rose wedding bouquet ideas and designs

Rose wedding bouquet ideas and designs most bridal bouquets and flower displays include roses. If you're planning a wedding, consider planning your bridal flowers and wedding bouquets around one of the symbolic themes attached to the color of roses. It doesn't matter if you're the only person who understands the significance of the color scheme. It's your day, it's your wedding, and it's your choice. You'll find a few ideas for each color below to jump-start your own creativity.

Symbolic Themes

Everyone knows that red roses symbolize romantic love, but fewer know that a thornless red rose signifies love at first sight. The other colors bear symbolic meaning as well. For example, a few of the better-known meanings include:

• White rose - the rose of purity and innocence
• Lilac rose – another symbol of love at first sight
• Pink rose - symbolizes grace, gratitude and gentleness
• Yellow rose - signifies joy
• Red and white (bi-colored) rose – the symbol of unity
• Coral rose – the rose of desire
• Red and yellow (bi-colored) rose – symbolizes happiness

Mix roses with complementary bridal flowers such as baby's breath and lilies for a traditional look. Mix roses with unexpected flowers such as hydrangeas, peonies, dahlias, delphiniums, tulips, orchids and wildflowers for an unusual look. Don't overlook flower buds. Use them in addition to flowers in full bloom. Add interest with greenery, trailing ivy and vines, ribbons, and berries.

White

For a pure white bouquet, consider calla lilies, pure white lilies and white roses. Add baby's breath to provide a hint of green, or add a few light pink roses close to the center of the bouquet.
Mix a few small, delicate pastel-colored roses with larger white roses if you want to add color.
For a pure rose bouquet, select a nosegay, a small compact bouquet with no greenery, or select a cascade bouquet with trailing greenery. Use stark white roses tied with a simple white or silver ribbon for a nosegay bouquet. Add trailing ivy for a cascade bouquet. For a holiday wedding, accent the bouquet with red and green, and make liberal use of berries and holly.

Lilac

Mix lilac roses with blue and purple wildflowers for a delicate look. For a white and lilac or pink and lilac mix, use calla lilies and roses. For a larger, cascading bouquet, add dramatic flowers such as hydrangeas, dahlias, delphiniums, and calla lilies in purple and blue hues for a stunning effect.

Pink

Mix pink roses with Oriental lilies for a bold bouquet. Stargazer lily provides a perfect complement to the pink rose with its vividly speckled petals. Use a mix of 2/3 roses and 1/3 Stargazer lilies for an arm bouquet or a hand-tied bouquet, and use 2/3 lilies to 1/3 pink roses for the floral splays for a bolder look. Alternatively, consider mixing dahlias and hydrangeas with the pink roses. Pink roses and pink and green bi-color hydrangeas with greenery make a beautiful round or cascading bouquet. For a cascading bouquet, add Queen Anne's lace.

For an arm bouquet, mix a variety of pink long-stem roses with white cluster lilies.

Yellow

Mix a variety of yellow roses with pale yellow carnations. Add big, floppy mums in white or coral for accent. Another idea is to use pale yellow roses as the central color in a round or cascading bouquet of pastel roses. For a spring wedding, consider yellow roses intermingled with yellow and pink bi-colored tulips and/or white and pink double daffodils.

Coral

Coral adds the perfect complement to an ivory wedding dress. Coral and red creates a stunning bouquet, and so does coral and white. Use coral as the accent color or the predominant color. Create a vibrant display with mums in the fall, Asiatic and Oriental lilies in the summer, peonies in the late spring, and calla lilies in the winter.

Red and Yellow (Bi-colored)

Use a predominantly yellow color scheme and dot with red roses and red and yellow-bi-colored roses. For a spring bouquet, mix solid tulips with the bi-colored roses. For a summer wedding, add dahlias for larger bouquets, or add snapdragons with a velvet texture to smaller bouquets.
Feel free to mix and match the ideas above to suit your personal preference, and don't be shy about trying unusual combinations. Unusual combinations often create the most beautiful wedding displays and bridal bouquets.

Types of Bouquets

Select your bouquet type early, because the size and shape of the bouquet may dictate which flowers you'll use along with the roses.

• Round – traditional bouquet that can include flowers and greenery
• Nosegay – small compact bouquet
• Cascade – elongated and elaborate, dense with flowers at the top and tapering toward the bottom with trailing greenery
• Arm bouquet – long-stemmed flowers gathered and carried in the arms, similar to a pageant bouquet
• Hand-tied – simple cluster of flowers, tied with a bow or ribbon, with the ends exposed
• Single stem – one single long-stemmed flower with the emphasis on decorative features such as trailing ribbons
• Basket – a basket of flowers, often used in outdoor weddings
• Wrist – a sophisticated look, more like a corsage than a bouquet

Red and White (Bi-colored)

Scarlet and white add pure drama to a wedding. Mix deep red and pure white roses with baby's breath and white lilies. Use either red or white as the accent color, rather than an equal mix in the bouquet. Use an abundance of white lilies and roses for the floral displays, and dot with scarlet roses to continue the dramatic effect.