Expert Advice from wedding guru, Sharon Naylor

Answer:

My favorite color-selection inspiration is to go to the paint section at Home Depot and stand in front of all the paint color strips to get a really good look at which colors coordinate well with lilac. Look through the many different hues of lilac, which you can show to your floral designer and even use to choose your linens, and take lots of samples. Then hold them up to other colors to see what pops out at you.

You have a spring wedding, so you'll have to see if your personal style is pastels or brights, both of which work beautifully for weddings. you might even be surprised to see that lilac look gorgeous with coral and white! Or with a range of yellows. Bring your groom along and see what you like...and I advise leaving the moms and bridesmaids at home, since this is a task that can get frustrating with too many opinions!!

Yes, you'll see choose-your-color interactive tools online, but I think there's no better way to choose color blends than to stand in front of an enormous range of color and hold up that lilac card, move from right to left, and pick out the color strips that you like on the spot, bring home and work with them all together. You might even decide that the coral and pink you chose would work perfectly for the cocktail party flowers and not for your reception flowers and bouquets. I love those free strips of paint colors, and I think you're going to have a lot of fun working with them!!

For spring, just stay away from dark, jewel colors like deeper purples that you may see in bridal magazine photos of lilacs and such. They're just too 'heavy' a tone to build centerpiece arrangesments off of....it's more of a winter look.