Cambridgeshire Wedding Flowers – Blending Modern and Traditional

Cambridgeshire is of course both an ancient rural county with a strong agricultural tradition, as well as being home to a modern vibrant city hosting cutting edge technology and business – so when attempting to reflect the style and personalities of couples in Cambridgeshire, wedding flowers often need to include both traditional and contemporary elements.

At Tolly's Flowers we cater for all budgets to provide unique and stunning displays combining contemporary design with the best traditional varieties and techniques, to represent the lifestyle and tastes of the bride and groom. Here we show some recent examples of our work which show how we blend traditional and modern:

Cambridgeshire Wedding Flowers – Click here to see our gallery of recent work.

Wedding flowers are one of the most traditional elements of any wedding, but floral designs for a church, reception, bouquet, or even for a wedding cake, can be given a contemporary twist through a range of techniques.

Minimalist Colour Schemes
Minimalism is perhaps the most recognisable way of giving any design a modern feel. And in the context of wedding flower arrangements the most popular way to achieve this is to use cream flowers – usually Roses – and green foliage.

Here this idea has been used in a traditional way as a table centrepiece. Use of multiple types of flowers and foliage and some trailing effects help to soften the contemporary colour scheme.

But in this reception venue design the effect is much more strongly contemporary. Here we have chosen the most traditional of flowers – Roses and Gladioli – but by limiting the colour scheme to cream, dark green and black the result is striking and very modern.

But contemporary minimalism does not have to be Spartan – it can also be very soft, depending on the colours chosen. Here the blend between traditional and modern is almost invisible. The use of cream and pink roses is highly traditional, but everything else about this arrangement – a limited colour palette, a perfectly shaped dome and an ultra modern spiral vase, against a white table setting – makes this a thoroughly contemporary design.

Intense and Contrasting Colours
In the modern world vivid, bright colours tend to be associated with synthetic dyes, while "natural" colours are thought of as being paler and generally more muted. However, nature can produce some highly intense colours of its own and can be used to add instant energy and modernity to wedding arrangements.

In these church decorations, for example, intense, almost electric blue Larkspur contrast with cream and very pale pink for a stunning but modern twist on traditional ceremonial arrangements.

And in this contemporary wedding bouquet, traditional white roses are teamed with bright orange trailing flowers, effortlessly combining traditional and contemporary.

In this table arrangement the use of hot pink gerbera and lime green spider chrysanthemums gives a fresh modern feel (enhanced by the square black container).

Containers and Accessories
A floral arrangement can be made instantly more traditional or more contemporary simply through the choice of container it is placed in. For instance, traditionally shaped silverware automatically gives an arrangement an older, more traditional feel; while glass and ceramics in modern shapes instantly makes any arrangement feel more contemporary. At Tolly's we use a wide range of containers to help create the effect a couple is looking for.

For example, in this reception table decoration the couple wanted highly traditional large pink and cream Roses, but presented in a very modern way. We used a simple glass dome container which kept the focus firmly on the flowers while giving an effect which could hardly be more contemporary.

The Unusual and Quirky
Perhaps the easiest way to give wedding flowers a contemporary feel is to choose flower varieties or arrangements which are highly unusual for a wedding context. The very popularity of traditional varieties such as Roses, Peonies, Lilies and Gypsophila at weddings means that it is relatively easy to step away from these and choose something different to achieve an original effect.

In this wedding bouquet we have used white orchids with pale yellow centres to give an exotic yet very modern effect. The choice of colour and a touch of foliage is just enough to suggest a traditional wedding bouquet.

Another way to create unique wedding arrangements is to "subvert the form" and do away with the traditional vase altogether. In this table arrangement, we have used an arched perspex stand on which to display mini arrangements of traditional Roses with foliage, giving a highly unusual but still very pretty effect.

And in this table arrangement we have used 3 roses arranged in a floral teacup and saucer – the effect is very traditional, almost rustic, and yet its quirkiness adds a very modern feel.

We hope that these examples show that the scope for blending traditional and modern is almost limitless. So if you are looking for unique designs for your Cambridgeshire wedding, please call Tollys Flowers to help.