Boho Bright Bouquets for Every Season

If you follow me on Pinterest, you will know that I am particularly loving boho-brights lately. So I figured I’d share some of my favourite boho bright bouquets for every season. Full of colour, all sizes of blooms with a scattering of wild flowers, here’s how you can achieve the ultimate boho bridal look! Lets face it, if I see another palest pink, white or red rose bouquet I’m gonna scream, and don’t even get me started on baby’s breath!!! Dare to be different, I say.

There’s no reason why your colour palette should be limited due to any particular season. I remember harvest festival at school and the array of vibrant colours everywhere. I’m going to show you how you can keep all the boho-brightness in your bouquet, and by adding a few different and alternative greens and bouquet fillers, make it more appropriate no matter what season.

Bouquets & Blooms

I love the vibrant, bright, rich colours so typical of the bohemian trend. Combining and contrasting them with cool-toned frosted greens like dusty miller, lambs ear, and silver brunia; balances the colours perfectly, making these bouquets ideal for an autumn or winter wedding, just as much as a spring or summer one. Pink and green is one of my all time favourite colour combinations! These large pink peonies give the wow factor to this bouquet both in size and colour. To make this bouquet more autumn/winter appropriate, I would scatter through a few silver brunia and a couple of lily seed pods.

Floral design by Rachel A Clingens, Photo by Mango Studios

Here’s what this bouquet {above} could look like with some wild flowers and frosted greens scattered throughout. They’ve used lambs ear and silver brunia in the image below. See where I’m going with this??

Floral design by Pixies Petals, Photo by Candice Benjamin

This next image is all about size! Teaming ever popular peonies with equally stunning ranunculus makes for a fabulous bouquet! This bouquet is refreshingly alternative and contemporary. Ranunculus are the ultimate flowers if you want a soft, romantic, vintage-inspired look. By teaming them up with brighter colours and more textured and angular-shaped greens, you can bring that vintage vibe right up to date and become a new trendsetter!

Floral design by Honey and Poppies, Photo by Ashleigh Taylor Photography

This bouquet has included bright pink and purple astilbe and berries. These always add such a whimsical touch to floral designs. The two-toned greens give it a more contemporary feel. By adding some poppy pods, this bouquet would be ideal for a late summer, early autumn wedding. Top tip: the darker the berry colour, the more wintry the bouquet will look.

Floral design by Creative Occasions, Photo by Kemper Mills Fant

This next bouquet is very similar to the previous one. By omitting the large pink peonies and adding a few wild flowers and more soft, frosted greenery, this bouquet has just become the ideal bouquet for autumn. Again, the darker shades of pink and purple make it more autumnal.

Photo: Peach Plum Pear Photography

Here is one of my favourite leafy green bouquet fillers, silver dollar eucalyptus. This stuff smells amazing! I often pop into my local florist to pick some up. By adding it to my vase of garden flowers or supermarket bouquet, it completely changes the look and the aroma is sooo good! The addition of a giant king protea in this bouquet brings it bang up to date, while the berries keep it looking autumnal.

Floral design by The Little Branch, Photo by Maria Longhi Photography

The History of the Bridal Bouquet

The original reason why brides carried bouquets was to mask any unpleasant body odours that occured from only bathing once a year! Not everyone could afford the year long prep of bathing in sweet smelling essential oils. A much cheaper and easier option was to carry a bouquet of sweet smelling flowers and greenery. Not to mention, the added bonus of warding off evil spirits by the pungent smells {of the bride or bouquet I’m not quite sure!}. Eucalyptus is my personal favourite, not forgetting the hugely popular lavender and sometimes mint. It wasn’t until the 1700’s that brides started carrying bouquets to actually look pretty. The tradition of throwing the bouquet was a desperate attempt on behalf of brides to stop people ripping their dresses to shreds! It was believed a bride was particularly lucky on her wedding day and people wanted a piece of that good luck to take away for themselves.

Over the years, each flower obtained it’s own significance and symbolic meaning within the bridal bouquet. Roses represent everlasting love, white for purity, lilac for first love, ivy for fidelity etc. etc. I’ve been told a hundred times, never ever have a white wedding dress and a red bouquet! Red and white symbolises blood and bandages and a marriage that is sure to be doomed! If you haven’t heard that before, go speak to your granny, she’ll be sure to fill you in! The trumpet lily is another one to stay away from as this is the flower that symbolises death – definitely not what you want for your nuptials! Watch out for the pollen stems inside flowers too as they can stain, badly!

I hope all this info, and boho inspiration has helped. If in doubt, go for the colour palette you really want, no matter how bright, and throw in some dusty miller, silver brunia and a couple of poppy pods or lily seed heads and you are good to walk up that leafy, autumnal aisle! I’ve also created a bouquet board on Pinterest full of ideas, inspiration and bouquets I love, which you can see here.

Gabriella x