Before I choose a single flower for a bride, I choose a shape. A bouquet has a silhouette, the same way a dress does.
People assume a bridal bouquet starts with flowers. It does not, or it should not. It starts with a shape, because a bouquet is the one accessory a bride carries down the entire aisle, held at exactly the height where everyone is already looking. In fashion you would never choose the fabric before the line. Flowers are no different.
There are really only a handful of shapes, and each one says something before a single bloom is named. A round posy is composed and modern — it holds its line. A cascade falls, all movement and romance, and asks the dress to stay quiet underneath it. A loose hand-tied looks gathered that morning, which is the hardest look of all to design, because effortless is never effortless.
The mistake I see most is choosing a shape that argues with the bride. A grand cascade on a slip dress drowns it. A tight posy under an enormous gown disappears. The bouquet and the silhouette of the dress are one outfit, and they have to be cut to agree. That is a styling decision, not a flower decision, and it is the part I will not hand over.
In fashion you would never choose the fabric before the line. Flowers are no different.
Only once the shape is settled do the flowers earn their place, and even then the rule is the same one I bring to everything: choose the few that matter, and leave the rest in the bucket. A bridal bouquet is an edited object held in two hands. Composed, not assembled. The editing is what makes it look like it was always going to be hers.
So if you are planning a wedding, do not start by sending me a list of flowers. Tell me about the dress, the room and the day. We will find the shape first, and the flowers will follow, the way they are supposed to.
Shape first, every time.
Not a bridal piece, but the same thinking — the Marseille, designed around its line. From $145. Shop the Marseille →
A florist should be a designer, not a dispatcher — and nowhere is that truer than the one bouquet a person remembers for the rest of their life.
