How To Choose Your Perfect Wedding Scent with Penhaligon's
The venue is sorted, food, dress, bridesmaids, music, guests, family politics, shoes, veils, favours, gifts, transport, the honeymoon, all done and dusted. But have you thought about your big day fragrance? Or how you'd like your partner to smell as they wait patiently for you as vows are spoken and exchanged? Smell is one of the most emotive senses we possess, plugged directly into the limbic system of the brain, the area responsible for emotional memory.
So wearing a new scent on your wedding day will imprint that scent and its associated memories on you forever. Few people consider scent in the busy period leading up to a wedding or civil partnership. But the right choice of scent can create the most amazing impact on the senses and on those around you. Opening up a bottle of something you have carefully chosen and put away until the morning of your wedding day will have resonance and symbolism.
Spraying it lavishly over your skin for the first time, filling the air, drops of scent falling on your dress. As you prepare for your big day, the fragrance you have chosen seeps in your consciousness and frames your memories in blossoms, balms, musks and amber. Choosing a wedding fragrance can be a little trickier than just thinking about everyday scents.
At Penhaligon’s they love a wedding scent and can advise you about the kinds of fragrance you might want to consider. Of course you could in theory wear any style of fragrance you wanted to, but you’re getting married, so think romantic, statement, let’s go floral, traditional, a single note scent or something overflowing with white flowers. How about Orange Blossom, celebrating a flower traditionally associated with purity and innocence, perfect for weddings? Or the soft subtle skin tones of powdered vanilla as you say ‘I Do’ in Artemisia? Then there is Ellenisia, a sweepingly dramatic bouquet of white flowers with plum nectar and vanilla, perfect for a swooningly romantic day of special moments. For something a little more edgy, there is Amaranthine, huge levels of jasmine and the aphrodisiac oil ylang ylang. A tropical floral, it is a fragrance for the more daring bride, deeply sensual and curvaceous in design.
Sometimes the flowers in a bouquet can give an indication to what fragrance might be perfect for the wedding - Orange blossom, lily of the valley, roses, green foliage, peonies and gardenias are popular bridal choices. Whilst we know, they're are so many possibilities, the most important thing is finding a fragrance that imprints itself on your special day and ensures that every time you smell it, your chosen scent will remind you of all things wedding, love and forever-ness.
Suggested wedding fragrances:
The Traditional Bride: Orange Blossom, Elisabethan Rose, Lily of the Valley
