When we hear the words “destination wedding”, it usually evokes images of sunset weddings on a sandy beach or a romantic wedding in an old in chapel in the Italian countryside.

It might surprise many of you planning a wedding in the Toronto Area to know, that Toronto is sought after destination for weddings.

I know this because every few weeks I get a call or an email from California, Calgary or London (England) from couples who are planning to get married here.

Planning is done over the phone and email to discuss and determine what the look will be and sometimes I don’t meet the couple until the wedding if at all.

And after it’s all said and done the planning concludes the way the planning began with an email or a call  thanking me for my work.

The “WOW” factor of a wedding is that sometimes element that seems illusive.

It appears possible only for the weddings with the unlimited budgets that allow for flower arrangements that attempt to reach the tops of the ceilings in a banquet hall and are so full that they seem unattainable by most planning a wedding.

Yet if you look at all of flowers in these weddings they all contain a crucial ingredient that without it would take away that wonderful element of intimacy and warmth.

It is the simple candle and it comes in many forms.

• Votives
• Floating
• Pillared
• Novetly

They are made in an endless array of colours, sizes and shapes.

When combined thoughtfully into clusters or scattered naturally throughout an open space.  Candlelight makes the simplest spaces come to life with shimmering glow.

It’s one of the most commonly asked questions when I meet with a couple.

“Will the flowers last?” And it’s usually asked along with a recounting of how the flowers of someone they knew wilted before the ceremony.

Under normal circumstances, the short answer is they absolutely should. The longer answer is that it depends on some many factors.

1. The weather – There is nothing that will save the most well prepared and hydrated a flower on an extremely hot or sub-zero degree day. This will be especially true of the flowers that are out of water, such as the boutonnieres and corsages. To give the flowers the best chance of looking their best, they should be in refrigeration until they are worn.
2. How the flowers are grown and cut before the florist takes them – A florist’s choice of grower and supplier are critical as the process to grow, harvest and prepare flowers for their sometimes long journey to their ultimate destination.
3. The florist’s process for caring for the flowers – Like people, flowers require certain types of food and require a particular kind of environment for them to be in their best condition. The time and effort that it requires is a large part of the service associated with the purchase of your flowers.

If well prepared and with good weather on your side, your flowers should not only look beautiful on your wedding day, they can be enjoyed in the days after by those who get to take them home!

I walked by the magazine aisle this week and I noticed that there was yet another edition of Martha Stewart Weddings and it reminded me all over again of the love/hate sentiment I have with Martha Stewart.

You might wonder why the strong feeling considering I have been buying her magazines since the beginning (when I thought the ideas were truly elegant and timeless) and when they were published only twice a year as opposed to the quarterly and special edition issues that are available now.

Martha Stewart has become synonymous with personal, pretty and visually memorable weddings.  She (or rather her stylists) can make an all white wedding look ethereal and a fall wedding feel earthy and soulful.

But from the perspective of a florist, her ideas have become the source of more “Sorry, that flower is not readily available commercially or that table design just the way it looks is $1000 dollars” than any other place that I know.

Whether it’s lily of the valley in a rare shade of pink, or table setting designed from top to bottom with chivari chairs, silk organza linens, napkins and antique porcelain vessels holding the loveliest and most delicate of garden grown blooms, it’s generally a lot of having to break bad news and then go about the work of coming up with great substitutes.

Her magazine is a great source of inspiration and her approach to weddings  has changed forever how everyone looks at weddings. Not just as something to be enjoyed in the moment, but to be able to look back in time and feel that it was the most beautiful and personal of all days. 

Not bad for the work of one person and something  I with my weddings always strive to accomplish.

A new year always brings with it thoughts of starting again or beginning fresh.

When it comes to wedding flowers, the discussion almost always begins with the bridal bouquet.

While this is not always the case, it can be the design to inspire all the other choices of colours and flowers since it is the most important and most personal design to be carried and photographed on the wedding day.

The style and shape of choice for the moment is still the hand-tied look.

Created and tied with the stems of the flower, it is the most natural of all bouquets because the technique considers the shape of the flower which isn’t always round. A rose hand-tie will come out more round and a calla hand-tie will come out more long.

Whether you are wanting a bouquet that appears rustic and hand-picked or a clean formal look, a hand-tied bouquet is lovely choice.

An added bonus is that unlike other types of shapes, the stems of the flowers can take water directly for a vase which means a longer and fresher life for your wedding flowers.

Hand-tied bouquet of callas and roses

In my last post,  I wrote that one way to celebrate a wedding during the fall or winter season was with rich warm colours.

Another classic way to celebrate a winter wedding with flowers is to consider all the elements visible in nature now and take the whiteness of snow and the pine trees wrapped with twinkle lights as inspiration for a wedding flower palette.

From hydrangeas and roses, to orchids and lilies, there is a plethora of flowers that come in beautiful shades of cream and white and incorporating winter greens such as cedar or pine, creates a texture that is elegant and classic look for a seasonal arrangement.

This combination can be used everywhere from boutonnieres for the groom and his groomsmen with small sprigs of cedar to accent a single white bloom to coordinate with the bouquet of the bride and that of her bridesmaids to large arrangements for ceremony and head tables and the matching centerpieces.

Beautiful arrangement of white hydrangea and roses and winter greens

Well, I guess there’s no denying it — winter is imminent.

I knew this to be especially true when a friend of mine from California told me that I should watch a sunset. I wrote back saying that at this time of year in Toronto, sunsets and for that matter sunrises are nowhere to be found.

While the sun is a rare sight with the days becoming shorter and the nights getting longer, this time of year is becoming an increasing popular time for weddings.

While colour is always an important factor, I believe that it’s especially important in light of our current season and when the temperatures are cool, wedding flowers can affect the “temperature” of an event by accentuating the coolness of the season or by warming things up with rich vibrant tones.

The latter idea was chosen for the elegant late fall wedding of my lovely clients Jill and Jason that took place at Deer Creek a few weeks ago.

Beautiful rich tones of classic fall tones in deep red and burnt orange gerberas and roses with bright green berry and pom accents finished with luxurious chartreuse satin ribbons were the colours and the materials of choice for the wedding flowers.

From the bridal bouquet to the ceremony arrangements and right through to the classic all round centerpieces, this rich and elegant choice of colours brought warmth and intimacy to a wedding on a cool November day.

An Elegant Fall Wedding Bouquet

I’ve been blogging for all of a month now and I’m already starting to become controversial!

Among the long list of questions that I go through when I meet with a client, one of them is what is your favourite and least favourite flower? The response to the latter is almost always  ”I don’t like carnations”.

I take note, sometimes ask why and move on.

The creation of weddings flowers is about reflecting the vision of the bride and the groom for their wedding day. It’s never about putting my own creative ideas first. I never try to convince a bride that a certain bloom is great as a wedding flower when she’s made it clear from the beginning that she doesn’t like it.

The truth is that I have a little confession to make and I’ve been hesitating whether or not to mention it, but here it is. The truth is that I love carnations. There I wrote it. And yes, you read it correctly.

That poor flower that has long been despised for reasons I can’t understand except that I think that it’s been labeled a cheap and ugly grocery store flower and therefore, an unthinkable an option for a wedding flower.

I kept this secret of my to myself for a long time until I saw that celebrity florists were using these flowers in their high end weddings and I started to think that perhaps this flower has begun the long journey of being redeemed.

In an old fashioned arrangement, carnations are combined with baby’s breath and leather fern. These are two other items that most brides say they usually don’t care for.

However, the new style for these amazing flowers is that they are used for texture in clusters petal to petal with rarely any greenery.

Light and Bright Pink Carnation Wedding Centerpieces

They come in the most amazing selection of colours. They are also incredibly hardy meaning that they’ll look just as beautiful at the end of the evening as they did first thing in the morning.

I came to the conclusion long ago that carnations aren’t a bad flower, but perhaps the reason why it has gained such a bad reputation is because they were arranged in a less than flattering way.

While asking a wedding florist to pick her favourite flower is like asking a chef to choose only one seasoning to cook with, I’m always thrilled at the opportunity to consider carnations and I find that this opportunity presents itself more and more often as other carnation lovers come out of the closet.

Have you ever heard of a game show from the 80s called “Name That Tune”? During a consultation, there are numerous times when I feel like I’m playing the wedding flower version of that game called “Name That Wedding Flower”.

Brides bring everything from laptops and USB keys to good old fashion manila file folders overflowing  with wonderful and inspirational pictures of wedding bouquets and wedding flowers.

As a wedding florist, I find this to be one of the most interesting parts of a consultation, because while the bride may feel that there may be no rhyme or reason to her choices, a common thread, whether it by colour, flower or style is always readily apparent.

Also, while she may not know the name of every flower in every picture, as she tells me her thoughts behind every image she chose,  a floral style that is uniquely reflective of her begins to take form.

This process of going through magazines or the endless resources on the internet is one of the best ways to begin the planning of your wedding flowers.  

They can be organized in a few ways:

• by type of design: bouquet, boutonniere, centerpieces etc.
• by colour: purples in one folder, reds in another
• by flower: roses in one folder, tulips in another

The few moments that are spent doing this are well worthwhile as you will end up with wedding flowers that are not only beautiful, but intensely personal to your vision for the wedding day.

Colour is the thread that will tie all the visual parts of your wedding together.

You can start thinking about colour combinations for your wedding flowers once you have chosen your main colour.  This colour is very often seen in the colours of the bridesmaids’ dresses and the colour scheme or colour combination can be seen in their bouquets.

Your choice of colours and how to choose to combine them in your wedding flowers and in the other wedding decor aspects will depend largely on your own comfort level with it.

For example, if you are a bride who isn’t comfortable with the idea of strong colour, but don’t necessarily want to carry white, then perhaps warm creams or muted or pale pastels might be something to consider.

On the other hand, if you are a bride who enjoys bolder, richer colours and wanted your wedding day to reflect that, then you might opt for brighter strong colours, such as oranges fuschias, or reds.

Gone are the days of rules, the wedding and the wedding flowers should be first and foremost about conveying your personal taste and style.