6 Ways to Use Lavender in Your Wedding

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Planning a wedding is not an easy task. With so many detailed decisions, from the venue to food to invitations, it is helpful to choose a theme to tie everything together. For me, that theme was lavender. To weave lavender throughout my wedding plans, I used it in six specific ways:

1) Floral arrangements

Putting lavender in floral arrangements is the most obvious way to include lavender in your wedding. It adds a hint of purple to bouquets and can add a rustic edge to table arrangements. Arrange a small lavender bouquet  in a small jar and voilá! You have a simple, rustic table decoration for your cocktail hour! Alternatively it can also be used in garden-like bridal bouquets as a perfect accompaniment to roses and other flowers! 

And to make arrangements even easier, dried lavender doesn’t need water! Use it as a groom’s or groomsman’s boutonnière—and it will become a wedding keepsake. However, I would caution against using it in a hairpiece…dried lavender can be incredibly fragile and might not last through the celebrations. 

In addition to all of these suggestions, who would say no to the relaxing scent of lavender floating from the floral arrangements to calm any wedding nerves? And if you really can’t have enough lavender, consider holding your summer wedding at a lavender farm! 

2) Color 

The next obvious lavender addition would be using lavender as a theme color. Theme colors can be used in decorations, invitations, programs, and as wedding party attire. For my wedding plans, lavender featured in the wedding party attire: in grooms men’s ties and in bridesmaid’s dresses. A hint: your wedding party does not have to perfectly match color for a cohesive effect. As long as you have an overall similarity between outfit styles, such as matching bridesmaid dress length and fabric, you can mix colors. For my plans, the bridesmaids were going to wear long chiffon dresses with a mix of blues and lavender colors. And this way they could all be unique in their own way! 

3) Food

A slightly less obvious way to include lavender is as a spice in the food served. For a summer wedding, greet your guests with a cool glass of lavender lemonade. Include lavender in the wedding cake—or even as an elegant floral cake topper! My husband and I ended up making our own wedding cake with earl grey and lavender flavoring. We carefully decorated the cake with edible lavender buds and stems, creating a delicate floral appearance. (We aren’t experienced cake makers/decorators, so your caterer can make it look even better!) 

Take note that lavender spice isn’t just confined to lemonade and desserts. It pairs well in many main entrees, including chicken and soups. Take a look at lavender cookbooks to get more ideas—I highly recommend Shirley Shipley’s The Lavender Cookbook. And definitely ask your caterer if they already have recipes including lavender in their repertoire. In any case, lavender spice is tasty and unexpected—making your wedding dinner even more memorable! 

4) Substitute for Rice or Confetti

Need an environmentally-friendly send-off? Try tossing lavender buds. Not only are they more biodegradable than rice or confetti, but they also are lighter and less prone to messing up hair and outfits. And they smell nice too! 

5) Invitations and other Paper Products 

You can bring a lavender color or floral theme into your invitations and other paper products. These products include programs, save-the-dates, and signs. Use drawings of lavender flowers on your invitations and programs…and this will go along well with a garden or rustic vibe too! Or you can be more colorful with a splash of lavender color. Signs can be rustic wood, lavender color, or simply be decorated with floral greenery arrangements. You can choose your designs to set the event’s vibe from the very beginning! 

6) Guest Favors

It is fairly standard to have small gifts for all of your wedding guests. These don’t have to be crazy, just something small and hopefully memorable for them to take home. One of my favorite guest favors was from a friend’s wedding: she put a small amount of loose leaf tea in small bottles for each guest to take home. It was enough tea to brew two separate cups…and each guest had a different variety of tea! 

Now obviously, you could copy that idea and have different lavender tea combinations, but you can also have lavender sachets, lavender chocolate, lotions, etc. My husband and I ended up going with lavender sachets for our paired-down pandemic wedding celebration—and supported some of our local lavender farms in the process! 

I hope this makes your wedding planning a bit easier, or at least gives you some ideas. Do you have any ideas not mentioned? Comment below!