The royal wedding bouquet: A modest affair

Apr 29, 2011 4:14 AM by Caroline Goddard

Posted in Entertainment / Celebrity Gossip / Hookups, Breakups & Babies

Kate Middleton's Bridal Bouquet

Kate Middleton carried a small bouquet down the aisle at Westminster Abbey. Was it grand enough for such a momentous occasion?

Kate Middleton will not be throwing her bouquet at the royal wedding reception, and it's a good thing because the wee little decoration would immediately be lost in the throng of single aristocrats!

Kate Middleton bouquet

Kate's bridal bouquet is a small, understated affair, much tinier than the cascading piece carried by her late mother-in-law Princess Diana at her own nuptials.

According to the royal press release, "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 bouquet is extremely small in comparison to the beautiful, sweeping gown Kate Middleton -- now Prince William's wife complete with the titles of Earl and Countess of Strathearn -- is wearing, but the tiny blooms echo the delicate lace on the bodice of the dress.

Image courtesy Anthony Stanley/WENN

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Tags: celebrity news celebrity weddings kate middleton prince william royal wedding

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Comments on "The royal wedding bouquet: A modest affair"

The entire look was very borrowed. The bouquet, the dress, the veil, the entire look. Borrowed from Grace Kelly. Such a dissapointment. Kate should have set her own trend. This is what made Grace Kelly's dress so extra special, even today, because it was original to her. And for all the anticipation and speculation of who is the dress designer? I was dissapointed in Sara Burton's modern rendition of Grace Kelly's dress. Am I wrong? Don't designers like their work to be original works of art? Sara should have designed a gown that truly imbues Kate's OWN style while representing her unique creative talent. The result is people identifying the royal wedding dress as a copy of Grace Kelly's gown and the bouquet as being unnoticable small.

To me, the bouquest is as 'crucial' as the veil or the train of a wedding dress. Her bouquest was much too small. Her father looked like he had bird mess on his lapel...but no, it was his tiny boutonniere. A real disappointment...

Kate was an exquistic bride. Her poise and gentle smile made her even more regal. There will always be comments both good and bad about what she did or didn't do. In my opinion, here is a bride who wanted things her way just like other brides would.....Nothing wrong with that.

Well as an ex florist, teacher of floral art, was very dissapointed with Kqtes Bouquet. It was too small for her hight did nothing to enhance the lovely dress. It was to bitty. Ideal for a small bridesmaid

Lily of the Valley has always been my favorite...I thought the bridal bouquet was Elegant! As petite and slender as Kate is the size of the bouquet was PERFECT! A bridal floral bouquet should NEVER be wider than the bride's waist, and she also carried it correctly, right at her waist and not below or above. Pure class, afterall she did marry a Prince!

The Bouquet wasnt in proportion with the dress.It would have made a nice bouquet for a bridesmaid .Kates dress was very Grace kelly.

I am so disappointed in the bouquet. It wasn't the smaller size, the shape, maybe the flowers???? But I am all about Lily of the VAlley. Maybe if it was a very full, deep, a little larger all lily of the valley bouquet that would have made it for me. But then again I didn't love her dress but I will say this....She was a beautiful, radiant, bride and she looked so happy I thought her smile couldn't get any larger. She took her time walking that long isle, she wasn't in a hurry and it is very obvious they are very much in love. I wish them only the best.

Whoever thinks the bouquet is cheap is dead wrong. Lily of the Valley is an extremely expensive flower.

A Classic Bouquet,as a Gardener I think it was the perfect choice, white, simple and fragrant!!!! We don't all like the American garland and is it not over done???? How nice to see a change..........

I think they went for "cheap" all around and it showed, sad to say. And not only cheap in cost, what was with that slinky bridesmaid dress on her sister? The rear (pardon the pun) shots of the bride's party going up the aisle were very, how else to say it, focusing on her pronounced posterior.

I think the bouquet was absolutely stunning and completely appropriate for the dress. Sweet, simple, elegant and above all classic. A bigger bouquet would not have worked at all. Usually cascading bouquets overwhelm the bride and dress and it completely depends on the frame of the bride. Kate is small framed, a bigger bouquet would have swallowed her up. Also that dress does not need to compete with the flowers. Her bridal attire was absolutely pure perfection from head to toe.

I thought the bouquet was undersized for the dress. In proportion to the wedding dress, it looked more like a nosegay rather than a bouquet.

As a professional florist, I was expecting the bride's bouquet to be simpler and smaller in scale than Princess Diana's bouquet (after all, the Charles/Diana wedding was during the 1980's decade of excess) since the current wedding flower trend is "simple elegance". However, I was very surprised just how small and simple Kate's bouquet was. I would've expected her bouquet to be at least an inch or two larger and in a different shape, such as a very simple cascade or simple modified crescent, to best accent the silhouette and formalness of her bridal gown. It's great that local, in-season blooms were used and the addition of Sweet William was a nice touch, but I expected a more flattering and eye-catching overall design.

I can understand the brides desire for a smaller bouquet (lightweight, not wanting to hide much of that beautiful dress, etc.) and the choice of Lily of the Valley is very sweet, traditional and above all... in season. However from a floral designer's point of view it would have been nice to see something a little more elaborate, for flower's sake. At least the back of the shield shaped bouquet could have been a little fuller and more interesting without adding to the size, is my thinking, but YEAH for Lilly of the Valley.

The myrtle in Kate's bouquet is actually from Queen Victoria's own flowering plant.

The bouquet definitely could have been larger, but I'm sure it echos the vintage style gown and diminitive bouquets carried by Grace Kelly, Jackie O, etc. I would've liked to see a bit more of a flowing cascade to balance with the cascading train and volume of the skirt. In 30+ years I 've seen, made and preserved all kinds of bouquets. The hand-wired bouquet and small size make it very lightweight to carry, a throwback to earlier floral design techniques rarely used today with high labor costs and the popularity of handtied stemmed bouquets.