Wedding flowers will be described as full of personality for the diverse days of love around Ireland in 2020.  With an ever increasing social media following of florists all around the world, brides are now very savvy about flower looks they like and textures they enjoy. Fundamentally, we would always believe that your wedding flowers should represent you and your partners’ style, the kind of wedding you are holding – be it an intimate gathering or a more formal gang of a hundred – and that your flowers should not be dictated by a Pinterest moodboard.

Timeline is a good thing to think about when planning your day-of-love blooms. By all means, contact your favourite florist when you get engaged and pencil in a date, but there is no need to decide on your flowers until fundamentals of the day including your dress, the venue, the wedding style and your location are decided. We would often recommend only meeting your florist three months before the big day. This means that more flowers that will be in season at the time of your wedding will be in stock and you can also have a lovely stress free meeting to look forward to amidst all of the other organisation. It is also a great idea to bring in any inspirations you have or even to send on a moodboard of flowers and designs you love in advance, so that your florist can build a tailored proposal to suit your taste and needs.

It is less than ideal to walk into a flower shop and expect a florist to make up a wedding bouquet on the spot or for the following day. Any floral designer will pride themselves on their bridal bouquet and bridesmaids work and each bouquet can take up to an hour and a half to make and perfect depending on the style. So it is vital that you make an appointment with your florist so you can have the necessary time to discuss your wedding needs.

Trends for 2020 include flowers filled with personality, a sense of delicacy and the ethereal, a feeling of femininity as frothy foliages fill between the large head blooms. Currently, there is a lot of interest in mixing dried and fresh flowers, in playing with dyed elements and of course using real flowers of the season.

One misconception is that roses are very expensive. It depends on your rose choice – for example, if your flower is in season costs are much less, but trying to find a garden rose in winter could prove very expensive. 

Sustainability is a key focus for us at Appassionata. We would often suggest ways for a couple to reuse their flowers for the following day or to place the wedding bouquets on a table or mantelpiece in vessels to act as table centres. Your florist could also provide biodegradable packaging so that you can present guests with flowers to take home at the end of the night too. Most florists in Ireland do try to use Irish-grown flowers where possible but it is very difficult to create a whole wedding from locally grown ingredients especially if there are many table centre pieces to create.

Colour trends vary greatly between a bright kaleidoscope of happy hues to using the palest of shades in a mix of textures and mixing flower types in unusual ways. There has also been a return to the all-white wedding but instead of it looking formal and stiff, an unruly but luxurious shape is given to shades of sage, cream, and white using radiant large head garden roses, ranunculus, lisianthus, peonies, frilly tulips and more…

Your bridal bouquet should be filled with flowers that make you smile, you should enjoy carrying your favourite blooms and it is always such a wonderful support to hold tight when you start those tentative steps smiling along the aisle to meet your best friend for life. Enjoy every moment and hold those blooms close for their scent to make you smile on what will be one of the best days of your life.