It occurred to me recently that I hardly ever write about actual flowers. That’s possibly because flowers are not my forte, but I’m making an effort to learn more, so I figure I should bring you along for the ride.

I decided to begin this journey with bouquets. In the years I’ve had a digital camera, I didn’t take as many bouquet shots as I probably could have — my mom was always urging me to take pictures of the arrangements and the decorations, not so much the bouquets. But if you think about it, bouquets are much more personal to the bride — it’s what they’re going to carry all day and be photographed with all day. Above, is a simple white bouquet of roses and white stephanotis, wrapped with lace. Also, forgive the arm in the picture — I know I shot this right before we started setting up a reception. Heheh.

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However, it would probably surprise you that that first photo was not the bridal bouquet. Here’s the bridal bouquet…

This bouquet is a more traditional, cascade bouquet, with big white cattleya orchids, mini white roses and trailing, white dendrobium orchids. There has been a trend away from these kinds of bouquets (which is kind of a good thing since they can get pretty heavy). Of course, there’s always room for a comeback, with different types of flowers, of course.

Heheh, this arm may belong to my sister, by the way. Anyway, another bouquet, this time a bridesmaids bouquet, with a nice closeup of the stem wrapping. Obviously, these are lush white and lavender roses with more white stephanotis. The wrapping, as you can see, is white lace studded with pearls.

This bouquet belonged to my friend Cathy. Here you have big pink peonies, white peonies, white freesia and pink and white sweet pea flowers. If you see more flowers here, you should let me know, since I’m new to this whole flower thing.

Oh, and did I mention I was in this wedding as a bridesmaid? My bridesmaid’s bouquet was made up of all pink peonies, with the stems wrapped in green ribbon. If you were wondering, the flower girl’s wreath is made up of pink dendrobium orchids, white roses and baby’s breath.

This bouquet, if my memory serves me correctly, actually happened to be an offering bouquet, but it sure is pretty, isn’t it? This bouquet is made up of yellow roses, white calla lilies, white dendrobium orchids, a little bit of baby’s breath, white larkspur and gold touches like the gold-sprayed ti leaves and gold bow. It was a golden anniversary.

Did I mention that bridal bouquet’s don’t have to be all white? This is a good example. It’s white roses and stephanotis, plus a little trailing flower that I thought was baby’s breath at first, but I don’t think it is; but also with a lot of greens mixed in — leather fern and what could possibly be the leaves from a stargazer, but I don’t think that’s right. Anyway, it’s still pretty.

And if you love color, you’ll love this bouquet. It’s all purple cattleya, purple dendrobium orchids and greens with silver-sprayed tips in the cascade style. If there was ever a flower to create a colorful bouquet, it would be orchids — orchids, in my opinion, have some of the most vibrant color variations possible.
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