What Flowers Will You Choose For Your Wedding Day?
Organising the floral elements of a wedding can often be one of the largest challenges to navigate. People will choose their wedding flowers based on seasonal availability, colour themes, personal choice, and sometimes fashion trends. The beauty of dried and preserved blooms is that you can take a usually short-season flower and put it to work at any time of the year so that only leaves colour and kind to decide upon!
Atlas Flowers specialises in dried, preserved, and faux flowers and foliage. Within our webshop, many of the items listed above are only available as faux options as they don’t dry or preserve particularly well. Don’t let that put you off though! We only sell the highest quality faux products, many of which are real-touch. The customers who buy these products come back again and again for our faux range and speak highly of their quality. Below, we will explore these products in more detail, and share some links to our current offering.
Peony
A firm wedding favourite, the peony has many symbolic meanings [depending on where you search!], including good fortune, romance and happy marriage, so it’s no wonder that they are a popular choice for weddings!
The fresh blooms are a seemingly endless collection of layered petals, that once dried, condense into a rose-like form, with the colour deepening into richer, deeper tones. Atlas offers both dried and faux varieties which look very different, but are equally lovely!
In this setting, faux can be the perfect option. The methods of manufacturing artificial flowers, foliage, plants, and trees has changed since the Chinese invented the silk flower, centuries ago. Since the dawning of synthetic fabrics, dyes, and plastics, the artificial bloom has evolved to be a worthy alternative to fresh, dried, or preserved products.
When these wonderful flowers are in season, we do our best to secure dried blooms in a variety of colours. The season is short and demand is high, so if you need them, ask us early about stock availability and potentially pre-ordering your requirement.
Check out our wedding inspired peony Pinterest board!
Ranunculus
This group of blooms is part of the Buttercup family. They are another flower that is jam-packed with petals, this time in a tighter, more uniform arrangement, with an open centre. Ranunculus look amazing on their own or built into bouquets and arrangements accompanying blooms such as roses, and scented greenery like eucalyptus.
For Ranunculus Wedding inspiration, take a look at our Pinterest board!
We occasionally get dried varieties in, but we stock mostly faux stems. These are available in a range of pinks, red and white. Take a look at our pin collection to see some great ideas for using Ranunculus.
Gypsophila
This is a firm favourite for florists for a variety of applications, and it is definitely much loved for wedding florals! Gypsophila’s delicate, little flowers cover the stems throughout, creating a dense, and full effect. White is a traditional choice for weddings but for those wishing to strengthen and embolden their designs with accent colours or create a vibrant mixed colour palette, there are many options available with this versatile product.
Take a look at some pins we have curated of Gypsophila makes for your wedding.
We offer both dried and preserved gypsophila, each displaying different qualities:
Preserved Gypsophila
- More like a fresh stem to look at and touch.
- Flexible and easy to handle without damaging or shedding flowers/breaking stems.
- Rich, more realistic, tonal colour due to application as part of the preserving process.
Dried Gypsophila
- Looks dry, or ‘baked’ as some florists term it.
- Less flexible, and can be brittle, so care is required when using the product
- When painted, colours are often flat and even, with a matte finish
Eucalyptus
Where do we start with preserved eucalyptus? It comes in so many forms and colours, it really is the most wonderful foliage – and it smells divine!
Perfect for adding green (or red, orange, yellow, and more) foliage elements, this product has a number of options to choose from and therefore it’s’ likely there will be one to fit your brief. We created an article all about preserved eucalyptus to compare the different varieties we usually stock. so it’s worth taking a look if you are unsure of what’s available.
Varieties of Eucalyptus
At Atlas Flowers, we stock core varieties throughout the year, as the season allows. Here are a few worth considering:
- Populus
- Exotica
- Baby Blue
- Nicoli
- Parvifolia
- Espiral
- Cinerea
- Stuartiana
For more ideas, take a look at our Eucalyptus Pinterest board.
Tulips
The season is early for fresh tulips, typically finishing by end of May, making them an ideal flower for Spring and early Summer weddings.
A quick look at Pinterest shows a plethora of beautiful white tulips use in a variety of ways. There is some use of coloured varieties, such as pink and peach, with the occasional red, or brighter mix.
We don’t offer dried or preserved, but we do stock some beautiful faux options. Parrot tulips have subtly curled petals that give this bloom a dreamy look. We are often able to source different types of faux blooms, in alternative colours, so if you don’t see what you are looking for, don’t hesitate to contact us.
Sweet Pea
Originally from Sicily and the Aegean islands, the sweet pea was cross-bred and developed into the beautiful, scented climbing plant we know today by 19th Century nurseryman, Henry Eckford. By 1901, Henry had created 115 of the 265 cultivars in existence, for which he received the Royal Horticultural Society’s Victoria Medal of Honour.
Fresh sweet peas are easily grown in the garden, but you may find it easier to secure your blooms from a good florist to achieve quality and consistency, as they can be prone to pests and diseases, which can affect the look of the flowers.
If you are looking for a country cottage, or a rustic look for your wedding florals, sweet peas could definitely work for you. They look great in jars or quaint vases for a simple, pretty effect, and posies, buttonholes and bouquets made from these flowers are just wonderful!
We don’t offer dried or preserved sweet peas, unfortunately, but there is a faux option available. Get inspired by others’ use of sweet peas for wedding flowers by checking out our Pinterest board.
Scabious
Depending on whether you use the flower or the dried seed head, Scabiosa or Scabious is a great alternative to more standard wedding blooms. Sometimes known as pincushion flowers, the Scabious flower is a summer-flowering plant, which can be annual, biennial or perennial. It’s a favourite of bees and butterflies as it produces a lot of nectar.
The flowers are native to Russia, Hungary and the Mediterranean, where it thrives in chalky soil, chalk pits and pastures where sheep have grazed. Cultivation of this plant has occurred since the early 19th century. It belongs to the same family as teasels.
We offer Scabious in dried, preserved, and faux varieties. See more on our Pinterest board!
Roses
A flower that is synonymous with love and romance, roses are the perfect bloom for weddings. Whilst fresh roses may seem like the only option, if it isn’t the bride or groom’s intention to throw the bouquet into the crowd, the desire to keep a wedding bouquet or pass it on to a loved one may lead them to try to preserve it. By opting for dried, preserved, or faux flowers for the bouquet, the hard work is already done, and if cared for, the look of the piece won’t alter either.
Our range of dried roses is perfect for wedding bouquets, buttonholes, headdresses, hair clips and more. We offer a good colour range, and they work well with so many other dried and preserved products, you or your client will be spoiled for choice!
Dried Roses
Dried roses look beautiful, not least because the drying process condenses and intensifies the colours and hues present in the petals. Although quite small compared to the original flower, these delicate blooms are a wonderful ingredient for rustic displays and arrangements and will retain their beauty if cared for.
Preserved Roses
Preserved roses are almost indiscernible from fresh blooms. Available as just heads, or with preserved stems (reattached to the head with small pins after the slightly different processes required to preserve heads and stems). These gorgeous products are either in realistic, natural-looking colours, or they are given bold, bright colourings, sometimes in gradients and rainbow patterns. Our Verdissimo range of preserved products are stunning examples of the highest quality preserved roses, hydrangeas, and many other flowers and foliage. Roses from this range are shown below:
Faux Roses
What about faux? Although faux flowers may not be the first choice for a wedding bouquet, a beautiful result can be achieved. For decorating a church, tables or reception venue, faux can be a great option. If the weather is a concern, they will most certainly be good for outside decoration. They also make a nice token to offer guests after the event.
We have gathered some ideas and put them together on a Pinterest board for you to look at, and hopefully get some inspiration!
Hydrangeas
There has been a resurgence in popularity with these blooms for weddings and celebrations. When preserved, they take colour very well, making them a great option to fit into a wedding colour theme.
There are many varieties of hydrangeas around, and these have different flower shapes and structures. One of the most popular colours and varieties currently popular in wedding decor is the spherical-headed baby blue macrophylla. White is also seen, often paired with the blue option.
Preserved Hydrangeas
Throughout the year, we try and keep a good variety of colours on offer within the preserved range. If you don’t see a colour you like, we can always look at sourcing it, just drop us a line to enquire.
Artificial Hydrangeas
Our faux range comes in a selection of colours and styles to suit your needs, and again, should you need something different, we may be able to source it, so please ask!
In the mean time take a look at Pinterest for some ideas.
Anemone
Last on our list is the anemone. These lovely flowers are also members of the buttercup family.
There are three main groups that flower at different times and at of the year and in different conditions:
- Spring Flowering – Woodland and Alpine Meadows – tuberous or rhizomatous [ e.g. Anemonoides nemorosa and Anemonoides blanda ]
- Spring/Summer Flowering – hot dry areas – tuberous roots [ e.g. Anemone coronaria ]
- Summer/Autumn Flowering – moist dappled shade – fibrous roots [ e.g. Eriocapitella hupehensis ]
- The blooms come in a variety of colours, although white is very popular, and can create a great effect for wedding decor, or bouquets.
We sell a few faux Anemones. They come in a selection of colours, and can be mixed with other flower and foliage types to create a wonderful look. Check out our pins for more ideas!
Get Anemone inspiration from our curated Pinterest board.
But What About Pampas?
Not in the top 10, but we couldn’t leave our article without mentioning pampas grass.
Pampas has become very popular over the past few years, and although the initial scramble has died down, it is still one of the most popular products on our webshop. We pride ourselves in stocking only the finest quality pampas, with the fluffiest plumes that have hardly any shedding!
For some, a summer wedding wouldn’t be complete without pampas. Instagram and Pinterest are full of wonderful pampas wedding-themed creations, and that trend doesn’t seem to be going away yet. It’s versatile and great for summery looks. We are now offering bulk box options for pampas on the website with an even better buying price, so for bigger projects, you can get even better value!
Plentiful inspiration can be found on Pinterest – we have compiled a few amazing images to get you started.