The Art of Carrying a Wedding Bouquet: Don't Let the Flowers Let You Down

Spring and summer are upon us, and many weddings have been planned. So much thought gets put into the planning, colors, invites, etc., but what about the wedding bouquet? There is an art to carrying a wedding bouquet so that the bride and her attendants look elegant and comfortable.

Brides spend a lot of time choosing the wedding bouquet to fit their dream wedding but then many lose its splendor as they do not know how to carry the bouquet to show it off at its best. Let's face it: Brides and their mothers spend hours at the flower shop poring over hundreds of photographs so that they get the correct combination of flowers, color, shape and size for the perfect wedding bouquet.

Of course, how you should hold and carry a bouquet will completely depend upon its type of which there are many....

Arm bouquets are carried in one arm and the stems should rest comfortably across the inner elbow and the blossoms facing away from the body.

Cascade, crescent, heart and round bouquets are carried in front of the body in two hands with the arms resting on the hips.

Clutch Bouquets, nosegays and single blossoms should be carried to the side of the body in one hand.

Floral pomanders can either be carried in front of the body using two hands or on the side of the body just using one hand.

Nosegays mounted in tussy mussies are designed to be carried in front of the body in one hand with the forearm slightly bent and the elbow resting on the hip.

Specialty bouquets, fans and baskets are carried according to size and proportion. On the whole though smaller ones should be carried either to the front or side of the body and larger ones should be carried down at the side of the body.

Don't forget that these guidelines also apply to the attendants too and not just the bride. There is one rule that should never be disregarded - Never carry a bouquet higher than your waist. If you do the fine details of the dresses will be covered and this will result in poor detailed photographs.

The wedding day is going to be full of excitement and emotions and it is very easy for the bride and attendants to forget about carrying their bouquets correctly resulting in the bouquet improperly covering parts of their dress or face or worse case scenario dropping it altogether. Avoid this by practicing and encouraging the attendants to practice the bouquet carrying technique regularly on the final run up to the big day.

Practice again during the wedding rehearsal and before the start of the actual ceremony.