Wedding Flower Color Frustrations

Dear Dr. Dave and Dr. Dee,

I am getting married and would like my wedding colors to be purple and silver. My mother and other relatives all disapprove saying that purple flowers are bad and that a purple flower showed signs of misfortune. I am of Vietnamese descent and would like to know if purple was a bad color for a wedding. This is the first time I have heard of this.

Signed,

Frustrated

Dear Frustrated,

In Western, Asian, and European cultures purple has been associated with royalty or high ranking officials (Wikipedia, 2009). Generally, flowers and their colors have positive meanings associated with them such as purple violets - thoughts of you, purple iris - wisdom. Although other purple flowers are less positive such as purple carnation - capriciousness or purple hyacinth - sorrow (Clarence Walker Flower, 2009).

Thailand considers the color purple to be for mourning widows (Wikipedia, 2009), however, you are of Vietnamese descent.

If your mother and other relatives feel so strongly against the color purple and you cannot convince them otherwise, then maybe it would less stressful to compromise with another beautiful color flower. For example, mauve is a variation of purple with more pink tones.