hydrangea

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Annie Lennox married for the third time in an intimate ceremony on 15th September.  Annie met her husband Dr Mitch Besser in 2009, when she worked with his charity Mothers2Mothers.  The charity helps single mothers and children with Aids.

They celebrated their wedding with a boat party on the Thames.  Annie’s two daughters Lola and Tali were bridesmaids at the ceremony.  150 friends and family attended the celebration including Actor Colin Firth and comedienne Ruby Wax.

The legendary Scottish singer performed at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee concert and the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games in London this summer.

Annie shared two pictures of her wedding flowers with fans on Facebook and Twitter.  The bride wore a floor length ivory lace gown and 1920s style headpiece.  The couple chose flowers in a vintage pastel palette including roses, dahlias, hydrangea, rosemary, sage and ivy.

The beautiful bouquet Annie posted a picture of contains garden roses, hydrangea, and dahlias in antique pink, lilac and ivory tones. The soft green sage complements the flowers and also adds a wonderful fragrance to bouquets.

Annie had previously said would not marry again, which proves that love really does conquer all.

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black-rose-floral-design-studio-tatton

All these displays were housed in the Floral Design Studio at Tatton Flower Show.  The hub for all things floristry related, exhibits, competitions, demonstrations and workshops. Several colleges took part in the first specific College Competition at Tatton which I blogged about on Saturday.  Young florists took part in the WorldSkills competitions, which I’ll feature soon.

black-rose-tatton-flower-show

The displays above are from local florist The Black Rose, based in Knutsford and Hale.  The Black Rose has exhibited at Tatton for many years and always does a fantastic display.  This year’s designs featured their trademark contemporary style using a white theme.  These fabulous 5ft tall vases hold arrangements of hydrangeas, delphiniums and Singapore orchids.

black-rose-tatton-flower-show-2012

The stunning floral table runner features roses, hydrangeas, stocks, orchids, and chrysanthemum blooms.  The garlands that trail down the sides of the table are made from Singapore orchids.

reaseheath-college-tatton-flower-show-2012

Reaseheath College from Nantwich used very vibrant colours in their display. They used cerise, lime, purple and orange set against black display stands.  They cleverly filled storage units from a well-known Swedish furniture shop with flowers too.

reaseheath-college-close-view-tatton-flower-show

This circular design features gloriosa, roses, orchids, chrysanths, carnations and anthuriums, with loops of flexi grass.

plato's-atlantis-by-verdure

Manchester based florist Verdure produced an impressive display based on Plato’s Atlantis.  The huge wave was constructed out of willow branches and adorned with fresh flowers.  They used hydrangeas, delphiniums, vanda orchids, and amaranthus in shades of blues and purples, with white phalaenopsis orchids at the crest of the wave.

floral-design-by-verdure

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kildare-village-floral-design

This fabulous living catwalk has been designed by four-time Chelsea Young Florist of the Year, Joe Massie.  The catwalk is the highlight of Kildare Village’s Chic Summer Festival event.  There is a programme of events throughout July which include musical performances, artisan food and floral inspired cocktails.

floral-couture

Joe’s installation features three floral dresses surrounded by a carpet of flowers and plants.  The designs reflect aspects of an Irish Summer, one dress is inspired by cornflowers, one by butterflies and one by daisies.  Daisies are particularly relevant as the event’s ambassador is Daisy Lowe, she launched the event on 5th July.

Kildare-floral-pagoda

Joe’s team also decorated the performance stage and food marquee.  The exquisite designs were very labour intensive and took a team of 8 florists, five days to complete.  The catwalk will be in the open air for a month, so a combination of real and artificial materials were used to ensure the designs look perfect throughout the event.

kildare-village-floral-couture

The dresses contain fresh grasses, succulents, echeverias, lichen and branches. The plants and flowers used were roses, dahlia, hydrangea, marguerite daisies, gyposphilia, lavender, cornflowers, and cosmos.  The installation can be viewed until Sunday 29th July, at Kildare Village outlet shopping, Ireland.

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pink-and-white-flowers

Can you work out which of the flowers above costs the least and which is the most expensive? extra points if you can put all 6 in order of price (The answers are at the bottom of the article).  The flowers & plant association has a very useful guide to flower prices, perfect if you don’t know a dahlia from a delphinium.

Setting a budget for your wedding flowers can seem daunting, especially since the price depends a lot on what flowers you choose.  Before you set your heart on a particular flower or design, work out what you can afford and tell your florist roughly what your budget is.  If you have no idea what flowers cost, as a rough guide allocate around 10% of your overall wedding budget to flowers.  Your florist will be able to give you a good idea of what you will get for your money and advise you on suitable flowers and designs that fit within your budget.

gloriosa-peony-rose-bouquet

If you are on a tight budget your florist will help you make the most of your money.  They are the floral experts and know lots of clever techniques and special touches to give your flowers the maximum impact without blowing the budget.

A recent survey showed the average amount spent on wedding flowers is £200 – £400, 60% of florists surveyed placed their average order value within this range. For that amount brides received a bridal bouquet, bride’s maid bouquets, button holes and a top table arrangement.  Nearly 30% of couples spend £400-£1000, they received the bridal bouquet, bride’s maid flowers, button holes, top table flowers and reception table flowers.

rose-and-muscari-bouquet

The price of flowers is also dependant on the time of year, around St Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day nearly all flowers are more expensive because of demand.  The types of flowers you choose will affect the price, some flowers like carnations may cost a pound a stem, others like calla lilies could be six or seven pounds a stem.  If you choose a loose informal style for your flowers they will have more foliage and require fewer flowers, whereas a compact style arrangement with no foliage will need a lot more flowers per arrangement.

Don’t get hung up about all this information though, good florists are like miniature flower encyclopedias, packed full of information on flowers, prices and ideas.  They will know all the tips and tricks to ensure your flowers look fantastic whatever your budget.

So were you right?  The flowers are in ascending order starting with the cheapest, gerbera.

6 – Gerbera

1 – Ranuculus

2 – Lisianthus

5 – Rose

3 – Lily

4 – Hydrangea

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succulent

Green flowers may seem like an unusual choice for wedding flowers, but green can be a very beautiful and natural colour scheme.  There are plenty of green flowers to choose from whether you prefer soft sage green or bright lime green, you can even get acid green flowers.  Adding green flowers to a mixed colour design will ‘lift’ the other colours.

Counting down from number 10:

Green-Chrysanthemum10 – Feeling Green Spray Chrysanthemum
This is a spray type of chrysanth so it has several heads on a stem.  The flowers are very hardy so are good for designs that won’t be in water.  The uniform shape of these chrysanths looks great in compact designs like pomanders or spheres of flowers.
Green-Trick-Dianthus9 –  Green Trick Dianthus
These unusual looking flowers are a type of sweet william, from the carnation family.  You usually see them in small bunches of pinks and reds.  This fluffy flower is a spherical shape and looks a bit like moss.  It looks great mixed with a vibrant colour in modern textured bouquets or kept simple with white flowers and foliage.
Green-Hydrangea8 – Hydrangea
For summer weddings Hydrangea are the perfect flower.  The large blooms come in various shades of green from a soft pale colour to lime to and green with hints of pink.  Hydrangeas work well with a country garden theme or a more contemporary look.  They are also  lovely grouped together for bridal bouquets. Hydrangea may seem a little pricey but they are at least twice the size of most flowers and fill a lot of space in an arrangement.
Green-Chrysanthemum7 – Shamrock Chrysanthemum Bloom
This is the second chrysanth in my top ten list, but it looks so different to chrysanth spray I had to include it.  You would be forgiven for not regconising these flowers as Chrysanthemums.  Their spiky shape and vivd lime colour is a million miles away from the old fashioned chrysanth sprays supermarkets offer.  These blooms work best in large contemporary designs and look fabulous mixed with bright exotic flowers.
Green-Amaranthus6 – Amaranthus
This flower has beautiful flowing heads that look lovely anywhere flowers can naturally trail or hang down.  The edge of a mantelpiece arrangement, hanging from a garland at the church entrance or hanging from a bouquet.  It is a pretty alternative to ivy or grasses.
My top 5 green flowers will follow in tomorrows post.
Images:
Green Trick Dianthus – sieraflowerfinder.com
Amaranthus – Petitfleurevents.com

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