Wedding Tactics

What comes first? The color, or the flower?

My good friend M who got married last year knew she wanted a variety of colors including purples, lavenders and blues in her wedding décor. She went to her florist and pointed at photos of things she liked and they put together for her an amazing set of bouquets, centerpieces and Temple decorations. M, admittedly doesn’t know a daisy from a daffodil (or something to the effect that she doesn’t know the names of flowers), so she chose colors and let the florist choose the flower. This is a very common way of choose your floral decorations.

Me? I never make things easy for myself.

I know my flowers. I do NOT have any sense of color coordination whatsoever! I do not know how to mix my lights and darks and textures and patterns. If I wear black pants with blue pinstripes to work, I wear a blue top and black shoes to match. See? ZERO creativity. Alas! I have a desire for creativity, but I suppose I lack the gumption to be daring.

But I digress …

As I was saying…. I love flowers. I know them by name. I adore hydrangeas! The blues and pinks, and the green flowers are simply so natural and elegant! I also love lilies. Roses come in so many colors and textures, but I wouldn’t know where to begin. There was a time in my life when I wanted my wedding to be in my parent’s front yard and I would wear a simple linen dress and carry a bouquet of sunflowers. I have looked at hundreds of sample bouquet pictures, hated a lot and loved a lot. Remember, I don’t make decisions well. Then, I saw this gorgeous bouquet on TheKnot.com and had my heart set on this bouquet and this color scheme, soft blue and white.

The first florist I met with was a large-framed German woman who had a very strong accent. She took one look at the picture I had of what I knew was MY bouquet, and said,

“Dis is not going to vork. Vhese hyacinths are actually puuurpul, not blue.
It is vary hard to find zee bluuuu vons.
So I vil have to use zee purpul vons instead.�

Fast forward to right now.

She is not my florist. I know the blue ones are totally available; they are sold in the darn grocery stores every Easter!

Then, I saw a picture of Nicole Kidman’s wedding to Keith Urban back in June. She carried a huge bouquet of pink peonies and I developed yet another unnatural attraction to a specific bouquet, once again, putting the flower before the color. So, now, my wedding colors became pink and something else to be determined later. So as it stands right now, I’m copying Nicole Kidman. If peonies are good enough for her, they’re good enough for me!

Moral #1: It is okay to choose the flowers you want before you know what color you want, but you have to be willing to be a little flexible and accept price fluctuations. But, if you are a NORMAL person, unlike me, pick your colors first.

Moral #2: When you hear, Dis is not going to vork … run like heck! Because! What you want, can work!