Kirsten and Andrew's autumnal wedding flowers, with a hint of Australia

 On a very autumnal looking day, I thought I'd share with you the lovely wedding of Kirsten and Andrew.  We were providing the wedding flowers for Andrew's brother earlier this year at Leeds Castle, so Kirsten and Andrew came along to see what I could do for them.  They had chosen chocolate brown for bridesmaids' dresses so wanted some lovely vibrant colours to work alongside them.  With Kirsten hailing from Australia, we also decided to bring in some exotic accents with the use of protea, banksia and anigozanthus (kangaroo paw).

Kirsten's bouquet was a lovely hand-tied and very textured combination of roses, protea, calla lilies, berries, dahlia, orchids and greentrick with the very Australian eucalyptus foliage added.  We wrapped the stems in ivory to match her dress, but added a chocolate brown bow at the top to bring in the bridesmaids' dress colour.

We then scaled down the bridal bouquet for Kirsten's bridesmaids, using the same flowers but omitting the orchids and banksia.  We also wrapped them to match the bridal bouquet.

For the boys, we decided that Andrew needed to have an exotic cymbidium orchid buttonhole with a splash of additional colour added via the greentrick.  We then used roses, berries and greentrick for the rest of the grooms' party.

To frame the aisle for the wedding ceremony, we simply added proteas to the chair bows that were already in place.  In a relatively small room, this was incredibly effective and provided all the dressing that was needed.

For the reception, we decided to use a range of different vases and containers for the top table, interspersed with some empty vases tied with chocolate ribbon to take the bouquets.  We used flowers to match the wedding for all the vases and added orchid heads and votives with tealights in between.

For the guest tables, we decided on hurricane lamps containing church candles, surrounded with grouped and more contemporary arrangements of flowers that looked very striking indeed...grouping the flowers instead of distributing them equally helped them show off their beauty better and give a different look to the tables.

We hope that Kirsten and Andrew had an amazing day and have a fabulous globetrotting life together!

Vicki and Simon's wedding party at Tudor Park Hotel

As with many couples, Vicki and Simon decided to get married in Cyprus with close friends and family and then have a celebratory party here in the UK later in the year.  Vicki asked us to design a contemporary and fresh ivory and green floral theme for the party.  She wanted some additional sparkle and obligatory butterflies!

Whilst there wasn't going to be a formal seating plan, Vicki and Simon had a number of round tables which we dressed with a central mirror on which was placed a large martini glass arrangement.  As the party was to be in the evening, we added fairy lights in the base of the martini vases and then designed arrangements of oriental lilies, shamrock blooms, roses, germinis, bridal gladioli and trachellium along with eucalyptus foliage.  We draped crystals around the edge of each arrangement and added a large butterfly.  Very striking.

We welcomed guests into the room with baytrees dressed with fairy lights and also wound organza ribbon around the stems.  (Sorry about awful photo...had a bad camera day!)

For the bar, we added a mini martini vase to set the scene and then used mirrored cubes on the low occasional tables in the bar area containing hand-tied bouquets to match the wedding flowers.

 

Finally, we provided thank-you bouquets for the Mums.

It just goes to show that you can have the best of both worlds...European gorgeous weather and a Kent reception / party.  And a chance to wear your wedding outfits twice...what's not to love!

Two of our weddings in Kent Bride magazine

Kent Bride magazine is an annual wedding magazine published in September each year and is currently in the shops.  It has lots of real life weddings included and two of our couples from this year are featured.  The first wedding in the magazine is the lovely Helen and Luke who shared their wedding day with their daughter Cara's christening.  Their wedding was fuschia pink and white and included lovely large martini vase arrangements at the Tudor Park.   Helen's bouquet was a particular fave and looks lovely in the magazine against her dress.   Here's a few of our photos of their special day and a link to the blog we previously published. 
http://www.distinctlyfloral.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/helen-and-lukes-wedding-at-leybourne.html

For the second featured wedding, turn to page 105 of the magazine for the truly stunning Kelly and Dan.  They're a former wedding of the month of ours on the website and it really was a gorgeous wedding at the fabulous Frasers Barn (www.frasers-events.co.uk)We helped Kelly and Dan find their venue and her hairdresser as well and were so pleased they had such a fabulous day.  The church, venue, tables etc were all lovely and Kelly and Dan's taste was exquisite.  We need to get it on the blog pronto!  Watch this space.  Here's a couple of photos in the meantime.