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!

Vanessa and Brian's winter wedding at Turkey Mill

We've still got so many weddings unblogged from this year, but I wanted to end the year with a slightly festive feel, so here is Vanessa and Brian's lovely wedding from last week.  They wanted an elegant, classic and striking look to the styling (perfect to match Vanessa's stylish look).  The bridesmaid's dress was a lovely bronze / copper colour so we took the lead from there.  Roses, hypericum berries and gold and bronze foliage worked alongside lots of natural wood and bark.  And the weather turned super frosty and crisp...chilly but perfect for photos.

Vanessa is a truly stylish lady and had chosen a gorgeous glamorous dress, so we decided upon quite a simple bouquet of large headed Maroussia roses with ivory hypericum berries and seasonal foliage.  To keep the look streamlined and elegant, we just scaled down the bouquet for Vanessa's bridesmaid and changed the colour ribbon on the stem.  Really elegant and lovely.

For Brian and the boys, we followed the theme through with elegant roses, berries and foliage, with a gold eryngium thistle added for Brian.  Corsages for Mums followed suit just using spray roses instead of the larger headed ones.

For the ceremony in the Garden Room, Turkey Mill had added lots of lovely pinecones to the baytrees that are in situ which looked lovely.  We therefore just dressed the celebrant table with a fresh seasonal foliage garland with waxed apples, lotus heads, wood curls, bark, berries and silk pointsettia heads.  Perfectly Christmassey and great to take home to adorn a mantelpiece for Christmas.

For the top table, we used two pieces of natural driftwood entwined with fairy lights and with clusters of flowers arranged along the length.  Really unusual and stylish, and I know they were destined to end up on Vanessa and Brian's dining table for Christmas.

For the guest tables, we had Christmas in mind again as we wanted to design arrangements that would work both for the wedding and as appropriate giveaways for guests to enjoy during the festive season.  We used wood, bark, silk pointsettias, roses, hypericum, spray roses, pussy willow, eryngium thistle and ornithogalum arabicum.  Lots of scented festive foliage completed the look. 

We then added an additional arrangement to the gift table to finish the look.

The Christmas trees in place in Turkey Mill matched the colour theme, and the lovely Creative Cakes cake finished the look.

We hope that after a few disappointments earlier in the week that Vanessa and Brian had a perfect day.  Vanessa was looking fabulous (without make-up!) when we delivered her bouquets in the morning, so we can only imagine how lovely she will have looked later.  We hope it was everything they had carefully planned and dreamed of!