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The Associated Press

Queen Victoria, for her wedding in 1840, tucked a sprig of orange blossom in her decolletage.

Much earlier, the Romans had opted for the magical power of herbs to dress the bridal chamber.

In the last several decades, wedding flowers have ranged from a single sunflower for a hippie bride in the 1960s to gilded and beaded roses in bouquets of excess in the 1980s.

	(AP photo/Ross Whitaker for HarperCollins)
	For the spring wedding, a combination of flowers in warm colors is welcoming. This one, pictured in “The Perfect Wedding Reception” by Maria McBride Mellinger, has roses, antique roses, hyacinths and lady’s mantle.

Currently, there is no one trend in bridal flowers, rather a general agreement that flowers are the most visible way to create a personal imprimatur for the celebration at hand — from the simplest themes of wildflowers in the summer or harvested fruits and mums in autumn to classical sprays of orchids, lilies or roses in any season.

“The details of the wedding are the ways you present your personality and think about design and entertaining, so flowers are just one of the many details of a wedding that give voice to what you love, who you’re marrying, who you are,” says Maria McBride-Mellinger, New York-based wedding stylist and author of several books on weddings. Her newest is “The Perfect Wedding Reception” (HarperCollins $40 hardcover).

“One of the real interesting things today is that we’re getting married two or three times. We’re getting married a little older than our mothers did when they first married. And most women today have a real understanding of what they like, what their style is. We’re not having our mother’s wedding any longer.”

The opportunity to individualize one’s wedding is the overwhelming option for brides today — everything from their gown and slippers to the flowers they choose the festoon the event. McBride-Mellinger’s advice: “Go with what you love.”

For Leah Weinstein and her husband Frank, both teachers and lovers of nature, wildflowers were their choice for their wedding last summer in an 18th century country Episcopal church in Queen Anne Parish, Maryland.

Weinstein says, “Our theme for the wedding was simplicity. We wanted our wedding to be about the marriage. We didn’t want the decorations to overshadow. When guests look back on our wedding, we didn’t want them to remember the flowers or the dress, but what the wedding was about — our union.”

Weinstein’s bouquet, like those for her bridesmaids, was a multi-colored, long-stemmed cluster of daisies, hydrangeas, heather, phlox, viburnum and lavender roses, with stems in full view. Not even streamers or ribbon detracted from the natural beauty of the hand-held bouquet.

McBride-Mellinger agrees. “Flowers should complement, never upstage, your look.”

Bouquets are more personal

ized today, and proportion is what determines the right bouquet for your gown, according to McBride-Mellinger. The rule: the bigger the dress, the bigger the bouquet.

“Bouquets over the years keep pace with whatever the bride was wearing,” she explains. Early in the 20th century, brides’ bouquets were “lavish arrangments made of gardenias, lilies and roses.” In the 1920s, when dresses became short and streamlined for flapper brides, a simple nosegay was appropriate. In the wartime 1940s, fresh flowers were rare, so fabric flowers frequently replaced them. Bouquets became larger in the 1950s, simpler in the 1960s. Larger bouquets returned in the 1970s and affluent 1980s (Lady Diana Spencer’s elaborate bouquet cascaded with orchids, stephanotis and roses).

Now, as in the 1990s, both gowns and wedding flowers offer a wide array of choices. The key is to choose a bouquet that doesn’t overpower the gown and then, to continue the theme of the bouquet in the flowers for the wedding party, the church, the reception hall.

“Everything that you do for your wedding, from the invitation to the cake and flowers, should all feel like it belongs together,” explains McBride-Mellinger. “It doesn’t have to be the same flowers, or even the same colors, but it has to feel like it fits.” At the Weinstein wedding, for instance, lavender echoed the roses in the bouquet to appear in the linen dresses of the bridesmaids, the silk ties of the groomsmen, and the lavender hydrangeas in centerpieces at the reception and church.

Choosing wedding flowers, however, is not so simple as designating a few special varieties you’ve seen in magazines, of letting a florist do all the work, or of going over the mark with Las Vegas-styled bouquets and garlands. To make your wedding as beautiful and personal as you want it, planning for flowers takes time. Experts recommend a year.

McBride-Mellinger says, “Do your homework. Find out what is available for you. I recommend that if you’re in a town with a wholesale flower market or farmer’s market, walk around and see what kinds of flowers are available. It’s good to do this as soon as you’re engaged, and visit in the season that your wedding will be held.”

Tap the knowledge of experts. Ask salespeople in the markets about which flowers are hearty and which are fragile. Generally, those with thicker leaves (such as orchids) last longer, whereas lilacs and wildflowers droop quickly. Roses, if properly conditioned by a florist (not your street or supermarket variety) will last for the day. A properly conditioned bouquet should last four to five hours, if not longer.

McBride-Mellinger recommends booking your florist up to a year in advance, and begin strategizing about the actual look at least three months before the wedding. Discuss your likes and hates. Choose a few signature varieties and use them in abundance. She also suggests ordering a sample bouquet or arrangements for pre-wedding parties as test runs.

On the day of your wedding, flowers should arrive well misted and wrapped in cellophane. Never put them in sunlight or near a heat source, and keep them away from the cold and drafts. Bouquets with fresh stems should be kept in cold water until the last moment.

If you’ve planned well, your flowers will be exactly what you want, and you’ll be free to focus on what your day is all about.

“I can tell you this,” remembers Weinstein, “that when I was standing at the altar, I wasn’t thinking about my dress or how the flowers looked. I was just focused on the vows.”

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