How To Best Convey To Your Florist Your Chosen Wedding Color Scheme

So, you've picked out the perfect wedding dress. Although it took several trips to the bridal boutique and many emails and phone conversations with your bridesmaids, you have also amazingly found the perfect bridesmaid dresses. The tuxedos are ordered with the most perfect matching vests and everything seems to be falling into place. What's next? The flowers, of course.

What is the best way to convey what you envision to your wedding florist? Well, the best way to get an accurate match for your wedding flowers is to bring your florist a swatch from the bridesmaid dresses at the time of your consultation.

If an actual swatch of the material is impossible to get (and sometimes it is), then we resort to the next best thing. I would ask you bring in a piece of ribbon from a local craft store that is very close to the colors you are using for your wedding party. In other words, the best possible option is to have something in hand when you come to the consultation to convey what color, and shades of color, you wish to have for your flowers.

Clients frequently ask if they can bring me a silk flower to match the flowers to. While this is not the best option, it isn't completely out of the question. Silk flowers lose the vibrance of real flowers and are often made in non-realistic shades. I have brides bring in silk flowers and say to me, "This is EXACTLY what I want." I have to explain to them that there is almost NO chance of getting the exact same flower in the exact same shade. Simply put, real flowers look real, and silk flowers do not. It is a good tool to use, but you need to understand that real flowers will look different than silk flowers - every single time.

My least favorite tool for matching colors for a client's wedding is the use of internet sites showing flowers and colors. Don't get me wrong, I think the available internet sites are a great tool for showing clients the actual flowers (for example, what delphinium looks like), but in no way do I want to depend on the computer resoloution for shades of color. Just about every flower website you visit will have a caption at the bottom of the screen saying that they are not responsible for the accuracy of the shades of color that are presented on the screen. I have run into this many times when working with clients. I may suggest a Hot Princess rose, for example, and their first reaction is that they want to see a picture of what I'm talking about. I pull up the flower on a website only to be disappointed to find that the flower showing on the computer is not even remotely close to what I know a Hot Princess rose actually looks like.

The best way to communicate with your florist and make sure that you get the look you want is to show your florist something that is the same color as what you want your flowers to look like. Then, let your florist let you know if that color exists in the fresh flower world. Your floirst may not be able to show you a real life example of each and every flower type she chooses, but at some point you will need to trust the person you've chosen to be your florist.