Charlie and Rick's colourful wedding at Battle Abbey

Charlie and Rick married at Battle Abbey back in July of this year (I'm so far behind with blogging at the moment!...sorry!!).  Charlie wanted soft and pretty flowers, yet wanted a very striking and colourful mix.  She wanted ivory, blue, yellow and orange and was very clear in her mind as to the types of flowers she wanted to include to give texture.  We decided upon hydrangeas, roses, lisianthus, molucella, veronica, germini and santini along with orchids and calla lilies at the venue.  An eclectic mix which, as you'll see, really worked.

Charlie's dress was a gorgeous ivory gown fitted to almost knee level with a sweetheart neckline and a one shoulder corsage.  Fabric ruffles and corsages from the hip cascaded down to soft ruffles down the back.  Gorgeous for Charlie.  We provided a soft and textured bouquet being largely ivory, but with a base of blue hydrangeas and with splashes of all the other colours added in a random manner.  We wrapped the stems in ivory ribbon to work with her dress.

The bridesmaids wore dresses of a shot taffeta in blue and hence the flowers were all ivory with the only colour being the stem wrapping for which we used their dress fabric.  We provided hair flowers for all bridesmaids, bride and flower girls and also provided petals for the flower girls' baskets.

The boys all wore tight Vendella rose buttonholes with a galax leaf wrapped around and then we provided a range of corsages for the special ladies in the wedding party (Mums, Nans etc) which we tailored to match their outfits.

 

 

For the ceremony at the Abbey, we provided a long, low and colourful arrangement for the central celebrant table on the stage (what a setting!) flanked on the floor with baytrees dressed with ribbons to match the dresses.

 

 

Charlie and Rick wanted a range of flowers and colours on the reception tables and we used bubble vases on central mirrors containing either blue hydrangeas, lemon orchids, Mango calla lilies or a mixture of each.  As a rather unusual set of table sprinkles, we decapitated molucella to provide interesting lime green florets.  Lovely and what a gorgeous setting in the library...I could while away a few hours happily in there!

The final touch was to dress Charlie and Rick's cake...the cheeses cake.  As it was already set up in the fridge and wasn't due to be brought out until later, we set to work...in the fridge!  Whilst chilly, we've worked in colder conditions in the studio and had a lovely time dressing the cheeses with fruit and flowers.  As the cake was to be moved in one piece later, and we didn't want fruit cascading off the board whilst being moved, I decided to individually pin all the sections, and all the individual blueberries and strawberries in place....dedication to duty!  We think it was worth it in the end.

Sorry it's been a long time coming, and hope you think it was worth the wait to see a colourful and very individual wedding.  We know Charlie and Rick had a great day, and a fab honeymoon in gorgeous Italy...bet it seems a long time in the past now and hope this brings back happy memories.

The Wedding Industry Awards

The voting closes today for the National Wedding Industry Awards.  We were so chuffed to have been nominated and to see so many of our fabulous couples taking time out of their busy schedules to vote for us.  We are passionate about what we do, and love that you all love it too!

We are now thrilled to say we have received 100% votes from our fab couples and are just speechless (and you know that's difficult for us).  Thank you all SO SO SO much.

Our region is South East and is HUGE!  The competition is awe inspiring but as the only nominee from Kent for the Wedding Flowers category, we are immensely proud already regardless of what comes next.  Regional shortlists are announced in early November with Regional Winners announced in late November / early December.  These lucky (and hard-working) finalists are then invited to a gala event in London in January to see the overall winners announced.  If you'd like to know more go to www.the-wedding-industry-awards.co.uk

In the meantime, we are truly humbled by all our votes.  Thanks to everyone for making us feel special.

Hannah and Chris' wedding at St Mary Magdalene. Davington followed by Shepherd Neame Brewery

On a much warmer day in the summer, we were lucky to be involved in Hannah and Chris' lovely wedding in Davington and afterwards at Shepherd Neame brewery in Faversham.  Hannah had chosen navy blue dresses for her bridesmaids and hence we wanted a classically elegant look using mainly creams and greens.  We added a small touch of navy as an accent and kept all the arrangements as soft as possible as Hannah really liked a much "fluffier" look.

For Hannah's bouquet we wanted a just-picked effect in a soft teardop and decided it would look far more natural if we used smaller headed flowers such as spray roses, chincherinchee, trachellium, lisianthus, freesias, bouvardia, sweet peas and veronica.  We also knew Hannah liked softer edges to her bouquet, and hence included panicum fountain and asparagus fern to keep everything soft.

For her bridesmaids, we followed the just-picked more natural look and designed hand-tied bouquets of freesias, veronica, lisianthus, chincherinchee, trachellium and blue eryngium thistle. 

Buttonholes and corsages were also kept soft and textured  to tie in with the rest of the flowers.  We also provided hand-tied bouquets as thank-you's for the Mums.

At the very pretty old church, we welcomed guests with a soft crescent shaped arrangement over the lych gate and then dressed the main aisle with double bows of navy and ivory ribbon with a small cluster of flowers through the middle.  We then added two pedestal arrangements to the front of the church.  We loved the church and were given such a warm welcome and even offered a cuppa...what more could we ask for.  We knew from that moment what a lovely wedding it would be for all involved.

 

At the Shepherd Neame brewery, we decided to do a mixture of tablecentres.  The room is quite a quirky shape, and with the fab light fitting (so inventive), we didn't want the tablecentres to be too uniform.  Originally Hannah wanted martini vase arrangements, but given the varying ceiling height we decided to change the table centres to either clusters of glass and chrome vintage containers each with a soft tied arrangement of flowers matching all others in the wedding.  For the remainder of the tables, we used low tapered glass vases on mirrors with a just-picked hand-tied bouquet. 

For the top table, we decided on a long and very full arrangement matching everything else which was a real focal point at the front of the room.

We thought it was a perfect wedding for Hannah and Chris, and loved the inventive touches such as the personalised Shepherd Neame beer.  The staff at the church and the venue couldn't have been nicer and more helpful and all in all it was just perfect for Hannah and Chris and their families.  Fab!