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Wedding Planning

1. Picture Perfect Designs
2. Reception and Decorating
3. Creating a Budget
4. All About Flowers

Picture Perfect Designs

What is the most important thing to you? Colour, colour, colour. More important than variety, style or even design, color most affects the overall appearance of your wedding. When you start looking at bouquets you will most likely choose it because of the colour. Your preference is uniquely personal and colour choice will be the starting point in designing your wedding.

The next step is finding out where and when your wedding will take place. The ambient or available light greatly effects the perception of color. Bright daylight allows bright, vivid colors to show brilliantly. It also allows colors from the ‘cool’ side of the color spectrum to be seen more easily – hues of blue, purple, lavender and green. For daytime outdoor ceremonies and daylight drenched indoor receptions the only limit to color is your imagination! For evening ceremonies and receptions or dark churches and synagogues, there will be less ambient light. The best colours to choose are whites, ivories and colors from the ‘warm’ side of the color spectrum like reds, pinks, yellows, peaches and oranges. The ‘cool’ colors fade with low light and can be very difficult to see and/or photograph. Dark blues and purples start to look black and light blues and lavenders fade to grey. When choosing your colours think of how the dresses will look in either bright light or low light.

Bouquets of one type of flowers matching or coordinating with your gowns give a simple, clean appearance. Intensely colored bouquets juxtaposed with pale colored gowns provide dramatic looks for maximum contrast. Be careful in choosing flowers in contrasting colours, like red and white. These bouquets are hard to photograph and can look polka-dot. Similarly, choosing a bouquet of one colour against a dress the opposite colour can look quite flat in a photograph. An easy remedy is to introduce a third colour or texture through foliages and accessories.

Textures matter. The textures of your flowers, foliages and accessories will have an important impact on the overall appearance of your photographs. As with color, choosing textures that match or are closely related to those of your gowns and settings will give a coordinated, unified look. Do keep in mind, however, that too much of a match can make the bouquets blend into the fashions, making photography a challenge. High sheen gowns coordinate well with medium to large-size blossoms and limit the quantity of busier, smaller flowers for an elegant, uncluttered look. Clean, simple gowns provide an incredible palette onto which artistic, highly detailed and texturally complex bouquets can be featured.

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Reception and Decorating

Once again the most important thing to making the venue incredible is…colour, colour, colour. More important than container, choice of flowers or even design, color most affects the overall appearance of the venue. Before you start planning your centerpieces; buy your dress, choose your colour, design your bouquets and then your décor will be dictated by those choices, creating a story of your personal style. Your day will flow from start to finish creating the unique look you want.

After choosing your venue the most important issues surrounding the decorating will be light, the time of day for the event, flow and number of guests. The decorations for the head table, guest table and cake table should continue the design story from the bouquets, whether they are classic, contemporary, lavish, natural, simple or just plain fun. A common mistake is planning the venue decor before the wedding dresses are purchased and the bouquets are designed, resulting in a hodge-podge look.

Decorating your venue is much like decorating your home or even choosing an outfit for a special day. Care in consideration must be taken on fit and size, coordination of colours and textures and creating a unified look. A truly elegant sophisticated look and flow will be achieved through this coordination of textures and colour. Be careful and do not try to ‘match’ everything, which will only result in a look that is boring and predictable.

You must take into consideration the size of the room and tables, and design a centerpiece that will be in proportion to its surroundings. You will only achieve maximum effect, when you carefully plan colour and placement of napkins; positioning of flatware, stemware and china; personalized menus, thank you notes, name cards and guest gifts. When you have taken into consideration of all these elements your reception decorating will be truly spectacular.

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Creating a Budget

Many brides confide to us that the development of a flower budget is one of the biggest challenges in the wedding planning process. Most Brides and Grooms have purchased clothes for special events, shoes, meals, jewelry and travel yet they have little experience with buying flowers, especially on a large scale. The overall price of wedding flowers has numerous components but the major elements are:

• The varieties of flowers selected. The more common and in season, the lower the price. The more exotic, fragile and/or limited the availability, the higher the price.
• The quantities of flowers needed overall. The larger your wedding party (Bridesmaids, Parents, Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, etc…) and/or guests attending (for table centerpieces) the more flowers needed.
• The amount of specific flowers (by variety and quantity) the Bride requires. For example, you will often be able to garner a lower price by selecting a general category of flower – i.e. dark red roses – instead of requiring your florist to guarantee ‘Black Magic’ roses. The effect will be very similar, literally imperceptible in the photographs.
• The amount of time and skill the various designs take to create. Simple designs require less time while more elaborate compositions or those with exquisite details will take significantly longer to craft.

For level of service and convenience, Flowers & Sense offers services such as delivery, set-up of ceremony and reception décor, transportation of flowers from the ceremony area to the reception area, pick-up of rental equipment and wedding coordination. Each level of service is quoted separately.
We have found that for the majority of weddings, the cost of personal flowers which includes the bride and groom, honour attendant, two bridesmaids, best man, two groomsmen, parents and grandparents usually cost out around six hundred dollars. For centerpieces costs are a little more difficult to determine. A good rule of thumb is the centerpiece should be close to the cost of one meal from the venue per table. Of course if you have a simple budget we will endeavour to provide you with great ideas to make your day truly special.
For specific prices regarding our products and services contact us to schedule your wedding consultation appointment.

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All About Flowers

Have you ever wondered what a Gerbera looks like? Or you really don’t know what colours your favorite flowers come in? Are you uncomfortable choosing flowers for your bouquets because you didn't know the names of the flowers you wanted?

This guide will help answer these questions and more. The following photographs and descriptions should help you get started in planning your flowers for your special day. This section contains many common flower varieties that can be found at Flowers & Sense. Don’t see what your really want here, don’t worry; with an expanding global market more and more varieties are available year round. Flowers & Sense along with their great network of flower wholesalers we can get you whatever your heart’s desire.