Roses or peonies? White or pink? Huge bouquet or tiny nosegay? Where to start? Debra Prinzing, founder of Slowflowers.com and author of The 50 Mile Bouquet and Slow Flowers, helps us out with the latest bridal bouquet trends for 2015 and gives us great ideas for gorgeous, trend-setting bouquets for your wedding. 

CASCADING BOUQUETS ARE BACK. We haven’t seen them much since the 1990s, when bridal bouquets were highly engineered affairs, with every single rose stem or calla lily wired into a sculptural structure. Now emerging: a highly textured, lushly gathered collection of garden flowers with a softly cascading tumble of vines and tendrils. Think: unstructured, voluminous and romantic. As if you have just meandered through a meadow. 

RIBBONS AS FASHION. Bouquet stems have long been ribbon-wrapped, often with the cut ends tucked or folded and secured with a pearl-headed pin. Now emerging: Silks, taffetas, failles, velvets—all in beautiful strips of shimmering color—trailing from the wrapped or unwrapped stem. It’s the details that add a luxe finish to a lovely bouquet, with French ribbons a top choice for floral designers and brides alike. 

BRIGHT PASTELS AND SATURATED JEWEL TONES. Paler palettes have populated wedding bouquets and driven demand for flowers like the blush-toned ‘Café au Lait’ dahlias. Next season, palettes promise to be richer and more vivid. Watermelon pink, orchid purple, cerise red—these sun-drenched hues are wooing brides who want a more vibrant bouquet. There’s a gradual departure from an all-neutral bridal bouquet. But blush hasn’t left completely—she’s just sharing the stage with brighter hues.