Wedding bouquets don't all have to look alike...

We were talking to someone recently who said that when looking for a wedding florist they were only interested in those whose style was soft and vintage and who predominantly featured hand-tied bouquets.  The person felt that this was what denoted a "contemporary" florist and the more vintage styling that featured on a website the better.  We just wanted to question that here on the blog.  Don't get us wrong, we love soft textured vintage style bouquets and have a fair few (to say the least) on our blog and website, BUT we want to showcase other styles as there are so many beautiful bouquets and flowers available.

To do this, instead of including lots of different photos, we thought we'd focus on three different weddings which we've not featured on the blog yet.

The first was the lovely Kathrine and Rob's wedding at Hever Castle in the summer of this year.  Kathrine has a distinctive style and they are a fab couple.  They wanted a wedding that matched their personalities, was striking and stood out from the crown.  For Kathrine, we provided a very long slimline bouquet in shades of ivory and purple and featuring roses, germinis, lisianthus, ivy and bear grass lots of sparkle.  You can see it was perfect for her.  Her eight bridesmaids wore purple gowns and we provided pretty purple and ivory bouquets of roses and lisianthus for them with ivy.  Buttonholes and corsages were designed to match.  They had a fab day and we were thrilled Kathrine liked her (non vintage and non hand-tied) bouquet.

Photo courtesy of www.lifeweddingphotography.com

Photo courtesy of www.lifeweddingphotography.com

Photo at Hever Castle by www.lifeweddingphotography.com

As a completely different look again, we provided the flowers for Dawn Marie and James' wedding in the summer of this year.  They wanted very simple but striking and elegant flowers and their colour scheme was pink in varying shades with ivory and accents of platinum grey.  To show off the gorgeous detailing of Dawn Marie's dress, we decided upon an overarm bouquet using a variety of calla and oriental lilies along with black tie leaves and silver bear grass.  Crystals, pearls and butterflies were added.  Dawn Marie's five bridesmaids had wrist corsages rather than bouquets and they looked gorgeous.  Mini calla lilies, black tie leaves, feathers, pearls and bear grass were all added to a double pewter and black ribbon.  Her Flower Girls carried a matching "wand" featuring calla lilies.  Once again, the buttonholes were designed to tie in with the rest of the flowers.  Dawn Marie and James had a lovely day and looked truly fab. 

The third wedding we thought we'd include was another summer wedding from this year.  Debbie and Martin again wanted a simple and classic look for their wedding and chose roses and freesias as their flowers.  The accent colour of the wedding was aqua and hence we brought this in with bows on the bouquets and other detailing at the venue.  Debbie chose a hand-tied bouquet of roses and freesias and added a few sparkles through the bouquet.  Her bridesmaid carried a smaller version of the bridal bouquet.  Buttonholes and corsages again matched the rest of the flowers.  Debbie and Martin had a wonderful day and thought their flowers were just perfect.

I have to say that I think all the bouquet are lovely as they reflect the personality of the brides.  Flowers really should be chosen to match personalities, work with rather than compete with the bridal gowns, fit with the surroundings and above all be just what the happy couple want.  We all have very different tastes and styles and therefore the latest trends and styles may not be everyone's preferred option.  That's why we don't have a "house style" and like to provide the widest range of flowers possible.

And so as not to upset all those lovely brides who like softer, vintage styled blooms...here's a few recent bouquets that fit the bill...

The Wedding Industry Awards

As all you followers will know, we were shortlisted in the national Wedding Industry Awards for the enormous South East region.  The competition was huge with some fantastic florists in the final with us...the sort we look up to.  We weren't surprised not to win and will definitely give it another go next year, BUT in the meantime we have been sent the average scores of all our voters and their comments...WOW!  Those of you who know me will know I am rarely reduced to tears, but the comments here have done it...am now a wreck!

Thanks SOOOO much to all our wedding couples for taking the time to vote for us.  We scored an average 9.89 out of 10 across seven categories and are humbled by the comments...I know it's an important day for everyone and we always strive to do our best, but I don't think we realised how much of an impact we had had on so many of our lovely couples.

If you'd like to read the detailed feedback (it's several pages long though!), it's here....

http://distinctlyfloral.co.uk/#pages/What%20people%20say%20about%20us/Wedding%20Industry%20Awards%202013%20Feedback

Thanks again from a humbled team!

Michelle and Chris' Red Rose wedding at Chilston Park Hotel

As we head to the season where red becomes predominant and reminds us all of Christmas, I thought I'd share with you a wedding from earlier in the year, featuring red roses.  It shows how they work well in any season and set the scene for a rich and sumptuous look.   Michelle and Chris wanted all red roses for their wedding with a touch of additional sparkle.

Michelle's bouquet was a simple and yet very striking bouquet of large headed scented Red Naomi roses with loops of bear grass and a collar of salal tips.  We added sprigs of crystals throughout and then finished the stems in ivory with a blue bow to bring in the bridesmaids' dress colours.

Michelle had two elder bridesmaids, two teenage bridesmaids, a junior bridesmaid and a Flower Girl and so we decided to provide the same for everyone but just to scale the bouquets down in size right down to a "wand" for the Flower Girl.  Each bouquet was a smaller version of Michelle's bouquet but minus the sparkles...it looked so elegant having them all matching.

For the boys, red roses were again the featured flower with Chris having the spriggy crystals to match his lovely bride.  We then provided corsages for Mum and Nan to tone with their outfits, and a thank you bouquet designed to tie in with the wedding colours and style.

For the reception at Chilston Park, Michelle and Chris wanted to keep the flowers elegant and yet simple so we decided upon large fishbowls placed on central mirrors for the tables.  Instead of adding the flowers inside the bowls, we kept the stems longer and the heads lying flush with the top of the vases.  Curled grasses were added inside along with white gel crystals in the bowls.  We finished the tables with lots of sumptuous petals and additional crystals.

We did the same for the top table with three fishbowls (which the girls used to keep their bouquets fresh) and we added lots of petals and individual roses to the place settings.

Whilst we didn't get a chance to photograph it as it was brought out later, Michelle and Chris came up with a unique and from what I hear, very well received idea for their wedding cake.  They filled a large tiered cake stand with Krispy Kreme doughnuts and we provided roses to be dotted here and there throughout...genius!

Michelle and Chris as the most lovely couple you can ever meet...they are so genuine and nice and never want to be any trouble and it was a complete pleasure to be around them.  Despite various venue changes (and a late vicar from what we heard!), they were unfazed and just got on with planning their big day.  We hope they have the happiest future together.

Rachel and Jay's beautiful Cooling Castle wedding

We are so lucky doing a job that we love, and no more so when we get to work with fabulous couples and their families.  As soon as we met Rachel, Jay and the families, we knew we were going to enjoy being involved in their wedding.  Great venue, fab flowers, wonderful couple and lovely family...fantastic.

 

Rachel and Jay wanted a soft, romantic  and very pretty look to Cooling Castle Barn using soft ivories and pinks.  We decided upon roses Sweet Avalanche, Carousel Illusion, La Belle, Vendella), Spray Roses, Freesias, Bouvarida, Lisianthus, Pink Gypsophilia, Brassica and Hydrangeas....all lovely and perfect for Rachel and Jay's wedding.

 

 

For Rachel's bouquet we decided on all roses (spray roses and large headed roses) along with crystals and finished with a brooch.  Rachel is so pretty and petite and her dress was so stylish and gorgeous, that we decided not to make it too large.  We think she looked beautiful.

The girls were all pretty gorgeous too..three elder bridesmaids, a junior bridesmaid and a Flower Girl completed Rachel's entourage.  We designed largely ivory hand-tied bouquets for the girls using roses, spray roses, freesias and bouvardia and scaled the size down for the junior bridesmaid.  For the Flower Girl we provided a floral handbag using faux roses to allow her to keep the handbag as a permanent keepsake.  We made a crystal handbag and added crystal pins to tie in with the theme.

Jay wore a Vendella rose buttonhole with pale pink spray roses, foliage and crystals whilst his Best Man wored the same Vendella rose with ivory spray roses, foliage and no crystals.  For the rest of the Groom's party we used the Vendella rose with light foliage.  The Page Boy then had a smaller buttonhole just of spray roses.  Mums had wrist corsage of freesias and spray roses with crystals.

 

For the ceremony, we dressed the dais and points along the banisters and stairs with organza bows with roses through the centre.  We then added a long, low and pretty arrangement to the celebrant table.

Within the main barn we added silk blossom garlands threaded with lights to the beams and finished them with trailing organza bows at the top.  We then dressed the plough behind the top table with a large wicker heart dressed with flowers and an organza bow.    We added a long, low and pretty arrangement to the top table and added Rachel and Jay's Mr and Mrs Sign in front of it which looked lovely.  We finished the chairs with roses through the bows.

For the guest tables, we designed full arrangements on top of tall lily vases.  As Rachel wanted the vases to look much softer, we wrapped garlands of foliage around the stems and added paper rose petals to the table at the bottom.  So pretty!

Final touches for this pretty wedding included hearts over the fireplace in the entrance barn and two tiered baskets of fresh rose petal confetti in cones.

It really was a lovely wedding for a fabulous couple.  We enjoyed being a part of it and know that everyone had a wonderful day.  We're only sorry we won't be working with Rachel, Jay and their families and friends again.