autumn wedding bouquets

Do it yourself wedding flowers don’t magically fall into place and look wonderful. There are so many things to remember and balance is one of them. The elements of your wedding bouquet or arrangement (your container flowers foliage and accessories) need to “fit” or work well together.

We as people have a natural pull toward balance and order. Imbalance is naturally avoided – it’s in our subconscious. We naturally avoid things that are dangerously imbalanced such as a tottering ladder or a crooked shelf. Even though an imbalanced floral bouquet or arrangement isn’t a threat to us we have a natural tendency to balance and order. A bouquet or arrangement needs both physical and visual balance.

Physical Balance
Physical balance can also be called mechanical balance. To have this type of balance the arrangement simply needs to be able to stand up on its own without falling over. The container you use needs to be the right size weight and shape for the flowers you put in them. You also need to have your flowers and foliage arranged so they are evenly distributed. If you have them placed so your design is either top heavy or so that the flowers are mostly on one side your arrangment will fall over.

Visual Balance
This is when a floral design looks balanced. If it is mechanically balanced yet looks like it’s about to topple over your instinct is to reach out your hand to catch it from falling over. You want it to look stable. You can have 4 different types of visual balance: symmetrical asymmetrical radial and open balance.

Symmetrical - This is created when you have exactly the same flowers and foliage on both sides of an imaginary line. Bouquets with symmetrical balance are formal and are often seen at graduations funerals and weddings. You need to be careful that this type of design doesn’t look stiff or forced. You can avoid this by using near-symmetry where you use very similar (but not exactly the same) flowers and foliage on both sides of your imaginary line.

Asymmetrical - You achieve this by placing more weight on one side of your imaginary line than the other. You don’t place too much weight on one side so it looks imbalanced. You need to have something on each side of your “line” to balance out the other side. This is harder to create than symmetrical balance but it’s more pleasing to look at and remains interesting much longer than perfect symmetry. You can have some large light colored flowers on one side and off-set them with either darker or bright small flowers on the other side. Darker flowers look “heavy” so they have enough weight to balance a greater number of larger light colored flowers.

Radial - You create radial symmetry by having your flowers and foliage radiating out from a central point just like the spokes of a wheel the rays of the sun the petals of a daisy the lines of a hand-held fan or the pattern of a shell. The central point can be in different positions. The spokes of a wheel and the petals of a daisy radiate out from the center whereas the lines of a hand-held fan radiate from the center of the bottom and the pattern of a shell radiates from one side. Radial balance is most often in bridal bouquets.

Open - Open balance isn’t symmetrical or asymmetrical. It is open relaxed and unstructured. You will find this in contemporary design where there are no formal rules yet the overall design looks balanced.

If you are a beginner symmetrical asymmetrical and radial balance are easier to achieve because you have some “rules” to follow. Open balance comes with practice and experience. Your do it yourself wedding flowers need to be balanced. Choose which type of balance is most appealing to you and work with it.