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!

Michelle and Chris' Red Rose wedding at Chilston Park Hotel

As we head to the season where red becomes predominant and reminds us all of Christmas, I thought I'd share with you a wedding from earlier in the year, featuring red roses.  It shows how they work well in any season and set the scene for a rich and sumptuous look.   Michelle and Chris wanted all red roses for their wedding with a touch of additional sparkle.

Michelle's bouquet was a simple and yet very striking bouquet of large headed scented Red Naomi roses with loops of bear grass and a collar of salal tips.  We added sprigs of crystals throughout and then finished the stems in ivory with a blue bow to bring in the bridesmaids' dress colours.

Michelle had two elder bridesmaids, two teenage bridesmaids, a junior bridesmaid and a Flower Girl and so we decided to provide the same for everyone but just to scale the bouquets down in size right down to a "wand" for the Flower Girl.  Each bouquet was a smaller version of Michelle's bouquet but minus the sparkles...it looked so elegant having them all matching.

For the boys, red roses were again the featured flower with Chris having the spriggy crystals to match his lovely bride.  We then provided corsages for Mum and Nan to tone with their outfits, and a thank you bouquet designed to tie in with the wedding colours and style.

For the reception at Chilston Park, Michelle and Chris wanted to keep the flowers elegant and yet simple so we decided upon large fishbowls placed on central mirrors for the tables.  Instead of adding the flowers inside the bowls, we kept the stems longer and the heads lying flush with the top of the vases.  Curled grasses were added inside along with white gel crystals in the bowls.  We finished the tables with lots of sumptuous petals and additional crystals.

We did the same for the top table with three fishbowls (which the girls used to keep their bouquets fresh) and we added lots of petals and individual roses to the place settings.

Whilst we didn't get a chance to photograph it as it was brought out later, Michelle and Chris came up with a unique and from what I hear, very well received idea for their wedding cake.  They filled a large tiered cake stand with Krispy Kreme doughnuts and we provided roses to be dotted here and there throughout...genius!

Michelle and Chris as the most lovely couple you can ever meet...they are so genuine and nice and never want to be any trouble and it was a complete pleasure to be around them.  Despite various venue changes (and a late vicar from what we heard!), they were unfazed and just got on with planning their big day.  We hope they have the happiest future together.