Jessica and Graham's wedding at The Museum of Kent Life

Another of our recent weddings was Jessica and Graham's at the lovely, rustic Museum of Kent Life.  Jessica and Graham wanted a pretty but contemporary look to their flowers, but we also wanted to ensure that they worked in such rustic surroundings.  Jessica's colour scheme was a deep red and ivory and she wanted to keep her flowers really simple.  Whilst wanting to include some calla lilies in the flowers, we decided to keep them just to her bouquet, Graham's buttonhole and a small section on the cake.  Everywhere else was focussed on gerberas.

For Jessica's bouquet, we used gerberas, freesias and calla lilies in a palette of red and ivory along with variegated china grass, ruscus and ivy leaves.  Her bouquet was hand-tied and smelt delicious.  We also used two different ribbons to wrap the stems to bring in the colour of both Jessica and her bridesmaid's dress.

Graham's buttonhole was designed to tie in with Jessica's bouquet and was different to the germini buttonholes used for the rest of the bridal party.

The bridesmaid's bouquet of ivory germinis contrasted with her dress and used the same foliage (china grass, ivy and ruscus) as Jessica's bouquet.

For the tables in the Wagon store, Jessica and her family had been collecting Yankee Candle jars (their houses must be permanently sweetly scented given the number of pots they'd saved!) for some time and wanted to use a new candle on each of the tables.  We thus used all the empty ones they'd been collecting, wrapped them with a leaf and tied them with ribbon and added a simple gerbera with loops of china grass to each jar.  We used larger jars for the top table.  Whilst very simple, they looked effective and pretty on the tables when clustered together.

We then chose a selection of sizes for the entrance hall in the Village Hall. 

Finally, Jessica wanted to dress the cake with some flowers, but again wanted to keep them simple....we thus added a small topper to the cake to tie in with the gerbera theme, and finished it with a calla lily section to bring in the special bridal flower.

With sunshine streaming down, and some very cute pigs playing in the background, it promised to be a perfect Kent day.  We hope Jessica and Graham had a great day and that it was everything they had dreamed of and planned.

Sympathy Flowers

In addition to all the happy events we are part of and which we regularly feature on the blog, we also do a lot of work for funerals and feel it is just as important, perhaps even more so, to get the flowers right on these occasions.  We take into account colours, styles and flower preferences of our customers as well as the deceased, and if providing a number of pieces for one funeral, will make sure that they are all different, and yet work together.  We've also been asked to provide flowers for wakes, and try to ensure that they are appropriate for the setting and the actual event and if possible tie in to the flowers used for the ceremony earlier.

We thought you may like to see some of our recent work from the last few weeks.

Firstly, the sprays, large and small...contemporary or more traditional

Followed by wreaths and hearts in a variety of colours and styles....

Tied arrangements are often chosen so that they can be taken away and used in a vase after the event...

And names still remain popular...whilst they are well known, we always try to ensure that the top sprays are full of colour and flower....

And finally here are some of the flowers provided for a recent wake.

I think it shows just how varied and how beautiful flowers can be whatever the occasion, and whilst these are all for sad times, we hope they made some people smile or made a bad day seem a little brighter.

Clare and Christian's wedding in Rye Town Hall followed by The George - updated with new photos

Well what a scorching day to get married....Rye was basking in fantastic sunshine for the wedding of Clare and Christian yesterday.  We met Clare and Christian quite by accident when they were wine tasting for their wedding at Chapeldown.  Clare had already ordered silk flowers for her wedding and wasn't looking at florists at all....thank goodness we managed to change her mind....and thank goodness she was wearing fantastic boots on the day that ensured we had to talk to her.

Clare and Christian managed to combine vintage glamour with a more laid back feel for their wedding, and The George in Rye was a perfect setting for their wedding.  Clare's dress was a gorgeous lace Sassi Holford gown which was finished perfectly by the most fabulous Enzoani shrug...all roses and ruffles.  The colour scheme was champagne, coffee and a hint of faded pink, all of which tones with the gorgeous walls in the Ballroom in The George.  Her beautiful hair piece was handmade by Swindon company Eden Tiaras (http://www.edentiaras.co.uk/) and finished the outfit off fabulously....oh if we could all look like this!  Christian's elegant suit and toning tie, waistcoat and handkerchief worked perfectly with the scheme and ensured that they looked a truly striking couple. 

What's even nicer is that Clare and Christian are so relaxed and unruffled by anything, and carried this right through to the day....many of the decisions and purchases, e.g. hair piece, bolero jacket and even our flowers were all made in the last couple of months before the wedding, which just goes to show that you can have the perfect day without years of advance planning and possible stress

We decided to add as much scent as possible to the bouquets and went for a textured and slightly unstructured look.  Bouvardia, trachellium, freesias, chincherinchee and Vendella roses were the basis of Clare's bouquet, and the sprigs of eucalyptus and rosemary added the additional scent.  As the older bridesmaids were both wearing black dresses we chose all ivory bouquets for them in a style matching Clare's and added thin black bows to all the bouquets to tie in the dress colour.  For the younger girls wearing champagne dresses, with black sashes and shrugs, we substituted Majolika spray rose and other spray roses instead of the Vendella. 

For the tables, we used a mismatched selection of vases all to hold a church candle and a selection of flowers.  We added wired strings of eucalytpus and rosemary and the sprinkled spray rose heads on the mirrors to add additional softness.  Against the walls of the Ballroom they looked lovely, and are an ideal example of how rooms can often look better with slightly less flowers.  The light in the Ballroom was so lovely, and with the mirrored walls, chandeliers and table mirrors, the whole room seemed to sparkle.

And we loved the boat shaped napkins...very inventively done.

Thank you bouquets were a little different as well, with a front facing design used to show off the flowers to their best.

We provided an arrangement for the celebrant table in the Town Hall and this was announced to half the town by the Town Crier....a real first.

Buttonholes were softer and all consisted of chincherinchee and rosemary or eucalyptus apart from Christian's where we added the Vendella rose, and the younger boys for whom we substituted spray roses.  For two special buttonholes (Herbie and Archie), we added a car and a plane pin which matched their interests...just a little bit different.

Overall, we loved the day...Rye at its best, a lovely relaxed couple with a very welcoming family, a great venue with superb staff and fantastic sunshine.....sometimes our job is really the best!  And special thanks to Clare and her friends and family for letting us have some of their photos to add to the blog and show you how fabulous everyone looked.