It’s no surprise that florals are one of the most defining elements of a wedding day design. While some celebrations might forgo blooms for the sake of curating a particular aesthetic (and keeping down the budget), most couples will want to adorn every moment of their nuptials with stunning florals to curate a romantic, beautiful environment. Although weddings can take place any day of the year, there’s no denying that certain flowers are best suited to decorating events in particular seasons.
Floral designers emphasize that when crafting your wedding vision, you must take seasonality into account. “While there’s no hard and fast rule of sticking to certain flowers in certain seasons, most florists will agree, seasonal is always best,” explains floral and event designer Maxine Owens. “The freshness and quality of the flowers are at their height, so blooms will be larger, extremely hearty, and will last longer.” Using florals at their peak can also add to the overall feeling of your celebration. “We love working with seasonal flowers and foliages—we find it really grounds the event in a time and place,” shares Marta Knudson of Sophie Felts Floral Design.
Of course, if there’s a particular flower that you absolutely need to have at your ceremony, most planners and floral designers can find a workaround. You just need to take into account that your budget (and carbon footprint) could bloat exponentially. While peonies might be a wedding floral favorite, Knudson explains they could double in cost from $12 to $25 per stem outside of its short peak season that lasts from May to June.
“Out-of-season flowers typically are imported from regions with temperatures suitable to grow those varieties,” notes Owens. “These countries can often be thousands of miles away from their delivery destination. Additionally, flowers can be grown in expensive controlled environments for temperature regulation. This not only increases the cost to grow the product, but also increases the amount spent on packaging and refrigerated transport.”
Being open about your vision and your budget is essential to help your planning and floral design team make the best choices for your wedding day arrangements. “Once that is determined, we would see how best we can achieve it by recommending flowers based on the time of year they are getting married so it can fit within their budget,” says planner Sneh Diwan of Diwan By Design. “As an alternative, if a couple really wants a specific flower that is not in season or within their budget, we propose silk flowers as an option.”