Yahoo News Here comes the bride (and she's carrying cacti and sweetcorn)
Wedding bouquets are getting heavier as modern brides are chosing cacti, succulents and even vegetables over traditional flowers, industry experts have said.
Echeveria, a green succulent from Mexico, has become ubiquitous at trendy wedding ceremonies, with other similar plants proving popular for their unusual colours such as grey.
Others brides are replacing traditional roses with vines, cabbage plants and even sweetcorn with social media sites like Instagram encouraging creativity.
With brides spending an average of £550 on their wedding flowers, florists say they are under pressure to create unique bouquet designs.
"Brides in general are less conservative now and perhaps listen less to their mother or mother-in-law and just go with what they really want.
"The trend for succulents started first in the States, possibly because of warmer climates in some parts of America, and we're seeing more of it within wedding work," Tracey Griffin, of the British Florists' Association, said.
She added: "A bride could say grandfather grows sweetcorn and that could be incorporated into the bouquet.
"You only get one chance to make that 'wow' impression on the guests who come to the wedding and every bride wants her day to be memorable."
Cemal K. Cemal, manager of Phillo Flowers, a London floral boutique, said he had seen sales for cacti and succulents more than double in the past year.
Mr Cemal said: "I think people are veering away from flowers a a bit of a break from convention, and succulents and cacti are very trendy at the moment.
"You can take the heads off of them and use wire, so we can work with them easily.
"We have been commissioned to design a ‘cacti and succulent’ wedding this summer, with the plants on the bouquet, lapels, table-pieces and everything really.
"It tends to be younger couples in their twenties who want succulents for their weddings and I think it's a trend which will continue through from this summer to the next."
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Ms Griffin added: "Anything goes really - sometimes they're really compact but some are larger so they can be really heavy."
"When it comes to expressing personality of a bride or bridegroom through the wedding, flowers are a wonderful way of doing that."
But the need to duck when the bouquet comes flying might be less pressing thanks to considerate florists who construct smaller "throwing bouquets" especially for brides determined to fulfill the tradition.
The service is more commonly used by brides who love their wedding bouquet so much they want to keep it.
"You wouldn't want to get bashed on the head with a bouquet with half a dozen succulents in it," added Ms Griffin.
