Laura and John's gorgeous Glastonbury themed wedding

I met Laura through her bridesmaid Olivia for whom we provided the flowers at her gorgeous wedding in 2012.  From the very first meeting I knew this was going to be a wedding I loved being involved with.  Laura and her family and friends are so easy to work with, and very open to suggestions as well which is great news for us.  Laura and John were planning a large wedding but one with a very relaxed Glastonbury / festival vibe.  The ceremony and reception were going to be at a private house, and hence they chose fabulous LPM Bohemia marquees for the various spaces they needed.  Such a lot of organisation to get this right for the big day, and what a fabulous job they did.

 Laura and John wanted soft, pretty, scented flowers in a very relaxed style.  The colour scheme was ivory, pinks, coral, peach and champagne with some small touches of lilac and blue.  This may sound like an unusual mix, but as there were patchwork slips on the tables, they were a perfect mix.  We used a large variety of roses, peonies, freesias, astilbe, waxflower, bouvardia, cornflower, lavender, scilla, ammi, stachys, senecio etc etc.  It was a soft and scented mix.

Laura had chosen the most gorgeous and unusual Amanda Wakeley gown for herself and we designed a soft and textured bouquet of roses, peonies, bouvardia and silvery foliage wrapped in satin with a lovely guipre lace bow at the top and finished with a small brooch as a keepsake.

For Laura's three eldest bridesmaids, we designed smaller hand-tied bouquets to resemble the bridal bouquet, but omitting peonies on the grounds of size.  As the dresses had lace panels in them, we opted for lace ribbon for the stems of the bouquets and followed this through for the remainder of the bouquets.  For the junior bridesmaids, we decided to use just the peonies and foliage and continued this theme through for the Flower Girl who had a single peony.  We then designed light circlets for the three youngest girls to finish the look. Three baskets full of confetti cones filled with mixed petals were also provided for John's nieces to hand to the guests (but we forgot to photograph them!)

The boys had rose buttonholes with John's being the amazing O'Hara rose and a touch of astilbe, and the other boys having the lovely Quicksand rose.  We also designed corsages for the ladies to tie in with their chosen outfits.

Laura and John said their vows in a fabulous gazebo in the grounds of the house, with the guests seated on benches under a beautifully printed open marquee.  The planting around the area was wonderful anyway, but we added some colourful wellies to the front of the gazebo, all filled with arrangements and added one planted welly on the celebrant table along with a china bowl full of flowers. We also dressed the upright stanchions of the gazebo with a garland of foliage and roses.

The wonderful wooden strutted marquee was lined with a botanical print around the sides and set the scene for the reception.  The top table was in the centre of the marquee and appropriately called Glastonbury.  We dressed the table with a planted welly for the tablename and surrounded it with teapots, tins, apothecary jars and pots, bottles, teacups, vases, vintage preserve jars etc all packed full of gorgeous flowers. 

We did the same the remaining 24 tables, making sure each had a similar mix of flowers and containers.  It meant that not only were the flowers interesting, but the containers themselves were a talking point.  It's always nice to hear comments from others when we are setting up at a venue, but when members of the groom's party walk in and comment that the flowers are "awesome", we know we've got something right.

Laura and John's wedding was such a wonderful event to be involved with.  The venue was lovely, the marquees so original and the flowers we got to work with were so gorgeous.  The weather may not have been great on the day itself, but we know that they will have had a wonderful day, and the beauty of being in a private location was that they continued the celebrations the following day with a family and friends and got to see the floral arrangements for a second day. 

With the number of tables and number of containers per table, it was an interesting (!) wedding to plan and to manage in terms of our workload, but thanks to my fab team, it was great fun all round.  I even got to buy more containers which we'll use again in other locations.  The only sadness left with the wedding is that we won't get to work with Laura and John anymore but we wish them a truly wonderful life together.

Here's what Laura said in an email that brought tears to my eyes in the week following her wedding....whilst it was addressed to me, this really refers to the whole team as it was a huge team effort from start to finish.

Hi Amanda,

Wow!! Your photos look amazing. I've only seen a few photos so far & none of the tables so thank you for sending them & yes please I would love to have copies on a disk.

Where to start in my praise & thanks....I absolutely loved 'working' with you from day one. Your enthusiasm & excitement was infectious & I trusted your ability to match my ideas with complementary flowers completely.  I worried I was taking up too much of your time with our continuous correspondence but you were always so lovely in your replies, even adding to your own work by suggesting you plant all my wellies!

The final result on the day was breathtaking. My bouquet was more than perfect, the gazebo looked amazing & captured the essence of the day precisely. I made sure I took time during the champagne reception to go round all the tables with one of my bridesmaids before anyone else was in the marquee and couldn't believe how incredible they were.  All of our guests commented on how spectacular they looked & begged to be allowed to take home both flowers, tea tins & wellies!

My father was deeply impressed & said they were simply stunning & I have already passed on your details to friends with up coming weddings.

So thank you Amanda, thank you, thank you!  You are a truly wonderful woman & deserve to win florist of the world!!

Warmest regards,

Laura x

Rachael and John's romantic and pretty Chilston Park wedding

On the warmest day of the year so far, Rachel and John married in the Coach House at Chilston Park Hotel.  We met Rachael via one of her bridesmaids, Carly when we provided her wedding flowers at Rowhill Grange last year.  Rachael knew she wanted a very soft and pretty floral theme and we chose a mix of very English flowers (hydrangeas, peonies, sweet peas, roses, freesias, astilbe and astrantia with eucalyptus parvifolia) in shades of dusky and pale pinks with ivory.

For Rachael's bouquet, we designed a very spriggy and textured bouquet using a range of all the flowers apart from the hydrangeas.  We wrapped the stems with lace ribbon to work with Rachael's gorgeous gown.  For Rachael's four lovely bridesmaids, we provided smaller bouquets being similar in style to Rachael's but slightly less detailed.  Once again we wrapped them in lace.

For the boys, we designed rose buttonholes with additional astrantia heads and soft foliage, with John having an Amnesia rose and the rest of the boys having Vendella roses.  We also provided lapel corsages for the Mums and Nan.

For the ceremony in the Coach House, the chairs had been beautifully dressed with alternating lace and fabric bows by Perfect Touches and we very simply added pink hydrangea heads to a selection of the aisle chairs to frame Rachael and John taking their vows.  We also added a soft and lightly trailing arrangement to the celebrant table.

For the wedding breakfast, Rachael and John chose tall chrome candelabras for the guest tables but decided that they didn't need candles and would like to use them as a tall base for a soft, full and trailing arrangement of flowers on the top.  We used all the flowers used elsewhere along with a few trails of ivy and amaranthus.  They really filled the room and worked so well with the chair covers, bows, napkin ties (all  provided by Perfect Touches ) and the lovely favours.  It was lovely to hear the comments from the bridesmaids, Mums and the bride herself when they first saw the room...I think the words they used was that it took their breath away, which was so nice.  We hope it had the same impact on others.

For the top table, we used a low and not too trailing arrangement in the centre of the table and then added vintage vases at either end for the bridesmaids' bouquets.  In between we used varying sized hydrangea florets to give additional colour to the table.  We also added roses to the beautifully folded envelope style napkins as a finishing touch.

Other finishing touches were clusters of hydrangea florets added to the mini cake tower and we provided flowers for Rachael's individual vases which we added to each of the stalls in the Coach house (not photographed).

It was so lovely being involved in Rachael and John's wedding and knowing that other previous brides and their families had a chance to see a different style of our flowers.  We know that this wedding has already inspired other brides and we hope you like it too.