For a lot of girls dreaming about all the details of our weddings might start years or even decades before the proposal. It’s kind of like naming babies-picking out names for baby girls and baby boys may start when we are still babies ourselves and playing with our baby dolls!
I was no different than most young girls-my dream wedding and all the details were formulating and marinating way before I found the man I wanted to spend my life with. I began working in a flower shop several years before I met my future husband. Each wedding bouquet I designed I would categorize every detail in my brain into categories like: Do/Don’t love this color palette (for my future wedding), Do/Don’t love these flower types (for my future wedding), Do/Don’t love this shape of bouquet (for my future wedding), Do/Don’t love this style (for my future wedding). I was 16 years old, in high school, designing flowers at a small flower shop and, of course, an expert on all romantic topics-my knowledge gleaned from movies like Steel Magnolias, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Pretty in Pink, When Harry Met Sally, and Sixteen Candles.
Today, the modern bride is much more sophisticated about their wedding choices. They have at their fingertips amazing tools like Pinterest, The Knot and Instagram. If a Dusty Blue Wedding is what today’s bride may be dreaming of-there are so many ways to find inspiration for the wedding of their dreams. (Dusty Blue and Mauve were seriously one of the BIGGEST wedding trends in the 90’s and is again a HUGELY popular wedding color scheme.) But, when it comes to wedding flowers-choosing just the right flowers for that dusty blue wedding is not quite so easy. This is when choosing a floral designer with not only great photos on Instagram is imperative. It is absolutely essential to hire a designer with the knowledge and skills to help guide brides with their choices.
One of my favorite parts of my job as a floral designer is getting to know my clients. What does their dream wedding look like, how did they meet their fiance, why did they choose the venue and the mood of their wedding, what are the most important aspects of their wedding day. Why did they choose the color scheme that they chose and what are their favorite flowers.
Brides today come to their wedding consultations prepared with inspiration photos and color swatches but most brides don’t know a lot about what flower varieties are in season for their wedding, what the costs of flowers are and the colors that the flowers they love come in. Instagram and Facebook and Pinterest have been game changers for brides but also for wedding professionals. Brides can now effectively communicate their likes through pictures easier than ever before. But, what most brides don’t realize is that those gorgeous peonies on Instagram don’t really come in dusty blue-it was possibly a filter or silk flowers in the photo they love. The average bride does not know that fresh pampas grass isn’t available in the Spring because it is a late summer and fall foliage. They don’t understand that it is very expensive, too. But, what is highlighted all over Instagram right now are Pampas grass weddings!
Putting your trust into a knowledgeable and skilled floral designer is crucial. Social media has inspired hundreds if not thousands of new floral designers around the world. I am as guilty as anyone else-I can lose an entire day just looking through the amazing photographs on Instagram of beautiful flower pictures. I use Pinterest too and love looking up all kinds of great information related to wedding trends, how to grow my own peonies, etc. But, even with this fabulous tool at my fingertips-I also rely on my years and years of knowledge and experience that I have gained as a floral designer and the relationships I have in the floral industry. I understand that for every amazing photograph on Instagram and Pinterest that floral designer has probably designed hundreds if not thousands of other bouquets-all adding to their tank of knowledge.
I have been told that I have a great sense of color. I appreciate the compliment because color theory is a huge part of what I do and who I am. My husband is color blind and for the life of me-I just don’t know how he can get thorough life being the happy man that he is. Color is part of my soul. My Bachelor’s Degree is in Art and I guess that is the credential I need to say that I understand color basics-but for me my education started way before college. But, really the reason I feel like I am “good at color” is because I have literally mixed and matched shades of colors in flowers for bouquets for over 30 years! Sometimes I think it is just my gut instincts but it is knowing-from many years of experience-what colors play well together-what colors pop and what colors clash and what colors photograph well together and what colors just recede to the background and “die” in photographs. When a bride tells me she loves deep dark burgundy and black accents-I tell her, straight up honestly-that those colors are beautiful in person-but they don’t photograph well so I encourage her to mix in some lighter shades for accents to help those rich moody colors pop in pictures.
I love helping brides realize their true color scheme should not be limited to those 3 shades on a Wedding Scheme palette on Pinterest. To create a truly beautiful wedding there should be many shades in between each of those basic colors to create life and visual richness to their day. With the bride’s trust-I will help create the wedding they have dreamed of since they were little girls playing dress up in the garden with their friends.
