Michaela and Ali's gorgeous wedding at Cooling Castle Barn

Any wedding featuring orchids and roses is bound to be gorgeous and Michaela and Alistair's was definitely no exception!  Using a palette of ivory and pale pink, with a fab couple, gorgeous bridal party, beautiful venue and lots of lovely finishing touches, this was always going to be a fave of ours.  We love working at Cooling Castle Barn for every wedding and particularly liked the way the downlighters picked up the detail of the flowers and the flowers in the stem of the vases.

For the ultimate glamorous bouquet, Michaela chose an elegant teardrop cascade of white phalaenopsis orchids with silver grasses and diamantes along with a butterfly brooch to finish.

For her attendants, Michaela chose pale pink, champagne and ivory rose bouquets with silver bear grass and spriggy diamantes, with her chief bridesmaid carrying one that was larger than the others.  We wrapped them all in ivory ribbon with a pale pink crossover to match their dresses.

Ali wore a beautiful phalaenopsis orchid buttonhole to match Michaela's bouquet whilst the rest of the boys wore pale pink rose buttonholes with silver grasses to match the bridesmaids.

For the ceremony, Michaela and Ali decided to keep their guests guessing about the colour scheme and chose a very elegant all ivory floral theme for the Fathom Barn.  We added a long and low arrangement to the celebrant table full of roses, lilies, orchids and other seasonal blooms.  We then dressed the dais with ivory organza and added a rose to each of the corner or end balustrades.  We then used our lovely silver tulip vases to frame Michaela and Ali taking their vows.  We filled them with a large hand-tied bouquet to match the celebrant table flowers and wrapped them lightly so they could double as thank-you gifts.  We also added a rose and bow to the bottom of the staircase to frame Michaela's arrival down the stairs.

For the wedding breakfast, we dressed the top table with a full length, slight messy foliage garland and added pink flowers to tie in with the rest of the colour scheme.  We then added a long and low and very full all ivory arrangement in front of the bride and groom.  We then finished each place setting with a personal orchid on the napkin

For the guest tables, we used a central mirror plate onto which we added a tall trumpet vase with orchids suspended down the stem.  We then added full top arrangements of lilies, roses, agapanthus, lisianthus and other seasonal flowers in pale pinks and ivory with silver bear grass, a few sparkles and then added some of the butterflies Michaela and Ali had provided as a finishing touch.

Our friends at Creative Cakes provided a lovely offset square three tiered cake dressed with orchids and grasses in sugarpaste.  Lovely.

We hope that Michaela and Ali had a wonderful honeymoon...we know they had to change their original plans due to unrest in Kenya, but hope that their wedding day and their honeymoon were truly magical.

Hazel and Andy's stylish winter Eastwell Manor wedding

 On Twelfth Night, Hazel and Andy celebrated their wedding at Eastwell Manor, with a link across the internet to Hazel's family overseas (very clever eh).  We looked forward to this wedding as we loved spending time with Hazel and her daughters Clarissa and Dixie planning their wedding.  They are such a lovely family and we loved the theme of blue and snowflakes (which were kept as a surprise for Andy).

Hazel wanted an elegant and wintery blue and ivory wedding with a different twist.  She loves lilies and hence we decided to incorporate oriental lilies, longiflora lilies and calla lilies along with the unusual Honeymoon tulip, blue eryngium thistle, hypericum berries and lots of snowy branches / pussy willow etc.

Hazel's bouquet was a structural overarm bouquet of lilies, eryngium, freesias and pussy willow with rolled leaves and spriggy foliage.  Hazel is tall and slender and this bouquet was perfect for her stature and to show off her dress.  We finished it with a sparkly butterfly brooch to match the brooches on the Flower Girls' bags.  We also provided a range of spray roses and hypericum berries for Hazel's hair which was being dressed by the lovely Nina (a former bride of ours) who is an ace hairdresser!

For Clarissa, Hazel's bridesmaid, we decided to design a wrist corsage to extend up her arm.  This tied in with Hazel's overarm bouquet but was easier to manage, and not at all itchy!!  We added snowflakes to the ribbon trails to tie in with the theme.  Lovely!  We also provided roses for Clarissa's hair.

For Dixie and Mac the gorgeous Flower Girls, we designed floral handbags in silk so that they could have them as a keepsake.  We added blue detailing to the handle and in between the roses.  We then finished them with butterfly brooches front and back.

For the buttonholes, we used a calla lily for Andy with an eryngium thistle and pussy willow to tie in with Hazel's bouquet.  We then provided a tulip buttonhole for Dad and corsages for the Mums to tie in with their outfits.

For the ceremony table, we decided to keep it relatively simple with three different height cylinder vases with hand-tied honeymoon tulips with spriggy foliage.

We then designed rather unusual square tablecentres for the tables in the Rose Garden room using a more contemporary grouped approach and added raised glass tealight holders.  We also added snowflakes to the arrangements and to the wine glasses on the top table.

We loved the elegant simplicity of the wedding with the odd quirky detail such as the snowflakes, the diamond shaped cake with snowflakes cascading from the side, and the fabulous wellies.  We hope that despite it not being a frosty day (misty and grey unfortunately) that Hazel and Andy had a wonderful day.  They put so much thought into the details and the planning and I hope it was all perfect for them.

Victoria and Aaron's wedding at London Golf Club

One of last week's weddings was at London Golf Club, which we haven't done for a little while. Victoria and Aaron were married in Borough Green and then moved to the London Golf Club for their reception. Their bridesmaids were in magenta pink and hence we wanted to bring the colour into the flowers without it being too overpowering. We mixed magenta with paler lilies to give a more toned down feel.

Overall they wanted a sophisticated feel and loved the phalaenopsis orchids and lilies. I haven't mixed the two flowers in a bridal bouquet before but it worked out pretty well I think....I was worried that the lilies would overpower the orchids, but as we recessed them a little it seemed to work. The bridesmaids carried elegant overarm bouquets which complemented the bridal bouquet perfectly.

Victoria and her family were pleased to see us, and all tried out their bouquets for size whilst we were there.....her Dad had always joked about carnation buttonholes, despite the fact that orchid buttonholes were chosen for the big day, so we delivered a "spoof" carnation buttonhole just for him (with an orchid in reserve!!) He was evidently planning to take it to the church with him!

I'm looking forward to seeing some photos as the dress was gorgeous and the petticoat to go under it absolutely huge! They had to make a few changes to the church so that Victoria would comfortably be able to take her vows, so I can't wait to see her wearing the beautiful gown.

..it's funny how you sometimes don't notice the details when setting up for a wedding, e.g. the ceiling of the reception room is painted blue with fluffy clouds....you'll see it on the photos and I hadn't noticed it before. I guess I need to keep my eyes open and not be quite so focussed on our flowers all the time!