Winter Flowers

By Patricia Koch

For many couples, whether or not you first met on the slopes, winter is the perfect time to get married. Reception halls are more available and affordable. Your guests’ calendars are less busy. Winter is also a safer season for wedding bouquets, which don’t mind the cold. But which winter flowers to pick?

“Many winter brides opt for classic white or romantic red amaryllis and roses. But I can winterize any color by adding winter berries, sugar branches—and scattered artificial snowflakes or acrylic ice cubes,” says Susan Scimeca of Black Eyed Susies in River Edge (201-225-0772; www.blackeyedsusies.com).

“In this global marketplace, we can find your favorite flowers somewhere even in the dead of winter, but it can get pricey,” explains Kathy Kocinski of Sweet Peas Flower Shoppe in Madison (973-377-1044; www.sweetpeasflowershoppe.com). Some florists charge premiums to import flowers in winter, while others discount prices during this slower season.

Kocinski offers some tips for winter brides: “Use a florist located close-by, in case of snow. One or two scented varieties are enough; fragrance can overwhelm at indoor weddings.”

We asked area florists for their ideal winter wedding designs. For the ceremony, Scimeca recommends wintergreen pew swags and standing candelabras. Her altar arrangements would mix all-white lilies, orchids, amaryllis, and roses, punctuated with cedar greens, ice branches, and winterberries.

For Kocinski, the ideal winter bridal bouquet would include fragile flowers that don’t hold up in summertime heat: gardenias, lilacs, roses, sweet peas, and lots of orchids, all in snowy whites and creams.

As boutonnieres, Christine Eastman of Stargazers Florist in Denville (973-476-6799; www.stargazersflorist.net) recommends mini calla lilies or white roses. On the tables, she pictures square vases with compact creamy hydrangeas, roses, lisianthus, and silvery loops, with tiny votives all around. 

Spring Flowers

By Mary Scholz Austin

Just as a marriage signifies your new life as a husband and wife, springtime marks a fresh start as the earth wakes up and changes its color palette from brown and gray to green and white and pink…to name a few. Spring flowers are a beautiful reminder of new beginnings. Here’s what you need to know to make your spring wedding as bright and gorgeous as a sunny spring day.

Shoot for in-season, locally grown flowers. While almost anything can be ordered from around the globe, you will lose out when it comes to freshness and color choice, and availability from the grower on your specific wedding date may not be reliable. “These include autumn foliages and berries, such as snowberry, viburnum berry, and bittersweet, and summer blossoms such as zinnia, marigold, cosmos, dahlias, and celosia/coxcomb,” says Sue Nairn Smith of The Romantic Garden in Morristown (973-898-7200; www.romanticgarden.com). If you must have one of these, make sure you have a backup selection.

The other advantage to going local is the smell, explains Nancy Dolhanczyk, floral designer and owner of Coventry Crossing Florist in Stone Harbor (609-368-4949; www.coventrycrossing.com). “Locally grown lilacs, peonies, and lilies add such a wonderful fragrance to their bouquets and centerpieces. When their flowers are imported from other parts of the world, they lose most of their fragrance.”

So what if you don’t know a rose from a ranunculus? Don’t worry. Your florist can help suggest a wide range of spring blossoms, such as “daffodils, narcissus, tulips, peonies, muscari, and hyacinths,” says Nairn Smith, but don’t stop there. “The most dramatic floral elements available in the spring are flowering trees and shrubs,” like dogwood, crabapple, honeysuckle, and cherry.

A few final tips: follow your favorites and consider your colors. Dolhanczyk states, “One of the first questions I ask our brides when they come in for their first consultation is ‘What are your favorite flowers?” In most cases, you can design your flowers entirely around your most loved spring blooms. Nairn Smith agrees: “I would strongly encourage using a bride’s favorite flowers in her arrangements if her wedding date is a match for the availability of it.” However, make sure to combine the former selections with thoughts about color. While Nairn Smith feels that no flowers are off-limits for weddings, she does emphasize that couples consider the overall color palette of the day. “Daffodils are a good example, since they only come in the white/yellow/orange range and may not work well with certain tonal schemes,” like a mocha and light pink combination, for example.

So embrace the season and let your flowers (and your love) bloom.

Fall Flowers

By April Kabbash

Many brides agonize over wedding flowers, since the bouquets, centerpieces, and floral accents are often such a huge part of the big day. Taking a cue from the season is usually a great place to start. Luckily, the rich colors of autumn lend themselves perfectly to beautiful bouquets, from classically romantic to strikingly contemporary.

Calla lilies in different colors, especially burgundy, are always popular with fall brides, according to Pati Giunta, owner of Brookside Florist in Vernon (973-764-8855). Dahlias are another great choice. With their deep, vibrant colors dahlias really say autumn, and they are much more available in the fall than the spring. But seasonality isn't as much of an issue as it used to be. “Everything is so global these days, you can get almost any flower any time of year,” says Giunta.

A relatively new option called Cape mixes are a great choice if you're looking for something a little different, says Giunta. The unusual mixture of berries and exotics from South Africa comes in colors ranging from chartreuse to deep red, and can be a perfect fit for an autumn wedding.

One final tip from Giunta: “Remember that you don't have to go for broke when it comes to flowers. Sometimes the simplest thing really is the best.”

Summer Flowers

By Sharon Naylor

Summer flowers are stunners—vibrant magenta Gerbera daisies, romantic red roses, majestic calla lilies. When it comes to searching for your summer bridal blooms, you’ll need to think about a lot more than bright colors. Summer flowers have to stand up in heat and humidity, lasting all through the day and night, not succumbing to soaring June through August temperatures by wilting in just a few hours. So sturdiness is a key factor.

Kathy Prentiss, owner of Sweet Peas Flower Shoppe in Madison (973-377-1041; www.sweetpeasflowershoppe.com) says that you can significantly expand your selection of different varieties of flowers for your day just by choosing their arrangement. “Most flowers will do just fine in hot summer weather when they’re packed nice and tightly in a bouquet. They hold their moisture in this arrangement much better than if you decided to carry three stems in one hand-tied arrangement. We hydrate them well, and then we spray them with a finishing wax” for shine and protection.

Some flowers do much better when you place them in a water source, such as a vase for centerpieces. “One example that’s popular in summer is the hydrangea,” says Prentiss. “But they will flop if you use them on an archway or as décor other than in a water-filled vase or arrangement.”

We’re quite lucky in New Jersey to have so many beautiful locally grown flowers that stand up extremely well in summer weather. “We use a lot of locally grown farm flowers such as sunflowers, yarrow, zinnia, and wildflowers, which all do really well in the heat,” says Prentiss. “And for almost any other kind of flower that you might think wouldn’t be in season, we can fly them in from the countries whose seasons are opposite ours.” That means that you can get tulips in the summer, but they will likely be the French style of tulips that grow overseas at that time.

Regionally, some flowers end their natural seasons right before or at the start of our summer wedding season. Prentiss says that it’s extremely hard to find lilacs from the end of June on through August (which is a surprise to many brides.) “Peonies are thought to be a common summer flower,” says Prentiss. “But while we’re seeing them in great numbers in June, it’s almost impossible to get them in July, August, and September. In fall, though, the red peonies return.”

Prentiss suggests that boutonniere flowers, by virtue of standing alone on a lapel and not in a water source, need to be of a “tougher” variety, such as the sturdier mini callas, orchids, and hypericum berries with mixed foliage.

Check with your florist about which flowers are in season, which can be imported, and which are locally grown (and thus less expensive) at family farms and suppliers. Your floral designer knows the best blooms for the location of your wedding—such as garden versus beach, and indoors versus outdoors—and can advise about the best blooms for your summer allergies. Other flowers that are considered “in” in summer, barring any crop failures or freak weather here or overseas, are: Gerbera daisies in a range of bright colors, traditional roses in a variety of colors, tropical flowers such as bird of paradise and hibiscus, orange and yellow daylilies, white or pink calla lilies, orchids, white or yellow daisies, marigolds, dahlias, poppies, jasmine, freesia, iris, lisianthus, asters, snapdragons, tuberose, stephanotis, alstromeria, and bright sunflowers.

The Benefits of Silk Flowers for Your Wedding

By Antoinette DeNise

They’re mainly utilized by brides and grooms suffering from allergies. Silk flowers can create the same look as fresh flowers without the pollen. But with a smaller price tag and countless benefits, some wonder why silk flowers aren’t used more often.

Anna Parisi, owner of Everlasting Florals by Anna in Totowa (973-919-9773), is one. “I’m seeing an increase in silk flowers, mainly because couples realize they don’t have to make sacrifices,” says Parisi, who has worked with silk for 20 years. “A recent client loved lilies of the valley, but couldn’t afford the high price tag. But with silk, we were able to use them in her bouquet and throughout the wedding. And with the quality of faux flowers being so superior, no one knew they were fake.”

Another reason why silk flowers are gaining popularity its durability—the delicate buds won’t wilt, fade, shed, or freeze.  And for the couple that wants to use Gerber daises in the winter, silk makes that option available, at a very reasonable price.  Florists can also re-create the smell of fresh flowers, simply by adding fragrance to the pedals.

It’s important to educate yourself before visiting your florist. You should have a good sense of what the real flower looks like, and don’t be afraid to request a side-by-side comparison to see the florist’s silk flower next to a fresh one. Also, see if your florist provides service after the wedding. Many will rearrange the original flowers in a vase or into a wreath for you to keep and display every day.  

The costs of silk vary depending on the type of flower, but many times its a few hundred dollars less than its fresh counterpart.  Also, florists have more control when arranging flowers, so the same size bouquet requires only two dozen silk flowers, compared to three dozen fresh.  For the couple on a really tight budget, Parisi recommends visiting Michaels or other crafts stores with a wide selection of faux flowers.