While weddings are becoming more creative as traditions become more lax, wedding flowers continue to hold their ground as the conventional decoration at most weddings. Their brilliant colours, wonderful scents, natural beauty, uniqueness and versatility are perhaps the primary reasons for their longevity. And yet, upon pondering their significance further, there seems to be more to these delicate blooms. Perhaps the deeper significance lies in each flower’s symbolism, such as forget-me-nots representing true love. Or perhaps, it is the ancient belief that herbs and flowers have magical powers. The simple reason for flowers’ decorative influence, without question, is their universal eye-appeal.
A bridal bouquet is the perfect embellishment for a bride. With a gorgeous arrangement in her hands, a bride can confidently and comfortably walk down the aisle as all the guests’ eyes watch her keenly. The bride often keeps this strong hold on her bouquet throughout the wedding celebrations. And for this reason, the bridal bouquet is one of the most photographed elements at a wedding. We conveyed this theme of “the significance of the bridal bouquet” to a cast of our regularly contributing photographers. Each photographer was requested to supply a favourite bridal bouquet image accompanied with a personal reason on why he/she chose that image. The results, not surprisingly, are pleasantly unique and interesting.
We photographed a wedding that these two boys attended and they pretty much were hanging out with one another. When girls are handed bouquets, they usually pretend they are bridesmaids but when these two were asked to hold the flowers, their method for handling the flowers was quite funny. I think that this is one of few flower images that works better in black and white than in colour.
This article appears in Duly Noted Spring 2011.