I have absolutely fallen in love with flowers in the bride's hair.  It can be a little more complicated than it looks, so here is some advice.  It is important to choose a flower that is one sided, so that if will lay flat up against your head. A rose, for instance, is rounded at the base and will stick very far out, destroying the look. Every once in a while I have seen a big open rose used in photographs but I have to wonder how long it stayed in because the weight of a rose will also make it fall out. 

I have found orchids to be the easiest blossom to work with because they come in many different colors and sizes. The orchids also are very light weight and do not mind the heat.  I often cluster several small orchids together to make a big look, and that also works better than using a big orchid. The above picture is a cluster of white dendrobium orchid blossoms.

 

The purple blossom is the vanda orchid; here I used just one single blossom with some filler flowers.  The orange blossoms below are orange mokara orchids.  We also used a little bit of pheasant feather in this piece.

 

In the below picture I simply used peacock feathers with a little bit of greenery. Feathers are a lot of fun to use.

 

This hair piece was made with green mini cymbidium orchids and a few orange mokara orchids. The large cymbidium can be used as well, but I prefer the mini cymb.

 

One of my absolute favorites last year was the use of this mini dahlia. This small dahlia is very tight in formation and held up perfectly throughout the day.

 

How it works: I wire individual blossoms on tiny thin wires, one blossom or bud at a time. The wires are taped just like a corsage or boutonniere. Suggest to your florist that they use a thinner gauge wire, as I believe it is more comfortable to wear.  I leave the wires several inches long and then the hair dresser can decide how long they need the wires to be. Essentially the wire is woven through the bun, hair, or clip, just like a bobby pin. 

When we use the smaller orchids I usually provide 5-9 buds and let the bride and stylist decide how many they would like to use. We often suggest picking up these pieces the day before so that you can take them with you to the salon.

 If you do not want to use real blossoms, I am in love with the hair pieces at  Twigs & Honey, and they are a perfect option. 

Photo Credit:  First image Regeti's Photography. All other images were taken by Genevieve Leiper Photography.

Holly