When thinking about wedding flowers your mind goes to the bride’s bouquet, decorations for the church, your wedding venue, your wedding cake. But few of us know that man get to wear flower at a wedding too, especially the groom, best man, ushers and, if you want and you can afford, all your wedding guests. The flowers the men get to wear at a wedding are called buttonholes.
Wedding buttonholes link the theme of your chosen wedding flowers with your wedding guests and immediate family, and the groom’s buttonhole is traditionally taken from the bride’s bouquet to symbolize sharing. There is a large variety of wedding buttonholes, you can choose from single or double bloom buttonholes, to wired and stem wrapped with or without foliage buttonhole, jewel decoration buttonhole or simply on its own.
Although many wedding planners say that it is ok for the best man and all the other guests to have the same kind of wedding buttonholes as the groom, I must say that I don’t agree. Usually a wedding bouquet has two or tree different flowers in it. I believe that the groom should wear the most special one of those flowers as buttonhole, and the others can wear a wedding buttonholes made of the other flowers. For example, if the bride’s bouquet has purple and white roses, the groom should have a wedding buttonhole with a purple rose, and the best man should wear a buttonhole made with a white rose. I believe it is important to be able to distinguish the groom form a group of men, especially if there are some guests that haven’t met him before the wedding.
The boutonniere should be worn on the outside of the buttonhole of the left lapel, and not in it. It is common to secure the wedding buttonhole in place by using a pearl-headed pin from the back of the lapel. The pin will then be invisible from the front. If you have a gold or decorative pin you may want to show it off and then you could pin the boutonniere from the front.
In our country there is a tradition that says that the groom should wear his wedding buttonholes on his right side, and the other should wear it on the left side. It is the only way that the guests that haven’t met the groom would recognize him. As my wedding bouquet and the wedding corsage will be made of gladiolas, it is only appropriate for the wedding buttonholes to have the same flower. I haven’t decided on the colors though. 
