Catherine and Gavin's wedding at Oxonhoath

Photo courtesy of Steven Brooks Photography

Catherine and Gavin are a lovely very natural, down to earth couple who wanted their wedding to be a relaxed English Afternoon Tea affair in the heart of the Kent countryside.  Oxonhoath with its' laid back feel and fabulous grounds and views was a perfect choice for them.  They were to be married in the Library and then have afternoon tea in the main reception room.

The colour scheme was ivory, dusky pink and with hints of lilac!  They wanted very soft, natural and relaxed arrangements and we decided upon Amnesia, Avalanche, Carousel Illusion roses along with peonies, hydrangeas, sweet peas, freesias, lavender, bouvardia and lisianthus with soft foliages...all natural, scented and very pretty.

Catherine had chosen a stunning lace dress and jacket with exquisite detailing and hence we decided it was best accompanied by an unstructured, not too neat hand-tied bouquet.  Catherine looked so lovely as you can see by the photos she has kindly supplied and which were taken by www.stevenbrooksphotographer.com  We think her flowers were perfect for her dress and also perfect for her personality and the venue.

Photo Courtesy of Steven Brooks Photography

Photo courtesy of Steven Brooks Photography

Photo courtesy of Steven Brooks Photography

 

 

Catherine's bridesmaids looked lovely in Victorian Lilac dresses and we provided hand-tied bouquets being more ivory in colour to contrast against their dresses.

Photo Courtesy of Steven Brooks Photography

For Gavin, we use an Amnesia rose along with bouvardia, lavender and rosemary and the rest of the Groom's party had Avalanche roses with lavender and rosemary.  Mums had pretty corsages designed to match their outfits.

Photo courtesy of Steven Brooks Photography

For the celebrant table, we designed a soft, long and low arrangement using all the flowers used elsewhere in the wedding.

Photo courtesy of Steven Brooks Photography

For the wedding breakfast (well afternoon tea!), we provided two low arrangements for the top table, which were then interspersed with cake plates.  Catherine and her family provided us with lots of jars and containers which we used for the tables and the mantelpiece dressed with ribbons and lace and arranged in natural clusters on the tables.

We then finished their napkins with roses and dressed all the tables with hydrangea florets.

Catherine and her Mum had made all the cupcakes and the cutting cake as well which was very brave just ahead of the big day and they looked so professional and yummy.  We dressed them with a floral topper and random flowers in between the cup cakes. 

 

We also provided arrangements for the newel posts on the prominent staircase in Oxonhoath which really set off the downstairs corridor.  Finally we provided thank-you bouquets for the Mums.

We loved the relaxed and happy feel of Catherine and Gavin's wedding and all the little finishing touches like the wire birdcage tableplan. It was a real soft and natural English country wedding for a lovely couple and their families and friends and it was a real pleasure to have been asked ot be part of such a special day.  We know they had a lovely time and wish them all the very best for their married life.

Thanks to Steven Brooks photography for letting us use some of their lovely images for this blog.

Julia and Jonny's wedding in St Margarets Church Horsmonden and afterwards at Finchcocks

Julia's bridesmaid originally made enquiries about wedding flowers and thankfully she then recommended us to Julia.  We're really pleased she did as it was a truly lovely wedding to be involved in.  Julia and her family are so relaxed and natural and so easy to talk to.  They knew they wanted a very unstructured, relaced and natural mix of English Country Garden flowers in shades of lilac, blue and ivory and as it was a summer wedding we had a wealth of flowers available to us.  We chose agpanthus, astrantia, aconitum, chincherinchee, roses, freesias, lavender, cornflower, larkspur, lisianthus, scabious, stocks, sweet peas and lots of other lovely soft and scented flowers and foliage.

For Julia's bouquet, we designed a hand-tied, spriggy and textured bouquet ensuring the flowers were graduated through the bouquet, rather than presented in a flat or domed manner.  We wrapped it simply in ivory ribbon.

For her five adult bridesmaids, we provided smaller hand-tied bouquets to look similar to Julia's, but using more ivory than lilac flowers to offset against their dresses.  We also provided a range of lisianthus and astrantia heads for their hair, each wired individually to enable them to be placed where best suited each hairstyle...I even ended up putting them in one bridesmaid's hair which was very brave of her as I'm no expert!  For the Flower Girl, we provided a sweet little posy of chincherinchee, astrantia and lavender.

We wanted to ensure that the boys had softer styled buttonholes so provided Jonny with an Amnesia rose along with chincherinchee, lavender and rosemary, and then ommitted the main rose for the rest of the boys.  We then provided pretty corsages for the Mums and slightly smaller corsages for the Grandmas and Jonny's sister.

St. Margaret's Church in Horsmonden is a lovely old church in a fabulous rural setting and really well kept inside.  We were originally going to provide an altar arrangement but it wasn't possible and as Julia wasn't as keen on a pedestal arrangement, we decided to design a front of altar very natural linear arrangement designed to resemble a garden.  We also then dressed the pews down the aisle with hanging glass jars filled with flowers.  We alternated them hanging, and standing on the floor with a pew bow added at the top to give a little more texture. 

At Finchcocks, Julia and Jonny's marquee needed to be as natural and almost "random" as possible and hence we used a mismatched selection of cups, saucers, jugs, vases, teapots etc filled with flowers.  All were designed to be taken away at the end of the day by lucky guests. 

We then dressed the top table with a full and soft arrangement and added roses, lisianthus and freesias to the place settings.

For the evening festivities, we simply dressed the main pillars in the cellar bar with a mixed foliage garland with a few flowers added in all around...so simple, yet so effective.

We know that Julia and Jonny had a great day, and I have to say that we love weddings that so perfectly match the personality of both the happy couple and the venues...this definitely was the case here.  We wish them all the very very best for their future together.

Some uninvited guests at Finchcocks