Alison and Matt's wedding - The Swan, West Malling

When we first met Ali, we knew that we'd have fun planning her wedding.  As a professional dancer, Ali is lively, bubbly and quite theatrical in style.  She had chosen cobalt blue for her bridesmaids and decided that she wanted a gorgeous bright red as a contrast.  Ali and Matt's style is contemporary and clean lined, and hence we decided to keep the flower varieties to a minimum and to use striking exotic anthuriums as the main flower.

Ali is petite and had chosen a gorgeous fitted gown which required a simple, yet striking bouquet.  We thus chose an overarm bouquet of anthuriums, gentiana and folded leaves to show off the gown to best effect.  We used a simple lace tie studded with transluscent crystals to finish.

For the bridesmaids, we used a striking white anthurium overarm bouquet along with folded leaves and grasses, and for the Flower Girl we designed a red anthurium "wand" surrounded with folded leaves and crystals.  Each of the adult bridesmaids also wore a single red anthurium in their hair to complete the striking look.

We followed the theme with a white anthurium buttonhole for Matt finished with blue gentiana and a red spray rose.  For the remainder of the groom's party we used red anthuriums and folded leaves for buttonholes.  For the ladies, we decided to continue the exotic theme using dendrobrium orchids along with spray roses again matching the colour scheme.

At the Swan, Ali and Matt chose the attached marquee to have their wedding breakfast on one of the hottest days of the year so far.  The shade given by the marquee meant that the flowers really stood out.  Ali and Matt had spent time choosing and writing name pebbles for each guest so we followed the theme by adding pebbles to the outer rim of the umbrella vases (some were real pebbles and some were oasis foam pebbles to assist with the weight in the glass).  To the centre of the umbrella vase we added a hand-tied arrangement of gentiana, anthuriums, grasses and folded leaves.  We added a final touch of blue using gel pearls in the stem of the vase.

For the top table, we designed a contemporary low arrangement of anthuriums, gentiana, folded leaves, palms and grasses along with foam "pebbles". At either end of the top table, we added a mini umbrella vase filled with gel pearls and pebbles, which the bridesmaids used for their bouquets during the reception.

We loved the exotic simplicity of the colours, the flower choice and the little added extras.  Ali and Matt are extremely stylish and had planned a wonderful wedding.  We knew that they would have a fabulous day, and hope that the little surprises (e.g. first dance) went well.  We loved the choice of colours and styles and hope it inspires others.

We're in Wedding Ideas Magazine this month

We seem to be appearing in a range of bridal magazines at the moment, which is wonderful...lovely for our glamorous brides to see themselves in print too.  This time it is Nicola and Daniel's wedding at Boughton Malherbe Church and Leeds Castle.  We provided all the flowers in the church and at Leeds Castle, including the candelabra (there wasn't enough room in the article to mention it all, but we didn't just provide the votives on the tables!).  The article is lovely and will probably end up online on www.weddingideasmag.com   In the meantime, it's worth getting to WHSmith to buy the magazine as it has lots of lovely ideas included.

Carly and Rob's fabulous colourful Cooling Castle Barn wedding

We met Carly a long time ago now and right from the beginning have been looking forward to the flowers for their wedding.  Carly chose a vibrant, contemporary mix of colours and flowers for their wedding day to contrast again black bridesmaids' dresses.  She has always had the most wonderful sense of style and fun and has been a firm favourite here with the team, along with her family.  We were thus really excited to be involved in her wedding.  It was only right that in the middle of this soaking wet "drought" that Carly and Rob had a wonderful sunny day for their wedding.

Carly's gown was a really beautiful and unusual dress with delicate and yet striking black flowers appliqued on.  Her veil was also edged with black to tie in with her bridesmaids.  She looked truly stunning and goregous as we knew she would.  My very snatched photo just doesn't do her justice as she really was a vision...and so calm and smiley from first thing in the morning to meeting the registrar and probably through the whole day.  Rob is a lucky man!

Carly wanted a colourful and unusual bouquet which didn't cover too much detail in the dress, but was also a contemporary teardrop rather than a hand-tie. We filled it with orchids, gerberas, anthuriums, greentrick, celosia, grevillia and also loops of black bear grass and black tie leaves. We tied multi-coloured ribbons (one to match each bridesmaid) around the top of the stems.

For each of the bridesmaids, we provided a hand-tied gerbera bouquet in a different colour (yellow, hot pink and orange) all with black bear grass.  We wrapped the stems to match the flowers and then finished them with black ribbon to match their dresses.  Carly had hair flowers, wraps and shoes for each of them to match the bouquet colour...a lovely look all around.

For Rob, we tied his buttonhole into Carly's bouquet and used an anthurium, germini, greentrick and black foliage.  For the Best Man, we used the yellow germini that we'd used in Rob's buttonhole, then varied the germinis for the rest of the groom's party.  For Carly's Mum, we provided a strong pink dendrobrium orchid corsage with silver beads, touches of black foliage and greentrick. Against her beautiful grey and black outfit it looked gorgeous.  Rob's Mum had chosen a multi-coloured print dress with a red jacket edged in black and so we decided to provide an ivory corsage with detailing to tone.  Nan also had a corsage all in ivory and we provided Thank-You bouquets in the beautiful vibrant colours and in a contemporary style.

For the ceremony, we dressed the Celebrant table with a long, low and exotic mix of flowers and matched it with a central pedestal arrangement.

For the top table, we also provided a long, low central arrangement and then provided mini umbrella vases with different coloured water for the bridesmaids' bouquets.  Each had sweets arranged around the rim (forgot to take a photo of these..!).  We then decided to finish the lovely napkins and place settings with a different coloured gerbera for each, being careful not to match the colour to the ribbon colour.

Guest tables then had a central mirror on which we stood a large umbrella vase with a tall, slim and funky arrangement of orchids, gerberas, anthuriums, greentrick and foliage.  Each was tied with a black ribbon and finished with a different coloured pin.  These stood in the central part of the umbrella vase in different coloured water and around the outside rim, we arranged a yummy selection of sweets from strawberry laces, jazzies, cola bottles, jelly cherries, jelly babies, refreshers, love hearts etc.  Fab!  www.your-beautiful-day.co.uk provided the chair covers and taffeta sashes, sparkly brooches, multi-coloured napkin ribbons and the sweetie bags to finish everything off perfectly.

And as for the cake....how fab is this.  Not only is the detail lovely and the colours great, it was personalised for Carly and Rob as well.  It was made by Katie at www.cupkates.co.uk 

It was such a lovely bright and uplifting look for Carly and Rob's wedding and matched their personalities perfectly.  The sun shone, everyone looked truly gorgeous and the guests ate the tablecentres....what more can you ask.  It was hopefully a perfect day for Carly and Rob and we wish them the very best in the future and we're only sorry we can't work with them anymore!