A Family Affair: My Niece’s Wedding Flowers
As the Gypsophila or Baby’s Breath we grow is just starting to bloom in our flower farm, walking past its soft, romantic, and delicate-looking mass of blooms summons visions of weddings and one in particular that we were preparing for this time last year.
It is an absolute honour to be entrusted to do the wedding flowers for any bride, as they are pride of place throughout every part of the wedding day – from the bride and bridesmaids' wedding bouquets to the aisle the bride will walk down, a backdrop to the ceremony, in the centre of the reception tables, and as smaller touches on the rest of the bridal party, including the parents of the bride and the groom.
And don't forget about the wedding cake. All of these moments are captured to be precious memories by the photographer, and the wedding flowers are always at the heart of these photos.
A year ago, as the gypsophila I grew was a mountainous billow of elegant white, I had the very special privilege of creating the wedding flowers for my niece’s wedding. She was based in London but getting married in Auckland on January 5th, 2023.
The ability to do her wedding flowers was made even more special given that 24 years prior, her grandmother had done my wedding flowers. She was passionate about flowers and helped me bring my vision of trailing branches and blooms and the feeling that you were in a garden with nature doing what it does best.
For this wedding, the request was all white, minimal green, and simple round bouquets, and the rest of the elements were left to us to design to fit the brief.
My desire was to include as many flowers that I grow on our flower farm as possible. These are grown with love, and it means so much to include all our own grown flowers on this special family occasion celebrating love.
Given it was early January, we had a gorgeous supply of white dahlias, scabiosa, hydrangea, garden roses, trachelium, sweet peas, lilies, tuberose, a gorgeous miniature agapanthus, and more baby’s breath than we could pick. The only flower we hadn’t grown was the snapdragons.
As with all wedding flowers we make, we try to include special touches. In addition to growing almost all the flowers, we made a very special corsage for the bride’s grandmother, the special family member who had done my wedding flowers. She was suffering from dementia and cancer and wasn’t aware of who most people were or why we were at a wedding at all. Given that flowers were a very special part of her life, we included highly fragrant additions to her corsage in the hope that the very special element of fragrance might evoke memories for her.
Almost a quarter of a century ago, getting the flowers ready meant that our special floral creator was running late to the nuptials. As the guests were starting to arrive at this wedding, I also had to race off and get changed quickly, but I did get to see the bride walking down the gypsophila-lined aisle carrying her beautiful bouquet.
For most weddings, we do get plenty of time to work with the bride and understand and plan for her wedding flowers. However, it isn’t at all uncommon to have a bride run in on the way to her wedding, and we need to create a bouquet without the planning. There is certainly a thrill when this happens, and we can provide a special bridal bouquet “on the go”!
For those who are more prepared but don’t want to meet for consultations, we have wedding flowers online with Wedding Packages available on our website. easy to order an option that suits and it can be delivered to your door.
If you’re planning your big day and wondering about the average cost of wedding flowers in NZ, we’re happy to guide to help you in creating your dream wedding flowers within your budget. Whether you are a bride who is planning every last detail or one who needs a last-minute bouquet, we have options to suit every need.
Explore our wedding flowers NZ collection and find the perfect blooms to make your day unforgettable.