Choosing flowers for your wedding involves hours of planning and careful co-ordination. We provide you with your own petal power planner.

Trying to imagine a wedding without flowers is like trying to imagine the bride without the groom. Flowers are high up on the wedding planner`s list of priorities, which means lots of thought behind the floral display. We chatted to Colin Shandoss, a floral artist by profession. He has seen many brides over the years and can advise them on what flowers to choose and how to get the best out of them on the day. "A bride usually comes to us with an idea in mind, that she has seen in a magazine or at another wedding. It is my job to try and translate it into something that she can use, and that will work for her," says Colin.

Trends just for you Today, the trend is for natural styles and individualism. Colin maintains that these `trends` can be used brilliantly, taking into account the client`s likes and dislikes, as well as their colour scheme and style of dress.
Making your ideal real Discuss what you want with your florist, but make sure that you have complete confidence in her skills. Pay heed to her advice. If you don`t, you may end up being horribly disappointed on your big day. Brides shouldn`t go for flowers that they haven`t seen: they may look good in a magazine, but up close and personal may not work at the wedding. Ask your florist to do a mock-up well in advance to gauge whether the idea is practical or not.

The accessories file
Floral head-dresses: This is very old-fashioned; the trend now is to have single fresh blooms in the bride`s hair and to rather leave these head-dresses for the younger bridesmaids or flowergirls.
The bouquet: The mil-lennium bride wants a style that is sophisticated, simple and strong, and the days of the heavy, wired `Lady Di` bouquet are over.
Corsages and buttonholes: Old-fashioned corsages are waning in popularity. In terms of buttonholes, elegance is back in style and grooms of today are choosing more contemporary interpretations.
Tossing bouquet or `throwaway`: This bouquet should be smaller, less formal and less expensive than the original - a posy is ideal.

Love `n care
Summer brides should keep a small spray bottle of water on hand during the day to continuously spray the flowers, as this will help them to survive the heat. When you order your bouquet and hall flowers, ask your florist to condition the flowers before arranging them, giving them maximum nutrition and water - they will then last longer!

The season of love
Try choosing flowers that are in season at the time - that way you will get best quality at the best price. It is also not advisable to marry around flower-giving celebrations like Valentine`s Day or Mother`s Day, as the price of flowers tends to skyrocket. Although you may sigh at the hours of planning, flowers add that fresh magical quality to your dream wedding. Power to petals!

Article source: LifeWorld