Sunday, February 24, 2002

Trendsetting flowers in wild color combos --
or will you go with traditional florals?

By Amy Elliott
Scripps Howard News Service

Cutting-edge floral designers were polled on how savvy brides will be styling their weddings this year. Here’s a report of what’s hot now:

Popular palettes

Demure, traditional pastels are too old-hat. Brides want bold color, often in daring contrasts or deep, rich hues.

Burgundy, designers agree, is a sophisticated choice for formal weddings, along with “medieval” shades of red and purple. Cranberry or garnet-colored baby calla lilies are a perennial favorite with brides, as are dark and velvety roses like Black Magic. An interest in orange has emerged with the adventurous set, either in hot, spicy or terra-cotta tones or brilliant like the Ballerina tulip.

Carrie Blaschke, wedding consultant at Baack’s in Abilene said, “Bright colors. Purple, lots of pinks and lots of oranges, bright yellows. We’re also seeing lots of periwinkle, a kind of purple-lavender-blue.”

“Color is back real strong,” said Jacqueline Redwine of Jacqueline’s Designs. “The brides are choosing real vivid colors. They’re mixing colors that perhaps have not been mixed in years, such as red and orange being mixed together, orange being a good color coming in very strong, softer shades of apricot and peach all the way to deep, deep oranges, being used with red, hot pinks and yellows.

“Brides are choosing sometimes two colors rather than a mixture of colors, like hot pink and orange. I did a wedding with those colors and have spoken to several brides since then who loved that color combination,” she said.

Carman Juarez, floral manager of United Floral Shoppe added, “Weddings are becoming more natural. Before, people really went with a color scheme, the color of the dress. Now everything is vibrant colors, more of the citrusy colors of oranges, yellows, lime colors and a lot of fuschias. we are also seeing more tropical blends , especially summer weddings — melon and citrus colors are very, very popular.”

The new neutral

“In the past there were probably lots of creams and whites as neutrals. Now they’re using lots of hydrangeas,” Blaschke said.

The color green also allows for texture play. Favorite architectural accents include lamb’s ear, spirally amaranthis and euphorbia. Nighttime weddings tend to obscure the beauty of dark-colored flowers. To make them more noticeable, incorporate soft, delicate green flowers like lady’s mantle or hellebore into the arrangement.

Finally, last season’s large-and-in-charge green hydrangea is still going strong but shares the spotlight with green cymbidium orchids (a spectacular pistachio), vibernum, even green roses. The designers at Quade, a floral design company in Brooklyn, New York, are fans of the roses Polo (a pale mint green) and Ramona (a citrusy yellow).

Floral fashionistas

While the allure of classic peonies, hydrangea and roses is constant, new favorites are cropping up. There’s a widespread interest in dahlias — lush, round, modern, with a dense, circular petal structure — to express individuality and a cutting-edge state of mind.

“People like calla lilies and roses are still popular, as well as the navy iris delphinium,” Blaschke said.

Redwine: “The rose is still the flower of choice.”

“The Virginia rose seems to be the most favored rose,” said Redwine. “ It’s an off-white, cream-colored rose with a little hint of color, just a soft pink to it.”

Bouquet buzz

The tight symmetry of the neat-and-perfect “biedermeier” look is loosening up, giving way to floppier bouquet styles with movement and drape. “They like the hand-tied bouquets with a ribbon-wrapped stem,” said Blaschke. “Those are very popular. The bouquets are more relaxed, not as formal and rigid as they used to be. They are more flowing and natural.”

Basically it’s just a bunch of flowers gathered together in a hand-tied bouquet,” Redwine said.

Denna O’Connor, owner of The Plant Lady said, “A lot of times, brides will carry a very simple group of roses or call lilies or something like that just wrapped with a bow.”

Another very hot bouquet style is the “elongated clutch.” You can keep the stems long and elegant using calla lilies, amaryllis, French tulips, anything with a very long stem to begin with.

A suggestion for the petite bride is to de-emphasize and soften the line with additional flowers, transforming the bouquet so that she can carry it cradled in the crook of her arm. Across the board, stems are still showing, either tied or tightly wrapped with French or dyed silk ribbons, satin cording, tassels, even raffia.

Unconventional accompaniments

A flurry of foreign objects has popped up in bouquets and centerpieces, contributing notes of texture, contrast and whimsy. Feathers, crystals and rhinestones are playful and funky, while curly willow, seasonal grasses, and fresh herbs such as mint and rosemary give added drama and dimension to formal compositions.

Many designers cleverly pair soft, romantic flowers with rustic, rough-hewn elements such as lotus pods and the centers of black-eyed susans, creating a thoughtful interplay of light and dark. Also look for large, unusual hosta, lettuce and kale leaves.

Bosc pears, green apples, winterberries, pepper berries, and hypericum berries are still the most popular way to play with produce, but persimmons and pomegranates are the new obsession.

Moss, berries, branches, bark, and candles-in various heights and shapes-complete the nonconformist picture.

Maid modulation

As bridesmaid dresses no longer look exactly the same, the bouquet “rules” are also undergoing revision. Keeping the flowers monochromatic is the latest way to create a unifying theme.

For example, each bouquet can feature different flowers in different shades of pink (one pastel, one a coral, another a hot pink). Designers are also considering bouquet compositions to allow for individual style and personality, just as a bride might allow each maid to select the dress silhouette that best flatters her figure. In this instance, the designer will choose a basic assortment of somewhat similar flowers and custom-create a bouquet to suit each member of the bridal party.

Avoid having a small bouquet for a big girl. If you change the size, the difference will be too noticeable, but you can alter the look and feel with different blooms. Sometimes the maid of honor is the only one with a bouquet, while the others don flowers on the wrist, in their hair, or as jewelry around their necks.

Table talk

“Table arrangements are always a bride’s way of looking for something different, kind of tending to want to get away from the traditional,” said Redwine.

“Table linens are pretty important. We’re seeing more brides spending more money on full-length linens, which gives the reception site a very elegant look.”

Brides and their floral designers continue to toy with traditional table-decorating ideology. For many designers, the notion of the lump-sum centerpiece is becoming obsolete. Favorite alternative strategies include grouping a series of small arrangements in clusters, juxtaposing tall with short.

Brides are also abandoning the matchy-matchy mindset and favoring asymmetry instead: tables no longer need to display the same flowers, colors, or configurations. At a stylish wedding, it’s common, for instance, to see a cluster of chocolate cosmos on one table, black calla lilies on another.

Playing with context is another way to liven up the look of the table. Taking unusual containers such as antique garden urns, kitchen utensils, ceramic pitchers, or blue glass jars out of their natural habitat can make straightforward arrangements more dynamic and imaginative. Likewise, startling color combinations, like purple with orange, or green with fuchsia, seem sexy and exotic, especially in silver-plated vases and mint julep cups that would normally house prim-and-proper white roses and lilies.

Important reminder

“I think (weddings) have become more simple...they are not as formal, more relaxed....very natural,” said Blascke.

However planning is the key.

“They need to decide on a place and a time. It’s preferable to have dresses already picked out. It’s easier to match flowers to dresses than dresses to flowers.”

To learn more about wedding flowers and view more gorgeous bouquets, visit www.theknot.com/flowers

Jennifer McMichael contributed to the story.