I got up at 3 a.m. to see the Roy­al Wed­ding today between Prince William and Cather­ine Mid­dle­ton. She was beau­ti­ful in her ele­gant gown that remind­ed my of the late Princess Grace of Mona­co and he was so hand­some. It was just like a fairy tale.  I was real­ly curi­ous to see what type of bou­quet she would car­ry? Would it be a hand-tied mod­ern design or a cas­cad­ing design like Will’s moth­er, Diana?

It was nei­ther, it was an ele­gant and under­stat­ed round bou­quet of del­i­cate lilies-of-the-val­ley, accom­pa­nied by hyacinth, myr­tle, ivy and sweet William (how cute!).

From the RoyalChannel.org website:

The bou­quet is a shield-shaped wired bou­quet of myr­tle, lily-of-the-val­ley, sweet William and hyacinth.  The bou­quet was designed by Shane Con­nol­ly and draws on the tra­di­tions of flow­ers of sig­nif­i­cance for the Roy­al Fam­i­ly, the Mid­dle­ton fam­i­ly and on the Lan­guage of Flow­ers. The flow­ers’ mean­ings in the bou­quet are:

  • Lily-of-the-val­ley – Return of happiness
  • Sweet William – Gallantry
  • Hyacinth – Con­stan­cy of love
  • Ivy: Fideli­ty; mar­riage; wed­ded love; friend­ship; affection
  • Myr­tle: the emblem of mar­riage; love.

The bou­quet con­tains stems from a myr­tle plant­ed at Osborne House, Isle of Wight, by Queen Vic­to­ria in 1845, and a sprig from a plant grown from the myr­tle used in The Queen’s wed­ding bou­quet of 1947.  The tra­di­tion of car­ry­ing myr­tle begun after Queen Vic­to­ria was giv­en a nosegay con­tain­ing myr­tle by Prince Albert’s grand­moth­er dur­ing a vis­it to Gotha in Ger­many.  In the same year, Queen Vic­to­ria and Prince Albert bought Osborne House as a fam­i­ly retreat, and a sprig from the posy was plant­ed against the ter­race walls, where it con­tin­ues to thrive today. The myr­tle was first car­ried by Queen Vic­to­ria eldest daugh­ter, Princess Vic­to­ria, when she mar­ried in 1858, and was used to sig­ni­fy the tra­di­tion­al inno­cence of a bride.

If you want to add lily-of-the-val­ley for your wed­ding bou­quet, be pre­pared to pay top dol­lar. These small flow­ers are very expen­sive, hard to get out­side of the month of May and can wilt easily.

If you are florist and want to cre­ate a bou­quet like Kate’s, talk to your sup­pli­ers about avail­abil­i­ty and how to con­di­tion the flow­ers. You most like­ly  will need to wire the stems to keep them look­ing perky and use a foam bou­quet hold­er as well.

My best wish­es go out to the roy­al cou­ple, the Duke and Duchess of Cam­bridge. May they have a won­der­ful and hap­py life together.