Blooms for the Seasons

Spring, summer, autumn or winter, whenever you're getting married, choosing seasonal blooms is the best way to capture the beauty, fragrance and atmosphere of the time of year.

We asked Mandy Alberry from Sonning Flowers (www.sonningflowers.com) and Nicola Eve from Flowers By Eve (www.flowersbyeve.co.uk), which seasonal blooms you can choose from, whenever you decide to get hitched.

Nicola Eve: Spring is a lovely time of year for flowers, particularly after a dreary late-winter. Spring flowers are aplenty and include tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, narcissus, anemones and grape hyacinths.

Spring flowers come in bold, bright colours, as well as soft lilacs, creams and pastels, and are often highly scented. Because the flowers are so standout, simple ideas look sensational; you could carry a beautiful bouquet with tulips, ranunculus and roses, and flower girls with a posy of muscari (grape hyacinths), hand-tied with a white ribbon, have a stunning, vintage effect.

Informal fishbowls full of spring flowers look and smell lovely as centre pieces. Daffodils and tulips are a seasonal, bright and affordable option for decorating the venue. Zinc plant pots full of flowering narcissus or hyacinth bulbs are also a cheap and cheerful idea for a spring table, and they also make an ideal gift for guests at the end of the evening.

Mandy Alberry: Soft, gentle and romantic flowers are perfect for summer. Peonies and stocks are in bloom with a strong, sweet scent. You can also choose from sweet peas, roses, delphiniums and hydrangeas. In mid-summer you could try the more unusual love-in-a-mist (Nigella) and look for light colours, particularly pinks, whites, blues and lilacs, or pale purple. Vintage colours are also coming back into vogue for summer weddings, so you could consider peach or dusty pink roses in your arrangements.

As well as flowers, lime green foliage looks beautiful in summer and you could add seasonal herbs to your bouquet or table decorations, such as dill, mint and lavender. Using summer fruit for the table decorations is growing in popularity too.

Creative ideas work brilliantly in summer. At a garden party, glass globes look beautiful hanging from the trees, and you can fill them with seasonal flowers or candles. I decorated a wedding where the four poles in the centre of the marquee were made to look like trees using branches and fresh flowers.

Mandy Alberry: In autumn, the colours change, becoming more vibrant and much warmer. Don't shy away from colours as an autumn wedding is all about making the most of the fantastic, vivid blooms; your flowers can be an indoor firework display.

Brides can choose from orange, burgundy, red, magenta and deep purple as an accent colour for their flowers, adding seed heads and berries to provide texture. As for seasonal foliage, you can use fiery dogwood, rosehips and skimmia.

To decorate the venue you could go for sunflowers, nerines, dahlia and chocolate plant (cosmos), which has deep purple, almost chocolate-black flowers. Autumn fruits are perfect for decorating a venue too. Try plums, blackberries and gourd pumpkins. Pumpkins can work wonderfully as a table centerpiece if you hollow them out and fill them with orange and hot pink flowers.

Nicola Eve: As the nights are darker in winter, brides like to create a romantic atmosphere by using lots of candles and tea lights - and they pick flowers that look stunning in this low, seasonal light. White, red and purple are the most popular colours and the flowers available at this time of year tend to be richer and jewel-like, such as red and purple anemones, deep red roses, dark green holly and berried ivy.

The main winter flower is amaryllis, which come in various shades of red, from pillar box to burgundy, as well as in pink and white. It's a great statement flower and looks lovely with wintery foliage such as berried ivy. A simple, winter bouquet of red amaryllis looks sensational against a crisp white wedding dress, particularly if it's snowing.

Available in winter and early spring, ranunculus, with their delicate petals, are perfect for winter bridal bouquets. The Christmas rose or hellebore is another winter flower that looks lovely and delicate on its own, or mixed with ranunculus and roses.