Linda and Alan's sophisticated Penshurst Place wedding

When I first met Linda, I knew that her and Alan's wedding would be gorgeous.  She had already chosen an absolutely gorgeous, glamorous and quite sexy Jenny Packham dress and hairpiece and had decided upon a black dress for her Maid of Honour.  Combined with Penshurst Place it was going to be a fabulous day.  Linda and I spent quite a few hours together getting the details right as the wedding plans came together and we decided that we wanted to have a slightly different look to the three distinct elements of the day (ceremony, reception and evening celebration).  We decided on a soft muted colour scheme of green, ivory and champagne with a hint of the black accent colour.

Linda's dress was so striking that we decided upon a hand-tied, soft and spriggy bouquet using O'Hara. Quicksand and Vendella roses along with paperwhites, ranunculus, white lilac, anenomes, tulips, veronica and chincherinchee along with soft spriggy foliage.  We didn't want to make it too large and wanted to add a little touch of glamour to the stems with a brooch that echoed the detail in the dress and hairpiece.

For the Maid of Honour, we decided upon a smaller version of the bridal bouquet with less variety of flowers.  We wrapped the stems in ivory to match the bridal bouquet but added a small black bow at the top to match the dress and added a smaller brooch.  For the Flower Girl, we created a tiny posy of chincherinchee, spray roses and paperwhites and wrapped the bouquet to match the bridesmaid's bouquet and added another smaller pin to tie all the bouquets together.  Ruby, the Flower Girl was very focussed on sprinkling petals, so we provided a little black box wth a lace ribbon filled with fresh petals.  All so pretty.

Alan had a textured buttonhole of O'Hara rose with chincherinchee, waxflower and foliage whilst the rest had buttonholes to match without the rose.  We also provided corsages for the Mums.

For the ceremony in the Barons Hall, we only had 30 minutes to set up after members of the public had left the building so we decided upon dressing the long side tables wth lots of trailing ivy interspersed with votives and tealights and with hydrangea florets and ranunculus heads sprinkled randomly along the full length.  We dressed the existing candelabras with lots of soft ivy as well.  We then added two large pedestal arrangements to frame Linda and Alan taking their vows and added a rosebowl (not photographed) overflowing with flowers on the present table in the hallway along with trailing ivy and ranunculus heads and hydrangea florets to finish.

For the wedding breakfast in the Sunderland Room, we provided large, full, soft and trailing arrangements on elegant candelabras for each of the guest tables.  We dressed each of the windowledges wth candelabra and foliage.  We then added two softly trailing rosebowls to the top table along with foliage and votives and added an empty vase for Linda's bouquet in the middle. We added roses to the place settings on the top table and added hydrangea florets to the cake table to finish.   It was lovely to hear the staff at Penshurst Place saying that they had never seen the room look so lovely, which they also told the bride and groom in the evening.

For the evening celebration, Linda and Alan had a marquee in the courtyard set specifically for the evening with a starlit ceiling.  We had decided that we didn't want to move the candelabra, but wanted to create a bit more of a sophisticated nightclub feeling, so we added crystal globe candelabras with candles and also added vases of flowers around the base.  It looked quite magical.

I know Linda and Alan had a wonderful time.  They were so easy to work for and I thoroughly enjoyed being a part of their day.  They also loved what we had done which is what mattered... this is what they said in a lovely email immediately after the wedding.  

Amanda

The wedding flowers were absolutely beautiful, stunning, I loved them. They dressed the venue to perfection, and the scent from them was gorgeous. We all loved our bouquets - my bridesmaids couldn't believe how beautiful they were. Ruby threw her petals, it was lovely.

Each room looked fabulous. The marquee looked like a glamorous club! Fantastic. The Penshurst staff commented that the Sunderland room had never looked so good. Everyone loved them - I don't think anyone had seen such a grand display at a wedding before!

We have brought a few of the displays home and given one to each Mum - the house is full of gorgeous flowers.

Thank you so so much. You and your team must have worked so hard, the attention to detail and creativity was amazing. You are very talented.

I have enjoyed working with you, you have been very supportive and full of fab ideas, thank you.

I will send photos when I have them!

Take care and thank you again.

Linda.
 

Kelly and Dan's wedding at Bearsted Church and Frasers Barn

 

 

When we first met Kelly and her lovely Mum, she was clear about the vision for her glamorous wedding.  She wanted white, silver and we persuaded her to have a touch of lime green as well.  She loves orchids and hydrangeas and just looking at her everyday style, we knew it was going to be a beautiful and glamorous wedding.  Unfortunately Kelly's original venue closed and left her at relatively short notice needing a new venue.  We suggested the lovely Frasers Barn and Lisa and her team there had the date free and held it until Kelly and Dan could view it (it was clearly meant to be!).  It was a wedding where fate definitely had a hand as lots of the original details changed (church, bridesmaids' dresses, hairdresser etc) and they ended up with the most perfect day.

I know we've said it before, but Kelly and Dan are a stunning couple and with their striking looks and fabulous taste, the wedding photos were going to be amazing (check out the initial family photos they sent across to us and you'll see what we mean).  Kelly had chosen a slimline lace dress with a sweetheart neckline and gorgeous train to show off her fabulous figure and we decided the best possible option for her bouquet was a long slimline orchid cascade bouquet with a few hints of lime green, bear grass and some additional sparkles.  We wrapped the handle in an offcut of her dress fabric and it all looked so lovely.  We wired silk phalaenopsis orchids for Kelly's hair so that they would remain fresh and gorgeous all day and all night long.  Having helped her find her hairdresser, we knew it was all going to be fabulous.

For Kelly's lovely bridesmaids, we had decided upon extended wrist corsages of phalaenopsis and dendobrium orchids, greentrick and chincherinchee along with lime tips and grasses.  Their dresses were a lovely graphite empire line design which were just perfect for them, despite being a last minute purchase after problems with the previous dresses purchased (the path of true love and a perfect wedding really doesn't run smooth all the time as you can see!).  We think they looked lovely and loved the design of the wrist corsages.

Dan and his groomsmen wore orchid buttonholes to tie in with the rest of the wedding, with Dan having a crystal added to his to tie in with Kelly's bouquet.  Mums had corsages of chincherinchee, dendrobrium orchids and lime tips with sparkles and ribbon loops to match their outfits.  We also provided colourful thank-you bouquets for them at Frasers Barn.

 

 

At Holy Cross Church Bearsted, we welcomed guests into the main porch with a large and full arrangement of hydrangeas, orchids, greentrick, anthuriums, delphiniums, bouvardia, palms and aspidistras.  We replicated this pedestal at the front of the aisle and then finished the aisle with pew ends of hydrangeas attached with graphite organza bows.  It looked so fresh, contemporary and yet opulent.  Perfect!

 

 

Welcoming guests at Frasers Barn was a lovely mirrored table plan showing the unusual arrangement of the guest tables all off a single central table in the marquee.  We dressed the central table on the runner with mirrored cubes of double stemmed tall planted orchids, with an additional orchid leaning against the corners to give reflections from the mirrored cubes.  Being a bit OCD, I had to make sure the stems of the orchids were alternating in direction through the centre line, but all in line when viewed from the side! (No-one else would notice but I wanted it to be perfect!)  Each was placed in between a globe crystal candleholder and we then added green hydrangea florets in between.  Each of the side guest tables were also dressed with orchids and hydrangea florets.

For the long top table, we used glass cubes filled with moss, and then added either orchid sprays or hydrangeas in the top.  In front of Kelly and Dan we provided an oblong vase filled with layers of moss and hydrangeas and with sprays of phalaenopsis orchids on top.  We then completed the look with individual orchid heads on the napkins.  It truly looked lovely.

Kelly also added additional touches such as my fave Pomegranate Noir Jo Malone candles, sparkly flipflops for tired dancing feet. hand-painted signs and personalised grey boxes for cards.  It was all so lovely and a wedding we would all have loved to have attended.  It was a true pleasure being involved and able to help out with the additional details.

Kelly and Dan had a fabulous day, gorgeous Italian honeymoon and are now back at work but hopefull looking back to their wonderful day and reliving it through the pages of Kent Bride magazine where they are featured at the moment.