Winter Wedding Flowers: The Seasonal Style Guide
Image by Stella Photography at Iscoyd Park
Winter Wedding Flowers: The Seasonal Style Guide
Themes and Inspiration for Winter Wedding Flowers
For me, designing winter wedding flowers is about embracing the season. The summer months characterised by lush green foliage, big, bountiful gardens and abundant meadows are behind us, and the natural world starts to look more minimal. Floral design at this time of year takes on a different kind of beauty, as do the weddings they decorate.
Finding inspiration for and theming your winter wedding flowers can be done in a multitude of different ways. We can turn to the holidays, be influenced by what’s happening in nature, or take a cue from the chill in the air to create an artistic, unique design that feels wintry in the right way for you.
Image by Shutter Go Click at Barmby Fields Barns
One of my previous couples had a wedding that really celebrated Christmas, and we made use of classic reds and hunter greens and combined with the deliciously deep textures of a traditional pine forest. There was nothing cheesy or gaudy about it, just pure holiday joy and elegantly designed floral artistry.
We can also reflect the changing of the seasons to inspire your winter wedding florals, focusing on the transition from autumn to winter or even the move back into spring, depending on the month of your wedding. This can influence the mood or ambience of your wedding, either choosing to hunker down into the cosy warmth of winter familiarity, or celebrate what grows anew on the other side.
It is so important to me that we design in keeping with the season and the availability of flowers during this time, and I always advise my couples to celebrate what Mother Nature offers us. You won’t find me promising lusciously abundant arrangements bursting with blooms, because it’s unrealistic and not naturally attainable.
Images by Shutter Go Click
Types of Flowers For Winter Weddings
When looking for winter wedding flower ideas and putting together your Proposal of Dreams, I emphasise the flowers and foliage that are naturally available at this time of year. I am a big fan of using tree foliage all year round, and in the winter this can be pine, beech or silver birch, even without their leaves. Birch twigs help to give gorgeous architectural shape to an arrangement or installation, as do willow branches. Evergreens such as pine and spruce feel beautifully wintry as they are often used for wreaths, and we may even sprinkle a few pine cones here and there. All of these make wonderful foliage bases for your winter wedding flowers.
The presence of all these lovely architectural foliage options means winter is a great time for floral installations - read my Couple’s Guide To Floral Installations here to find out more.
Looking at the actual blooms for your winter wedding flowers, it’s possible to get fabulously fluffy hydrangeas during the transition from autumn to winter, tulips as we creep into spring, and incredible ranunculus from Holland during January and February. I also use lots of plants and some dried elements, never to be tempted by anything that doesn’t grow naturally during the colder months.
Image by Stella Photography
Colour Palettes for Winter Wedding Flowers
Choosing the colours for your winter wedding flowers can go two different ways; classic wintry ideas, or modern and unexpected concepts. I love both, and create beautiful bespoke designs that are worthy of your Pinterest board and your living room wall!
Image by Shutter Go Click
Classic winter wedding flower colour ideas
Embracing traditional colour schemes for winter weddings is always a winning choice. Dark greens, warm reds, cool whites and monochrome vibes are always popular, as are rich jewel tones and deep neutrals.
Modern winter wedding flower colours
We can also think outside the box a little and give winter a new edge, choosing vibrant shades to add some zest to a chilly day, working across a tonal range of one winter colour such as blue, or leaning into the approaching spring season by using pastels.
Whichever way you choose to go, using your venue to influence your choice is always important. This is why I include at least one site visit to your wedding venue when working on your winter wedding flowers, to ensure we are designing with its architecture and atmosphere rather than against it. Read more about designing your wedding flowers to suit your venue here.
Images by Stella photography and Shutter Go Click.
Other Things To Consider With Your Winter Wedding Flowers
As I begin to design your winter wedding flower proposal, not only am I thinking about the flowers, arrangements and installations themselves, I am also thinking about the flow of your wedding day and how your guests will move through and around what we create.
Remember that the days are shorter in the winter, and even if your wedding venue is indoors it may get chilly. We can use your florals to make a space feel cosier, and also to guide your guests through the spaces to carefully manage their comfort and experience. If your venue has lots of beautiful outside space in the summer, it will likely look very different in the winter - we can compensate for that with show-stopping florals inside.
Image by Stella Photography
Seasonal Style Guides
Check out my other seasonal style guides for spring*, summer* and autumn weddings below:
*coming soon!
Images by Stella Photography, Chris Milner Photography and Moon Gazey Hare
