Making Scents: Wedding Fragrances
Consider Going Custom
Scents are indelibly tied to memory, emotion, and romance—so don’t spritz an everyday eau de toilette before your wedding. Morris, a 30-year fragrance vet, recommends creating a custom scent that will always remind you of your special day. First, study the season and venue. For a summer wedding, choose a fragrance with the floral notes of freesia, gardenia, lavender, or jasmine; for autumn nuptials, set the mood with amber, cinnamon, vanilla, or cedar. Is your wedding in the mountains or on a Cape Cod beach? Determine which aromas (like ocean musk, oak, or white ginger) relate best to the time and place of your ceremony. And keep your fiancé in mind: If he proposed over dessert, choose something with hints of chocolate.
Know How to Test
With enough searching, it’s also possible to find the perfect store-bought fragrance. Morris recommends testing two scents at a time—but don’t trust what you sniff on paper. Body chemistry affects the smell of a perfume, he says. “You won’t know how it smells until you actually put it on.” Spray one perfume on each arm and wait at least 10 minutes (or better yet, a few hours) for the fragrance to settle.
Give Him a Whiff
Be sure to test out your choice around your future husband well before the big event, so it’s not an unfamiliar scent on your wedding night.