Wedding Planning, Part X

It wouldn't be much of a wedding without some flowers sprinkled about. (Unless of course, you're going with a true-to-reality winter wasteland-themed wedding – in which case a bouquet of flowerless twigs and some form of snowball topiary might be called for... but I digress.) Selecting which flowers to use at the wedding is one of the trickier tasks that the happy couple must perform. Let's face it, with a seemingly infinite supply of diverse flowers being peddled by everyone from greengrocers, to florists, to eccentric ol' ladies with street corner garden carts and sandwich boards that read “Fresh Flowers from the Organic Garden Witch,” selecting which flowers to use can be... challenging at best. But don't worry. Today, I'll provide you with a few tips that should help take the stress out of picking your posies.

First, forget about all the rare, tropical, blue-dyed franken-flowers those high-end florists are so happy to sell you. Not only are they obscenely expensive, but they're shipped in from Whoknowswhere, Peru and are sure to be disappointingly wilted and/or dead at best. So stick with flowers that you are familiar with and can easily purchase from a local purveyor at an affordable price.

Second, narrow the range of possible flowers down by matching the color of the flowers to the color of your wedding theme. This is quite simple in most cases, as many colors are named after similarly-colored flowers: rose... fuchsia... daffodil... goldenrod... lavender... violet... periwinkle... Venus flytrap. I could go on. But the point is - match colors. And if you don't know what flowers come in your desired shade of puce, Google it to find out.

And finally third, go with the flowers that are in season. Aside from the fact that all of your wedding guests will be thinking that you're rather crazy for decorating your Labor Day weekend wedding with Christmas red poinsettias, it's going to cost a lot! So selecting and purchasing flowers that are in season, really is the best way to go. There will be a much larger supply of those fresh flowers, they'll make sense for the time of year, and you might just save yourself some money. It's pretty much win, win.

So I hope these tips have helped a bit. And until next week, I wish you good luck in all your wedding plans!