Weddings are the biggest day of your life, and every detail needs to be exactly right, which is why we're sharing our favorite greenery for wedding design ideas.
Using carefully curated flowers, foliage, greenery leaves, and other natural accessories works with practically any theme. From a rustic wedding full of ferns and a wild-sourced bouquet to a modern city wedding with grass walkways and vine crowns for the bridesmaids, there are endless possibilities to elevate the look and feel of your big day.
Here are 17 ways to incorporate greenery into your wedding, from flower arrangements to table settings. Take your time and let your imagination grow until you capture the exact atmosphere you want as you enter the room to everyone’s applause, newly married to the love of your life!
Why Using Greenery Leaves & Foliage is a Fantastic Wedding Trend
Greenery for weddings is a fantastic way to add color and texture to your wedding. It's also a great way to make your wedding unique.
No matter what style of wedding you're having, greenery for weddings can be incorporated into it in many ways. For instance, if your theme is tropical or beachy and you want palm leaves for decoration, then pick up some fresh juniper branches.
Another example would be using large pinecones at an outdoor winter wonderland-themed party as centerpieces on each table where guests will sit down to enjoy their meal together.
This has become a popular trend in the last decade or so because brides, wedding planners, and decorators are aware of how much more we appreciate a natural element in our events. It reconnects you with the greater world and is the perfect canvas to complement practically any other theme or style you are trying to achieve.
You could be featuring glam designs, boho dresses, tropical locations, or minimalistic features – no matter what, greenery decorations do the trick.
What Wedding Greenery Types are Best?
There is a massive variety of greenery leaves and decorations you can use. Some of the more well-known featured in our store include:
Eucalyptus is a popular choice for weddings; it's durable, hardy, and can grow to be quite large. Eucalyptus is an excellent choice if you're looking to add some greenery to your wedding without going overboard. The leaves are long and thin with a green color that has a silver sheen adding depth to any type of decoration you choose.
Ferns are one of the most common types of greenery for weddings. This is because they're not just beautiful but highly versatile. Not only can you use them to create a stunning backdrop, but they also make incredible table decorations.
Branches are a leafy way to add greenery to your wedding. They work well as walls, backdrops, ceilings, or floors. The easiest way to use branches is by simply laying them on the ground in an alternating pattern of dark and light colors to look like a floor runner. If you want something more complicated, try using branches as walls or on the altar.
Aspidistras are a living wall of green that will thrive in the space you provide them, cleaning up your environment for you. The long, slender size creates a ton of versatility that works well in bouquets and centerpieces. We’ve even seen them used as the cover of programs!
If you're looking to have a wedding that's as unique and adventurous as you are, pampas grass can be a great choice. It's inexpensive, sustainable, and can be used in a variety of ways. You can line a runner with grass elements, create a unique greenery wedding arch, or feature different staging elements of your big day with grass flooring.
Smilax vines are creeping vines that grow in clumps and trail along the ground and up walls. They are delicate vines with provocative, simple beauty and elongated leaves. These and other vines are wildly popular with wedding planners because of their historical significance and how they add a bit of lush passion to an event.
Tropical leaves are a wonderful way to add some flavor to your wedding. If you're lucky enough to live in a warm climate for foliage, consider planting these plants around your venue before the big day. If not, these arrangements will transport your guests into a different world of your own making.
Palms are tropical plants that add a touch of the exotic to your wedding. They’re great for a beach wedding, but they can also be used to decorate the ceremony site as well as the reception site if you want to have an indoor/outdoor wedding. Plus, palms are versatile—they can play into any theme, from rustic to modern and even vintage.
These soft grey wedding greenery can be used as part of your centerpieces or flower arrangements, but they also make great additions to bouquets. Their unique shape makes them a beautiful complement to any type of floral arrangement you choose for your big day.
We wanted to point out this unique greenery for weddings option because of its lush, deep color and incredible aromatic profile. This combination makes it an excellent choice for many DIY weddings where you can both save a few dollars and drastically enhance the overall ambiance of your event.
How to Incorporate this Greenery for Weddings
Whether you’re planning a traditional or modern wedding, greenery can be used in a variety of creative ways. If you want to incorporate greenery into your ceremony, consider using some of these options:
1 - Add to Your Wedding Gown
You can also add greenery to your wedding gown. An excellent way to do this is by placing it on the front of your dress as a belt or tying it around the waist of your gown. You can also use it as a veil, headpiece, or necklace. The possibilities are endless!
2 - Build a Unique Wedding Bouquet
You don’t have to settle for an ordinary bouquet. Instead, you can create a unique look that reflects your style. This is an excellent choice to use when building a greenery wedding bouquet because it adds color and texture, making the flowers stand out even more than they would on their own. You can also use greenery for the bridesmaids' bouquets or flower girl baskets.
3 - Create Flower Girl Crowns
Flower girl crowns are an adorable way to incorporate your wedding theme into the ceremony. We love fern, baby blue, and eucalyptus flower girl crowns with a couple of handfuls of baby’s breath to top it off. You can easily attach these crowns with a little wire or some natural grass fibers.
Images via (left to right,top to bottom): MAVKAFLORALSTUDIOS, theknot, notonthehighst, wildroseandsparrow.
4 - Enhance Your Wedding Programs
Enhance your wedding programs by using greenery to decorate the covers of your program, on the inside pages, and along the spine. You can use one large piece of greenery or several smaller pieces to create a finished look that’s as unique as you are.
Images via: Brides
5 - Integrate Wedding Greenery in a Wedding Arch
The wedding greenery arch is one of the most popular decorations for weddings. It can be used to decorate the venue and create a romantic atmosphere or simply to create a natural theme with minimal effort. Many brides will keep their wedding arch and replant it in their backyards for future anniversaries.
6 - Line the Aisle
If you’re having a big ceremony, use wedding greenery types to line the aisle. It’s best to choose greenery with small leaves, so it doesn’t take up too much space, but if you want more volume and color, then go for something with larger leaves. This is also a fantastic option for pampas grass combined with driftwood or olive branches.
7 - Set a Natural Theme
What’s the best way to ensure your wedding colors will be as unique as you? Look no further than nature. Green and white are popular color schemes for weddings, so why not use them in every aspect of your big day? Building a theme that transposes the traditional and creates a timeless look will elevate everything from the photos to the first dance.
8 - Create a Wedding Greenery Wall
For a fresh take on greenery, try creating your own grass wall. The best part about this design is that you can use any type of greenery in any color, texture, or size you want! It's all about mixing it up and ensuring everything looks natural and cohesive. Use small pieces of leaves to fill in some space, or place larger ones in front of your backdrop to create the illusion of depth. This is a desirable choice for the bar area, placement settings, or gift table.
9 - Use Greenery in Your Centerpieces
While there are plenty of traditional flora centerpieces, using more greenery leaves and decoration options adds a botanical aroma and depth, unlike other events. You also can unlock your creativity by forging the various greenery decorations into objects, scenes, animals, and other engaging visuals.
10 - Suspend it From the Ceiling
You can easily hang a few palms to break up the overall look of your event but have a bit more fun by adding complex arrangements and hanging treats that captivate your guests. These encapsulate your wedding with tunnels, walkways, hidden seating areas, and privacy sectionals when you need a quick break.
11 - Add Greenery to Guest Gifts
Your guests are the ones that make your wedding day special, and they deserve to feel as appreciated as possible. One way to do this is by giving each of them a unique, personalized gift. Try wrapping their gifts in greenery. This simple decoration can add an element of nature to their gifts and show them how much you cherish all their support.
12 - Use Floating Air Plants
Air plants are an attractive alternative to traditional table centerpieces. These easy-to-grow plants don’t need soil, so they can be displayed in a variety of ways. You can even use them as floating centerpieces. One of the more creative ways we’ve seen these used is in the restroom areas to continue your theme into a space hardly ever considered by traditional wedding planners.
13 - Drape it Over the Seats
While you're at it, why not drape some greenery over the seats for your guests? This adds a touch of nature to any setting. You can even use greenery to create a canopy over the seats or use it to make a frame around them. If you want another option for decorating your wedding ceremony or reception area with greenery, consider using it as an accent piece behind where everyone sits—it makes for great photos!
Images via (left to right,top to bottom): Ling's Moment, Laser Cut Wraps, Holly Clark
14 - Theme Your Individual Tables
Match unique wedding greenery types to specific table themes. That way, when guests arrive, they find their names located at the eucalyptus table or fern table. This is another opportunity to craft creative structures, animals, or objects out f the greenery for wedding tables that further enhances the guest organization experience.
15 – Building a Stunning Greenery Altar
Yes, a greenery wedding arch is beautiful, but many brides overlook having a greenery altar from the ground up. This can include beautiful flowers and water elements that become the focal point of the entire event and will surely make for once-in-a-lifetime photos.
16 – Adding Wedding Greenery to Your Food
A touch of green on the wedding cake or a line of branches and grass surrounding the charcuterie buffet goes a long way to elevating the event experience. It carries over the theming to less used locations. It impresses your guests with the dedication to detail you have considered in planning your big day.
Images via (left to right,top to bottom): trophy cupcakes, Brides.
17 - Create a Backdrop for Guest Photos
A wedding backdrop is a terrific way to create a beautiful and natural setting for your big day. It can be used as a backdrop for your ceremony, reception, or even just the photos that you plan to take after the wedding. Have a bit of fun and create a secondary wedding greenery wall just for guests who want to have a more natural selfie backdrop for sharing online.
Where to Find Wedding Greenery Types
Weddings are a celebration of love, but we don’t always think about how much greenery can add to that. Greenery has been used in weddings for decades and has only recently come back into style. This trend is one that will continue for years to come as it offers so many different options for couples who want something unique on their big day.
Whether you choose leaves, ferns, or flowers, there are so many different ways to incorporate greenery into your wedding decor. If you’re looking for ideas on how best to use greenery during your ceremony or reception, reach out to our team at Greenchoice Flowers. We have a wide range of fresh greenery for weddings that will transform your event into a lasting, lifelong memory.
You can also buy greens and foliage for DIY events that go beyond weddings. Product launches, birthdays, anniversaries, life events, and so much more are elevated by the simple introduction of natural greenery decorations. So shop now and create an atmosphere your guest will never forget!