Laura and Ben's rich, warm winter wedding at Cooling Castle Barn

 
Well as we're heading rapidly to Christmas, I decided I would include a very recent wedding showcasing beautiful red roses.  Laura had chosen black lace dresses for their bridesmaids and wanted to contrast this with red roses.  As we knew that Cooling Castle Barn would have their Dickensian Christmas Decorations in place, we decided to work alongside this and design arrangements that stood out without competing.

We chose the luxurious large headed and scented Red Naomi rose along with Red Sensation Spray roses and Skimmia Rubella along with ivy and very light foliage....nothing more, nothing less which goes to show that you don't have to include lots of flower varieties to give a big impact.

Laura chose a large hand-tied red rose bouquet that we suggested we edge with a neat collar of ivy to contrast against dresses.  We wrapped the stems in lace and added a brooch to finish.  Laura had eleven attendants of different ages (7 adult and 4 juniors) and she wanted them to have red rose bouquets just like hers.  We therefore made smaller versions using the large headed Red Naomi roses for the elder girls, and smaller spray rose versions for the juniors, all of which were wrapped in lace.

For the Groom's party, we provided elegant Red Naomi buttonholes with ivy and red spray rose buttonholes for the page boys, hence following the lead of the girls.  We also provided corsages and thank-you bouquets for the Mums.

As Cooling Castle decorations were so prominent in the reception barn, we decided to simply add two rosebowls of flowers to the celebrant table to feature in the signing of the register.

For the reception, Laura and Ben were at capacity in terms of the number of tables, so we decided that given the number of tables, and the Christmas decorations, we would be better choosing lower tablecentres that were still striking.  We designed silver rosebowls overflowing with roses, spray roses and skimmia for each table and surrounded them with votives containing tealights, strings of pearls and dried red rosebuds. 

For the top table, which was a circular table right in the centre of the room, we added a rosebowl to match the other tables and then added additional vasses full of flowers around the outside along with the pearls, tealights and dried rosebuds. 

The yummy looking Belgian Chocolate cake with cascading roses was made by our friends at

Creative Cakes and we added to the table with pearls and rosebuds to finish.

We all loved this wedding as it was lovely working with such a rich and luxurious brief.  We're really pleased with the way it worked out in Cooling and we hope Laura and Ben had a fab day.  Special thanks have to go to Carrie, Laura's bridesmaid and a half who kept me in the loop with changes and should be hired out as a professional bridesmaid!