A Garden-Inspired Spring Wedding at The Ritz-Carlton in New Orleans

There is something especially beautiful about bringing the feeling of a garden into the heart of New Orleans.

For this spring wedding at The Ritz-Carlton, New Orleans, we designed the florals to feel abundant and romantic, but never overly formal. Soft blush and ivory flowers, fresh spring greens, and organic textures created a garden-inspired palette that moved naturally from the courtyard ceremony into the ballroom reception.

The overall color story was intentionally quiet: ivory, soft blush, sand, pale chocolate, and layered shades of green. Rather than relying on strong color, the design was built through texture, scale, movement, and the repetition of garden elements throughout the wedding.

A Courtyard Ceremony Inspired by the Garden

The Ritz-Carlton courtyard provided an incredible setting for the ceremony, already surrounded by mature greenery, ferns, brick pathways, and the architectural ironwork of the gazebo.

Rather than compete with the existing landscape, we wanted the floral design to feel as though it belonged there.

The aisle was lined with lush, low floral arrangements designed in an intentionally loose, growing style. Blush garden roses, ivory blooms, delicate spring flowers, and fresh greenery created movement along the brick aisle while allowing the courtyard itself to remain an important part of the design.

At the ceremony focal point, we created two large-scale garden urn arrangements elevated on custom handmade trellis-work pedestals. The soft green finish connected the pieces to the surrounding garden, while their height gave the florals enough scale to hold their own beneath the dramatic iron gazebo.

The arrangements themselves were deliberately asymmetrical and organic—filled with branching greenery, pale pink and ivory flowers, and trailing elements that softened the architectural structure around them.

I love this image because it shows how much of the ceremony design came from the relationship between flowers and structure. The urns, handmade pedestals, gazebo, lanterns, and existing garden all become part of one composition rather than the flowers feeling like decoration added afterward.

The bridal bouquet carried the same garden feeling on a smaller scale. Soft blush roses and ivory spring blooms were mixed with fresh green textures and trailing elements for a gathered, natural shape rather than something overly structured.

From Courtyard Ceremony to Ballroom Garden Party

Inside the ballroom, the garden continued.

Instead of changing direction for the reception, we brought the same palette and organic floral language indoors and allowed the design to become more immersive.

One of the largest floral moments centered around the ballroom's circular bar. A monumental garden urn arrangement rose from the center, creating a focal point that could be seen throughout the room.

This is one of those installations where scale matters. The ballroom is grand, with high ceilings, crystal chandeliers, and substantial architecture. A smaller arrangement would simply disappear.

The oversized urn allowed us to bring the looseness of the courtyard garden into the ballroom while still creating something proportionate to the room.

A Soft, Romantic Reception

For the guest tables, we intentionally changed the scale.

After the larger floral moments at the ceremony and bar, the tables were designed to feel intimate and romantic. Collections of bud vases held individual stems and small groupings of flowers, interspersed with slender taper candles and candlelight.

The patterned linen introduced the soft sand, blush, and pale chocolate tones of the palette in a completely different way. Against it, the small-scale flowers felt light and almost collected from a garden—roses, delicate spring blooms, and fresh green stems appearing individually rather than as formal centerpieces.

The repetition of bud vases and taper candles created the romance. Nothing on the tables needed to be particularly large; en masse, the small floral moments created softness throughout the ballroom and allowed the candlelight, linens, and flowers to work together.

An Organic Spring Palette for a Garden- Inspired Wedding

One of our favorite things about this wedding was its restraint In using spring hues.

The palette wasn't built around a single dominant color. Instead, it moved through blush, ivory, sand, pale chocolate, fresh green, and soft botanical tones. That subtlety allowed us to use an incredible amount of texture without the design becoming visually overwhelming.

From the garden urns and handmade trellis pedestals in the courtyard to the enormous bar installation and delicate bud vases inside, every floral element belonged to the same story.

Planner: Keely Thorne Events

Venue: Ritz Carlton New Orleans

Photography: Grant Daniels Photography

Rentals: Distressed Rentals