Mary looked so elegant in her wedding dress and I love the simple bouquet of white calla lilies and asparagus fern.
The dress, the headpiece and the veil looked fabulous and the calla lily bouquet, simple but not understated. But I sort of thought it was fairly modern design for a bridal bouquet, so it got me thinking if the bouquet was historically correct, so i did a little research.
Most of the bridal bouquets of the 20's were fairly large and often a shower or a tied posy/ tied bunches bouquet or an arm held bouquets. So, the shape of Mary's bouquet in historically correct :) Now, for the flower materials. The bridal bouquets often consisted of hanging materials, so it makes sense that the either ivy or the asparagus fern was used, but I wasn't sure about the calla lily.
The Calla Lily is originally from the continent of Africa and it's history goes far back as the Romans. In ancient Rome, people used the calla lilies to mark the passage of the winter solstice. They planted calla lilies inside the entry way of their homes in order to enjoy the blooms in the winter solstice. The greater the display of the calla lilies, the wealthier the residents were. The calla lilies were so highly valued that they were often decorated with filaments of gold around the edges of the flower.
However, over time, the calla lilies became associated with funerals. This is most likely due to the fact they bloomed profusely during the winter solstice, which somewhat of a gloomy period. Yet, the calla lilies are associated with the lily as a symbol of purity and as such, these spectacular flowers along with the exotic South African varieties being introduced, they are beginning to rival the rose in popularity for bridal bouquets.
This means that around the time of Mary's wedding, the calla lilies were a funeral flower, so it would be unlikely to have a bridal bouquet of calla lilies... But, I love her bouquet and it looks great, so who cares right? lol
