Sam and Lee's vibrant and contemporary Cooling Castle Barn wedding

On a dull and rainy day like today, I thought we could all do with an injection of colour, so what better than Sam and Lee's gorgeous and vibrant Cooling Castle Barn wedding. 

Right from the start Sam and Lee they wanted multi-coloured and bright flowers for their wedding and were so very easy to work.  Having shown them lots of options of exotic and contemporary flowers, they left it up to me to choose whatever I thought worked, as long as I didn't use Celosia which Sam really disliked (well they do look a bit like furry brains!).  They also decided to incorporate buttons (a particulr fave of mine), so I was always going to be biased!  I chose Alpinias, various orchids, anthuriums, proteas, greentrick, anigozanthus, germinis and exotic foliage such as palms, aspidistra leaves and grasses.  What a fab combination.

Sam fell in love with a more contemporary European style shower bouquet and once again left it largely to me to design on the day.  We used the full range of colours and flowers, and I attached trails of buttons to the handle...what a statement bouquet!

Sam's bridesmaids wore purple, so we kept the purple to the centre and used a selection of flowers in other colours in the hand-tied bouquets.  We wrapped each in a different colour ribbon and overlaid both with narrower purple ribbon with additional hanging trails of buttons.  For the junior bridesmaid, we provided a smaller version of the elder bridesmaids' bouquets and wrapped the stems in purple with a different coloured ribbon over the top.  The Flower Girls carried little germini "wands" with sparkles and buttons added with additional trailing buttons.

The boys buttonholes were combinations of different coloured germinis and greentrick with light foliage whilst the younger boys just had the germinis and foliage. Corsages were provided for the Mums and included smaller Dendrobrium orchids and we also provided colourful front-facing thank you bouquets for them.

For the ceremony, we dressed the bottom of the staircase with a contemporary trailing arrangement to herald Sam's arrival and then added a full and fabulous arrangement to the celebrant table for the signing of the register.

For the reception, we used tall martini vases each filled with a different coloured sisal and with a central arrangement using all the colours and flowers used elsewhere.  We placed each on a large mirror and added multi-coloured tealights in votives around the base along with random selections of buttons sprinkled on the mirror to finish the look.

For the top table, we used a long, low, full and fabulous arrangement of all the flowers in the centre of the long table, and then added clusters of multi-coloured tealights in glass votives and sprinkles of buttons along the length of the table.  We also added purple vanda orchids to the napkin ties as a final finishing touch.

To finish the look, we added fairy lights to the four corner beams, and also to the Plough behind the top table.  It was a true "wow" factor wedding and the colours looked gorgeous against the wood.  Sam and Lee are such a lovely couple, and soooooo easy to please.  I know they had a fantastic day and when their photographer has finished working through the over 2000 shots he took!!!, I'll try to add one of the bridal party themselves.  In the meantime, I hope this glorious colour has brightened up a dreary day!

Angie and Nick's fresh and contemporary wedding at Turkey Mill

 

Whilst we love soft and pretty blooms with vintage styling, it really is nice to work with more contemporary and structural flowers again from time to time.  We used to use anthuriums, calla lilies and longiflora lilies all the time in the shop before the softer vintage look came in, but there is less demand for them at the moment in wedding work.  We were thus thrilled to welcome them back for Angie and Nick's lovely Turkey Mill wedding.  They wanted to keep things fresh and contemporary and stuck to an ivory and lime green colour palette which looked gorgeous in the recently refurbished Orangery at Turkey Mill.

Angie is petite and really pretty and needed a bouquet to compliment her rather than hide her. We therefore chose a hand-tied bouquet of calla lilies, chincherinchee, lisianthus, greentrick and china grass. We wrapped the stems in white ribbon and finished them with crystals. For the five adult bridesmaids, we decided to design simple yet striking hand-tied bouquets of Crystal Blush calla lilies which have a slightly smaller head. Again we used loops and sprigs of china grass and they looked lovely. For the Flower Girl, we used a single calla lily surrounded with spriggy crystals and china grass. They all looked so fresh and pretty, perfect for Angie's attendants.

Nick's buttonhole reflected Angie's bouquet with a calla lily, greentrick and china grass, whilst the rest of the boys had a single calla lily and china grass to tie in with the bridesmaids.  Corsages were designed for the Mums and Nans and they tied in with the wedding flowers and also their outfits.

As Angie would be making her entrance over the bridge, we dressed the length of the bridge with organza and added trailing arrangements at the end to frame her entrance.  We then added an arrangement to the celebrant table using the flowers we used elsewhere in the wedding and ensured it had a more contemporary feel.

 

For the wedding breakfast, Angie and Nick had hired cream single candlesticks to use as their tablecentres and wanted arrangements to sit on the top.  They didn't want them to be open, spriggy or trailing, but more boxy and compact.  We used anthuriums, greentrick, longifloral lilies, chincherinchee and lisianthus along with split and rolled aspidistra leaves and china grass to give a much more contemporary feel.  We then used molucella split into individual florets on the tables to bring the colour through to the cloths. 

For the top table, we added a long, low and contemporary arrangement to the front of the table, sprinkled molucella florets along the edge and added empty vases for the bridesmaids' bouquets at the ends.  We also added single calla lilies to the napkins to finish the look.

I have to say it was lovely working with Angie and Nick on their wedding day.  As you can see from all the details in the photos, they have fabulous taste and designed an elegant, fresh and contemporary wedding that works so well with their own personal style and with the style of the venue.  We love their style and their choice of flowers....and it's nice to see that the Facebook photos of the bouquets are also inspiring others....perhaps we'll start seeing more contemporary flowers appearing again from time to time.  Whatever your own personal likes and dislikes, we hope you enjoyed what was a lovely wedding for a lovely couple.