2 Essential Books for Wedding Flower Ideas

This past weekend we met with a bride who told us that she was a huge flower lover and was excited about planning the flowers for her wedding. She said she was torn about whether to go the DIY route and do the flowers herself, or to work with a professional florist. I said that she should go with her gut instinct, but either way, I told her, I was sure she’d get incredibly inspiring wedding flower ideas from two of my favorite books about flowers: The Flower Recipe Book by Alethea Harampolis and Jill Rizzo, and Bringing Nature Home by Ngoc Minh Ho. I guarantee both these books will set your creative juices flowing. They definitely make me wonder why we don’t have fresh cut bouquets in every room of our house!

The Flower Recipe Book is by the owners of Studio Choo, a not-your-typical flower shop in south San Francisco. The way that Alethea and Jill organize information about flowers and building flower arrangements is more clear and friendly then I have seen it explained anywhere else — and the end products, the arrangements they show you how to create, are so fresh and modern and lovely! You will want to rush out to your local nursery or flower wholesaler or, if you’re really lucky, your own garden, to create a bouquet on the spot.

This spread shows you the step-by-step photographic “recipes” that make up the heart of the book:

Bringing Nature Home is different. It doesn’t have any step-by-step instructions or practical information. It’s more like a visual poem, a meditation, about how flowers affect our space. It’s one of the most beautiful examples of still life photography I’ve ever seen. It has nothing to do with weddings — but sometimes the very best ideas come from a different realm then the one you’re focusing on. If you like to look at flowers, I can’t think of a book that will inspire you more.