Sam and Kieran's wedding at Cooling Castle Barn

Sam and Kieran's wedding at Cooling Castle Barn last week was a very elegant and soft mix of burgundy and ivory flowers, using lots of spring flowers wherever possible (ranunculus, tulips, almond blossom) along with trachellium, gerberas, germinis and light foliage. 

For Sam's bouquet, we designed a soft and textured hand-tied bouquet of ranunculus, honeymoon tulips, germinis, trachellium, freesia, almond blossom and grasses....

...and then scaled this down slightly for her bridesmaids.

We then used the germini as buttonholes for the gentlemen, with Kieran's being a contrasting colour to the remainder of the groom's party.

For the ceremony room, we draped the dais with ivory organza and lined the aisle with freestanding candlesticks (minus the candles as they aren't allowed at Cooling Castle) with light trailing organza bows.  We then added gift boxes packed with matching flowers to the celebrant table, and finished the bottom of the stairs with an organza bow.  We thought it looked very soft and pretty and provided a fitting entry for Sam.

We also provided gift box arrangements for the Heritage Barn to set the floral scene for arriving guests.

With the maximum number of tables in the main barn, we wanted to keep the guest table arrangements striking, natural and tall, but not too wide so as not to overpower. And whilst we wanted them to tie in as closely as possible to the bridal flowers, using short-stemmed and small headed spring flowers such as ranunculus and tulips wouldn't have been appropriate given the height and style of the tablecentres, hence we added more striking oriental lilies.  We kept the vases narrow and tall, and then balanced the height with soft flickering battery operated candles in frosted votives.

 And for the finishing touches, the cake was a basic three tiered cake which we fully dressed between each tier and with a floral topper packed with the range of flowers used elsewhere in the wedding.  We then added fairy lights to each of the beams and finished the floral decoration with a single germini on each of the place settings on the top table.  All in all a very beautiful and striking wedding, which we feel reflected the personalities of the happy couple and worked really well with the beauty of Cooling Castle Barn. 

Heather and Lee's wedding at Cooling Castle Barn

What a sweet  and colourful wedding Hannah and Lee had last week at Cooling Castle Barn.  When we first met Heather and Lee at Detling Wedding Fair, we had created our "fruit salad" themed arrangements, and had an immediate link to Heather and Lee who wanted to use sweets within their wedding theme.  We therefore provided one of our most colourful and striking weddings at Cooling Castle Barn using multi-coloured gerberas, black grasses and black tie leaves along with a range of sweets.

For each of the guest tables, we used an umbrella vase with a hand-tied arrangement through the centre, all with different coloured water, and each with filled with a single variety of sweets (haribo, black jacks, fruit salad, swizzles lollies, flying saucers etc)...

... and then for the top table used smaller umbrella vases with matching floral arrangements and with a "pick and mix" theme using all the sweets used on the guest tables.  We also provided two of the smaller "pick and mix" umbrella vases for the celebrant table.

For Heather's bouquet, we used large black-eyed ivory gerberas along with calla lilies, grasses and folded black tie leaves in a contemporary overarm bouquet.

For her bridesmaids, it was hot pink gerberas all the way, with touches of the contrasting black being brought in with the grasses and the ribbon ties.  Her flower girl also had a Serena gerbera with black grasses to tie in with remainder of the flowers.

For the bridal party, we matched Lee's and Heather's flowers by using a calla lily for his buttonhole, and then matched the remainder of the gentlemen to the bridesmaids with hot pink Serena gerbera buttonholes.  The Mums both wore lapel corsages and hair slides using freesias, and chincherinchee with small loops of ribbon to tie in with their outfit colours.

All in all, on a beautiful sunny (although very chilly) day, we think Cooling looked fabulous with it's bright colours and striking designs.  Judging by the very small amount of sweets left when we picked up the vases the following day, Heather and Lee's guests left with a very sweet reminder of their wedding!!

MOTHERS DAY - SUNDAY 14th MARCH 2010

One of our favourite days of the year is just ahead....Mothers Day.  As florists it is one of the nicest annual occasions as people of all ages and all types celebrate their wonderful Mums.  This year, we have recognised that no two Mums are the same, and hence they are unlikely to want the same flowers.  However, to give you some ideas and inspiration we have included some bouquets, arrangements and planted spring bulb arrangements below, all of which can be adapted and changed to suit specific requirements.

It is suggested orders are placed early to ensure that we can source specific flowers and that we buy the right amount of flowers to meet our customers' needs.  Call us on 01732 850723 or email us on info@distinctlyfloral.co.uk with any questions.

Firstly we have designed some hand-tied bouquets for Mum, one being a more standard all-round design including lilies, germinis, skimmia, chincherinchee, palms and grasses, wrapped in toning tissue and cellophane and finished with a very "on-trend" polka dot bow.  This bouquet would be delivered in an aqua pack for freshness and can start from £30 plus delivery.  The bouquet shown is a larger size and would be £45.

The second bouquet we have included is a front-facing bouquet including the exotic cymbidium orchids, molucella, skimmia and willow along with aralia leaves.  Again this bouquet would be delivered in a water bubble and wrapped in a stylish cellophane.  This is a long lasting bouquet and very stylish.  Colours can vary as the fabulous cymbidium orchid is grown in a range of colours.  This particular bouquet can start at £30.

We love spots here at Distinctly Floral and as they are particularly trendy this season, we've introduced a range of polka dot zinc containers for Mothers Day in a range of sizes.  We decided to plant some of the containers with spring flowers (hyacinths, narcissi, primulas) and also to prepare a cut flower arrangement using lilies, germinis, cymbidium orchids and foliage in one of the pots.  They range in price according to what we include, but start at £20 plus delivery.

We also use a range of ceramic containers and again planted some with spring bulbs, and another one was completed with an arrangement of freesias, germini, lisianthus, and eryngium which we think any Mum would love.  As a final presentation, we included one of our planted pots in a handbag and finished it with the obligatory polka dot bow.  Another idea of how to make Mum feel special this Mothers Day.

We hope you like the designs and see something that Mum would like and something that inspires you.  If you have any different or specific requirements, please call or email us at any time. 

Happy Mothers Day!

Jodie and Jonathon's wedding at Chilston Park Hotel

Last week, we provided the flowers for Jodie and Jonathon's wedding at Chilston Park.  Jodie and Jonathon wanted a mainly ivory theme, with hints of pale pink and lilac and wanted a very natural and slightly vintage feel to their wedding.  We decided to focus on predominantly spring flowers and used ranunculus, parrot tulips, paperwhites, freesias, bouvardia and chincherinchee along with rosemary sprigs.

Jodie chose very natural hand-tied bouquets for herself and her bridesmaids, with hers having a touch of colour to contrast against her stunning dress, whilst her bridesmaids' bouquets were kept ivory. Jodie's bouquet was wrapped with a touch of lace to tie in with her dress whilst the remaining bouquets were wrapped simply in silver ribbon.  For her flower girl, we designed a beautiful, sweet smelling bouquet of paperwhites, which we just loved.

For the grooms' party, we used mainly chincherinchee and rosemary and added ranunculus to Jonathon's buttonhole to tie in with Jodie's bouquet.  We added a sprig of muscari to Jonathon's Dad's buttonhole as he loves bluebells!  Having helped the boys with their buttonholes, we can confirm that they all looked very handsome indeed.  We then added either freesia or paperwhite pips to the Mum's corsages along with small loops of ribbon to match their outfits.  We loved the whole collection of bridal flowers and felt that they fitted beautifully with the overall theme.

  

For the venue flowers, Jodie and Jonathon had bought a selection of different hurricane lamps for the guest tables and the ends of the top table.  The "nothing matches, yet everything goes" vintage approach worked so well in Chilston, and we kept the flowers to a minimum to show off the vases.  We used tulips and wired trails of rosemary inside the guest tables, with paperwhite pips sprinkled around the mirrors.  For the top table, we added ranunculus to the hurricane lamps and sprinkled paperwhite pips along the front of the table between the central arrangement and the hurricane lamps. 

Finally, for the most important part of the day, the ceremony, we provided a soft, natural and pretty arrangement for the celebrant's table containing the full range of  flowers used elsewhere in the wedding.  We look forward to seeing the photos from what was a very pretty wedding for a lovely couple.