From royal aisles to red-carpet “I do’s,” celebrity weddings have always nudged couples towards new flowers, mechanics, and formats. Here’s a quick tour through the big moments that have influenced wedding trends.
Let’s throw it way, way back – to 1840 and Queen Victoria’s marriage to Prince Albert. She wore a floral headpiece of orange blossoms, which helped cement the “white wedding” aesthetic that has never really left us since. The visual of her flower crown spread through newspapers and fashion plates, influencing brides then and now.
Jumping forward a century, in the 1950s, Grace Kelly brought in an era of minimalism with her posy of all lily-of-the-valley —refined, fragrance-forward, and small. It remains one of the most iconic royal bouquets. Meanwhile, counterpoint to that minimalism, Jackie Kennedy’s bouquet of pink-and-white spray orchids and gardenias embraced the mid-century love of luxe and perfumed blooms for a highly stylized approach to florals. Both these trends carried forward for several decades.
In 1982, Princess Dianna set the floral world on fire with her dramatic trailing bouquet, which rocketed cascade bouquets to the top of wedding trends throughout the 1980s.
By the 1990s, another famous bride, Carolyn Bessett married JFK Jr. in a minimalist slip dress carrying a tiny lily-of-the-valley posy, ushering in the return of chic minimalism for weddings in the 90s. The “single-flower, low-profile bouquet” has cycled back every few years since, including presently with the return of the calla lily bouquet trend.
In 2011, Prince William and Kate Middleton lined Westminster Abbey’s nave with potted field maples and hornbeams—bringing the landscape into the ceremony—and kept the floral palette mostly local, seasonal, and green-white. Kate’s bouquet (lily-of-the-valley, hyacinth, myrtle, sweet William) also rekindled interest in Victorian symbolism. In many ways, we owe the wildflower, natural approach we’ve enjoyed the past decade to this royal couple.
Kim Kardashian and Kaye West launched the large-scale installation trend with their towering wall of roses, peonies, and tuberose at their Florence ceremony in 2014. The wedding industry and photo backdrops have never been the same!
When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle got married in 2018, their wedding featured seasonal, British-grown materials (beech, birch, hornbeam, white garden roses, peonies, foxgloves), reinforcing the naturalistic, garden-style trends William and Kate had started. And this time these royal designs were created without floral foam. The blooms were repurposed into bouquets for hospice patients the next day. Sustainability finally became trendy in wedding florals!
Also in 2018, Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas wed in a multi-day Western/Hindu celebration that put vibrant floral garlands of marigolds in front of Western audiences, accelerating demand for cross-cultural floral elements and more color.
Perhaps thanks to the pandemic or just as luck would have it, we have not had a major “royal” wedding in nearly a decade. But now we are on the eve of one at long last and you can bet this one is going to sweep wedding trends for years and years to come! If the setting for Travis Kelce’s proposal to Taylor Swift is any indication, flowers are going to play a big role in the “Wedding Era”.
We flower farmers are trying to get an advanced idea of what trends might spark from this star-struck union so we have enough time to plant and grow what will be in demand. Here are some thoughts:
We could call this vibe “Editorial Garden Romance”. There will no doubt be photo-first florals front and center with mini arches, candle meadows, and vignette corners at weddings and showers in the coming months. The blooms in the recipes for these “content-ready” installs will likely lean heavily on blousy garden favorites like peonies, roses, hydrangeas and delphinium. Think lush “garden glam”. Ultra romantic, staged but “natural”, just like their proposal photos.
Taylor is likely to draw from her album art and tour fashion for wedding inspiration. Until the big day and the big reveal, we can expect all the other brides-to-be in the world to be looking there as well. Friendship bracelets, pastel colors, woodland themes, lucky 13, and maybe even cats could be trending in weddings next year. Taylor does love a good easter-egg moment so you may want to talk to couples about hiding one in their florals too, like a 13 stem bouquet for the bridesmaids or 13 candles on the head table.
Red could very well be a prominent color, given Taylor’s 2012 album, her signature lip color, and Travis’ team colors. Unexpected pops of red were already gained traction recently, so we’re going to lean heavily into red for 2026. Speaking of Travis, we do think he’ll pull out some dramatic groom style, including a floral lapel. We love this trend already and we’ll be growing all the small face flowers and its-and-bits that make them so fun to create!
Another possible color trend could be burnt soft orange, which is playing heavily into promotional images for Life of a Showgirl. Taylor also wore a orange-hued lipstick in the proposal photos. Dare we forecast a mix of reds, terra cotta, pinks, and whites? The anticipation is real!
Here at PFG we’re hoping the famous lovebirds prioritize seasonal, local and sustainable! It’s certainly the beginning of a new era for wedding flowers, one way or another! If you get an inside scoop on how the trends are shifting, please share with us so we can get to growing just the right flowers!