How to Personalize the Bride's Wedding Bouquet

One of the main accessories many brides will have with them on their wedding day is their bridal bouquet. Adding some unique touches or finding a way to add meaning to the bridal bouquet is an excellent way to personalize the wedding and really wow guests when they see the bride. Bridal bouquets can add a pop of color to what may be an otherwise white ensemble or blend in to create the picture of pure elegance on your wedding day. While many florists are adept at helping brides choose flowers, wise brides will direct their florist in constructing the bridal bouquet for the wedding day to get a truly out-of-the-box design unique for their weddings. Here are some ideas and trends to help brides personalize the bridal bouquet for the wedding day.

Brides can have their wedding florist incorporate crystals, pearls, or rhinestones into the design of the bridal bouquet to give it that extra glitz and make it stand out from the bridesmaids' bouquets. Larger crystals can be nestled among the flowers in the bouquet to look like pieces of the bouquet. Smaller crystals, pearls, and rhinestones can be planted next to flowers or embedded inside the center of individual flowers like stephanotis to add some extra twinkle. Some brides are also opting to add their monogram in rhinestones or crystals to the bouquet in floral picks. For a romantic look, some florists are stringing strands of crystals, pearls, or rhinestones from inside the bouquet or from the ribbon wrapping the flower stems so they dangle below the bouquet.

Another way brides can have their florist add shimmer to the bridal bouquet is to attach a sparkly brooch to hold the ribbon in place on their bouquet. Florists can also include a vintage or antique hat pin to hold the ribbon binding the stems on the bridal bouquet. The brooch and hat pins may be from a relative of the bride or groom to add special meaning to the bridal bouquet. Many times these objects can double as something old or something borrowed if the bride is following the traditional custom of "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and a sixpence in her shoe" on her wedding day. Brides may also opt to have other sentimental items included in their bridal bouquets on their wedding days like a relative's rosary or a strand of pearls. All of these objects are wonderful heirloom items that can be passed down to others to use on their wedding days too if the bride chooses.

A bride can also have her florist add sugared grapes, vegetables, or berries to her wedding bouquet flowers for a unique touch. Truly adventurous brides seeking a unique bouquet have had bouquets designed completely out of fruits and vegetables. The trend of adding fruit or vegetables to the bridal bouquet or floral arrangement conveys bounty, plenty, and fertility and is festive on the wedding day. A fragrant and succulent way to personalize the bridal bouquet is to add stalks of herbs to the flowers. Using herbs in the bouquet is also symbolic of fidelity. Popular trends in herbs for wedding bouquets are lilac, rosemary, lemon thyme, and basil.

For brides who love the wrapped-stem look of wedding bouquets, the trend is using unique materials to wrap the stems of their flowers. Florists can wrap the bride's bouquet with monogrammed ribbon, ribbon studded with crystals or pearls, and vintage silk ribbon to personalize the bouquet. Beyond ribbon, brides can also have their florist use vintage fabric, pieces of their mother's wedding gown, or lush velvet or organza fabric to wrap the flowers. If a more natural look is desired by the bride, the flowers can also be wrapped with tree bark, banana leaves, or twine. Additional sparkle and shimmer can be added to the bouquet by wrapping the flowers with plain wire or wire studded with beads, pearls, or crystals. For a unique touch try sewing cream, white, or mother-of-pearl buttons on the ribbon wrapping the bouquet. Brides can also have paper cranes in their wedding colors or silver or gold hung from their bouquet for good luck.

Another way to personalize the bride's bouquet on her wedding day is to use a unique tussy mussy to hold her wedding flowers. Tussy mussies are cone shaped vases that hold flowers together in bouquet arrangements. While there is nothing new in using a tussy mussy to hold a bouquet, they have been around since the Victorian era, the trend today is offering tussy mussies in a variety of materials for the bride to choose from. Tussy mussies are often sterling silver or silver-plated, but can also be found in pewter, crystal, simulated mother-of-pearl, porcelain, and colored glass. Brides can carry an antique tussy mussy or an heirloom tussy mussy to display their flowers in a unique way on their wedding day. They are an excellent alternative for brides who do not wish to have a floral bouquet with visible stems or ribbon-wrapped stems or for brides with wedding flowers that are fragile and need a constant supply of water a vase can supply.

Brides can also personalize their bouquets through the selection of the flowers. Florists can advise you as to the meaning of particular flowers such as the wedding rose that means true love. Brides may also want to carry flowers that a favorite family member may have used at their wedding or a favorite flower of someone they wish to honor or remember on their wedding day. If the bride or groom's heritage is significant, the bride may want her florist to include the official flower from the country of her or her groom's heritage or one that is significant to her or his culture. Other trends in flower selection include using the flowers of the groom's or bride's birth-month, including a favorite flower of each of the bride's wedding attendants in her bouquet, or using the flower of a signature scent that the bride wears or knows the groom prefers. Brides may also opt to work in a few homegrown flowers from her childhood home into her bouquet.

If the bride wants to bypass the traditional wedding bouquet altogether, but still wants flowers she can carry or wear other accessories made from flowers. A hot trend in wedding accessories is purses made of flowers. Brides can also wear flowers in their hair, carry or wear a wreath as a headpiece, and wear a lei. Brides may also opt to carry a single flower or strand of orchids or greenery down the aisle.

Wedding bouquets may not be made up of flowers at all. Another trend with brides today are bouquets made out of crystal. Crystal bouquets will not dry or fade after the wedding. Other brides rely on their pastry chef instead of their florist and carry sweet sugar-flower bouquets to match their wedding cakes. Brides wanting to add a whimsical touch to their wedding may opt to carry a balloon bouquet.

While trends in wedding flowers can be fun to follow, whatever flowers a bride chooses to carry (or not to carry) on her wedding day should be a reflection of her personality and unique sense of style.