Choosing the ideal wedding flowers are difficult. Your decision will probably be based on a number of factors, including what is in season, the theme of your wedding, the colour scheme, etc.

The colour scheme is by far, the most important when choosing your wedding flowers. You want something that matches everything, from the brides maid dresses to the reception decor. You may also want to save a few bucks by arranging the flowers yourself for your wedding. A lot of brides to be ask what I recommend for wedding flowers, colours, and designs- so I will share my knowledge (having been married twice now) as well as designed a lot of my friend’s and family member’s wedding flowers.

First lets start with WHERE TO SHOP:

Be smart, when it comes to wedding flowers, shop around for the best wholesaler. Wholesale flowers will be far less expensive, and based o the supplier, fresher. Try to stay away from local florist shops, they design beautiful wedding flowers, but if you are looking to cut costs, this is not a place to go. If money is no option, then solicit a professional florists services. In Canada, the only flower wholesaler is http://flowerswholesale.ca.

Now let’s look at FLOWER TYPES:

When choosing your flower, be conscious of the availability for your wedding. Don’t pick tulips if you are getting married in Autumn…you’ll pay premium prices for imported tulips.

Pick flowers that are hardy and do not require a lot of careful handling or maintenance. Remember, once you get your flowers from the wholesaler, you have to arrange them in vases or bouquets typically the night before the wedding. Great options for this are: roses, carnations, calla lilies, Asiatic lilies, oriental lilies, mums and daisies

What is especially nice about the above mentioned flowers, are that they are available year round, so no extra premium for imports from far countries.

After flower types, comes the all too important FLOWER COLOUR:

Brides have their dream wedding planned in their heads, they picked the colour of the brides maid dresses, the candles, decorations- but ladies remember this: all of these can match in colours exactly, because they aren’t controlled by mother nature. The biggest disappointment brides to be face when receiving with their wedding flowers are the colours. Flowers do not have the luxury of coming custom made in any colour and shade you wish, although their colour schemes are vast, they are not necessarily available to all growers and wholesalers. My post called “Can You Spot the Difference” addresses just that, the various colour combinations of roses.

This is not just limited to roses, but to almost every flower type out there. Check this out, I googled purple calla lilies, and this is what came up:

Can you imagine that! Now imagine you would have asked the wholesaler for purple calla lilies! God knows what you would have received. Be specific with your colour without being unreasonable. Even though you order “hot pink roses”, does not mean it only comes in 1 colour. There are about 8 different shades of “hot pink roses”. My cousin ordered wholesale roses, she asked for lavendar roses. When her wedding flowers arrived, she immediately called the wholesaler to complaint that her roses where pink. I looked at the roses, and thought they indead where lavendar, but they were not the shade of lavendar to match the brides maid dresses! It certainlly didn’t mean they weren’t lavendar, only not lavendar enough for her.

So, ladies, when choosing your wedding flower colours be open minded that they probably will not be the exact shade you have in your mind. Despite your disappointment, you have to realize that the wholesaler doesn’t go to Colombia, Ecuador, or California and pick your wedding flowers from the growers to ensure you will receive the shade you desire.

What I strongly suggest, is two shades of the colour. I did this for my second wedding, and it was beautiful. I had two shades of purple roses, with white calla lilies in the middle of the arrangement. My niece liked the concept, and went with red roses with white calla lilies, also incredibly beautiful.

And now for the Grand Finale- ARRANGING THE FLOWERS:

Here enters your artistic style, I have seen and read MANY unique ideas for decorating. Among some of the best are in wedding magasins, websites, and forums. Many will share tips and designs with brides to be, some of the designs can be a last minute collaboration with friends that are arranging. I try and refrain from complex arrangements because time is a factor when doing your wedding flowers yourself. The over handling of the flowers can cause them to prematurely wilt, so minimal handling I find is best.

Happy designing!