Wedding Gardenia: The Most Elegant Flower of All
If you are looking for the classiest, most elegant flower ever, look no further than the wedding gardenia!
This creamy white flower has been used in weddings for centuries, therefore, it is also appropriate if you are having a chic and sophisticated vintage wedding. Besides their striking beauty, gardenia is deliciously scented and you really don’t need many to create a massive impact. Good thing because they are on the pricey side, as any upmarket flower should be.
Gardenia Flower
Fresh gardenia flowers range from pure white to creamy, ivory white, with anywhere from five to 12 petals in the shape of a star. With its perfect waxy petals and dark glossy green foliage, gardenia looks ethereally romantic and resembles porcelain.
The meaning of this flower is secret love (Victorian men would give a gardenia to the apple of their eye to let her know how he felt about her) and symbolizes beauty, joy, grace, purity, peace and love.
As if being gorgeous wasn’t enough, fresh gardenia flowers are fabulously scented. Sweet and intoxicating, make sure you are not sensitive to powerful fragrances in order to avoid getting a headache on your wedding day.
Top 5 Uses for Gardenia as a Wedding Flower
gardenia wedding bouquet
1) Centerpieces
Float a gardenia in water in a low glass bowl for instant beauty. Use floating candles along with the valuable bloom or even better, surround the bloom with a few votive candles.
2) Boutonnieres & Corsages
Even though they are fairly large at 3-5 inches, they are still appropriate for body flowers and will bless the wearer with a delicious waft of fragrance all day long. Wire a gardenia and display atop a few dark green leaves and perhaps a shear bow for the ladies.
3) Bouquets
Gardenias need to be wired and sometimes glued into bouquets since their own stem is usually short and flimsy but then you will be rewarded with a flower that will look beautiful for several hours without water. Since gardenias are expensive and precious, the best thing to do would be to have a bouquet composed of a variety of other flowers such as roses, hydrangeas, tulips or calla lilies and then to add in wired gardenia at the last minute along with stephanotis if you really want to go all out with exclusive vintage blooms. You can also choose to use a few gardenias by themselves on a background of dark green foliage if you really want to highlight this high-class flower.
4) Hair Flowers
Wire a gardenia and use it to decorate the bride’s and perhaps the bridesmaid’s hair to add instant elegance to their hairdo. You can use anywhere between 1 to 3 blooms to accent the lovely ladies’ hair.
5) Cake Flowers
To unite your gardenia theme, display 1-3 gardenias along with their greenery on the top of your wedding cake. You could also use a few more gardenias trailing up the side of the cake with their dark green leaves or resting between the tiers on a multi-tiered cake.
Still curious about Wedding Flowers? Check this out: Wedding Flower Glossary
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