Today Hester from Wedding in a Teacup tells us about how to use living potted plants and greenery in weddings, rather than cut flowers. With some super helpful tips, it’s a must-read for any brides-to-be looking for quirky eco-chic ideas.

Over to Hester…

We love the idea of living flowers and greenery at a wedding.  They look natural and informal and are a great way to add practical decoration, but more than that – there’s something about having something living on your day that is so wholly positive!

We like tables named after love-in-the-mist or sage, with pots and gardeners labels to mark them; tiny flower pots doubling as place markers and favours (check out our personalised labels created with these in mind); and an apple crate of herbs or flowers as a luscious table plan holder.

And for décor, what could be fresher or more lovely than tubs of blooms and glossy ivy tumbling down the walls (maybe with a few of our pretty paper birds below).

Living flowers are economical too – pot up well in advance of your wedding and by the time the big day arrives, those little plants you bought will have doubled or trebled in size and be fragrant and gorgeous!  And unlike cut flowers, these plants aren’t destined for the dustbin; at the end of the day you can take them home with you, or give them out as special presents.

Buy and pot up your plants at least a month ahead of your wedding to give them time to flourish and fill the space.  And whether you’re planting daisies in vintage flowerpots or creating a rosemary and lavender filled apple crate, the basic principles are the same:

• As well as your plants and wedding plant-containers, you’ll need potting compost and slow-release plant food granules.
• When you get your plants home, water them.
• Half fill the containers with compost. Then, with one hand round the base of each plant, and the other gripping the pot, ease them out of their pots and pop them on top of the compost.
• Scatter over some plant food granules and infill with compost to just over the top of the plants’ soil, then water it all well.

Put your plants in the sun, keep them watered, pinch off any dead flowers to encourage others to bud, and rotate occasionally to make sure the flowers grow evenly.

And if you’re pretty sure you have black thumbs, not green fingers – why not give personalised seed packets out as favours? That way you’re still growing the love, but your guests can do the planting!

Wedding in a Teacup is a recommended supplier of The Natural Wedding Company. Wedding in a Teacup stock an array of handmade items and fabulous finds for the creative bride to be, from exclusive invitations designed in their Brighton based studio, to classy guest books that they’ve searched the whole UK for. Wherever possible items are made from recycled materials, are recyclable, fair trade or made right here in the UK. Visit www.weddinginateacup.co.uk for more details or contact them at hello@weddinginateacup.co.uk.