Natalie and Alex's winter tipi wedding

On one of the coldest mornings of the winter so far, we provided the flowers for Natalie and Alex's lovely wedding in Limpsfield with a reception in tipis in Oxted.  Natalie came to us via a recommendation from a former bride's Mum who goes to the same church, so once again word of mouth worked well.  When we met Natalie in the Spring, we ended up talking about soft colours and very natural styling and flowers as Natalie didn't want her wedding to be Christmassey.  However, in the end her six bridesmaids chose burgundy dresses and hence we needed to change the flowers to work alongside them.  As Natalie wanted to avoid a festive look we used a fresh green and ivory colour scheme with hints of the burgundy accent colour.  It worked so well and was seasonal without suggesting Christmas.

Natalie's bouquet was a very soft and natural graduated hand-tie of white lilac, ranunculus, roses, waxflower, spray roses, thlaspi, trachellium, hypericum, anenomes, paperwhites and rosemary.  It was wrapped in ivory organza with accents from the lace used in Natalie's gown used on the stems to finish.  The bridesmaids all carried smaller versions of the bridal bouquet and we wrapped the stems in an ivory lace ribbon to bring in the lace accent.

For the groom's party, we provided textured buttonholes to follow the more natural theme set by the girls' bouquets with Alex wearing a rose with ranunculus, hypericum, rosemary and eucalyptus and the rest of the boys having burgundy ranunculus instead of the rose.  We then provided corsages for the Mums and Nans.

At the church, the candleholders were attached to each of the central pews for advent and we dressed them with a little ivy and a hanging vase full of flowers to match the wedding.  It all looked so pretty and understated.  We then added a full rustic heart to the triple lychgate which gave a fitting welcome to guests.  Finally we made lace effect confetti cones filled with fresh rosepetals and stacked them in a hessian dressed crate.

Natalie had chosen tipis for her reception and had three adjoining each other, one for the bar and entrance, one for the reception, and one for the dancefloor.  They were warm and welcoming and filled with lots of little details that were sure to make for a wonderful wedding day.  We loved the rustic wood bar, the firepit for toasting marshmallows and all the wonderful wine and champagnes sounded pretty yum too.  As Kalm Kitchen were the caterers, we know the food will have looked as well as tasted lovely and we helped by providing  a range of flowers to use on the inventive canape trays.

For the tables, we added a tall cream candelabra draped in ivy with a soft, full and rustic styled arrangement on top of half the tables.  We then added rustic or lace wrapped vases around the base to tie everything together.  For the rest of the tables, we used enamel pitchers filled with soft hand-toed arrangements each surrounded by other rustic vases.  We provided a very rustic crate for their wedding cards and dressed it with hessian and flowers which looked lovely. We also provided some rustic wood blocks for Natalie to use to serve homemade mincepies later in the evening.  What a lovely idea.

 

The whole of this wedding was full of details and lots of thought and planning.  We know that Natalie's Mum had spent a long time planning how the garden would look, even down to ordering a new house sign for outside the gate!  Whilst I am sure it was stressful at times, it made for a beuatiful wedding which I'm sure every guest will have loved...time for Christmas now and the next set of celebrations!  We hope everyone has a lovely time.

Rachel and Nick's wedding - The Red Barn, Blindley Heath

 

Rachel and Nick are a lovely unassuming couple who wanted nothing more than a wedding that matched their own styles and personalities.  No over the top bling and nothing that felt too formal for them and I have to say with everything they arranged, they couldn't have done it better.  They both wanted soft, romantic and pretty flowers in shades of pale green, soft pinks and ivory to work with sage green bridesmaids' dresses. 

Rachel chose a beautiful soft v-neck gown in ivory with soft draping across the bodice and a deep v back with covered buttons running right to the bottom of the train.  It had a chiffon overlay that flowed fabulously and Rachel kept most of her long hair down with a slight wave and finished with a floral comb that we designed centre back.

For Rachel's bouquet, we kept it soft and scented with Amnesia and Vendella roses, sweet peas, bouvardia, freesias, trachellium, astrantia, lavender along with eucalyptus and cinerarea foliage.  We wrapped them stems in ivory and then added a narrow sage green bow to bring in the bridesmaids' dress colour.

For the four adult bridesmaids, we provided smaller versions of the bridal bouquet and then a smaller one again for the Flower Girl.

For the buttonholes and corsages, Rachel's Aunt bought some flowers from ourselves to match and took it upon herself to make them all for the bridal party...she was last seen cursing my suggestion to wire astrantia on the morning on the wedding but they were already looking lovely!  Well worth the hassle.

We hadn't been to The Red Barn at Blindley Heath before, and I have to say it is a wonderful venue...so good we stayed for lunch after delivering!  The barn itself where the wedding reception was held has a lovely cosy and welcoming feel and it had been dressed beautifully with bunting and floral table runners by Rachel, Nick, friends and family...we loved the wedding rock as well!  We therefore simply added enamel pitchers of flowers to each table using all the flowers used elsewhere in the wedding. 

We also added a larger arrangement to the front of the top table and dressed the gorgeous chocolate Creative Cakes cake as a finishing touch.

I loved everything about Rachel and Nick's wedding, from delivering to Rachel's Mum's lovely house in the morning (and saying hello to horses, kitten, cat, various dogs...my kind of heaven) to the outfits chosen, the relaxed styling, the lovely venue and pretty finishing touches.  A lovely wedding for a really lovely couple.  We were honoured to be involved!