Hollie & Kieran having confetti thrown on them

Should you use Sunflowers for your Wedding?

January 22, 2024

Helpful Tips

Bride and groom at Brookfield Barn having pink and red confetti thrown over them, the bride holds a bouquet of sunflowers, the bridesmaids in yellow and groomsmen in blue suits with yellow ties

Flowers on your wedding day – it’s an absolute must.

Some people go for artificial flowers that last forever. Some go for spending thousands of pounds on paying a professional to carefully create something bespoke for them. And genuinely, it’s always worth the cost spent for fulfilling your unique vision.

What do you prefer?

Groomsmen cheersing their birra moretti bottles whilst wearing their blue suits and sunflower button holes

I personally prefer real flowers – bees love them. I care a lot about the environment and my carbon footprint, one of the many reasons I choose to be vegan and follow a plant based diet. Alongside these values, being a Luxury Documentary Wedding Photographer I see lots of real flowers, and one of my favourite flowers is the sunflower.

Bride and groom walking down the outdoor aisle at Brookfield Barn holding hands in the blazing sunshine with the pond behind them and guests clapping

Classic.

But the thing is, you don’t see them all the time in wedding bouquets.

Why’s that?

Seasonal Flowers

Bride getting out of a pink cadillac as she arrives with her father at her wedding at Brookfield Barn, she holds a bouquet of sunflowers and her bridesmaids greet her with claps and smiles

Have you ever tried growing chillis in the middle of winter? It’s not going to happen!

Equally, if you try growing sunflowers in the middle of winter, that’s not going to happen either. Consider this – when have you seen sunflowers used in a wedding bouquet? If not, when was the last time you saw sunflowers?

At the Cambridge Botanical Gardens, they had a whole section cordoned off where they were growing sunflowers – but give it a month or two, and they will be long gone!

Beth and I love peonies flowers, but there was no chance of those because we got married in March! So, my wife got creative and created the bouquets from the local market, stocking local, in season flowers, and that made sense for us.

So here’s some tips for you:

Group of bridesmaids all in yellow dresses holding yellow sunflowers, waving, smiling and having a great time

Get Planning

If you know that you want sunflowers in your wedding bouquet, do the following steps:

– Have a summer wedding

– Book a recommended professional florist to do it for you

It’s as simple as that.

Sunflower bouquet with white daisies on a bench with a bridesmaid in a yellow dress sat in the background

(Cue the song “Sunflower” from Spiderman)