Decorating a Ceremony Venue With Dried Flowers

Here at Atlas Flowers, we have an extensive range of dried and preserved flowers for weddings. If you’re tasked with organising wedding venue décor and need a little creative inspiration, we have some handy tips to enable you to create perfect dried flower arrangements and displays for the big day. There are lots of ways to incorporate dried flowers into the decoration of a ceremony venue. Scatter flowers down the aisle, use them for stunning backdrops, or incorporate them into pew ends just as you might a fresh bouquet.

Floral features can add a naturally romantic element to a wedding ceremony. Image credit: Maghradze PH

Blend Fresh With Dried & Preserved

You may wish to add fresh flower elements to your designs, and many varieties do blend in very well with dried and preserved arrangements, but by using just baked blooms and preserved stems, you don’t have to worry about them deteriorating as the day goes on. Be confident that flower arches and floral wall displays will look perfect for the duration of the event, and that the hours spent carefully crafting these decorative pieces were well spent. After the wedding, posies and hand ties make fantastic keepsakes for the bride and bridesmaids, and flowers used as table decorations could also be gifted to your guests.

A cute posy can make the sweetest wedding favour or place marker.

Pampas, Typha, & Ruscus

Whether you have a single stem or a small bunch, bottles are a great way to show off dried blooms. Pampas plumes look fabulous in coloured glass bottles, either alone or with some complementary, coloured typha stems or ruscus branches.

Floral Aisle Markers & Subtle Scattering

Like fresh flowers, dried flowers may also be used to embellish pew ends and create aisle markers. Whatever your chosen colours or style, there will likely be a dried or preserved product that will fit the design brief. For a beach venue, you might wish to experiment with statement tall pampas grass mixed with palms to capture the breeze, while a rustic barn will look sublime when decorated with blue and pink delphiniums and velvet-soft pink gomphrena.

Tall, fluffy pampas grass adds drama to a wedding aisle!

Harmony Within Colour & Texture

Blending the colours, tones, and textures of your florals to create complementary or contrasting looks will alter the feel of the design, and ultimately that of the venue. Working with your space, treating it as a canvas, will help you achieve the aesthetic you desire.

Why not incorporate dried roses and peonies or preserved hydrangeas into vases and place them at the end of rows? Large bunches of dried wheat and barley stacked in sheaves are great for referencing summer. Garlands of preserved eucalyptus, looped along the backs of pews or chairs, or even along the floor the length of the aisle can make a beautiful statement.

If you want to add some real romance, scatter some dried rose petals or helichrysum heads along the aisle. Rose petals also make gorgeous natural confetti!

Different colours and textures visible in rose petals and beautiful helichrysum heads can create a very different vibe.

Dried Flower Décor at the Reception Venue

Whether you intend to keep your reception light and minimalist or want to ramp up the colour and kitsch, there is a wealth of dried and preserved floral products that can help you achieve your design goals.

This beautifully decorated wedding feast table makes use of lots of complementary floral decorations in similar colours to the theme. Image by Jonathan Borba

Did Somebody Say Faux?

It may be that you add a few faux blooms, plants, and foliage to enrich the overall aesthetic. Don’t let the thought of faux flowers make you recoil in horror, there are some very high-quality products on the market that look and feel realistic - even close up! It's not cheating if it looks amazing!

At Atlas Flowers, we have a broad range of artificial flowers, plants, and foliage. These products are highly realistic and a great alternative to fresh, dried, or preserved flowers.

Venue Signage & Decorative Wreaths

Delicate flowers can be affixed to notices and signage, providing information such as ceremony times, seating arrangements, and where to find essentials like the powder room or sun terrace. These little details can be used to beautify and lift the more mundane aspects of the big day, and ensure all elements of the décor are on theme.

Handmade signage for weddings is a great way to add a personal touch to a celebration. Adding some flowers or foliage is the perfect decoration!

Stationery & Place Settings

There’s nothing quite like handmaking your own wedding stationery for a personal touch and using it to introduce your guests to your wonderful wedding theme early on. Dried flowers are the perfect ingredient for this, as they can be affixed to cards using a little glue or even some luxurious sealing wax - you could even create your own seal!

 

Whether you have your invitations printed, or create them by hand, you can add some floral embellishments to finish off the design.

Floral Wreaths

Wreaths have moved from being a seasonal front door adornment to a must-have piece of wedding décor. They work well on interior doors with suspended labels for toilets and reception rooms, or as statement wall décor, pew ends or table features. Dried gypsophila or preserved gypsophila make wonderful wreaths on their own, but you can embellish them with other florals such as dried roses and preserved eucalyptus for some extra detailing.

A wreath made of preserved eucalyptus (as above left) looks amazing as it is, but your imagination is your only limitation with what you could create! Dreamy preserved gypsophila sprigs can be used to make a complete wreath or as embellishments to one made of dried roses.

When making your own wreaths, don’t feel compelled to complete the circle, using a metal or natural wreath ring (or alternative-shaped base), you can opt for covering part of the base to create an interesting, asymmetric look.

Flower Crowns

A variation on the wreath is a flower crown. These adornments can make the wedding party feel extra special. Whether the flower selection is based on personal choice, colour, texture, or the seasons, the possibilities with dried or preserved flowers and foliage are seemingly endless. From Limonium and Lagurus, Protea and Pampas, to Helichrysum and Hydrangea, Setaria and Statice become inspired by baked blooms and create something stunning for your big day!

Hanging Wedding Centrepieces or Ceiling Decorations

With venues that have suitable ceiling space, there’s no need to restrict your floral décor to floors, tables, and chairs. Bold, voluminous flower clouds are a spectacular way to fill a potentially uninteresting part of a room, providing a focal point and design cohesion. Our friend gypsophila is once more a favourite ingredient, but equally effective are broom bloom, pampas and reed grasses, hydrangeas, Amaranthus caudatus, Ammi majus, Icelandic moss, Lepidium, Limonium and Lunaria - to name just a few!

Flower Clouds

Glasshouse venues can be enhanced particularly well with the addition of a hanging centrepiece, and although fresh flowers or plants may be the first thought for this environment, dried and preserved florals look just as good, and will cope with the extreme heat of a sunny day where fresh-cut blooms will likely struggle.

We Are Fox have designed this beautiful flower cloud, which looks simply stunning!

Dried Flower Chandelier

In a similar vein to flower clouds, chandeliers are a novel way to create a floral focal point above a table or dance floor. Care has to be taken when using lights and floral products, so it's best to consult a lighting expert to ensure that there is no risk of fire.

Table Canopies

There are many ways that florals cab be woven into a canopy, and using lights add to the romance and atmosphere.

Rustic & Cottage Core

If you’re looking to create a more rustic, cottage-core aesthetic, hand-tied, dried flower bouquets are a fantastic option. Not only are they easy to make (even easier if you buy ready-made!) but they can be used in a variety of ways, from traditional table decor to suspending them from dried branchlets or twigs.

Atlas Flowers provide a wide range of ready-made dried flower bouquets, perfect for use in wedding decor.

Wall Hangings, Floral Walls, and Screens

Whether you opt for individual stems, bunches, or just flower heads, feature hangings, walls, and screens are a striking way to break up space and create natural barriers.

Dried rose stems are elegant and can be used as hanging decor to add a romantic feel to the venue.

Incorporating Dried Flowers into Popular Wedding Decor Themes

For every wedding, there could be a different theme. Whether your party is following a trend, a colour theme or fitting into a season, the decor and clothing will be enhanced by beautiful florals. Let's take a look at some popular wedding themes, and see what dried flowers can make them look even more fabulous!

Boho Style

This style has been around since the 1960s and symbolises many things from free-spirited femininity, hippy chic, and romantic whimsy, to rustic, earthy, and organic aesthetics. So if you are going to have a Bohemian-themed wedding, what better than dried flower decor? Muted, natural tones, offset with some warm colour can come in the form of Achillea, bearded wheat, wild fennel, flax, dried poppy heads, Ixodia, and dried lavender. Flower crowns and hair adornments make a wonderful addition to the wedding party’s costume and unite the Boho floral decor. For even more contemporary Boho inspiration, check out Boho Weddings.

The energy of boho is that of a free spirit!

Countryside Outdoor Weddings

With an outdoor wedding, creative freedom can abound. Open spaces, beautiful views, and nature are your design canvas. By opting to contrast or complement these surroundings with your floral decor, it’s possible to create a stunning floral spectacle to wow your guests and provide a unique backdrop for wedding photographs.

Drape, Dress & Embellish

Whether you keep decor minimalist with a few draped garlands of dried blooms such as Helichrysum bracteatum, Acrolinium or Rodanthe, or feature grand displays of dried grasses such as Cortaderia selloana (pampas), wild reed plumes, Miscanthus, Arundo, or broom grass, there are many ways you can create wonderful floral decor for your venue.

After Dark

Should you decide to take the party indoors, your dried florals will enhance the space and knit your theme together beautifully. If you are lucky enough to be using an historical barn for your reception, aged brickwork and gnarled beams look gorgeous dressed up with bunches of baked blooms or preserved foliage. Terracotta-coloured brick walls suit the contrasting greens of eucalyptus stems, aralia leaves, ivy, or olive branches. Complementing these with flowers such as the ubiquitous white Gypsophila, Delphiniums, Ixodia, or preserved roses finishes the look. Opting for rustic features such as the ladders and drapes in the image below add to the rough and ready aesthetic.

Beach Themes

A wedding on the beach brings to mind fluffy pampas, tall, grassy plumes and large palm leaves. Windswept seascapes and golden sands are the perfect matches for these muted hues, which contrast well with bright tropical blooms if you’re looking to notch up the colour. Here is where some carefully placed faux stems can work very well - think bird of paradise or Heliconia.

Informal Decor

Seating is often more informal at a beach ceremony, so it’s nice to embellish the chairs and aisle with on–theme florals. If you’re using large grasses like pampas as a basis for your main design features, incorporate smaller grasses like Lagurus (bunny tails) to echo this. To add structure, tall king spears work well as a backdrop to the pampas, whereas petite palm spears complement the lagurus.

 

Structure & Flow

With arches and pergolas, using Amaranthus (love lies bleeding) to cascade over the structure gives the design fluidity and interest, and mirrors the movement of fabric drapery. Ruched fan palms flutter in the breeze and can frame and protect smaller, delicate design elements such as preserved hydrangeas or rose heads.

Small Is Beautiful

Bouquets also look wonderful with lagurus and mini pampas plumes, blended with ruscus fronds, bracken fern, Setaria and Lunaria.

Dried Wedding Flower FAQs

How Long Do Dried Wedding Flowers Last?

Dried wedding flowers typically retain their good looks for up to three years, if cared for correctly. Should you opt to frame them behind glass, and keep them away from direct sunlight, dampness, and humidity, they can remain perfect for many years.

When Should I Order Dried Flowers For a Wedding?

While we can deliver your order the next working day from dispatch, it’s always worth planning well ahead to ensure you have everything you need and plenty of time to prepare. Will appropriate storage, your products can be bought months in advance of the big day. Find out more about our delivery options, and see more Atlas Flowers FAQs here.