The Art of ‘Just Grown Here’ - Natural Wedding Flowers Explained
Image by Emma Ryan Wedding Photographer: Church Ceremony floral installation.
The use of flowers at weddings dates back to the ancient Romans, for whom they symbolised new beginnings and fertility - two things the natural world has down to a fine art. For me, wedding flowers are a way of experientially connecting you to nature and merging the organic with the sculptural. The Dittany Entwined style is best described as ‘just grown here’ natural wedding flowers, leaning towards wildness and abundance, and is heavily influenced by my background in art.
Image by Emma Shaw Photography : Place setting for intimate dinner at Prestwold Hall
Just Grown Here - What Does It Mean?
When I talk about ‘just grown here’ florals, I mean arrangements that give the impression that they are organically sprouting and climbing from where they are placed. These floral designs are the closest representation of how plants grow in nature, and feel curated without rigidity or prescribed form. Every stem is unique and every bloom slightly different, even within the same variety. I like to embrace this and create carefully thought-out natural wedding flowers that feel free and expressive, full of texture and depth.
This looser, more abundant style lives on a spectrum and can be adapted for each couple’s own tastes. For example, if I am designing a wildflower meadow I can add long stems, bigger depth gradients and trailing elements for a more wild finish, or tighten up the arrangement and make it slightly more structured for a neater finish. Whichever way we go with it, my designs are always contemporary and curated, and reflective of the world around us.
Every individual flower grows naturally to maximise its exposure to the sunlight, and so often we see wonky stems and hardly ever two the same. I echo this in the designs of my natural wedding flowers, spending a lot of time and giving a lot of consideration to an effortless-looking finished product.
I love creating installations in a space that look as though the flowers bend, weave and twist around man-made structures, almost as though the wild is reclaiming the venue. A lovely example is a staircase, where I consider all angles and artistically wrap your florals around and through so that they become part of one seamless sculpture. Even if a design as against a wall, I’ll pay attention to the ‘unseen’ sides as this is what gives it that truly three-dimensional feel.
Natural Wedding Flowers - Sidestepping Traditional Floristry Practices
Just grown here natural wedding flowers go against the grain of traditional floristry practices, and for me lean more towards creativity and artistry which are highly intuitive rather than prescribed. Classical floristry techniques include using groupings of 3 with differing stem lengths and arranging them straight upwards, along with creating neat rounded arrangements with a certain degree of homogeneity.
Personally, I like to disregard all these rules when designing your wedding flowers and instead be guided by how flora behave in their natural environment. I love the deeper connection it creates for you, and I believe that nobody truly wants a wedding day that feels stiff and stuffy any more.
In traditional floristry it often feels as though a lot of emphasis is placed on each individual element rather than the bigger picture, whereas just grown here florals offer a living, flowing guide through your wedding day. Each installation and arrangement is a natural sculpture that meanders languorously into the next, with careful consideration given to showcasing specific types of flowers or highlighting certain colours.
Image by Emma Ryan Photographer: Abundant floral staircase installation
Abundance in Natural Wedding Flowers
My style of natural wedding flowers with a just grown here look is based on abundance. I like using a lot of flowers because I believe if you’re going to do something, it’s worth doing intentionally and making a statement. Even where foliage is the focus it will be used generously, and this bountiful approach helps ensure that all-important wild finish can be achieved.
Abundance doesn’t always necessarily mean a lavish amount of flowers everywhere, and in some cases we will use as few as three considered stems in small bowl arrangements. The important factor is how well thought out the design is, whether it’s three or three hundred blooms.
Image by Eyes to Pixels: Natural floral arch
Achieving a just grown here look for natural wedding flowers is a true labour of love, and if you resonate with a modern, playfully sophisticated vibe then we’re going to get along famously. Take a look at these florals I created for a Thicket Priory wedding, where they were used as a way to guide guests through the venue and included a spectacular staircase installation.
You can also explore my love of immersive floral alchemy to light up the senses, and when you’re ready to say yes to plentiful, curated floral design that looks oh-so natural, get in touch:
