Ruth and Jon's wedding at Leeds Castle

Given that a while ago we christened Jonathon as our "JGE" man of this year, we've been dying to do the flowers for Ruth and Jon's wedding.  We met them both after they attended Susan and Matthew's (a former JGE man! and a fab couple) wedding and liked the flowers.  We hit it off from the initial meeting and have loved working with them and their whole bridal party (lovely parents, great and gorgeous bridesmaids...)  It's what makes our job worthwhile and it was a great pleasure preparing the flowers for them.

As Ruth and Jon had gone for a "victorian lilac" style of colour for their bridesmaids, and Ruth loved the pale pink Sweet Avalanche and creamy Vendella roses, we wanted to add an accent colour.  Originally we went for a contrasting green, but had a last minute change (I had some spare Amnesia roses in the studio) and it worked perfectly.  All three roses were paired with grasses and eucalyptus and we added hydrangeas and anthuriums for the tables and the colours reminded us of parma violets and sugared almonds....yummy!

Bouquets were neat, crisp and pretty hand-ties of roses, with the Amnesia, Sweet Avalanche and Vendella being used in Ruth's bouquet and a pretty brooch added to finish the look.  For the bridesmaids, we did smaller versions of the bridal bouquet just omitting the Amnesia.

Buttonholes followed the usual theme, with the gorgeous Amnesia being used for Jon, and the Vendella for the groomsmen...having seen their elegant grey suits, it was a perfect choice.  Corsages for Mums were designed to match their outfits, with stronger pink dendrobrium orchids used for Anne, Ruth's Mum and black shaved feathers used for Jon's Mum to match her fascinator.

Fiona, Katie and the team at Leeds Castle were as efficient, friendly, helpful and fun to work with as ever, and made sure we could transform the Fairfax Hall quickly by placing large trumpet vases on central mirrors, filled with pale lilac / pink water and with a Sweet Avalanche rose floating in the water for interest when guests were seated.  On top of each, we placed a striking and pretty arrangement which guests were then lucky enough to take home with them at the end of the day.  As the ceiling is vaulted in the Fairfax Hall, we decided to use taller vases in the central section and then for the side tables under the lower eaves, we placed fishbowls filled with white hydrangeas onto mirrors, and then added the colour by using the purple hydrangea florets around the edge along with the gently flickering Smart Candles. 

The hydrangea florets were added to each other table and along the top table along with further Smart Candles.  A long, low and soft arrangement was added to the top table in front of Ruth and Jon and we finished the place settings with Amnesia roses.  We also finished the cake table (another gorgeous cake matching the colours perfectly by http://www.creativecakesbymaria.co.uk/) with hydrangea florets and a cluster of roses.  Thank you bouquets were provided (not photographed) and we know that Ruth's Mum decided to take the flowers out of the top table arrangements for further enjoyment (after all, there aren't many dining tables to match the length of the top table at Leeds Castle!

I know Alfie and Trish's photos will be gorgeous (http://www.alfietrish.co.uk/), but in the meantime Ruth has just sent across a few family photos so that we can include them in the blog....they say it all really....truly lovely.  A perfect wedding for a perfect wedding party.