So it's purple for your wedding day? You just love the richness of this shade. You love the way you can move from lilacs and mauves through to a rich imperial purple, something dramatic that will hold its own on a winter wedding day.

It's a shade that lends itself perfectly to having an ombre bridesmaid line up as well. Depending on your girls' complexions you can choose soft pastel purples (we're thinking of sugared almonds here) or deep dark tones.

Hold some feeltimes dresses samples up against the face to see which color works (you can get the color samples from Dessy right here). It might be surprising to see what works with which maid. Somebody might be convinced they don't suit pastels, only to find out they work beautifully. Another might always have avoided brights, only to realize that they should have been wearing dramatic colors always.

There's no doubt, such an exquisite color palette is incredibly amorous - and so many violet-colored flowers have a wonderfully delicate fragrance too. You'll also find a big selection of blooms in shades of purple - just talk to your florist about what's available. Whose heart (and nose!) would not be moved by the posies below, created by the lovely Helen Jane Floristry, with the perfumed Muscari, syringa, roses, and freesias?

This might be time to revisit the Sophia Coppola film "Marie Antoinette". It's a confection of pastels and purples and could give you some fabulous inspiration.

As for accent details, you'll find that metallics work well with purple. Silver, gold, bronze - maybe do things a little differently and put your maids in silver or gold sandals ...

Takeaways from this post

Purple is a fabulous accent color to choose for your wedding day for several reasons

You can go for an ombre theme and use every shade of purple from the palest lilac through to a rich deep purple

You'll find plenty of wedding flowers in purple shades - talk to your florist about choices for the time of year

Purple shoes peeping out from beneath a traditional cream or cheap wedding dresses look fabulous (but think about metallics too)

Depending on the shade you choose, purple is just at home at a city wedding in winter, a country garden wedding, or a destination wedding on a palm-fringed beach