Have a Picture-Perfect Wedding Ceremony: Know How to Hold Your Bouquet!

Pause to take a mental poll. How many weddings have you attended where the bride and bridesmaids walked down the aisle like they were lugging bowling balls, not an artful arrangement of blooms?

I don't know why either the wedding planners or florists aren't teaching wedding parties how to hold their bouquets properly. After all, the planner's job is to make you look great! Knowing how to handle your bouquet makes you seem at ease, and lets the flowers do their job — namely, draw the eye to your stunning poise and confidence.

Let's recall that your florist spent hours crafting and perfecting every detail. Carrying your bouquet correctly lets the world revel in the results, instead of subconsciously noting that you're clutching the bouquet to your body like a football, or thrusting it out like it poses a fire hazard. You poured over the designs of these one-in-a-lifetime flowers for months, coordinating them with your venue and bridesmaid attire. Make the most of them!

Look and Feel at Ease With Your Bouquets

• Make sure that your bridal and attendants' bouquets aren't so heavy that you really can't hold them comfortably for twenty minutes or longer.
• Hold your bouquet around belly button height. Rest your hands snug against your stomach (which offers you support in holding the flowers ... and hides any shaking hands!).
• Hold the blooms toward your guests, not the stems. No one wants to see those stems, no matter how beautifully they're wrapped.
• If you're carrying a sheaf of flowers, let them rest in the crook of your left arm like a baby. Borrow a good friend's baby (or a solid pillow) and practice a bit. Scan old movies with pageant winners.
• Practice the beauty queen wave. You may want to use it that day, you'll certainly feel one!
• If you're carrying a pomander or kissing ball suspended from a ribbon on your wrist, fold that arm across your waist so that the ball hangs down the front of your gown.
• A nosegay or tussy-mussy is a smaller, lighter bouquet. Hold it at belly button level if it's large enough, or simply at waist level.

Special Ceremonial Pointers

• During the ceremony, have a small table with a receptacle to hold your arrangements while you're needing your hands. Make sure the vase is heavy enough to hold the flowers without tipping over. (Pour some stones or glass marbles in the bottom.) You might want to hand off your flowers, but many of today's bouquets are so heavy, it's a bit much to ask a bridesmaid to hold two.
• Whisk that same vase to the reception, so you can show off those flowers to their full advantage. Set vases in front of the attendants' seats, too.
• Ensure that flower balls are light enough that they can continue to swing from your wrist (and not so long that they'll bump the ground if you drop your arm to the side.) Weight's a special consideration with flower girls — make sure a pomander isn't dauntingly heavy, or your favorite niece won't carry it for long.
  
• You can tuck petite tussy-mussies into a special loop you've asked a seamstress to sew at the waist of your dress. Otherwise, place them in a smaller vase.

There. Simple, easy, and now you're set to be a beautiful bride and queen of the day as you join your heart with your beloved's in marriage.