Herbal Wedding Boquets

My fiance and I have set a date for our wedding, March 17, 2007 and I need ideas for an inexpensive herbal wedding boquet. I've got an idea to have one of my junior brides maids to strew a mix of lavender and ivory rose petals on the floor before the ceremony. There will be a small celtic handfasting after the exchange of rings, basicly were going for a celtic theme wedding. I need resources perferably with pictures. I have one already but there are no pictures on the site. So I really dont know what these herbs looklike. Ive got pleanty of time, but I like to have things figured out before I do them. Any suggestions?

hi, I have read about herbal bouquets before, I think you can include wheat for fertility

Hi StLouisTarot,

I might be able to help (florist for years here) but I dont know where you are, and what you may have available, and in what season you're in, where you are. You may need to pick flowers and dry them if they are not available at the time, or get them ordered so they can be available fresh two days before the wedding. You will need to care for them when you get them, and consider things like not getting your dress hands and everything else wet or stained from some of the stamen pollens and stems. Some of the blooms and foliage maybe able to be dried to keep afterwards too.

Certain flowers mean certain things and you can make a bouquet to represent your celebration. Ribbons can be made from twines, trailers, and leaves, and can be bound by natural coloured threads.

and it is simple to put a bouquet together, but on the day, it might be a completely different thing. Most bouquets are made the night before, and stored somewhere cool and safe (not the fridge though!!!) so that its ready for the next day. Maybe you could consider asking someone else to make the bouquets for you - a special friend - or someone who you could nominate so it will mean something to them and to you. If thats their only job - they'll still have their hands full doing this (pardon the pun).

I dont know if you need to consider your maids and the rest of the wedding party too - or garlands of fresh flowers for tables and scatter flowers.

Pm me if you like - it might be easier! But I'll help where I can if you need

Blessings
Elven x

Hi StLouisTarot!

Congratulations on your engagement!!! Wonderful that you are starting early to plan exactly the wedding you wish to have. I am a Wedding Celebrant in Springfield MO, so I always get excited when the subject of weddings comes up and I love researching different cultural and religious wedding customs!

I have not had much success either finding actual photos of herbal wedding bouquets, but these sites might be helpful to you both with the floral arrangements and your Celtic theme.

Herbal Bouquets Described and Slide Show

Interesting info on herbs for celebrating weddings

Celtic Wedding Traditions

Celtic Art and Wedding Symbols

Celtic Web Resources Page

Info on Celtic Weddings

General Flower Info

The first site url lists a resource book also that you might want to seek out, it is titled HERBS for Weddings & Other Celebrations, by Bertha Reppert , Storey communications, Inc. 1993

Two of the most interesting comments I saw in researching the subject of Celtic weddings and herbal bouquets were 1) having your wedding guests contribute herbs and flowers to be used to create the bouquets, and 2) that the bouquet is used to "tell the love story" by including certain flowers, herbs, accessories, that have meaning to the couple based on the "language of flowers" of the renaissance times.

Feel free to post or PM me if you have further questions or need further assistance! Hope you will post photos of the big day after it arrives!

Thank you for the information both of you! I will PM you both when I have questions. So I might become a pest lol.

My husband and I had a mixed floral for our wedding.

Mom and Grandma got nosegays, and I had a long (think beauty contest style) bouquet. They were all made mostly from rosemary (for remembrance) with a few white roses placed in the bunch. I got the rosemary from a friend who did landscaping, his wedding gift was 40 rosemary plants! Which we trimmed out to make the arrangement.

Another key for searching information on herbal bouquets is
tussie-mussies. These were traditionally put together like a poem of the different herbal meanings. Think of Ophelia's herbal bundle in Hamlet, not very wedding oriented but an excellent representation of what I'm saying

Happy Happy days ahead of you!!!!!

Love and Light,

Ankou

I think herbal bouquets are such a great idea for a wedding. A friend of mine is going to get married soon and is thinking about having a herbal wedding bouquet. I think it is an awsome idea, however, there are not many florists in London where she is living who do that - at least she said she didn't have a lot of success with finding one who does it.

If you google for "herbal bouquets" you can find many beautiful examples!

The tradition for wedding bouquets (as far as I know) comes from the Swedish/Norse idea of carrying strong smelling herbs to keep away the trolls. Lavender would do this job very well.