Had a bride ask for a bouquet that smelled like her grandma's garden, and it threw me for a loop

This was for a wedding in Portland last month. The bride didn't bring a photo, just a list of scents and feelings: 'warm dirt after rain,' 'old roses,' and 'something minty.' I spent a whole day just smelling things at the wholesaler, mixing herbs like rosemary and lemon balm with garden roses that had a real perfume, not the scentless ones. I even tucked in a bit of moss around the stems. When she saw it, she cried and said it was perfect. It made me realize I'd been focusing so much on how things look that I forgot how powerful smell can be for memory. How do you all work scent into your arrangements without it being overpowering?

3 comments

3 Comments

spencer_thomas42mo ago

Totally get that. Had a client ask for a scent that reminded them of a beach vacation. Used dried lavender for a soft base, not too strong. Added a few stems of eucalyptus for that clean, sharp smell. The real trick was rubbing a lemon verbena leaf between my fingers to release just a bit of citrus. Kept it light so it wasn't a punch in the face.

thomas.piper2mo ago

My old lavender base was way too heavy until I tried your light touch method.

anthony4262h ago

Oh hey, did you try layering the scents instead of mixing them all together? I had a similar request once for a wedding where the bride wanted it to smell like her mom's kitchen garden. I put rosemary and thyme low in the stems near the wrap, then used mint leaves just tucked around the roses so you had to get close to catch it. That way the whole thing wasn't screaming at you from across the room, but when she held it up it was like stepping into that memory.