This is Why Carnations Are the Best Wedding Flower Ever

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We’re just going to put this out there: Carnations might be the perfect wedding flower. They are versatile, inexpensive, and oh, did we mention they’re inexpensive?

You might think of carnations as a relatively new flower, but in fact they’re close to 2,000 years old. Their technical name is “Dianthus,” and they are often referred to as “The Flowers of God.”

SEE MORE: 15 Ways to Use Carnations at Your Wedding

Scholars are a bit undecided as to their origins (some say they get their name from the word “coronation,” since they were so widely used for Greek ceremonial crowns), while other suggest they come from the Latin word “carnis,” which means flesh, referring to their pink, almost skin-like color. I, however, like to think they originated in my high school, where every year on Valentine’s Day we would have to go through the embarrassing ritual of going to the auditorium to see if any of the carnations on display had been purchased for us by a secret (or not so secret) crush. Spoiler alert: I never got one. I blame my serious adolescent awkward phase for that.

Carnation colors via Fifty Fleurs

Carnations are not only the Ohio state flower, but they’re a 1st wedding anniversary flower as well as the January birth month flower.

According to The Flower Expert, there are three types of carnations:

Large flowered Carnations – one large flower per stem.
Spray Carnations (Mini Carnations) – with lots of smaller flowers.
Dwarf flowered Carnations– several small flowers on one stem.

There are so many gorgeous ways to use carnations at your wedding. Check out the gallery below for inspiration!

Via Ruffled

In terms of wedding flower cost, you can find 150 pink carnation stems at Sam’s Club for $84, or 150 mixed color carnation stems for $99.99 on Fifty Flowers.

Learn more about how much wedding flowers cost here.

Look at this cool carnation wedding flower trick!