Orchids have become a very popular choice for wedding bouquet flowers in recent years. They have a contemporary look and feel with clean, crisp lines and an exotic beauty and many of the species now available year round.
At least a dozen times a year a bride will come to me and say “Oh I’d love to have orchids in my bouquet, but they are so expensive.” Yes, Orchids are one of the more expensive wedding flowers, but one flower can go a long way with some creativity can have a stunning effect. Pairing this flower with others (like roses, dahlias, tulips, etc.) will also help lower the price and can enhance the look than if only orchids were used.
The reason for the high price tag is because they’re often flown in from Hawaii or south East Asian tropical destinations. ?BUT here in Vancouver/Fraser valley we are extremely lucky to have MANY wonderful local ORCHID growers, for both Cymbidium offering us beautiful range of color from October to May, and Phalaenopsis. Here is a great article about one of our amazing local growers
Types of Orchids
There are hundreds of orchids varieties in the world, but for application in wedding designs, we tend to stick to 4 basic varieties – The Cymbidium, Dendrobium, Phalaenopsis, & Mokara
Cymbidium – which are also known as boat orchids because of their shape, available in white, lime green or yellow petals with various hued lips from hot pink, yellow, to burgundy spotted or brown, petals of blue, steel-black, bronze, sherbet orange, honeysuckle pink, bubble-gum pink, burgundy, orange pin-stripes and apricot.
Dendrobium (or Singapore orchid) which grow in a huge variety of shapes and colors tend to have more per stem, available in tie-dye blues, jade green, violet, true white, blush, sakura pink, and purple
Phalaenopsis – sometimes referred to as the “moth” orchids because of its Big Beautiful blooms, though a little more sparingly since they yield only a few flowers per stem. Available in lavender, blush, purple or white
Mokara – distinctive for their starfish-shaped blooms. Yellow, gold-orange, ruby red, pink strawberry, mauve, speckled violet, and dark blue-purple
Submerging a few flowers into a glass vase can look beautiful since it magnifies the details of the orchid. Add a candle on top and it creates a soft glow.
Otherwise, you could choose to go tall and couple some orchid stems with curly willow.
From a practical viewpoint, many orchid species last extremely well out of water and can take quite a bit of rough handling and hot weather without wilting and looking bruised and battered by the end of the day.
