Seasonal Design Highlight: A Wild Summer Wedding Arbor

In this Team Flower Seasonal Design Highlight, we’re featuring sprawling bundles of wildflowers in a myriad of colors that come together to form a captivating wedding arbor. This arbor captures the essence of the summer season—as well as the hearts of the couple for whom it was created .

This wild boho wedding arbor design was made complete with a muted rainbow of flowers, including soft blue delphinium and rose pink leptospermum.

The rounded top of this design was the perfect touch to soften the corners of the hand-built arbor.

In the first floral consultation between the bride and designer, the bride relayed that she desired an arbor but wasn’t quite sure what she wanted it to look like.

Both looked over a few inspiration photos with various designs together, and the designer priced based upon a general amount of flowers for the design rather than an exact look. (It’s important to note that this couple was laid back and completely trusting!)

A few months later, the bride sent a photo to the designer of the arbor that her fiancé had built—a simple dark-stained two-post arbor.

From there, the floral designer began to talk more about potential designs and landed on an ornate, rounded floral top to soften and offset the harsh corners of the arbor.

Having never created something like this before, the designer took to the Team Flowe r Communit y for inspiration and floral mechanics. This was before the foam-free movement took off, and she chose to use a block of Oasis foam cut into thirds with each third wrapped in chicken wire. Each block was attached to the arbor using zip ties.

The creation of this arbor was a challenge, as the designer was also the Matron of Honor in this wedding! She knew she wouldn’t be able to design on site the day-of.

The floral designer communicated with the venue staff beforehand for approval to move the arbor to a shaded space so she could create the piece. Once it was created, she stored the pieces in a cooler overnight. Everything held perfectly! On the wedding day, her flower friend turned assistant re-attached the pieces, filled any holes, and sprayed the flowers and foam with water to help protect them from the intense summer heat.

Pepperberry was chosen along with bay leaves to provide a draping look.

Quick Tips for Summer Wedding Arbor Design

Leave room in your budget for “designer’s choice” flowers—especially if you’re serving a bride who trusts you. You’ll find that there are blooms that might catch your eye when you’re visiting the wholesale cooler or taking one last look at the local farms’ lists! For this arbor, it was the leptospermum that brought it to life!
An insane amount of greenery and flowers will fit into one third of an Oasis block. A little goes a long way. The more you stuff in, though, the more important the chicken wire becomes to hold it all together.
Hire people you can trust with your flowers and your designs—someone who can see your vision and execute it with excellence.
When designing an arbor for deep summer heat (like in Georgia in July), it’s imperative to choose flowers that will hold. Ideally, you’ll choose blooms that are natively blooming—or source from a nearby flower farm. These blossoms will generally hold much better than those found at a wholesaler.