How do I stick to my guns?

This is a decision you have to make with your partner and stick with it. If it weren’t for my fiancé and I holding each other accountable, we would have caved in a long time ago. It’s hard and it can be sad at times. It also becomes complicated when you have a close friend that your partner isn’t close to. You both must decide together what number of guests and who fits into that number. People will try to make you feel guilty, but the truth is if someone loves you, they’d understand. Remember a wedding is for you and your love, and no one else.

Weddings aren’t just weddings but the beginning of a marriage. It’s about your partner and you. So if a micro wedding is something you desire, go for it with no shame! I’m not! I take solace in the decision my partner and I made together. Our relationship and all relationships should not revolve around one day, while a marriage and true friendships are forever. So go ahead put your love and goals first. Take some financial and planning stress off the wedding checklist. Save some money or use your budget to get a Pinterest-perfect wedding you can afford. Always remember at the end of the day we are here to love and that’s all that matters.