I managed to get out of town for a bit during the holidays for a little R & R and while having a quiet dinner with my husband, I was reminded of how the journey to a wedding begins.

It was getting towards the end of the evening and while I was waiting for my dessert to arrive, I could see out of the corner of my eye one of the servers taking 2 champagne flutes to a couple that was sitting behind me.  By the time I had turned around, the gentleman had already gotten down on one knee and was placing a lovely ring on the finger of his tearful beloved. Hugs, all joy and happiness.

First time ever. I thought that’s kind of cool.

While I was pondering that and enjoying a rather sinful chocolate dessert, another proposal took place. This time about 5 tables in front of me another chivalrous gesture took place on bended knee. A surprise proposal complete with an earnest question and a ring.

Two in one night…a lovely reminder that out of those incredibly personal moments come all the ideas and inspirations for a beautiful wedding.

This post might start off sounding like your hard sell scare tactic for convincing 2011 brides to consider booking now as opposed to waiting arbitrarily until later in the year, but if you’ve ever met me you’ll know that that’s not my style and if you read on you’ll understand.

My post last week got me thinking about the advantages that my clients who choose to book their florals now have over those who choose to wait, and while there’s definitely more than one reason: having your choice of florist, getting things done on your long list of to dos, those all aside there is a singularly stands out above the rest.

It will give you the chance to see the flowers that will be in season now for when you get married next year.

Having said this, if it’s only roses and daisies you’re wanting, there no issue. However, if you have an interest in a seasonal item, such as the dahlia, it’s best to start now and you’ll be glad you did.

The advantages are many – the most important one being, it would allow you to see the flowers at the only time would be available.

I was happy to be able to do just this for Daniela and Julian whose beautiful nuptials I will featuring mid next summer.  Their choices were hydrangea, roses and a blush pink dahlia that would take your breath away and she was able to see these gorgeous blooms in their prime.

If I get a chance to take a pic, I’ll post it and you’ll what see I mean.

With weddings for this season well underway (I’ll be writing about them soon),  as a wedding florist , I have the distinct vantage point of working in the present with the weddings that are at hand and at the same time knowing that weddings that are a year away are already being planned and eagerly anticipated.

Wedding professionals have a different perception of time and it always crosses my mind as I meet with clients who are reserving my services next year. It’s a unique experience to be asked join in the journey of planning a singularly important day.

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.

This week it will have been a year since someone very special to me passed away. While the grey skies and flurries seem fitting for the feeling of the moment, it got me thinking about all the things that people do when planning their weddings to honour and remember someone special who has passed on.

It may something as simple as a locket with a picture in it that is tied to the handle of a bridal bouquet or a single stem of a flower in that person’s favourite colour placed inside a wedding  ceremony arrangement.

One of the most touching designs I had the honour of creating was for a client of mine this past summer.

Over the course of discussing the wedding flowers and the colours, she requested a specific flower to be used only during the ceremony whose colour and nature was not consistent with the other elements that had already been decided.

When I asked about it, she answered that her mother had passed away a few years ago and that it was her favourite flower.

I thought the tribute was so lovely and fitting and when it was all said and done, she and her groom were married under an elegant fabric draped canopy accented with stunning clusters of these beautiful flowers.

Wedding flowers are such a wonderful opportunity not only to create memories for the future, but also to look back and include in simple and thoughtful ways people and things of the past that are significant to you.

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.

The single most important question you’ll want to answer before planning for your wedding flowers is:

What is the style and feeling that you want to convey on your wedding day?

Do you want your wedding flowers to convey romance and elegance? Or is it whimsy and fun? Maybe it’s down to earth and understated?

The answer to this first question will lay the groundwork for the rest of your wedding flower and decor choice…colours, flowers and arrangement styles.

Keeping in mind those descriptors, start a collection of pictures of flowers, bouquets and colour combinations that appeal to you. This will help you with your wedding planning and your selection of wedding flowers.

Starting a blog is one of those things that I had been thinking about for a long while, so to be finally writing on it feels a bit surreal, but great!

There have been more times that I can count where I saw a beautiful flower in an unusual colour, or came across a really neat wedding idea, and I’d always find myself thinking how great it would be to share this with someone who might think it was neat too.

Or it might have been an answer to a question that I’m asked frequently by my clients and I could post so that it could be helpful to you too.

I am looking forward to sharing with you in the weeks, months and years ahead about all things flowers and weddings!