The Big Day

Flower Colors for Summer Weddings with The Real Flower Company

The sustainable flower farmers arrange the most romantic palettes for a summer wedding.

Flower Colors for Summer Weddings with The Real Flower Company

Finding the right florist and choosing the perfect flowers for your wedding can involve a long journey. Hampshire-based sustainable flower farmers The Real Flower Company want to simplify the process of choosing wedding flowers by launching a new ‘ready-to-wear’ bouquet collection. We caught up with their multi-award-winning head florist Jay Archer, who has created flowers for more than 600 weddings and events, to discover the best flowers and color palettes for a summer wedding.

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Romantic Coral
Vibrant yet mellow, coral is a feelgood color that evokes sunsets, warmth and joy – a perfect choice for summer.

Peonies: The English peony season runs from mid-May until early July and Coral Charm peonies make the perfect statement flower for an early- to mid-summer bridal bouquet.

Stocks: Soft, peachy stocks add height and texture.

Sweet Peas: My all-time favorite flower, there’s nothing more beautiful in shape and scent than delicate sweet peas.

Achillea: Lacy achillea blooms have recently undergone something of a renaissance – they come in peachy tones or soft terracotta that both work really well with this color scheme.

Roses: English roses are synonymous with summer weddings. We grow vibrant coral Romantic Antike roses on both our sustainable Hampshire farm and our Fairtrade sister farm in Kenya – they always attract attention and look beautiful mixed with our soft peachy pink Antigua spray roses.

Lavender: I love the way the muted purple of lavender complements and accentuates this coral color palette.

Foliage: Just a few hints of silver-green foliage such as eucalyptus pull this look together, adding freshness and movement.


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Wild Purity
White and green are a classic bridal combination. To make this look your own, choose something extra special to be the star of the show.

Rose: For me the statement flower for a summer wedding has to be a rose. I love David Austin’s Keira – uniformly romantic in shape but each one a subtly different shade, from delicate blush to cream. They go beautifully with summer’s white flowers, herbs and vibrant green foliage.

Astrantia: These delicate star-shaped blooms provide a perfect backdrop.

Sweet Peas: Scented sweet peas in delicate shades of white and cream work beautifully here – and you can also use sweet pea trails to add movement and a ‘just-picked-from-the-garden’ feel.

Nigella: What better choice for a wedding than white Love-in-a-Mist?

Thlaspi Green Bell: I love the ethereal, wispy texture this brings to a bouquet.

Wild Oat Grass & Quaker Grass: We use grasses to introduce soft, tactile shapes and movement – these are a couple of favorites from our farm.


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Sugared Almond
Pastels are beautifully soft and romantic. To ensure your bouquet looks modern rather than dated, go for a loose, free-flowing arrangement.

Roses: Many English roses have soft dreamy tones and exquisite aromas. Among my favorites from our sustainable English farm are Chandos Beauty, Evelyn, Jubilee Celebration, Prince Jardinier and Princess Charlene.

Larkspur: In soft dreamy pinks, this adds height and interest.

Flowering Mint: During the summer we grow mint with fluffy white flowers that work perfectly as a backdrop.

Sweet Peas: Sweet peas come in a whole palette of pastel tones such as blush, lilac and peach that combine to create soft waves of color.

Peonies: English blush pink peonies – still in season in early summer – are a perfect statement flower.

Achillea: These delicate lacy blooms always look stunning on our sustainable farm – choose the softest blush or ballet pink to complement your color scheme.

Freesia: The scent of freesia is so fresh and distinctive – I love using a soft pink shade called Honeymoon.

White Cosmos: Another delicate, feathery flower that adds movement and a sense of the joy of summer.

Scenecio Dusty Miller: A bridal and Pinterest favorite for good reason, the soft, almost fluffy silver leaves work beautifully in bridal arrangements.

Thyme Flowers: Our unsung hero of the summer, these work wonderfully for buttonholes.


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Wild Abandon
Deep reds and luscious velvet tones don’t need to be just for winter weddings. The summer months provide a wonderful array of red blooms that work beautifully softened with blush pinks, whites and textured herbs in a modern, asymmetric arrangement.

Chocolate Cosmos: I used this for my own wedding – and found that these delicate little blooms smell as good as they look.

Roses: The ultimate romantic red rose is Deep Secret, which we grow on our English farm. It works beautifully with ivory blush Margaret Merril and blush Prince Jardiner.

Cosmos: An incredibly versatile summer favorite – for this color scheme, use burgundy or the deepest pink.

Sweet Peas: Often associated with pastels, this scented summer stunner also comes in really dark burgundy, almost black shades that work wonderfully here.

Rubus: Also from the rose family and similar to a trailing blackberry but without the thorns, this adds both color and movement.

Chocolate Mint & Sage: Herbs add scent and interest to an arrangement and both sage and mint come in deeper tones that complement this color palette.

Summer Flowering Jasmine: This really adds a wildly romantic, unstructured feel to your arrangements – as well as being beautifully scented.

Viburnum Bodnatense: Another beautiful plant we grow on our farm, with deep red foliage to complement your statement blooms.


The Real Flower Company are sustainable flower farmer and florists based in Hampshire.

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