Wedding Perfumes

Not only princes and princesses are getting married this spring and summer. And there is no reason why you shouldn't feel like a royal couple on your wedding day!

A friend of mine wore sandalwood on his wedding day. To this day, every time he want to surprise his wife, he will dab a bit of Indian sandalwood oil on his wrists, sneak behind her to hug her and whisper on her ears “this is our wedding day…”. That’s all it takes for this couple to feel like newlyweds all over again!

Your first kiss – do you remember what it smelled like? Maybe it smelled like the delicate fragrance of cherry blossoms and mock orange flowers by your front door? More likely – the smell of a couple’s first kiss would be a completely random array of scents that happened to unite when their lips did: cherry blossoms in the air, strawberry flavoured lip gloss on her lips, and the crisp scent of laundry dryer sheets from his clean shirt…

Much can be said about the connection between scent and memory. It takes only the tiniest whiff of a certain scent has the power to transport you back in time to a special moment. The effect is mysterious, but it has a scientific explanation: Our olfactory bulb (which is the smelling organ that reaches out to sample the surrounding air from inside our nose) is, in fact, part of the lymbic system. This is the part of the brain where we also process and experience emotion and desire. Therefore, the particular scents that take place while we experience a powerful emotion (either positive or negative) will always be connected, by way of psychological conditioning.

When something emotionally powerful happens, we will always associate the scents that surrounded us that moment with the sensations and feelings of the moment – creating a memory that is impossible to erase.

We can’t (and honestly, probably don’t want to) change the random scent memories of our first kiss. However, marking our wedding day with a special scent unique only to that day, will not only transform the experience into something intimate and unique, but also give you the key to unlock this memory for years to come – simply by opening a bottle of perfume and sharing it between you two.

Creating a custom scent for your wedding day will create a deep olfactory connection to your emotions that day. And even better than that – rather than a random array of your scents (how about this: your mother-in-law’s and auntie’s perfumes combined, along with the surrounding scents of flowers and catering) – have a scent that is designed for you two to share and enjoy. It can be designed as to match the bride’s floral bouquet; or better yet - it can smell like your very first kiss did!

By creating a custom scent for their wedding day, the couple will have a fragrant memory that is intimate and all theirs. A flacon of perfume that can be uncorked and shared on your honeymoon, wedding anniversaries, and whenever you want to feel like newlyweds again…!

You can even create your own private (or public...) ritual involving exchange of scents, rather than rings, similar to what my friends, filmmaker Mark Achbar and writer Siobhan Flannagan, have done with the custom perfumes I’ve created for their wedding. Both had completely different taste in perfume, so creating one scent for both was out of the question: Mark wanted a simple musky-vanilla scent, and Siobhan wanted a green floral with a base of oudh. Her favourite perfume, by the way, was l’Eau d’Issey, which she had to give up wearing around Mark because of his allergy. Scent wise, the only thing they had in common was peppermint: they both love it, but we all agreed it was not the best fit for a wedding perfume. And so, I decided to create two signature scents, one for each, and also a peppermint and green tea massage and bath oil that they can both share and enjoy together. I created a musky-vanilla scent for Mark, based on vegetal musks and a few different types of vanilla. For Siobhan I created an elegant green bouquet, with a few types of rose, galbanum for greenness, and a base of vetiver and precious oudh. To my pleasant surprise, not only did they like their own scents - they have also worn each other’s perfumes after their wedding, which they spontaneously felt was the most appropriate thing to do after their reunion!

For more information about our wedding perfume services, click here.

* Photo: Noam Dehan