Weddings are back with a bloom, and with couples having had months, if not years to plan their 2023 nuptials, they are choosing flowers with significance and special meaning, and incorporating floral ideas both brand new and traditional. Influences on wedding flowers this season span from the lavish weddings of Princess Grace of Monaco and the Duchess of Cambridge, to intimate modern day ceremonies with hand-gathered wildflowers. Let’s explore the top floral wedding trends for 2023.

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1. DRAMA OVERHEAD

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Hanging installations provide lots of atmosphere for the wedding table and arbour. American floral designer David Beahm built a stunning wisteria arbour to festoon a long table at a destination wedding in Montenegro that he managed to coax into blooming on the day of the festivities. He also designed an inverted meadow of wildflowers for a rural wedding that was suspended over a mirrored dance floor to create a 360 degree floral “room.”

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2. LIVING ARRANGEMENTS

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Mindful of waste, couples are choosing to display fragrant herbs, verdant plantings and table-top topiaries that the wedding party and guests can take home with them after the wedding. Orange blossoms give off a beautiful fragrance for either an indoor or outdoor wedding, and signify “wedding festivities” in floral lore. Consider pots of night-blooming jasmine, a plant that Persian families traditionally give as a housewarming gift, and that, when planted in a doorway welcomes dinner guests with its heady, intoxicating fragrance. Spanish jasmine signifies sensuality, white jasmine signifies amiability, and yellow jasmine symbolizes grace and elegance.

3. BRIDAL POSIES

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Gone are the days of huge, heavy, trailing bridal bouquets that draw attention away from the dress. Discreet posies are on-trend for 2023, incorporating meaningful and traditional flowers such as lily-of-the-valley, chosen by princesses Grace and Kate for their royal weddings, which symbolizes new beginnings. Another tasteful choice is sweet pea, meaning “delicate pleasures,” and also known as “brides blessing,” and seen as a good omen for the couple.   

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4. FLOWERS EN MASSE     

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Large displays of a single flower variety, rather than mixed arrangements, are making a bold statement at this year’s weddings. Consider a monochromatic masse of hydrangeas or anemones, both popular flowers for 2023. And that standard 1970s bouquet stuffer, baby’s breath, is having a revival, used in huge, cloud-like installations. In terms of colour, flower choices are being influenced by fashion, such as “Viva Magenta,” the hot pink shade that Pantone chose as its colour of the year for 2023.  

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5. ECO-CONSCIOUS TEXTURED ARRANGEMENTS

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Floral designers are getting creative with incorporating other natural materials into their flower displays, such as pompous grass, feathers, wood and stones, for a natural and eco-friendly feel. Likewise, wild-flowers and hand-collected grasses from the local area are lowering the eco-footprint of weddings, versus jetting in pink roses on temperature-controlled planes from Colombia.

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Whichever flowers you chose for your wedding in 2023, remember that flowers contribute to the overall feeling of welcome and joy that your guests will feel, and that’s what they will remember the most.