Finding Flower References Online (And other random info)
August 11, 2009
Many brides want to see what different flowers are out there an available in the month they are getting married. One of my favorite sources for referencing the colors and flower types available is www.fiftyflowers.com. Now, their pricing isn’t better than my wholesaler so I don’t actually buy flowers from them–but their website is fabulous for seeing what flowers look like and how many colors they come in. The only downside with Fiftyflowers is they do not give accurate availability of certain flowers. For instance, they make it seem like Peonies, Ranunculus and Anemones are always available when that is not the case.
Another helpful site for looking up floral trends, color palettes and availability would be the CCFC’s (California Cut Flower Commission) website. They feature color trend forecasts and flower availability on there.
If you are looking for wedding flower ideas in general, Google Image searching with the correct search terms can get you a lot of ideas, and also looking to photo sites like Flickr and searching the tags by putting in keywords helps. I can say that having a flickr site of my own has helped me to find other florists around the globe and we all share and steal eachother’s ideas! It is nice to view other techniques and methods that are out there for designing beautiful floral creations. Or should I say “Kreations”.
Speaking of Kreations…since people often wonder where the “Kio” part of “Kio Kreations” comes from, I might as well explain that in this informative Blog post. Put simply, Kio is my nickname. I got it in high school art class. Basically, I was annoyed when people spelled my name which is “KRISTEN” this way: “KRISTIN“. So, I started to sign my name on my artwork KRIS10 (basically KRIS and the number 10). Then it got to the point where I just started signing artwork “K 10″ and people interpreted that as “Kio” and the rest is history. I even created a cartoon character that was my alter-ego named “Kio Littlechicken” which is a take off of “Kristen Henschen” (Henschen is German for Small Chicken). My little Kio character later landed herself a daily comic strip in the college newspaper called “Kio’s Kaos” that ran for 2 years so even people at NIU started referring to me as Kio. Now its mostly my immediate family and occasionally my husband who call me Kio. But since its far more unique than my actual name of Kristen, I chose Kio Kreations for my business name 5 years ago. So, long story long…that is where “Kio” originated.
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