Wedding Flowers

You are currently browsing the archive for the Wedding Flowers category.

An Autumn Wedding

30 September 2011 in Wedding Flowers | No comments

autumn wedding flowers

This time last year I had the pleasure of providing wedding flowers for some good friends of mine.  It’s always extra special when you personally know the bride and groom, and they had also asked me to be a bride’s maid.  It was a gorgeous wedding at The Inn at Whitewell, in The Forest of Bowland.  The ceremony was held at St Hubert’s Dunsop Bridge, a few miles from Whitewell.  Before the ceremony guests were treated to a string quartet in the church and then afterwards at the reception.  Rose buttonholes with ivy leaves were worn by the wedding party.  The wedding reception took place in a marquee at the Inn at Whitewell. There are fabulous views from the inn across the river Hodder and parkland beyond.

The bride picked beautiful bottle green dresses for the bridesmaids.  After much deliberation (and several mood boards) an autumnal palette was decided on for the flowers.  The bridal bouquet was a large informal handtied bouquet.  The flowers centred on cherry brandy roses, these stunning roses were featured in all the wedding designs.  They have red outer petals and open into a warm orange.  Other flowers featured were mango calla lilies, burnt orange freesia, pincushion proteas, orange gerberas and hypericum berries.

bridemaids

A smaller version of the bridal bouquet was carried by the bride’s maids, which looked stunning against the deep green dresses.  The flower girl wore an ivory dress with a green sash and carried a gold wand with a single cherry brandy rose.  Marquees are perfect blank canvas for any colour scheme, the rich colours of the reception flowers made it feel warm and inviting.  The table designs were candle arrangements in baskets using roses, gerberas and freesia. I also used larch branches and red oak leaves to emphasis the autumnal feel.

The bride wanted the cake to be simple and elegant so we scattered some cherry brandy petals around it and on the cake table.  It was an elegant three tier design simply iced and decorated with green ribbon and diamante buckles.  In the evening the fairy lights covering the ceiling gave the wedding a warm glow which perfectly complemented the candlelight of the table arrangements.

A fabulous weekend was had by everyone who attended.  The weather stayed fine all day and the sun even made an appearance for the photos.  I wish the bride and groom every happiness in their life together!

Tags: , , , ,

Royal wedding florist announced

26 April 2011 in Wedding Flowers | No comments

London based florist, Shane Connolly has today been confirmed as the floral designer for the royal wedding later this week.  Shane Connolly holds a Royal Warrant, and is a supplier of flowers for royal events.  He has designed flowers for numerous royal events including the Queen’s 60th wedding anniversary dinner and Prince Charles and The Duchess of Cornwall’s wedding in 2005.

Mr Connolly will be heading a team of florists to create the wedding designs, including the florists from West Minster Abbey and Buckingham Palace.  Six members of the National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies will also be helping to decorate West Minster Abbey.  Shane Connolly is known for his use of organic and seasonal materials as well sustainable methods in his designs, using plants and trees where possible rather than cut flowers and foliage.

Prince William and Kate Middleton have ordered eight 20ft high trees in planters for West Minster abbey, to create an indoor woodland.  The trees are English Field Maple and Hornbeam and will stand in specially designed planters made by craftsmen at Highgrove, which is the Prince of Wales’s Gloucestershire residence.  The trees will be planted in Highgrove Gardens after the wedding.  Many of the flowers are being sourced from Royal estates including Windsor Great Park and Sandringham Estate.  The flowers and plants selected include azalea, beech, blossom, euphorbia, lilac, rhododendron and wisteria.  The couple have sourced additional flowers from English growers.

The couple have chosen flowers themed around the language of flowers.  All flowers have meanings and in Victorian times they were used to convey secret messages.  Shane Connolly is the perfect choice for their theme as he has wrote a book entitled The Language of Flowers.  The flowers and plants in West Minster Abbey are to be left on display until 6th May for public viewing and then donated to charities or replanted.

Tags: , , ,

Behind the scenes: A day in the life of a wedding florist – Part 4

5 November 2009 in Wedding Flowers | No comments

We usually have lots to take into the reception,  so we park as near to the wedding suite as possible, or use the trade mans entrance to get everything inside to set up. Typically we have a top table arrangement, table mirrors, table centres, cake flowers and vases as well as toolboxes and fabric.  The reception often requires the most work to set up all the designs and time is always precious by this point in the day.  We always have our fingers crossed that the table linen has been laid so we can start positioning arrangements straight away.

white wedding

Sometimes there are a hundred single flowers for favours to be tied on napkins with ribbon, sometimes floral chairs backs or garlands at the entrance. Not forgetting arrangements that don’t travel well, such as candelabras or tall vases that are top heavy.  So we finish off some designs at the reception, whether it is filling lily vases with coloured water and placing the flowers in them or putting roses in greened up candelabras. When we are all done we do a final check of the room and if there is time take a few photos.  The flowers always look much better in the church or reception than our untidy leave strewn work room.  If any vases or props are hired we speak to the wedding coordinator about where they will be put for us to collect the next day.  It’s lovely seeing a wedding reception finished with crisp linen, perfectly laid tables and all the personal touches like themed table names and special details on the table plan.  We are then homeward bound for a very late lunch, happy in the knowledge the reception room looked beautiful.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Behind the scenes: A day in the life of a wedding florist – Part 3

4 November 2009 in Wedding Flowers | No comments

rose bouquet

The bridal bouquet and bride’s maid’s flowers are usually quite time consuming to make, these are the types of designs that require all of florists experience and talent.  Every bridal bouquet is different and some take several hours to prepare and construct.  Wired teardrop bouquets for example consist of many small pieces including flowers, leaves, decorative wire or beads.  Every single flower and piece of foliage is painstakingly wired with different gauges of wire depending on the size and weight of the flower and then taped to seal in moisture.  The buttonholes are also time consuming as they are also wired and taped.  The afternoon before a wedding often turns into a very late day putting the finishing touches to designs and preparing toolboxes and props to take with us for assembling any designs that have to be put together on site at the church or wedding reception.

On the morning of the wedding it’s all hustle and bustle.  We check the itinerary for delivery times so we know where we have to be at specific points of the day.  The ribbon on the bride’s bouquet and bride’s maids bouquets are finished off once they have been taken out of water, and carefully packaged for transporting to the bride.  After a final check over all the other designs we are ready to pack up the van for delivering the flowers.  Packing the van can be a challenge itself, to get everything in safely and positioned so it won’t fall over or crush any other designs en route.  The bridal flowers are normally delivered to the bride one to two hours before the wedding.  I like to deliver the bride’s bouquet personally to ensure the bride is delighted with the flowers and advise her how to hold her bouquet.

After delivering the bridal flowers the next stop is the church or ceremony room.  Usually the men’s buttonholes are delivered to the ceremony.  We attach pew ends arrangements and position other arrangements like pedestal flowers or garlands.  We have to set up the ceremony flowers and leave before the guests arrive.  If the groom and ushers arrive early they usually need a little help attaching their buttonholes.  Next stop is the reception venue.

Tags: , , ,

Behind the scenes: A day in the life of a wedding florist – Part 2

1 November 2009 in Wedding Flowers | No comments

Once all the boxes of flowers arrive the fun starts.  We have the flowers delivered midweek before the weekend of the wedding.  This gives them a chance to have a good drink, as most flowers are sent from Holland without water and need to be hydrated immediately upon arrival.  The flowers also need some time to open the perfect stage.  Some flowers like lilies require longer than others to open and often we will have those delivered a couple of days earlier than the rest of the flowers.  With all the buckets neatly lined up, the flowers are carefully conditioned and put in water treated with flower food to feed them and encourage them to bloom.  Some flowers like phalaenopsis orchids require extra special treatment.  They are cut and submerged in water to hydrate the whole head.

white wedding

With buckets and buckets of beautiful flowers surrounding us we start to prepare the arrangements.  We first ‘green up’ any arrangements that will be in floral foam, such as table arrangements and pew ends.  This in florist terms is preparing the base of foliage into containers with floral foam.  Foliage is widely underrated as it helps create a perfect shape and provides a lovely background for flowers.  It’s not free as frequently presumed and without it twice as many flowers are required.

Once the flowers have had a couple of days in water they are fully hydrated and start to open.  In the summer some flowers like roses have to be kept cool to prevent them from opening too much, whereas in winter it can be a struggle to get flowers to open in time for the wedding, warm water is often required to encourage flowers to open a little quicker.  We always select the best and most perfectly shaped flowers for the bridal bouquets and put them to one side first.  Apart from giving the bride the very best flowers to carry, the bridal bouquet will feature a lot in photographs for the wedding so we pay special attention to selecting them.

The day before the wedding we can finally get going putting flowers in the arrangements we have greened up and make the rest of the designs.  Any buttonholes or wired designs are made last to ensure they are in water as long as possible before they are wired and taped.  We make the pew ends, pedestal arrangements, and table arrangements as these are in floral foam which retains water.

Tags: , , , ,

« Older entries