It’s no secret that we love to design with flowers at Sweet Earth Co. Today the focus is on boutonnières.

What are boutonnières?

They are small arrangements of flowers typically worn by men at special events, like a wedding or anniversary. Boutonnières date back to medieval times, when women would gift knights a small flower or scarf to take into battle, in hopes of warding off bad luck and evil spirits.

While they may not be sent into battle today, they are still sweet and sentimental — and fun to design!

Why we love them at Sweet Earth Co.

Creating wearable flowers is a really fun way to design with flowers. We especially love designing boutonnières and think of them as little mini bouquets.

Boutonnières lend themselves well to layering texture and unconventional materials. Some of our favorites are dried flowers, grasses, berries, and foliage.

Since boutonnières are most commonly worn at weddings, they are a great way to weave the groom and groomsmen into the wedding’s floral story.

Newer boutonnière trends

We’re also really inspired by newer trends for wearable florals, like pocket squares and lapel flowers.

This colorful and fresh pocket square was designed by my friend and collaborator, Natalie Collette over at The Gardenist for a wedding. It’s held in place by a magnet!

View our featured boutonnière

We love making boutonnières so much you can imagine our delight in learning that one of our boutonnières was featured in the Slow Flowers Journal. Be sure to take a look at the other many beautiful designs featured, and if you’d like, you can purchase the full issue from the Slow Flowers Society here.