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Photo by Annie X

Miss D’Orsay asks, “What have been the most recent flower trends you’ve been seeing?”

This is a terrific question. I love these types of questions because I love discussing trends. When I used to work at bebe and Banana Republic, my favorite meetings were trend meetings.

The current economic situation has impacted wedding flower trends. In years past, my trend outlook would be dictated by fashion, pop culture and art, but this year our wallets are dictating trends. Streamlining floral details due to budget constraints are pushing floral designers and florists to come up with greener and more natural designs.  With the increase of DIY weddings, this also means that flowers might be a bit simpler.

There are always going to be brides who aren’t able to DIY, so for them it’s about being authentic and less showy this year. Using products wisely is a huge trend. Here’s my outlook for this year.

Trends 2009:

1) Plant it: Replacing all floral centerpieces with plants or flowering plants like hydrangea, azaleas, begonias, maidenhair fern and orchids in beautiful vintage containers creates an arrangement that will last beyond the wedding. I love this idea!

Photo by James Sanders

2) More the Merrier: Multiple container centerpieces featuring either a repetition of similar containers or groupings of like containers is very popular. I especially like colorful containers in all the same color like the one above. With large dahlias, the centerpieces are fresh, elegant and pack a punch.

3) Branch out: Branches and organic tree-like materials like birch are still very happening.

4) Still the One: Simply designed weddings using one dominate color continues to be a trend as well.

Photo by Tara Arrowood

5) Return to Neutral: This year more of our clients are using creams, ivories, vanilla and white hues. In the past, color was big. Now it seems that the absence of color is popular again. Softer neutral bouquets are beautiful, especially with layered textures.

6) Why so Modest: This is the year of the modest flower. Whether your wedding features all baby’s breath, carnations, Peruvian lilies or sunflowers, modest is in. To me, there’s nothing wrong with doing an entire wedding featuring all carnations. I think asters are lovely as well. There are plenty of beautiful, modest flowers. In the early spring, do all ranunculus. In the summer, do all sunflowers. In the fall, do hydrangeas. In the winter, do carnations. Think modestly.

7) Going to the Chapel: The one place people are foregoing flowers is at the ceremony location. I for one love ceremony flowers, and I think you should do flowers at your ceremony location, but I also understand why this is a big trend. Most ceremony designs don’t work at the reception. If you are doing an arch for the ceremony, it’s almost impossible to move it indoors for a reception. If you are going to do a ceremony flowers you might want to rethink those large sprays (which I also love doing) and do a tablescape. We make tablescapes all the time, and they’re great to use at the ceremony and reception.  You just have to make sure there is enough time for your floral designer to breakdown the tabelescapes at the ceremony location and then redesign the tablescapes at the reception location.

Photo by of Nancy Liu Chin

Yellow Mellow: One of my favorite colors that is making a huge comeback is yellow. It looks great for spring, summer, fall and even winter. Don’t dismiss the lovely range of yellows, from citrus lemon to deep golden hues. Yellow flowers are beautiful with purple and also lovely with blue (go Bears). Yellow also looks elegant with butters and creams and rustic with brown. Yellow is fantastic with Kelly green, hip with grey and chic with black. The only colors I’m not crazy about with yellow are orange and red - that’s been overdone.

9) Naturally Beautiful: I love using pods, berries and wheat-like textures in boutonnières. I think we’ll see more of this than crystals, wires and all those little accessories. More natural please!

Photo by Kevin Chin

10) The Doctor Says More Fruits and Veggies: I think with the economy going the way it is using more fruits and veggies is a good thing. Over the weekend, we used Brussels sprouts in a centerpiece, and several people thought they were tight green peonies. Also, we often use tiny green apples in centerpieces and lemons in garlands. Some other veggies you can use are artichokes (you can find beautiful 2 ft artichoke stems at the floral market), olives (there is such a wide variety), asparagus tips, cabbage and the list goes on and on.

What trends do you like the best?