Hi flower-loving friends! Today I will be discussing how to hold your bridal bouquet. While it might seem unnecessary to pay attention to the way a bouquet is held (isn’t that just intuitive?), holding your bouquet the “right” way will showcase the greatest amount of beauty, both within the bouquet itself and from your dress, and will allow for better comfort throughout the entire time you are holding it.

So let’s talk about the best way to hold your bouquet. We can break this down into two parts:

1. Bouquet Direction
2. Positioning of Arms/Hands

 

BOUQUET DIRECTION

With how much attention the bridal bouquet receives we want to make sure it’s showcased well. Because it’s such an important piece the bridal bouquet is cared for both before the wedding and during the wedding.

• The bridal bouquet has many hours of thought given to its final design – the colors, the textures, the specific flowers, the shape, any embellishments, etc.
• The bridal bouquet is generally the most photographed floral arrangement at a wedding.

And an easy way to highlight this lovely piece of art is to hold it well.

Now don’t get me wrong, a bouquet of fresh flowers will be lovely from any angle. After all it’s made from flowers – how can it NOT be beautiful? Most of the time, however, there will be a side that your bouquet will look best from. We can consider this side the front. When designing your bridal bouquet your Wedding Florist will most likely have given it a front side and a back side. Let’s look at the key reasons for this:

Intended Directional Movement

Unless a bouquet is perfectly round there is generally some sort of movement within the bouquet that is an intentional part of the design. Whether this movement is upwards as with wildflower bouquets, sideways with garden and asymmetrical bouquets, or downward as common with cascading bouquets. In this image Cassandra has a cascading bouquet and you can distinctly see the intended downward movement.

Center Stage Focal Flower(s)

As a Wedding Florist I always choose the very best blooms for the bridal bouquet. But within that grouping there are always the best of the best, and it’s these flowers that we want featured. Sometimes it’s a robust, flawless, and symmetrical flower, sometimes it’s a flower with a unique characteristic or a particularly lovely color, and sometimes it’s a unique variety that we only have one of in the bouquet. In any case, your bouquet will be designed to highlight and showcase these elite stems. In Lacey’s bouquet below the ivory rose was almost perfectly round without a single visible flaw, so we placed it in the front. The deep pink garden rose behind it was also a featured flower, as it was the only bloom of that color and size.

Depth & Dimension vs. Body Placement

In an organic, garden hand-tied bouquet the front side is where we see the most depth and dimension. Flowers can go up, can go out, can go to the side, and and can even flow downward. This front side naturally commands a lot of space. The back side of the bouquet will often be a little bit flatter. You can hold a bouquet with a “flat” side close to your body more easily without flowers getting in the way or without anything poking you in the stomach. It’s important that you and your bouquet work in harmony with one another! In the image below we can see that the back side of Caitlin’s bouquet is much less wild than the front side of her bouquet, which allows her to keep it near her abdomen.

 

So if it isn’t apparent at first or even second glance, then how will you easily determine which side of your bridal bouquet should be outward facing and which side should be turned inward? With the bouquets that I design the answer lies in the bouquet wrap. On the wrap around the stems where ribbon, lace, twine, or other material is adhered to hold the stems together I always use a pearl pin to secure the ribbon to the stems. More recently I have started attaching a small sewing button to the the ribbon to indicate the back side of the bouquet. An easy mantra I encourage my brides to use is “button to button”.

I used an over-sized button for this visual. Your bridal bouquet will have a much smaller, more inconspicuous button. Essentially, the sewing button should face your belly button, hence the “button to button” mantra.

 

POSITIONING OF ARMS/HANDS

Sometimes brides are filled with so much excitement and anticipation that they hold their bouquet with too much rigidity – too tightly and too close to their face. It’s definitely okay to be joyously anxious, but don’t forget to breathe!

The most flattering way to hold your bridal bouquet is with your arms relaxed and slightly bent.

Relaxing your arms can remind the rest of your body to loosen up. Your wedding day will be that much better if you approach it with ease in your body. Holding your bouquet down towards your abdomen will give space for the bodice of your dress to be in full view. How lovely is Morgan with her romantically soft bouquet and her beautiful lace top?

Lastly, the best place for your hands is around the bouquet wrap, slightly upward. Your bouquet’s center of gravity will be centered down in the blooms, so positioning your hands closest to this point will make it easier to hold. And you don’t need to squeeze the stems, but hold your bouquet firmly enough so that it’s positioned upright.

If this was helpful, please let me know in the comments down below! I would love to hear from you.