Weddings are pretty much the only day when men will wear a flower as decoration. The ‘carnation in the buttonhole’ tradition stretches back a long way. However it managed to become established, we know not, and whoever it was who first managed to get a bunch of men to wear a white flower on their suits achieved an almost impossible feat. Yet the tradition is in no danger of dying out anytime soon, judging by the guests we meet on our travels with our mobile wedding creperie.
Although the tradition is alive and well, we are noticing a bit of variation creeping in. There once was a time, when we first established our wedding catering business over ten years ago, that every male guest we met had a white carnation in his buttonhole. But now, all kinds of individual and unusual options are beginning to creep in.
We’ve previously written about origami buttonhole flowers (which we think are a great idea) but we don’t see any of those, which is a terrible shame. But we do see personalised touches such badges or buttons featuring mini guitars (for musician type weddings); rugby balls (for the sports types) and Yoda or Darth Vader (for good guy geeks and bad guy geeks respectively). It’s a cheap and easy way to personalise your wedding a little and also removes complaints about men who feel “feminized” by wearing a flower.
Perhaps the best flower alternative we saw was at a wedding in Scotland. We always love the Scottish weddings. Even though we don’t offer haggis flavour, when our crepe van is hired for weddings in Scotland, we are always very popular indeed. This particular wedding was in Speyside, near Elgin, Morayshire. The area is very famous as a centre for salmon fishing, arguably the best in the World. The groom was evidently a keen fisherman, and with that in mind, the groomsmen were wearing a fishing motif – a salmon fly, you’ll be pleased to learn, rather than a maggot.
Together with the kilts, the rain and the clean, fresh air, it very much felt like a traditional Scottish occasion. The only thing missing was salmon-flavoured crepes – though we have served those on occasion, but that is a subject for another blog.
