I am so inspired by the beautiful spring weather here in Sydney at the moment. Walking past the Chinese gardens at Darling Harbour every morning and seeing the willows swing in the breeze really has me thinking of the best garden weddings. One of the most beautiful themes for a garden wedding is garden creatures – the bees, birds and of course, butterflies. Pink Frosting worked on a wedding inspired by butterflies for one of our favourite wedding clients whose name is Vanessa. I wasn’t aware until we worked on Vanessa’s wedding earlier this year that her name is also a genus of brush-footed butterfly and for her glorious wedding plans, we took inspiration from this lovely creature. Here are some of the ideas I love from Vanessa’s butterfly inspired garden wedding.

Setting the Scene
You can find beautiful rice paper lanterns with butterfly designs which can be hung in clusters with coloured plain rice paper lanterns in various sizes. Use different lengths of fishing wire to hang the lanterns from trees, balconies and tall branches so the butterfly lanterns blow in the breeze throughout your event.

Make hundreds of origami butterflies in all sorts of shapes, sizes and colours and suspend them from wire stakes throughout the garden. They will sway in the breeze and look real. If you and your bridesmaids aren’t crafty, Christmas decoration butterflies are readily available throughout the year, as are scrapbook and craft supply butterflies from discount department stores and two dollar shops.

Stationery
There are some glorious examples of butterfly inspired letterpress stationery on the market, but if you want something really different, you could create a butterfly on a stake invitation which flutters on a magnet once hung on your guests’ fridge door. Otherwise choose plain stationery and adorn with scrapbook or charm butterflies which are available from good craft shops and even two dollar shops at most shopping centres.

Little Details
Organise a butterfly release for your wedding. Check out Butterfly Releases Australia for a trusted supplier that delivers Australia wide for your wedding day.

Butterfly wings are a whimsical addition to your garden wedding when worn by your flowergirls. Beautiful wings can be sourced through Fairy Magic Byron Bay and they’ll make a lovely gift for your flowergirls after the event. They’re sure to use them for the next fairy party they are invited to!

If you’re using parasols for yourself and your wedding party, glue a random scrapbook butterfly on your parasol to create a pretty illusion for your guests and photos.

Create smaller versions of your garden stake butterflies and have your florist use them as picks in your floral centrepieces and in your floral bouquet.

Butterfly Themed Favor and Bonbonniere Ideas
The best favor designers in the world recognise how beautiful the butterfly icon can be as a wedding symbol. They have designed some fashionable favors perfect to fit with this garden themed wedding. Some of our favourites include butterfly themed candles and bookmarks from Kate Aspen, though Pink Frosting.

For the more adventurous couple, try the mini tin pails or mini watering cans, and grow some wheatgrass in them, then create a tiny butterfly stake and place into the grass. Voila! You have a pretty and practical gift for your wedding guests.

Happy Celebrating!

Kathryn