A lot of brides come in to my office with the same questions, as a florist I have grown accustomed to answering them and educating my brides, but it has occurred to me that perhaps these same brides would be better armed for the task of wedding planning with a bit of knowledge prior to their floral consult. {After all knowledge is power!} One of the comments and or questions I get is: “I want to use only in season flowers.” {Assuming that this is the more natural or “green” way to go.} Or “I don’t know what is in season and what is not, can I have this specific flower on my date?” Really the ins-n-outs behind floral seasons are relatively simple, but first lets talk a little history.
The use of flowers for a wedding initially served more of a purpose than beauty, it masked the smell of body odor. A bride historically would be at the mercy of what was “in season”, meaning what she could gather in her local surroundings. So imagine on a day like today in Utah what a brides selection might be? Perhaps some dried and stored lavender or wheat at best. Times have really changed, the change came about in a very evolutionary process in stages. So where does this leave our modern day bride?
It is best to explain this in 3 simple categories. The first category would be available all year long. Think about a rose for example, pretty widely available just about anywhere in the US these days, anytime of year! The price may fluctuate a little but generally does not {with the exception of valentines day}. A good deal of flowers fall into this category, in fact I dare say most of the widely used wedding flowers fall into this category. Things like carnations, daisies, lilies, stock, delphiniums, orchids, and many more generally are available from suppliers all year long and their individual prices typically only fluctuate at a minimum.
Even the tulip my bridal floral friends usually falls into that first category and is for the most part available all year long. Kind of tricky right? The second category would be those flowers that are seasonal and perhaps can be found somewhere somehow anytime of year but their price is going to fluctuate a great deal. Meaning it will cost you a pretty penny to get said flowers off season!
Peonies are a great example of this, a highly sought after summer bridal bloom that does in fact have a season and is actually on the pricier side even in-season, therefor even more so in it’s off season, and in addition to that may not be the best quality or as big in size in the off season and may be difficult to obtain, possible but difficult.
The third category actually is the smallest which is good news for you planning brides, not too many flowers fall into this category leaving you an ample supply of product to access. But some flowers do fall here, sometimes because it is not feasible for local US suppliers to carry or bring in out-of-season crop or simply because a bloom is only available in a certain time of year and that is it, all said and done. Blooms like Viburnum, amaryllis, poppies, and other likes thereof fall into this place.
In the end your questions likely will still remain and they should, I expect brides to ask me those questions, but I also think it would be quiet lovely if they had a bit of background knowledge coming in to make the bridal floral process more efficient and be empowered by more understanding, thus creating realistic bloom expectations. It is important to hire an event florist with experience and resources so that the knowledge base of what is available for you will be there and so they can access what will work best for your big day! Are you wondering if a bloom your interested in is “in season” shoot your favorite local Event florist an email! Don’t have one yet? We have 5 fantastic ones right here on UBB preferred vendor list!
Editorial credit: Audrey @ Studio Stems
Wonderful info and write up.