Did I even need to tell you that the floral arrangements at Harry and Meghan’s wedding will heavily feature peonies, the favored flower of social media luxury? Probably not.
The happy couple has revealed unto the world that they’ve enlisted “floral designer” Philippa Craddock to create their church flowers. In the announcement on Twitter, Kensington Palace said that the floral displays “will be created using locally sourced foliage” and “Philippa will use flowers and plants that are in season and blooming naturally in May, including branches of beech, birch and hornbeam, as well as white garden roses, peonies and foxgloves.” Vanity Fair said:
“Meghan has been very hands on with all elements of the wedding, but especially the flowers,” says a royal source. “She met with the Queen and some of her staff at Windsor back in February to have some early discussions about what could be done at the church and at the receptions in terms of flowers. She seemed to have a pretty clear idea of what she wanted then. It was lots of spring time whites and pastels and very romantic flowers. I would say her vision was very fashionable and fairy tale if you know what I mean.”
I feel increasingly confident that Meghan Markle spends her days scrolling through Style Me Pretty.
Also interesting, from Vanity Fair: “the monarch offered the services of the palace staff who are used to dressing the chapel and the state rooms. Markle and Harry instead opted for Craddock whose fair-trade designs are favored by some of the world’s leading fashion houses.” Would love to see Claire Foy do her best impression of what Queen Elizabeth II’s face must’ve looked like when they informed her.
“The final designs will represent them as a couple, which I always aim to achieve in my work, with local sourcing, seasonality and sustainability being at the forefront,” said Craddock in a statement.
This is the third element of their wedding that Harry and Meghan have doled out like Instagram influencers, after announcing their cake and invitation vendors in a similar manner. With the invites they even savvily provided an irresistible news hook by featuring engraver Lottie Small and the die-stamping machine from the 1930s that she calls “Maude.”
Whoever is calling the shots on this rollout—whether it’s Harry, Meghan (who did after all used to run a lifestyle site), the “Fab Four” as a team, or some palace PR professional—knows what they’re doing, parceling out attractively packaged details. As celebs in the entertainment business have realized, social media offers a new way of controlling one’s narrative, and that’s just as appealing to the royals, who both need and have every reason to fear media attention.