Bouquets with Local Herbs: Aromatherapy to Calm Your Wedding Jitters

Image source: Weddingandpartynetwork.com

I went to a beautiful wedding in Baltimore this weekend. It was at the Pier 5 Hotel on the waterfront. It’s a beautiful hotel—modern Alice in Wonderland style décor, shimmering lights dancing on the marble floor, and large comfortable rooms with the coziest beds of any hotel I’ve ever stayed in. It’s also very eco-conscious. They have low-water toilets, eco-friendly toiletries, and for every day you don’t use the cleaning service they make a donation to a local nature conservancy.

Image source: Facebook.com

I think the best feature the hotel has to offer is their beautiful lighthouse garden, a wide green space right by the water surrounded by sculptures and cobblestones.

Image source: Romanphotography.com

The wedding ceremony was supposed to be on the lawn (another expression of the couple’s love of nature), but the weather didn’t cooperate and we had to move inside. The bride and groom are some of my closest friends and I was worried that they’d be upset about the last minute change. Instead, they were all smiles, rolling with the punches beautifully. I thought back to my own wedding when the tiniest hitch had me hyperventilating into a paper bag. How were they able to be so calm and collected? The hotel was lovely but it wasn’t the outdoor ceremony under the bright blue sky I knew they badly wanted. When I asked the bride later, she told me her secret: aromatherapy.

Image source: Timmesterphoto.com

I’m a skeptic at heart. I don’t buy into the new age crystal healing stuff or homeopathy or energy massage. I like hard science. But I couldn’t deny my friend’s happy calm. When I asked what she meant she told me that every flower display in the whole wedding—from the tables to the boutonnieres to her bouquet—was filled with locally-grown herbs like lavender, thyme, and mint. One sniff of her bouquet was enough. I felt brighter, happier, and undeniably calmer. She said she’d been huffing her bouquet all day and that it had had a remarkable effect on her state of mind. As soon as I got home I looked it up and, sure enough, there is some scientific evidence that it can help with a whole host of problems, from anxiety to nausea to depression.

Image source: Gardenweddingexpert.com

The science is incomplete and there are no FDA regulations or guidelines about using scents to treat ailments, but the anecdotal evidence is strong. Besides, these herbs smell incredible. By the end of the wedding, the whole banquet hall smelled like an herb garden. And the textures of the herbs’ leaves in the flower arrangements were unusual and lovely. This is an easy, inexpensive, and eco-friendly way to help yourself stay calm, happy, and centered on your wedding day.

Read more green wedding blogs

The Green Bride Guide has everything you need to plan a real green wedding. We've got a site full of inspiration -- from real wedding stories to eco-friendly wedding day items to organic gifts -- and offer the largest green wedding directory in the country!