Bridal flowers are as personal to the bride as the dress. Her bouquet should reflect her style and compliment the dress as well. The style and size of the bouquet should also compliment the bride herself. A petite bride should carry a smaller bouquet in a round style or a teardrop cascade as opposed to a large cascade that covers the dress.
There are some standard bouquet styles. They are round, cascade, arm style, spray, and freeform. The round style is the most popular and can be created with many different flowers. Roses are the most used flower for this style because of its shape and it looks good close together.
Cascades can be very large and trailing (think princess Diana) or they can be a smaller teardrop style. They are typically designed in a bouquet holder with floral foam to create the shape. Arm styles are not as popular but they can be created in many different flower types. Calla lilies make great arm bouquets because they have long smooth stems and graceful sloping flowers. Arm style also look good with large garden flowers like delphinium and snap dragons and daisies.
Spray styles are basically a small version of the arm style and work well for bridesmaids bouquets. They don’t require a large amount of flowers so they are cost effective. Freeform bouquets are typically hand tied bouquets of less formal flowers and do not have a definite round shape.
When choosing the flowers for the bridal bouquet, the designer must keep the style of the dress in mind. A large gown may require a large full bouquet while a simple sheath style dress may require a small round or freeform bouquet. Colors of flowers are also important.
While some brides dream of a traditional white bouquet, today’s brides also love a bright colorful bouquet. Even if the bride chooses and all white bouquet, it is best to try to mix a few different white flowers so the bouquet doesn’t look flat and stands out a little from the dress. A little greenery also helps the white bouquet stand out just a bit. If choosing a colorful bouquet, it should compliment but not completely match the bridesmaid’s dresses. Brides tend to want to match the bridesmaid’s dresses but it looks more exciting if you choose complimentary colors to the dresses. Think cobalt blue dresses with bright yellow and green flowers!