Wedding Ceremony Flowers - Outdoor Decor

More than half of all Southern California weddings are held outside - in public and private gardens and lawns and on or near the beach.  With our great year-round weather, it makes sense to want to utilize the natural beauty of our scenic region.

Creating A Wedding Ceremony Setting

Some of the most beautiful Los Angeles and Orange County wedding locations give brides the opportunity to create complete themes from the start. In the example photos below, the Avante Gardens design team decorated our exclusive custom rental structures and equipment to provide the backdrops for these romantic wedding ceremonies.

Montage Resort - Laguna Beach, CA

The Montage Resort's oceanfront lawn offers stunning views of the Pacific in a five star setting. To create a soft garden look with a contemporary feel, our bride selected a square form to highlight and frame the ceremony area.  

Roses, hydrangeas and seasonal flowers in whites, creams and ivories, intertwined with huckleberry, eucalyptus and ivy, were clustered to provide a natural and abundant backdrop to match the large scale of this stunning and unique location.

Fairmont Miramar Hotel - Santa Monica, CA

For this wedding, held in the Fairmont Miramar's garden setting, the bride selected an ivory chiffon draped arch accented with roses, orchids and seasonal flowers in creams and ivories. Enclosed in a courtyard, the intimate location on the hotel property has a rich historic California feel with glimpses of the Pacific Ocean.

Following the ceremony, this arch was later moved to the reception area where it was placed behind the wedding cake to make a second memorable appearance.

Anaheim Hills Golf Course and Country Club - Anaheim, CA

With views of the spectacular golf course, the patio area of the Clubhouse at Anaheim Hills offers a natural setting that allows brides to customize their ceremony area.  For this wedding, our design team draped a chuppah in ivory chiffon and accented the top and poles with roses, orchids, stock and other garden flowers in shades raspberries and plums. Flowing soft tendrils of ivy completed the look.

The traditional top, made with the groom's tallit, carried through the long-standing tradition of using the classic prayer shawl in a Jewish wedding ceremony.

Los Coyotes Country Club - Buena Park, CA  

The Los Coyotes Country Club's second floor deck area provides stunning views of the golf course and surrounding hills. For this spring wedding, the bride and groom selected a clean and contemporary backdrop utilizing rectangular glass vases filled with hydrangeas, roses, orchids and garden flowers placed atop our tall fabric-covered columns.

To complete the look, the aisle was accented with clusters of roses, draped chiffon, a linen aisle runner and a heavy dusting of fresh rose petals in shades of pink.

Following the ceremony, the columns and arrangements were placed beside the cake to add interest to that important focal area.

When planning an outdoor wedding in Southern California, make sure to factor in a few important elements:

• The amount of breeze. Weddings taking place at the beach and in the hills and canyon areas will generally experience heavy breezes in the late afternoon and early evening hours. Make sure you select decor items sturdy enough to withstand strong gusts.
• The average seasonal temperature.  To prevent wilting guests and flowers, select a ceremony time in the late afternoon or early evening during warm and hot weather months.
• Comfort.  Request your caterer provide a water station near the ceremony area for the comfort of your guests.
• Backup Plan. No bride enjoys thinking about the possibility of rain on her special day, but it's important to have a second location in case the weather fails to cooperate. Most outdoor facilities have alternate areas. Be sure to ask your event coordinator.

In future posts, I'll cover the use of existing location structures for outdoor weddings and offer ideas for transforming churches, temples and other indoor settings. 

If you are planning to get married in Southern California, please contact us and we'll be happy to discuss the many ideas and options for wedding flowers on your special day.

Comment Notification

If you would like to receive an email when updates are made to this post, please register here

Subscribe to this post's comments using RSS