Tuesday 18 June 2013

Laura and John's wedding at St. Margaret's church Broomfield, followed by the Tudor Park Hotel


When we heard about Laura and John's lovely fresh lemon and pale pink theme, we knew this was going to be a lovely wedding.  They also loved roses and orchids, so we knew it would look very fresh and special.

Laura had chosen a lovely strapless ivory gown with detail and beading coming across the bodice and down to one side, so we decided upon a hand-tied quite compact bouquet to work with, instead of hide the detail.  We chose Sweet Avalanche and Vanilla Sky roses along with lemon ranunculus for the bouquet and finished it with a ruscus collar.



Laura wanted to keep the bouquets for her bridesmaids to just one flower, so we use the Vanilla Sky rose with the ruscus.  For her sister we used three of the roses to differentiate and finished the bouquet with ranunculus to keep it more compact rather than open.



For the boys we used a cymbidium orchid for John along with a lemon ranunculus, and a single cymbidium orchid for the rest of the boys.  Dendrobrium orchids were use for the Mums' corsages along with spray roses and detailing to match their dresses.  We then provided wrist corsages for John's sisters and a smaller corsage for Nan.  We also provided thank-you bouquets to match the wedding flowers.






 
 

We welcomed guests to the very pretty church of St Margaret by dressing the front gate with a garland interspersed with flowers.  We then added a pedestal arrangement inside the church and added roses to the pews. We finished off the interior with an altar arrangement using all the flowers and colours we were using elsewhere.  With such a pretty country church in a beautiful location, Laura and John chose the perfect amount of dressing for the church and we thought it looked lovely.









For the wedding breakfast at The Tudor Park Hotel, we provided an additional pedestal arrangement to match the one in the church, as the ushers were going to transport the arrangement back after the service to be placed at the other end of the top table.  The focus for the reception was the top table, and we provided a long and low central arrangement and then added a foliage garland interspersed with flowers to bring colour along the table. 




We loved the fresh and pretty colour scheme and all the choices Laura and John made for their special day.  We hope it was a perfect day for them.

Katie and Steve's Knowlton Court wedding

 

Katie and Steve were married at Knowlton Court earlier in June on a lovely day that would have allowed them to explore all the topiary animals in the grounds whilst enjoying a Pimms.  All this, croquet, suits of armour and a wedding party that continued all weekend.  What could be more English or more perfect for a wedding.  It really was a lovely wedding and perfect for Katie and Steve.

To fit with the beautiful location, Katie and Steve chose soft, romantic, very English style flowers in a dusky pink and ivory palette.  We added David Austin roses to the bouquets and the scent was amazzing.  So very pretty too.  Katie's bouquet was a textured hand-tied bouquet of roses, freesias, bouvardia and trachellium.  It smelt gorgeous!  We decided to add pearl pins at random around the stem of the bouquet rather than in a more formal straight line, and this reflected the slightly more relaxed style that Katie and Steve wanted.



 
 

Katie's four adult bridesmaids carried smaller hand-tied bouquets and we used more ivory than pink in their bouquets to contrast against their dressees.  For the Flower Girl, we used a single Cezanne rose surrounded with bouvardia and foliage.



The boys buttonholes followed suit (if you'll excuse the pun) with Steve wearing a Cezanne rose, a freesia head and a sprig of trachellium.  The remainder of the groomsmen had an ivory rose with foliage and the Page Boy had a "mini-me" version designed to be appropriate for his size.  Mums and Nans had corsages with the addition of spriggy pearls for the Mums.  All very pretty indeed.  We also provided a sweetly scented thank-you bouquet for Nan and Grandad.







As the ceremony was going to be held in the Great Hall, as was the reception, we used a long and low arrangement of flowers on the gorgeous table at the front of the hall, along with clusters of additional vases at either end.  As you can see, it's a long table that really needs to be dressed along it's length.




As we couldn't set up the reception tables, we did the next best thing and arranged the variety of vases on other pieces of furniture, keeping each grouping together as closely as it should be provided on the tables.  We're perfectionists and even provided photos taken from every angle of how each table should be set-up to ensure that the caterers would get it just right (probably a bit OCD, but we thought it was important). We wanted to ensure different heights, so used cake plates and vintage books to raise certain items up from the tables.  Against the wood panelling, the colours Katie and Steve had chosen, and the range of vases, jugs etc that we used looked really striking and very appropriate for the hall.









Katie was already looking gorgeous when we delivered the bouquet and was only in the process of having her hair and make-up done.  I can only imagine how lovely she will have looked walking down the aisle.  I can bet she took Steve's breath away.  We hope it was a perfect day for them both.  They were so very easy to work with and it was a pleasure being at Knowlton Court again.  We hope all their guests had a lovely weekend.

Angie and Nick's fresh and contemporary wedding at Turkey Mill

 

Whilst we love soft and pretty blooms with vintage styling, it really is nice to work with more contemporary and structural flowers again from time to time.  We used to use anthuriums, calla lilies and longiflora lilies all the time in the shop before the softer vintage look came in, but there is less demand for them at the moment in wedding work.  We were thus thrilled to welcome them back for Angie and Nick's lovely Turkey Mill wedding.  They wanted to keep things fresh and contemporary and stuck to an ivory and lime green colour palette which looked gorgeous in the recently refurbished Orangery at Turkey Mill.


Angie is petite and really pretty and needed a bouquet to compliment her rather than hide her. We therefore chose a hand-tied bouquet of calla lilies, chincherinchee, lisianthus, greentrick and china grass. We wrapped the stems in white ribbon and finished them with crystals. For the five adult bridesmaids, we decided to design simple yet striking hand-tied bouquets of Crystal Blush calla lilies which have a slightly smaller head. Again we used loops and sprigs of china grass and they looked lovely. For the Flower Girl, we used a single calla lily surrounded with spriggy crystals and china grass. They all looked so fresh and pretty, perfect for Angie's attendants.





Nick's buttonhole reflected Angie's bouquet with a calla lily, greentrick and china grass, whilst the rest of the boys had a single calla lily and china grass to tie in with the bridesmaids.  Corsages were designed for the Mums and Nans and they tied in with the wedding flowers and also their outfits.







As Angie would be making her entrance over the bridge, we dressed the length of the bridge with organza and added trailing arrangements at the end to frame her entrance.  We then added an arrangement to the celebrant table using the flowers we used elsewhere in the wedding and ensured it had a more contemporary feel.



 

For the wedding breakfast, Angie and Nick had hired cream single candlesticks to use as their tablecentres and wanted arrangements to sit on the top.  They didn't want them to be open, spriggy or trailing, but more boxy and compact.  We used anthuriums, greentrick, longifloral lilies, chincherinchee and lisianthus along with split and rolled aspidistra leaves and china grass to give a much more contemporary feel.  We then used molucella split into individual florets on the tables to bring the colour through to the cloths. 




For the top table, we added a long, low and contemporary arrangement to the front of the table, sprinkled molucella florets along the edge and added empty vases for the bridesmaids' bouquets at the ends.  We also added single calla lilies to the napkins to finish the look.




I have to say it was lovely working with Angie and Nick on their wedding day.  As you can see from all the details in the photos, they have fabulous taste and designed an elegant, fresh and contemporary wedding that works so well with their own personal style and with the style of the venue.  We love their style and their choice of flowers....and it's nice to see that the Facebook photos of the bouquets are also inspiring others....perhaps we'll start seeing more contemporary flowers appearing again from time to time.  Whatever your own personal likes and dislikes, we hope you enjoyed what was a lovely wedding for a lovely couple.