In November last year, Claire Sankey of Lily & May shared details of how to create textured buttonholes/boutonnières which turned out to be a real hit with our readers. We love to hear from our sponsors and other suppliers on what the know best, so today, we've invited Claire back to talk about something oft-over looked when planning a wedding, that is, the notion of scent. We're not talking perfume - we've covered that here. We're talking floral scent and how it can impact on your day. Do you consider the scent of a bloom when you think about this flower being a part of your wedding day? This is a fascinating little read and we hope you enjoy it. Over to you Claire!

I look forward to May every year, why? Well, it's this time of year that Lily of the Valley appears in the garden and the scent always reminds me of my wedding day. My bouquet contained a mass of this fragrant flower and forever more I will be reminded of this day every time I smell this beautiful bloom.

Particular scents and smells can often bring back memories, it's worth considering flowers that not only look beautiful but smell beautiful too. For this reason I often encourage couples to add at least one scented flower into their designs.

A great choice for scent is Freesia, this small delicate flower really packs a punch with its scent, which is probably why I often sneak this into most of the weddings I work on throughout the year.

Lilacs (Syringa) have a heavenly scent and are available in some beautiful vivid colours, which add great depth and texture to both bouquets and table centres. Below is one of our bouquets which contains both Freesia and Lilacs along with Eucalyptus a great choice for scented foliage.

Not all commercial roses are scented so keep this in mind when selecting your wedding flowers, there are some wonderful garden roses that have a stunning scent such as the White O'Hara Rose and the David Austin Garden Roses. In the bouquet below a mixture of non scented and scented (White O'Hara) roses have been used.

Stocks (especially the white variety) have a really strong scent and are also a great way of creating texture in a bouquet. The example below contains both Juliet David Austin Roses and Stocks.

Herbs are another way to incorporate scent; Flowering Mint, Rosemary and Dried Lavender are some of my favourites, many of the grooms I work with seem to really love the idea of Rosemary in a buttonhole.

And if you are lucky enough to get married during Peony season (typically April - July) then these are not only beautiful with their fluffy texture, they also provide a scent that will remind you of your wedding day in years to come! (image by Kerrie Mitchell).

We'd love to hear from our readers on this one - have you ever given consideration to floral scent or might you be inspired to pay more attention to wedding flowers scent having read this feature today?

Love Annabel

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