As the bride, you should choose a bouquet to suit your personality and complement your dress. You should consider your favourite flowers and look for those whose fragrance, shape or colour you particularly enjoy.

You should only make decisions about flowers after you have chosen your dress, as the shape and detailing will influence your choice. If your dress is very elaborate, you may want a simple posy to balance your look, but a very elegant, classic-cut dress may
demand an equally elegant, stylish bouquet.

Current trends for weddings include hand-tied bouquets and posies in delicate pastel shades and vividly exuberant, contrasting colours. Try lily of the valley mixed with grape hyacinths, tiny roses and stephanotis or pastel sweet peas for delicate, scented bouquets.

Perfect pink peonies on their own or mixed with white arum lilies, Alchemilla mollis, bell-shaped lisianthus and cow parsley give a romantically soft but stunning look. Arum and calla lilies make wonderful sculptural bouquets and can look just as striking when only a few are carried. For bright jewelled colours, choose parrot tulips, orange and red arum or calla lilies, deep shades of fragrant roses, anemones and gerberas.

Flowers can be mixed with trailing leaves, other greenery and berries, and tied with ribbons or raffia. Some florists add tiny crystals and even feathers.

Bridesmaids’ bouquets should complement the colours of their dresses and are often a smaller, simpler version of the bride’s bouquet. One option may be for the chief bridesmaid to carry a small posy to match the bride’s while the others hold pretty bags. Ask your bridesmaids to hand out dried rose petals for guests to throw instead of confetti. Fill paper cones with the petals and display them in wicker baskets for bridesmaids to carry round after the ceremony.