TOP 15 FLOWERS FOR A SUMMER WEDDING
With summer just around the corner, we wanted to provide a flower guide to all the Portland area brides-to-be on what flowers are your best bet for a summer season wedding! When meeting with your wedding florist, they are bound to suggest a plethora of blooms. Generally, they will be well justified to make these suggestions, as seasonal flowers are always [slightly] more affordable and DEFINITELY more robust and beautiful. We’ve included in our list some flowers that are considered “accent” flowers to give your designs a more interesting texture. We’ve also included some blooms we’d consider “focal” flowers - the statement flowers that your eye will naturally be drawn to. When we are working with our clients in preparing their perfect floral proposal, we are sure to include a mixture of both types. We haven’t included any foliages here, but keep in mind that foliage is also seasonal. So, to summarize: flowers have growing seasons and, consequently, are seasonally available. In knowing this, you will be better equipped for choosing the right season for your wedding and for choosing the right flowers for that season. You will understand why that PERFECT floral element which you have identified on Pinterest may not necessarily be in season and 100% available. Show your florist your inspiration photos and trust with confidence that, with their specialized botanical knowledge, they will manifest the design utilizing the best of the best florals being offered by Mother Nature within that particular growing season.
Now, let the revealing of our summer flower list commence! We’ll tell you a bit about each of our favorite summer flowers as well as any common color variations to be aware of while formulating your wedding’s color palette!
OUR DEFINITIVE FLOWER GUIDE FOR SUMMER WEDDINGS
15. Cone Flower
Also known as echinacea pods. There are relatively few flowers to be found in this hue, which is why this pod makes our list. If you love browns, ochres, and rust palettes, have your wedding florist toss these into the mix!
14. Viburnum Berries
If a dash of navy is making an appearance in your wedding palette, you will soon learn that your blue & navy floral options are slim pickin’s. Viburnum berries are one of our favorite options for a dark blue, as they have a markedly unusual iridescent quality. Some other options to consider are blue thistle and privet berry.
13. Celosia
What an amazing texture!! Celosia comes in different varieties that have varying textures- this one is called “Wheat Celosia” or “Feather Celosia.” If you do some digging, you’ll learn there’s another variety of Celosia that resembles a human brain!
COLORS: shades of yellow, hot pink, light pink, red, orange, and mauve.
12. Jasmine
One of my personal favorites year round! I love using Jasmine as a simple foliage to add an airy and garden-style feel to any bouquet design. It’s a stroke of good fortune when it’s actually in bloom! Jasmine blooms are fleeting and very delicate, so keep in mind that yours may not look as robust as the photo above as most flower shops receive Jasmine bunches that have yet to open. This is completely normal and enables the blooms to open and be in perfect condition come your wedding day!
COLORS: Light Pink and White
You can see Jasmine in action here!
11. Zinnia
OBVIOUSLY! Zinnias are an exceedingly popular summer flower choice, as they grow in a plethora of colors and are astonishingly hardy in the summer heat. Count on this bloom to remain healthy and resilient in summer warmth if you are planning an outdoor wedding.
COLORS: Yellow, salmon, hot pink, mauve, bright red and burgundy.
10. Godetia
Godetia are regrettably overlooked ALL TOO OFTEN. We love incorporating godetia into colorful summer weddings as they generally deliver to the florist with petals protected, enclosed tightly in buds. Quite favorably, they require just about the time it takes to design a wedding to open into perfect, stunning blooms.
COLORS: Variety of pinks and salmon hues, as well as white.
See what we did with these summer blooms here!
9. Sweet Pea
Sweet peas are a perrenial favorite in our floral shop. It’s easy to get caught up in round focal flowers, so these linear, light and airy blooms can be a refreshing complement to any floral design.
COLORS: White, shades of pink, plum, terra cotta, watermelon, cream, orange, and there are a few bicolor varieties.
We used this exact variety of sweet peas in this sweet maternity photoshoot!
8. Lisianthus
These blooms are perfect for a funky, contemporary wedding style OR a classic, fine-art, garden-style theme. Most delicate flowers tend to have a shorter shelf life, which is why we love these. SO romantic and delicate, but exceptionally hardy even in warmer weather.
COLORS: Shades of pink, plum, mauve, brown/taupe, white/cream, peach, purple/white bicolor.
7. Scabiosa
Okay, not the prettiest of names. However! Our flower shop leans heavily on these types of delicate blooms to achieve the wild and airy quality intrinsic to our floral designs. Roses and peonies can be quite bulky and accent flowers can be busy…these blooms provide a perfect gradient between the two: softening the focal flowers and bringing order to accent flowers.
Colors: Lavender, Raspberry, Plum, Burgundy, White, and Light Pink
6. Double Tulips
For the most part the floral community understands the design and aesthetic possibilities when designing with tulips. I’ve had enough clients tell me that they don’t like tulips, but then ask what these magical beauties are. They are DOUBLE tulips. Meaning…double the petals. If you are having a garden-style wedding or even a contemporary wedding, I would HIGHLY suggest considering these blooms.
COLORS: Literally all of them. Except for blue. Although I am sure you can buy dyed tulips in blue.
Check out these killer double tulips we used in this contemporary wedding recently featured on Martha Stewart Weddings!
5. Dahlias
These beauts are ESSENTIAL if you are in the Pacific Northwest! They grow here so beautifully and in endless variety and color. We started our floral design business in Austin, Texas, a climate unfavorable to Dahlia growth. We would have them delivered by plane if we wished to make use of them in a wedding. By the time they arrived, they’d been out of water for quite a while and the moment we brought them out of the cooler come wedding day, they were a pedal-shedding, ticking time bomb of death. Now that we are in the Portland area, our flower shop can provide you with farm-fresh Dahlias, cut before our eyes at the time of purchase. It’s a beautiful thing.
COLORS: Like tulips, the color options are boundless. Beyond the standard ROY G. BIV spectrum, you can find bi-color, tri-color, salmon, watermelon, beige, peach, white, and [almost] black.
4. Clematis
These graceful, star-like blooms grow on a dainty vine with the cutest little leaves. They work wonders in softening a design and serve well as trailing flowers, left spilling out of the vase, or to produce a cascading action in your bridal bouquet.
COLORS: White, Shades of Pink, Lavender, White, Dark Purple, Reddish Purple (plum), and Burgundy
See how we used a different variety of Clematis, a vine with tiny white flowers, to bring this woodland wedding design to life.
3. Mock Orange
We treasure these branches for use in garden weddings and minimalist whites/neutral weddings. The blooms hold up well for the days required to design, leading up to the wedding, and there aren’t many flowers that can be substituted for this look throughout the year. When they are in season, take full advantage of it!
2. Bearded Iris
Yes, Yes and YES. Bearded Irises blow my mind, with untold variations of color, not to be found in any other bloom. They are easily one of the most interesting focal blooms out there, if you ask me, and perfect for a contemporary design when aiming to minimize the use of commonplace blooms such as roses.
COLORS: ALL THE COLORS. In addition to all the colors, Bearded Irises grow in the strangest color combinations - from a gradient hue of purple to brown to orange (love), to a tricolor bloom in shades of burgundy, yellow and white (not my fav).
Peonies
Incase you were starting to sweat, DON’T WORRY: Peonies are on the list! If peonies simply must be present in your wedding floral design - as I have had many a client tearfully hope for - you need to have a summer wedding! Throughout the summer season, they are massive, exquisitely beautiful and as close to affordable as they will get all year long. Some flowers are available out of season…peonies are not generally one of those flowers. If you are getting married in October and your florist exclaims “Yes! You can definitely have peonies!”, I would be suspicious. Should by some slim chance a grower has found a way to make them available in October, they are probably $20/stem with tight little buds that will likely never open. If a summer wedding is out of the question you CAN get a limited variety of peonies in the winter. However, I still recommend sticking with the summer peonies.
COLORS: White, cream, all shades of pink, fuchsia, red, burgundy, coral, yellow, and peach.
See what we did with a variety of peony called “Coral Charm” in this summery design!