Choosing your wedding flowers can be just as daunting as choosing your wedding dress, but with careful planning there is no reason why you shouldn't have the flowers of your dreams.

Starting out
The first thing is to find a good florist. Recommendation is a great way to start, but make sure that you visit several florists, usually 6-9 months before, as a good florist will get booked early.

Look for willingness to sit and listen, giving you the advice you want to hear, availability, suitability and a flair to design original designs just for you should be a guide. When you are happy, do make a definite booking and ask for confirmation in writing along with costs and details of your wedding designs.

Style guide
Think about how you would like to carry your bouquet - for instance do you want one hand or two free? Explain to your florist the look you would like to create with the flowers.

Classic posy shapes, although traditional, can be made modern in design and will look great with most style dresses. Formal bouquets are at their best with fuller skirted dresses. Maybe you would like a beautiful wrist corsage, letting you carry' your flowers all day and having both hands free.

Good florists can create all shapes and should be able to come up with a design really individual for you. Think about your dress too - take pictures of your dress and colour swatches along to your florist so they can get the whole feel of your wedding, for instance you may have bead or crystal work on your dress which can be used in your bouquet.

Seasons
When choosing what flowers to have always consider the season in which you are getting married. Almost any flowers are available all year, but do take into account that generally any flowers that are out of season will cost more. Your florist should be able to advise you on this. Generally the most popular flowers that are available all year are roses, orchids, lilies, freesias, lily of the valley, stephanotis, gerberas.

Flowers that tend to have a shorter season are all spring flowers, e.g. tulips, iris, etc, peonies, sweet peas, cornflowers, amaryllis.

Themes
You have now chosen your dress, colours and venue for your wedding so now it's time to bring this all together and come up with a theme from your bouquet and throughout the venue.

Think about what current trends are in fashion. Simplicity is always very popular, this doesn't always mean a way for the budget-minded bride, as more often than not calla lilies' are seen as the perfect flowers for simplicity' but are actually one of the most expensive. Other popular themes are: Beach, using blue and white flowers such as delphiniums, eryngium (sea holly) driftwood, shells and pebbles. Arabian nights, a theme using hot pinks and oranges with gold beading.

Autumn is such a popular time, think of banquets - pewter coloured plates piled high with fruit and big centre arrangements of dahlias, roses, gladioli along with mixed berries.

Talk to your florist about things you love - nature, surfing, even clubbing. The more information you give them the better your dream wedding day will become.


For more information telephone 01637 859885 or visit the web site www.simplyflowers.org