Beautiful Blooms - A Bride's Guide to Floral Planning

One of the major aspects of planning for your wedding stems from your floral considerations. For a bride, there are many various things to think about when plotting your bridal blooms.

Most brides first think of their wedding bouquet. This is a treasured design that can either be made with fresh flowers or false ones. Bridal bouquets can range from simple and elegant to extravagant and amazing.

As a bride, you may want to choose a theme for your nuptials. Many have more than one type of flower - others pick between romantic roses, calla lilies, gerbera daisies, forget-me-nots, and lily of the valleys.

A bride's bouquet can either be made from a single type of flower of from a variation of many flowers. In ancient times, brides carried herbs and spices to ward off evil spirits and give them a start in their married life based on good fortune and happiness.

Romans and other cultures used flowers during the wedding ceremony for fertility symbolism. In modern times, people send flowers as a way of saying "I love you," "Thank you," or some other form of happy wishes.

Aside from the bridal bouquet, a groom will need a boutonni?re - which is a small flower worn on his tuxedo. This custom originated from medieval days when men wore the colors of their women as a sign of love and admiration.

Some brides choose their bridal blooms, not based on color or personal tastes, but on the meaning behind the flowers.

Regardless of how you choose your flowers, you'll want to plan for them based around the season your blooms are available. Does it coincide with your coming nuptials, or will you be paying twice as much just to get out of season flowers?

Here are some of the most popular floral choices, along with their meaning and seasonal availability:

* Red roses mean love and are available year-round. * White roses represent unity and are also available all year. * Calla Lilies equate beauty and are easily found March-September. * Lily of the Valley means happiness and is also found March-September. * Orchids stand for love and beauty and are yearly blooms.

Before you choose a flower, find a nearby floral vendor and visit their shop to see what kinds of blooms they've arranged. Good flower vendors should have a book for you to peruse to see previous arrangements they've created.

When you finally settle on a type of flower for your bouquet, you'll also need to choose flowers for the other members of your bridal list - including the bridesmaids and groomsmen, ushers, ring bearer, male and female family members in attendance, and petals for the flower girl to distribute.

You'll also have to choose floral arrangements for the d?cor of the location for your ceremony and reception, including the aisles, altars, tables, and traditions such as the tossing of the bouquet (you'll want a mini-bouquet so that you can keep your real one as a keepsake).

As you'll find when searching for flowers to decorate your special day, some options will be affordable while others may be out of your budget. Be sure to ask your florist about alternate flowers that are equally as beautiful, but less expensive if you have your heart set on something outside of your financial realm.

Sharon Vaz is offering A Bride's Guide to Stress Free Wedding Planning, a Free wedding planning course at http://www.mystylewedding.com.my/signup.php

How To Select The Perfect Florist For Your Wedding

Most people are not aware of the vast difference and variety of flowers that exist until they decide to get married. It is at this moment that the stature and importance of the florist takes on new meaning. Here are some helpful tips to guide you through your decision process.

It Stems From References?..
The best place to start is with references. Take time out to ask family, friends, and trusted business associates to recommend someone they have used in the past. Another option that can be considered is attending bridal shows, the more the merrier. If all else fails, let your fingers do the walking and use the yellow pages.

When you have received your references and suggestions, you should review these and decide on at least three different florists. By all means, choose more, if you so desire. Then once you?ve decided, visit the shops and take a look around.

?and a keen eye
You do not have to be a botanist or a flower connoisseur of sorts to make a good selection. Take note of the different floral arrangements in each store. Does any particular one stand out? How many of the floral arrangements on display actually catch you eye? What is the condition of the flowers themselves? Are they healthy and have vibrant full blooms? How about the store location itself? Is it well kept and clean?

Your ideal florists should have an impressive portfolio that reflects their experience, design styles, and skills. A professional florist?s portfolio will have photographs of floral arrangements used in previous weddings. As you review this portfolio, look for the variety in styles and occasions. Make sure you are not looking at a lot of pictures of the same floral arrangement or the same wedding. Make it a point to notice if the portfolio included photos of all bridal bouquets and centrepieces used in each wedding.

Don?t be afraid to ask questions. Get proactive. When you plan to visit a potential florist, make sure to carry fabic swatches of the wedding apparels for the entire wedding party. You can even start to collect clippings of flower arrangements you find enticing and take them along on your visit to the florist. I recommend that you develop a clear idea of what you want.

Are they Listening?
As you present your ideas and suggestions to the florist, pay attention to their receptiveness and the quality of their responses. Are they really listening to what you want? In addition, make sure the individual that you are questioning so thoroughly is the same individual that will be responsible for making your floral arrangements.

It is also recommended, by industry consultants, that you book your florist at least 6 to 8 months in advance. Not to mention, some wedding consultants suggest signing a contract with your florist about 4 to 6 months before the scheduled wedding day. When it comes to the actual contract itself. Ensure that you have all your desires and expectations clearly printed in writing.

There is some information you need to have available for your florist. Your florist of choice will need to know the location of the wedding and the reception, and how many floral arrangements will be needed to decorate it. Additionally, every florist needs to know what color schemes are being used at the venue, so that the final flowers arrangements won?t clash. If you opted for centrepieces, you will need to know exactly how many. Your florist must know the number of bridesmaids, groomsmen, mothers, fathers, grandfathers, program participants, and special guests will be attending. Most importantly, the colors of the wedding party remain crucial information for your florist.

Remember!
Remember to make decisions that complement the environment you will be in. Hence, if your wedding will be outside, make sure your selected floral arrangements can withstand the elements of nature.

In an effort to avoid last minute misunderstandings, ask your florist the following questions:

What are the least expensive flowers that will be in season during my wedding?
What is the most successful idea you have had for a past wedding?
Do you deliver and set up the floral arrangements?
Are there any extra delivery or set-up charges?
How long does the set-up take?
Are there any additional or hidden costs I should know about?
How long do I have to add, subtract, or change floral arrangements?
Can I have an itemized estimate of the services we discussed?
What is your minimum deposit, and how soon do I have to put down a deposit?

There you have it, all the sound guidance you need to find a florist that is the perfect match for your perfect day. Have no fear, the water?s fine. Dive right in.

Chris Morton ran hotels and restaurants for 17 years - catering for 100's of weddings. His wife Sue is a wedding planner with 10 year's experience. Together they have established http://www.TheWeddingWizards.com to provide unbiased help for brides and grooms.

How To Have A Cheap Bridal Bouquet

It’s easy to spend a fortune on your bridal bouquet alone, so finding some money-saving bridal bouquet ideas is a must. Although bridal flowers are beautiful, it’s important to keep your costs in check. So here’s a run down of what to avoid and some tips to reduce your bridal bouquet cost.

Firstly, what to avoid
Bouquet arrangements tend to be the most expensive type of bouquet, simply because they take a lot more time to complete. They’re also very heavy and you’ll probably get arm ache carrying it around for a few hours. It may also do some damage when you come to throw it at the end of the night!

Long cascading bouquets also tend to be very heavy, since there are lots of flowers and greenery. They’ll also hide your beautiful dress, so it seems a bit silly to spend a fortune on a dress only for it to be hidden by your flowers.

The last thing to avoid is exotic flowers. It’s difficult to grow them locally, so they tend to have high transportation costs, which are then passed onto you.

It probably seems that your options are somewhat diminished. Not so and here’s a run down on how you can save on your bridal bouquet.

Low-cost bridal bouquet ideas
Hand tied bridal bouquets are usually half the price of arrangements. The florist selects the flowers, then arranges them together and ties them with floristry string or wire. A ribbon is then tied around the stems to protect the bride’s hands and finish the bouquet. Simple and effective.

You can use most flowers in a hand tied bridal bouquet, they’re versatile and more importantly, cheap.

Single stems can also be effective bridal flowers. Having a single stem is a dramatic look and works well with elegant, slinky dresses. You could have one stem, or even increase it to three stems tied together in a simple hand tied bouquet. Either way, it’s more cost effective as you use fewer flowers.

Lilies, roses, gerberas and sunflowers looks great as single stems.

Go for flowers in-season as they’ll be fresher, grown locally and therefore cheaper. There are lots of blooms available all year round, so ask your local florist what’s in season at the time of your wedding.

An alternative is find stems with lots of flowers so you get more blooms for your buck. There are lots of flowers that can give you this effect, including lilies and hydrangea.

Nicola Ray is the owner of Cheap Wedding Success, a website dedicated to planning and creating the perfect cheap wedding. With lots of advice, tips and ideas to lower the cost of your wedding, Cheap Wedding Success is the perfect place to start. You can find more articles like this one in the Wedding Flowers section.

Finding A Local Florist - Sorting Out the Weeds of Deceptive Flower Shop Phone Listings

You want to send flowers to Aunt Sally in Newark or your sister Susan in San Antonio. You decide to look up a local florist there, hoping to get more personal service or even save a few bucks by avoiding the "middleman." Normally, a simple call to directory information or an online search would be all it takes, but in the case of florists, the results could be deceiving.

Many of the online resources are overcrowded with national marketers and wire services rather than the real local florists you're seeking. Some companies have built hundreds or even thousands of web pages referencing various cities across the country just to show up in so-called "local" searches across the country. Others are simply paying to be on top. This makes life difficult, as it is very hard to tell the difference between a genuine family flower shop and a national fictitious "florist" with local phone numbers which are actually forwarded out of state.

While these deceptive phone listings have officially been banned in many states as intentionally misleading, the laws are all too often not enforced. As a result, fictitious florist phone listings have become commonplace, especially with the growth of online yellow pages. Flowers With Gifted Elegance of Randolph, NJ and All American Flowers of Mount Laurel, NJ are two of several telemarketing companies employing this tactic to make money while providing a disservice to unsuspecting consumers. By purchasing local phone listings under many different names, they hope to lead customers into using their services.

The strategy first surfaced in the mid-nineties. States such as Virginia and Delaware recognized the threat and took action. Other states have followed, but the practice continues today relatively unhindered. Companies in New Jersey, Wisconsin, and the state of Washington purchase phone numbers all over the country, and place those numbers in local white and yellow pages. The listings usually have the name 'Flowers Of (Town or City)' or 'Flowers in (Town/City)', with a local area code and phone number but either no address or a bogus address. Consumer groups agree it's misleading at best and usually a ploy to con people into ordering. In the end, customers may face unnecessary extra charges, poor quality, or both. Here's how it works and what you can do to avoid it.

The Phone Listing Scam

Take a quick trip over to whitepages.com. Do a search for business type "florist springfield," and don't even both entering any city or state. You'll see that about five of the first listings are for "Florist in Springfield" or "Florist of Springfield" in Massachusetts, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Missouri. They all display local phone numbers, but none of them list an address, a common indication of a deceptive listing. To find out more, we called each of the numbers. Four were answered by a recording referring to "Our Flowers with Gifted Elegance." The fifth was answered by a similar operation which refused to provide a physical address and claimed it didn't allow 'walk-in' customers. In short, all five were bogus. The problem isn't limited to Springfield. One florist we interviewed knew of at least seventeen misleading florist listings in its local yellow pages.

According to customers, the real disservice isn't the false listing; it's the poor service. These companies often charge between $8.99 and $14.99 for taking each order and redirecting it to a real local florist. The service fee is on top of the flowers and local delivery, or worse yet is deducted from them without the customer's knowledge. The Better Business Bureau report on Flowers with Gifted Elegance, at bbb.org, notes an unsatisfactory record due to unanswered complaints. A search at RipOffReport.com reveals the number of complaints, including reports by people who's flowers were never delivered.

Avoid Being a Victim

There may be no easy way to recover from being a victim of this kind of advertising deception, but avoiding it is fairly easy.

- Trust your hometown florist. Most are seasoned professionals who can deliver your gift almost anywhere, know the better flower shops in other areas, stand behind their service, and guarantee your satisfaction. In the unlikely event any problem does arise, you'll be glad you're working with a reputable local business that wants your continued patronage.

- If you shop online, choose a nationwide florist that proudly displays a toll-free phone number, contact address, customer satisfaction policy, and industry credentials. Check for a secure order form with "https" in the address, and consider placing your first order by phone to ensure customer service people are easy to reach.

- Get advice from friends, neighbors, or business associates. They're often the best source for choosing the right florist.

- If you do search for local florists online or in phone books, be sure to avoid those with generic names that include the town or that can't give you the address and directions to their local store.

The vast majority of florists are hard-working, family-owned businesses dedicated to serving you. So, you can send flowers with confidence when you turn to the local florists you know and nationwide florists you trust. Most can deliver your bouquet around the corner or across the country, within 24 hours or less. No wonder, flower delivery is still one of the most reliable and popular ways to show you care. Still, like any industry, the flower business has its share of 'bad apples.' So, think twice before you play Russian Roulette with the phone book. Count on your local hometown florist and the established nationwide florists online.

Courtesy of Flowers Delivery Florists, an online guide for fresh flowers, florists online, and floral information resources.

Permission is granted to republish this article in its entirety on the Internet, as long as the link and credit above are included.

Selecting Your Florist for Las Vegas Weddings

 

Evaluating floral for Las Vegas weddings can be extremely difficult, espcially if trying to plan from another area. Here is a little help for some of your floral alternatives from the bridal bouquet to the meaning of each flower.

Floral Points for Las Vegas Weddings
If you plan your arrangements in advance, you can avoid problems like flowers being out of season or not being able to make the arrangements you would like. Flowers are an important part of weddings because they add beauty to the locations where ceremonies and receptions are held. If you can discern how to choose floral items for your wedding, you can save time and money and plan your wedding with a lot less frustration. One important thing to consider when you’re evaluating flowers for your wedding is whether or not the flowers you want to have are in season. There are many factors to consider including what flowers are in season, allergies of the bride or groom, the color scheme of the wedding, and the budget available for floral services.

The Bridal Bouquet for Las Vegas Weddings
The composite is less well-known, this option is a handmade creation in which different petals or buds are wired together on a single stem, creating the illusion of one giant flower. Although not as traditional as real flowers, silk flowers are becoming more popular. Craft stores sell a wide variety of silks, and you don't have to worry about whether or not your choice is in season. Among other factors, the choice of your wedding bouquet depends a great deal on the style of your gown. The arm bouquet is an elegant crescent shape, designed to be cradled in one arm.

Selecting your Las Vegas Wedding Floral Vendor
You’ll be working with many people to put together your big day. A sprinkling of of them will be vendors that will provide products or services that you’ll need for your wedding. A wedding vendor's Web site can say a lot about their legitimacy. Make sure the classiness of the site matches the price of their services. The best wedding vendors will call you back within 24 to 48 hours. If you choose vendors without getting recommendations or verifying their credentials, you may get stuck at the last minute without vital items or services you need for your wedding to take place.

The Contract for your Las Vegas Floral Vendor
Make sure the contract isn't confusing or written in "legalese." A contract or agreement should include what the provider will deliver, when delivery should take place, how much of a deposit you put down on your items or services, how much money is due, payment due dates, and related information. To give yourself an added layer of protection, you should get various of your contracts with vendors in writing to ensure that you will get what you have paid for. A professional contract says everything about a professional service vendor.

The Meaning of Each Flower
Bluebell stands for constancy. Roses symbolize deep love. Lily of the Valley is the flower for happiness. Magnolias are for nobility. Orchids convey beauty. Baby's breath alludes to a pure heart.

Follow these tips and tricks and the stress won't accompany your bridal bouquet at your Las Vegas wedding.

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