Photo: Details of the Day / Flickr

More brides-to-be (and their grooms) are interested in green weddings these days. Low carbon footprint wedding dresses, planet-friendly antique rings and organic vegetarian menus are no longer the exception to the rule. If you’ve ticked all those boxes already, you may not have thought about the impact your bouquet could have on the environment. While cut flowers are the norm, putting together your own wedding bouquet is cheaper and kinder to the planet.

Wildflowers

Local wildflowers make a beautiful bouquet for a country wedding. Bluebells, cherry blossom, elder flowers and foxgloves all grow in the wild and handpicked flowers have a great rustic look. For a really unusual touch, use flowering weeds for your bouquet. Dandelion flowers are sunny and cheerful and very unappreciated.

Baby’s breath

Baby’s breath wedding bouquets are very trendy right now. Using baby’s breath alone may sound boring but the flowers are actually lovely and delicate and perfect if your gown is simple and understated. You can find baby’s breath in the wild or grow your own from seeds. If you’d like to add a little interest to your baby’s breath bouquet, add some wildflowers to it.

From Mum’s garden

There’s no more personal touch to a wedding than using flowers from your mum or mother-in-law’s garden. Depending on what they like to grow you could use narcissus, roses, tulips , poppies or clematis.

The un-bouquet

If you don’t mind thinking out of the box, a really good alternative to flowers is an un-bouquet. Carry a pretty parasol if your wedding is in spring, or carry a lantern if it’s at night. A stalk of pussy willow also works very well.

Whatever flowers you do choose for your wedding bouquet, don’t be afraid to get a florist in to help you arrange them. A florist will also be able to give you advice on colours and how to use texture in your bouquet.

Tags: flowers, wedding