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!

Hayley and Steve's warm, rustic autumnal Cooling Castle Barn wedding

When you're married surname is going to be Oak, then oakleaves and all things soft and rustic are a natural choice (excuse the pun).  Hayley and Steve really wanted a very natural wedding style and loved all the autumnal colours of rusts, burnt orange, reds, golds and greens.  The colour scheme and the style was just so perfect for a November wedding and we chose a gorgeous range of orchids, lilies, rosehips, calla lilies, roses, parrot tulips, hypericum berries, skimmis, willow and lots of lovely foliage.

For the bouquets we designed soft and textured bouquets for Hayley and her four bridesmaids and tied them naturally with raffia. 

For the boys, we provided a Calla lily buttonhole with berries and ivy for Steve and rose buttonholes with berries and ivy for all the other boys.  We also provided corsages for Mums and Laura.

Hayley and Steve and their family had spent a long time collecting a family of copper pots, vases, jugs etc which we filled with flowers and used along the top table (along with lovingly collected oak leaves) and around the base of the guest tables.  We also used them on the celebrant table for the signing of the register. 

We then designed tall full arrangements of the flowers used elsewhere for the guest tables and also to frame Hayley and Steve taking their vows on the dais.  Hayley and Steve wanted the arrangements to be as rustic as possible, and hence we decided on messy garlands twisted around the stems of the vases with little bits of raffia attached. 

For additional detailing, we made a very rustic wishing tree for Hayley and Steve and dressed the bottom with flowers and moss, and we also provided a woodblock cake stand for their fab cheeses cake.  Finally we added a soft faux blossom garland and lights to the four corner beams to dress the room.

Although I say it myself, these were beautiful flowers for a fab wedding and a lovely couple.  I loved the colours, the copper family, the rustic feel and the overall feel and hope you do too