Can we repurpose our Wedding Flowers?

Move aside the Calla Lily, the biggest trend I have noticed in the Wedding Flower industry over the past few years is the idea to ‘re-purpose’ flowers.

The conversation about ‘re-purposing’ flowers so often comes up because it does seem to be the best way to make savings on your Wedding Flowers: to make them work harder.

When you ask for your wedding flowers to be re-purposed, you’re asking the Florist to use the same arrangement twice, sometimes three times. If we imagine your Wedding Day as a series of scenes… the first scene is your ceremony, scene two could be your drinks reception, and scene three the Wedding breakfast and/or dance floor.

From a sustainability point of view, moving your wedding flowers around to maximise their impact makes perfect sense. However, like all great theatres you’re going to need a stage manager to change the scenes. A factor to consider is your Florist’s time. Some venues will offer to move flowers around in between the ceremony and the wedding breakfast; however, as an experienced florist in Hampshire, it’s always my preference to have overall editorial say in where the flowers go. So, I prefer to stay on site and move the flowers with my own hands.

Flowers are a perishable product, so for us florists it’s important to review how each placement looks at each stage, and whether the new location is suitable. Hot weather, beaming sunshine, wind, cold draughts, and any potential movement in the mechanics can affect how your flowers change through an event day or from scene to scene. Sometime lots of people don’t think about is also how your flowers are fixed, if water is spilt or has evaporated at the time of the move, your flowers could move or worst case not last through.

Much like Constance Spry’s flowers, I always choose to work with sustainable mechanics. To fix flowers where I’d like them to be. I use things like pin frogs, chicken wire and gravel to hold flowers in place. This way of working ensures that mechanics are re-used, not plastic, and no floral foam features.

If flowers or containers are moved, the water may need to be topped up, stems could need to be replaced to look their best or, as I experienced in the summer, some flowers may have faded in the heat, so will need to be taken out. All these little tweaks clock up florist’s time, so Wedding clients should expect to account for this in their budget.

Some of the floral arrangements I tend to find work well for re-purposing are Bud Vases, Meadow Boxes, Urns, Ceramic Bowls and Vases. The items that often don’t work so well for re-purposing are Bridesmaids’ bouquets (they are often out of water for a while, so don’t look their best as table arrangements) and hanging installations (these often need the use of a ladder to move them safely; therefore, it can be disruptive to the flow of your reception).

My message to all couples planning their Wedding is that it’s often possible to move arrangements and re-purpose flowers, but take the time to have a good conversation with your Wedding Florist or your planner beforehand. Any movement of arrangement should be carefully stage managed to make sure your day runs smoothly and that your flowers work in the places that give the greatest impact.

It’s unlikely that flowers that have been moved will look exactly the same as the first time they were placed, but a good florist will plan and allow time to tweak and tend to the flowers as they’re moved safely and carefully.

If you’d like to chat to me about your Wedding Flowers, then please do contact me and we can arrange a time. I hope this blog about wedding flowers has been useful. Please do follow me via Instagram and Facebook to keep up to date with my work and get to know me better.

Sarah x

Image used with thanks to Abi Chadwick Photography