Tulips. I think it was the first thing Alex and I decided about our wedding, even before the town or my engagement ring. We knew we wanted to have purple tulips at our wedding. Alex’s wedding bouquet, in second-hand vases on the reception tables, on the cake table. I even wanted a tulip in my corsage. Tulips fit everything we were after:
- Meaningful: Of all the flowers we’ve bought, given and received, tulips are most often what we’ve gone for. Plus, the flower stand outside the Tube station by our house is always full of them!
- In season: If we were going to have flowers at all, we really wanted them to be in season and blooming everywhere. From my experience of spring in England last year, they are everywhere indeed.
- Simple & Elegant: Tulips are in and of themselves gorgeous, and don’t particularly need filler flowers or greenery to brighten up a bouquet or arrangement.
- Variation: Asking for purple tulips is like asking for a sample of paints: so many shades! Which is exactly what we wanted; no one shade flower for us.
And tulips we will have, in every shade of purple they grow in. The tricky part, though, was what came after deciding that tulips would make up Alex’s bouquet, be the centerpieces, and adorned the cake table. As I was sadly informed, I could not have a tulip in my corsage. I mean, I could, but it would last all of about 2.5 secs and the wedding day is 12 hours at least, and I am an enthusiastic hugger. What that meant was that we needed to sit down with my amazingly talented friend, Holly, who is graciously arranging our flowers for our wedding present, and figure out what else to have for the rest of the flowers. Or, as I ended up frequently referring to them as: the fiddly bits.
Fathers' & Best Men, Photo by Erica
For our casual floral meeting, Holly made up a few different versions of corsages and boutonnières. We had discussed many different flowers beforehand–orchids, gerber daises, frescias–and had decided alstroemerias were pretty, purple, and pleasant on the pocket (in other words, cheap). They also remind me of two very dear friends & mentors who more than likely won’t make over for the English ceremony. For filler flowers and greenery, Holly also suggested wax flower and limonium and eucalyptus and ruscus leaves.
- Fathers’ boutonnieres, Photo by Erica
In the search for in season flowers, I also discovered that heather is considered a year-round flower. Now ever since I was a little girl, I’ve known that ‘Erica’ means ‘heather’ in Latin and German. It was also was a thing between my dad and I–and, obviously, I’ve never forgotten it. Given that heather is purple, the wheels started to turn for ideas on how to make my corsage distinctive from everyone else’s.
Mothers' corsages, Photo by Erica
After a good few minutes chatting, counting the numbers of blooms per stem and how many bunches we need to order from the wholesaler, we made our decisions:
- One bouquet of tulips only (No toss bouquet for Alex; she hasn’t stopped rolling her eyes at the idea)
- 3-5 tulips per table
- Alex’s bouquet to sit on cake table for the reception
- My corsage: Heather & purple Wax Flower, with Eucalyptus
- Best Men: Purple Wax Flower and Ruscus leaves
- Fathers’ boutonnieres: Two Alstroemeria + filler & greenery
- Mothers’, sisters’, cousin’s, grannies corsages: Three Alstromeria + filler & greenery
Photo by Erica
Now all that’s left is to place the order with the wholesaler and wait until the day before the wedding. Wedding flowers: Check.
I love tulips, especially the parriot variety. My name is a flower, so I have been trying to figure out how to incorporate it. Lucky for me it is very hardy and in season most of the year.