Lucinda and Richard's soft and pretty wedding at Sissinghurst Church and Hole Park Gardens

When I met Lucinda and her Mum Penny for the first time, Lucinda was just going off to live in Singapore (it wasn't something I said honestly!) so the planning process for her wedding was always going to be slightly different.  However, with the powers of the internet, email and having a very organised Penny on hand, it all went very smoothly indeed.  Lucinda knew straight away that she wanted a very soft and natural style for her wedding and a very English mix of flowers.  Colours were dusky pink, ivory with just a hint of blue and we chose a selection of hydrangeas, roses, spray roses, waxflowers, gypsophilia, gentiana, lisianthus, freesias, astrantia, bouvardia, astilbe, cornflower and sweet pea with scented foliages such as flowering mint, rosemary and eucalyptus.  Just like an English Country garden.

Whilst designs of tablecentres and floral requirements for the church changed a little along the way, Lucinda chose her bouquets right at the beginning of the process.  She opted for natural hand-tied bouquets with her bouquet having touches of the blue (cornflower and forget-me-not) included, and her bridesmaids just having the pink and ivory.  They were such a pretty collection and set the scene perfectly.  Having seen Lucinda with her bridesmaids on the wedding morning, I know the photos will look gorgeous!

The boys were wearing tradtional tails and hence instead of more rustic buttonholes, Richard decided upon elegant and simple ivory rose buttonholes for himself and all the boys (including four Best Men!).  Mum's had delicate lapel corsages to tie in.

For the very pretty and very friendly Sissinghurst Church, we were given free rein by Penny to dress it fully for the wedding, and hence started at the lych gate to welcome guests (and to amuse Japanese tourists as I balanced on a ladder!) then added a large pedestal arrangement inside the former doorway.  We then added little glass "lanterns" wrapped with hessian filled with flowers down the aisle.  We dressed the pulpit with an arrangement to match, and added two garden style arrangements to the shelves either side of the altar.  We also added an arrangement to the font at the head of the aisle.  Finally we added simple arrangements to the windowledges to finish off the overall look.  So pretty and so appropriate for the church and its surroundings.

We were then off the Hole Park Gardens to dress the marquee.  What a fabulous setting for the reception, and for a canape and drinks reception the following day.  The gardens are exquisite and I loved the idea of different parts of the garden being used at different points of the day...I also loved the swing from the tree by the marquee, but didn't let myself down by trying it out on the day!  I've added a few photos I snapped on the day to show you how lovely it is.

For the tables in the marquee, Lucinda chose central mirrors with an enamel jug on each (with a slightly larger one used for the top table) and with jam jars wrapped in hessian added around the edge along with votives and tealights.  We also provided some additional jars and flowers for the gift table (not photographed as not ready when we left) and a jar by the cake provided by the lovely girls at Creative Cakes.  Maria (and her beautiful daughter) even helped us carry boxes across the lawn that morning...and it's normally her that persuades others to carry things for her!!  It was a real help as it was a bit of a walk across as the owner understandably didn't want tyre marks on his lovely lawn.

We thought it was a perfect choice of flowers to go with the venues, and just shows how we can finalise details and create a full floral theme across the internet!  The newlyweds emailed from honeymoon (that's what I call dedication) to say the following....

Hi Amanda,

Thank you so much for our beautiful flowers. They looked absolutely fantastic. Everyone was commenting on them. We would love to see the photo's you took. You can send them to this email address.

The photographer took some amazing photo's. Once I have the full set I'll send you some photo's of the flowers.

We are just on honeymoon at the moment but we will complete the questionnaire when we get back.

Thanks again

Mrs Green!

We can't wait to see some of the photos (especially the bridal party).

Lesley and Simon's bright and vibrant Kent Life wedding

Fab photo by www.dashacaffrey.com

Photo by www.dashacaffrey.com

Lesley contacted me relatively close to her wedding to Simon and luckily we were still free.  Also lucky is that Lesley is a graphic designer and knew what style she wanted, what overall look to go for, and had also spent some time in her younger years working in a florist shop, so knew just what I meant when I was describing flowers.  It was therefore one of the easiest design briefs for me.  It was also always going to be amazing, being multi-coloured, vibrant, natural, soft and rustic.  Perfect styling for Kent Life.

We decided upon peonies, roses, astlbe, cornflower, freesia, veronica, guelder rose, allium, waxflower, craspedia, gerberas, rosemary, herbs, flowering mint etc in shades of hot pink, purple, yellow, orange and lime green!  Lesley's bouquet was gorgeous (though I say it myself) as we went for a very natural, soft and spriggy bouquet in a relatively random style finished with a vintage doily and trailing multi-coloured buttons. 

Her adult bridesmaid had a smaller version of Lesley's bouquet and her Flower Girl carried a little wire basket dressed with flowers and filled with petals to sprinkle down the aisle.  Once the petals had been emptied, it was going to be a perfect place to put a new soft toy which was waiting in the hall for her.

I only met Simon on the wedding day, and managed to make him emotional by showing him the special "be mine" bead that Lesley had asked me to add to his buttonhole.  His was designed to match Lesley's bouquets whilst the Best Man and Dads had different colours and mixes of flowers.  Mum wasn't left out either having a corsage to match her outfit.

For the ceremony, we used a pair of Lesley's wellies for the base of the arch filled with curly and banded willow along with craspedia and veronica with additional craspedia wired on with multi coloured ribbons.  We then added an arrangement at the top of the arch which cascaded down to meet the wellies...a very different way of dressing the arch in the Village Hall.  We then also added a metal pail to the celebrant table and a couple of little bottles, all filled with flowers.  Additional jamjars were added to the mantelpieces and a galvanised pail full of flowers added to the shelf inside the entrance to welcome guests.

For the Wagon Store wedding breakfast, we saw Lesley's design shine through from the table plan, cake, name cards, ribbons on the chairs, colourful windmills in pots and the buttons sprinkled in between the arrangements.   We added flowers to metal pails and a selection of vases and arranged them down the tables and along the top table.  We also dressed the fab cake and added flowers where needed, such as with the card hampers.

 

I have to say that it was the most vibrant and joyful of weddings, despite some recent sad news in the family, and I am just so pleased it was a bright sunny day.  Lesley and Simon deserved the very very best and we loved the short time we worked together. 

Here's what Lesley had to say (lump in throat time for us)

Our wedding day was perfect! We left Kent Life on Thursday having set everything up just so and ready to receive the final touch, the flowers! They were exactly as requested; bright, bold, colourful and exuberating fun. Everyone commented on how beautiful they were and how much they made them smile. Teamed with the bunting, buttons and ribbons, and not forgetting the glorious sunshine we were blessed with, the day was filled with fun and laughter from start to finish! 

And I simply adored my bouquet. I didn't want to put it down and I do so begrudgingly! My bridesmaids Jude and her daughter Em were also entranced with their flowers – Em loved throwing her petals and proudly clutched her basket for most of the day, keeping some of the petals back for herself. I'm sure that Dasha our photographer will share her photos with you when they are ready (I'll be sure to ask her to!), but attached is a sneak peek we received and I already know this photo will be one of my favourites :o)

None of the flowers went to waste – we shared them among our family and friends to enjoy along with parcels of cake and sweetie bags left over. It was a most enjoyable way to spend the Saturday: making multiple stops and distributing goodies to all!

Thank you again to you and your team for our stunning flowers