Wedding Flowers & Bouquets | Interview with expert wedding florist in Spain

Tips and advice from expert wedding florist in Spain to make your wedding in Spain beautiful with exquisite wedding bouquets and floral decorations.

Congratulations, your big day is approaching and it’s time to think about one of the most important components of your wedding day—groom and wedding dress aside of course!—wedding flowers & bouquets.

No other decoration says ‘wedding’ quite like flowers do, in fact the practice of brides carrying bouquets dates to antiquity. Ancient Greeks and Romans, even Egyptians, carried fragrant herbs and spices to ward off bad luck during weddings, with the flowers symbolising a new beginning, fertility, happiness, and fidelity.

Flowers are a key component of any wedding and it’s important to match them with your wedding theme, be it romantic, rustic, vintage or modern. Sometimes the choice can be overwhelming, but in the right hands, with expert guidance, finding the right flower for you on your special day can be insightful and fun.

To help you find your perfect wedding flower, Sunshine Weddings Spain has reached out to bespoke wedding florist in Marbella, Janne Valentin Lassen, for her tips and advice on how to go about making your wedding in Spain beautiful with exquisite wedding bouquets and floral decorations.

Thanks for joining us today, Janne, tell us a bit about yourself and your new partnership with, what I believe is, the largest florist in Marbella?

My name is Janne, I am Danish and have been living in Spain since 1993. I started my own flower shop “Flor Valentin ” in 2007, and slowly built up a wedding business. Flor Valentin had 110 weddings booked for 2020, and almost all were cancelled or postponed to 2021. Due to the coronavirus I was forced to close my shop on the 14th March 2020 and I never opened up again.

At the same time there have been a lot of changes where my shop was located, and this has altered my customer base. This change had been ongoing for the last three years and I had been considering changes in my business strategy. In October 2020 I finally decided that I would close my little flower shop “Flor Valentin ” permanently after 13 years.

It was an extremely difficult and emotional decision to make, because flowers and particularly wedding flowers are very important in my life.  So, I found a way to carry on this love of flowers and entered into an agreement with a company called Viveros Guzman located in Marbella. Here I am leading and managing a brand-new flower shop called “Urbn Bloom,” considered one of the most renowned suppliers of flower arrangements for weddings.

We work closely with a few selected partners and can deliver anywhere along the coast between Malaga and Marbella.

How did you get into wedding florals?

Five years after I opened my flower shop, customers started asking for wedding flowers. It started up slowly, and little by little I was contacted by different wedding planners and ended up with up to 120 weddings booked for each season.

How would you describe your design style? (e.g. traditional, modern, rustic, organic) and what advice would you give brides who are a bit undecided on which style to choose.

My style I would describe as Scandinavian, rustic, romantic, simple, but I can adapt to whatever the brides ask me to do.

For a bride-to-be who is a bit undecided on which style to choose, I would advise her to think about what she liked best and what she did not like at the last wedding where she attended as a guest. She needs to think about the colour on bridesmaid dresses so flowers match. She must carefully consider what style she is going for and whether it matches the venue.

It is important to ask her the right questions so that the florist can get her back on track, and build her confidence again.

If a bride-to-be gives you a picture of a bouquet and/or centerpiece that they like, can you recreate it?

Inspirational images are a great help in beginning the design process and I will always strive to create the designs as closely as possible to what the bride-to-be sends me.

In fact, usually when a bride contacts me, I ask them to send pictures of style, colours and flowers, and from that I calculate prices and make them a completely personal quote.

It’s also a good idea for them to send me images or describe their wedding theme too so that the flowers used reflect the overall wedding theme, or the bridal and bridesmaids dresses.

What other décor elements can you provide (aisle runner, candelabras, trees, chuppah, etc.)?

I endeavor to make each wedding as beautiful as possible by providing beautiful floral arrangements, and for this I often use various vases, bowls, ceremonial setups, furniture, candle holders etc.

What is your personal, favourite flower for a wedding and why?

Such a question you cannot ask a florist! (We love ALL flowers….) But my favourite flowers are peonies. I would say I have a favourite flower for each season. Spring flowers I love buttercups and tulips, summer flowers I love peonies and dahlias, autumn flowers I love heater flowers, winter flowers I love hyacinths.

But, basically there is no “best” flower because each one is lovely in its own right, and it really comes down to personal preference for each bride, some might want a big and bold flower, others a light and dainty one. Choosing the best flower often comes down to the vision each bride has for her day, and I’ll always be on hand to ensure the bride gets her dream wedding flowers and bouquets.

A huge and heartfelt thanks from the Sunshine Weddings Spain team for your time and the beautiful images Janne, it has been a real pleasure! We look forward to continuing working with you in future weddings.