At Hanna Ting and Charles Yu’s wedding, vegetables got the spotlight. The bride carried a bouquet of cauliflower, chives and cili padi and the groom wore a corsage with cauliflower florets and red cili padi, knotted with an emerald green ribbon.

The couple decided that they would opt for fresh vegetables, instead of flowers, when they tied the knot last month.

They sought the help of floral hobbyist Liew Heng Yew, who created a series of beautiful vegetable arrangements for décor, instead of using flowers.

“It really blew my mind away,” the bride said, after returning from her honeymoon.

Their bridal car was decorated with a bouquet of cauliflower and red bird’s eye chillies peeking out from underneath. On the reception table in church, an intriguing arrangement made of carrots, maize, torch ginger, eggplant and capsicum welcomed the guests.

Two magnificent, standing vegetable bouquets lent a majestic feel as the couple exchanged their vows and rings at the altar. Each arrangement bore ornamental cabbages, cucumbers, garlic, bell peppers of bright colours, and other types of vegetables and flowers, with a few brinjals hung low in a flowing line.

Family members of the couple wore the same corsage as the bridegroom.

Before the matrimonial ceremony at the bride’s house, family members and relatives gushed in surprise when the bouquets were delivered.

It was a unique use of vegetables as décor and Liew’s first attempt at making full-fledged vegetable arrangements for a wedding.

“Hanna called me and she asked: ‘I have a request. Can I use vegetables like cauliflower?’ I said: (paused) ‘Let me think about it,’” recalled Liew, 38, an auditor based in Kuala Lumpur.

Ting’s request turned out to be a fun challenge. He went to the market and bought vegetables of all colours, shapes and sizes to match the white cauliflower, which became the main item for the bride’s hand bouquet (the cauliflower was decorated with cili padi and chives).

“For me, it’s such a waste to spend RM500 on flower bouquets, and you can’t do anything with it. Vegetable bouquets are more useful and you can eat it,” said product technologist Ting, who thought of refrigerating the smaller bouquets to share a meal with her hubby.

Liew’s novel creations drew praises from the curious guests and a family friend even collected some garlic bulbs home after the wedding ceremony. Needless to say, many took photographs with the vegetables and asked for Liew’s contact number for future events.

However, the self-taught hobbyist only arranges vegetable bouquets in his spare time.

His regular creations of floral bouquets go to his church, Cantonese Methodist Church in Kuala Lumpur. Over time, Liew has learned what makes an attractive design, how to select the floral combinations and achieve a sense of balance that pleases the eye.

“Using vegetables for a bouquet poses different obstacles,” he said.

“With flowers, you just need to cut the stem and stick them into the sponge. For vegetables, you need to secure them with skewers or sticks to hold them in place. It takes more time. They are heavier than flowers too, so you have to make sure they don’t crack the sponge!” Liew explained.

He had to assemble the two standing bouquets in the church premise because they would be too fragile, tall and heavy to be transported.

Unlike flowers, certain vegetables -- especially the leafy ones -- do not last as long when exposed to room temperature. Fruits and gourds, like capsicum, cucumber, angled gourd and brinjal, last longer.

“I used some small Chinese cabbage and needed to spray water regularly so that they looked fresh. They were placed on skewers and could not absorb water from the sponge. It’s not advisable to keep vegetable bouquets for long, but for events, they are okay,” Liew said.

Creating wedding floral arrangements is exhausting, but Liew finds satisfaction in the end products. They always bring a smile to his face.

He credited Ting for giving him plenty of trust, and room for creativity to experiment with the vegetable arrangements, although both of them met face-to-face for only a minute. All other details were sorted over emails and phone calls.

Ting was really pleased with the results: “It was all Heng Yew. He really took the idea and ran with it. He’s the genius.”

If you want to have vegetable bouquets for your wedding, you can contact Liew at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Show/Hide comments

Show/Hide comment form

Title
Comment	smaller | bigger
Name
Email
Website
Write the displayed characters
Subscribe via email (Registered users only) I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.
	Add Comment