Why I am not a fan of boutonnieres

I have been photographing weddings here in Cancun and the Riviera Maya for over 7 years now, and I have to say, I am no longer a fan of boutonnieres.

I understand that they are traditional and some boutonnieres are beautiful, but after photographing over 500 weddings here and seeing so many problems with them, I’m no longer a fan.

Here are my Top 3 reasons I do not like Boutonnieres.

1) They will ruin your shirt

Boutonnieres are designed to go on jackets, and a lot of times the groom is wearing a jacket, but with 80% of groomsmen wearing only a shirt to the wedding, they get placed on a shirt in the majority of my weddings. And there is a 90% chance the boutonniere will make an unsightly hole in the shirt. And let’s face it, it might not ruin the shirt, but it will have a weird hole in it near the pocket.

Therefore I suggest if the groom is wearing a jacket and the rest of the guys are wearing shirts, don’t worry about a boutonniere for the rest of the guys and get one awesome one for the groom.

 2) It will not sit properly.

I can’t tell you how many times I am continually asked the groom and/or groomsmen to adjust the boutonniere so that it is sitting correctly. And as a photographer who loves authentic natural moments, it can be challenging to keep everyone in the moment when there is a flower flipping upside down on his shirt.

Now if the groom is wearing a jacket, then there is a 90% chance the boutonniere will sit properly and you will not have a problem.

3) They die quickly

Boutonniere’s die rather soon under any conditions, but here where the temperature is often 30+C (90+F), they do not last long at all. As a result, I end up Photoshopping a lot of them out at the request of the client as no flower is better than a dead one.

And again, if you are wearing a jacket and/or vest (waistcoat) and have a place for a boutonniere, then please wear one, and when it starts to die we can remove it, but please have reasonable expectations for the little flower.

What to do if you want to wear a boutonniere on a shirt? 

If you really want to wear a boutonniere at your wedding (or you want your man to wear one) AND he is only wearing a shirt, then please to try to get a very light one. The lighter the better as the shirt alone is seldom enough to hold one in place.

Finally, I want to mention something that happens at nearly every wedding. Inerrability the boutonnieres are delivered to the guy’s room, they try them on and realize that not only it is ruining the shirt, but also that they are not sitting correctly. And every single time, the guys think of the bride and believe this is something she wanted so let’s do it guys.

This desire to make the bride’s wedding day special is a common theme I see in nearly every wedding, and I love it. It’s fantastic to see guys wanting to make one person’s day special, but I also can’t tell you how many times after the bride saw that the free boutonnieres from the resort were not sitting correctly she wanted them removed.

So if you are a bride reading this, please talk to your man, so he knows what to do.

And if you are a groom, then please talk to your fiancé so together you can make this decision together

I hope you found this helpful and if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact us. 

Thank you,
Dean Sanderson