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Amy-Ford-with-her-Chandelier-Chelsea-2012

Essex based florists Curtis & Ford have been awarded two medals in the RHS Chelsea Florist of the Year competition 2012. An amazing achievement! they are only business to gain two medals in the same year.  The floristry competition attracts hundreds of entrants from around the country and showcases the best in professional floristry.  The double success comes after winning international awards in 2011.

The brief was to design and produce a large Chandelier to be hung at a Jubilee dinner for the Queen.  Amy Ford gained a Silver-Gilt medal for her stunning white and lace chandelier design.  Amy Curtis was awarded a Bronze medal for her beautiful design that had a very natural and organic feel to it.

Amy-Curtis-Chelsea-2012

Amy Curtis
Amy has worked in floristry for 9 years; she has studied business management at A Level and gained a Foundation Degree in professional floristry at Writtle College.  Amy is relatively new to competing and was thrilled to qualify for this years Chelsea Flower Show.  She said “Many florists compete to qualify for the Chelsea final their entire careers without ever qualifying… so the fact that one of us qualified was fantastic but to both qualify and to both achieve a medal is just fantastic, we are very proud of all the hours of work we have put in!”

Amy-Curtis-close-up-Chelsea-2012

Amy’s design featured hundreds of branches bound with paper covered wire holding tiny test tubes.  The tubes contained phalaenopsis orchids, freesia, roses, eryngium, anemones and spray roses.  It was adorned with beads, crystals drops and diamante brooches. The intricate design took over 350 hours to complete.

Amy Ford
Amy has completed A Levels in Art & Design, Photography and English Literature.  She found floristry at 21 after studying Glass design.  Amy has since gone on to complete levels 2, 3 and 4 in floristry.  Amy gained the highest practical grade in the country for her Level 4 exam.

Amy-Ford-side-view-of-chandelier-Chelsea-2012

To prepare for Chelsea piece Amy painstakingly made over 100 panels with fabric, beads and wire.   They were sewed, crocheted and beaded; each panel took 2.5 hours to make.  On the competition day Amy worked from 4am on Wednesday right up until the final whistle at 12.45am Thursday to finish her design.  She used various techniques on her piece, she layered and wove bark and leaves onto the panels and dotted flowers throughout.  Amy made 18 beaded panels for each tier using a total of 20,000 beads!

Amy-Ford-Chandelier-close-up-Chelsea-2012

Many of the flowers were glued onto the design but some of the more fragile flowers were placed in tiny test tubes.  Most of the flowers were arranged in a massed style, Amy used reindeer moss, phalaenopsis orchids, white Lydia spray rose, Romantic Pepita spray rose, tanacetum, triteleia, spray carnations, brunia, cotton bush and hyacinth.

Both designs are now on show at Serenity Bridal, 17 St.Botolphs Street, Colchester.

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Green-Cymbidium-Orchid

Following on from yesterdays post, here are the final 5 of my top ten green flowers.

Green-Viburnum

5 – Viburnum Opulus
Each viburnum flower head is a cluster of lots of tiny pale green flowers. There are several heads on a stem and each heads delicately bobs about.  Their soft green colour looks very natural mixed in any type of arrangement from bouquets to table centres and larger arrangements.

Green-Gladioli4 – Gladioli
Gladioli has made a come back in recent years with lots of gorgeous new colours. The acid green gladioli look anything but traditional.  The flower stems are very long and suit large designs like pedestal arrangements or tall vase designs.
Green-Lady-Slipper-Orchid3 – Lady Slipper Orchid
If you want an exotic feel to your wedding flowers you can’t go wrong with orchids.  These slipper orchids are exotic and beautiful, mixed in a bouquet with other flowers or peeking above a table design.  Cymbidium orchids and dendrobium orchids are also available in green.  Orchids are one of the dearer flowers but they are striking and very long lasting.  Cymbidium orchids are perfect for submerging in tall cylinder vases.
Green-Goddess-Arum-Lily2 – Green Goddess Arum lily
These impressive flowers also known as callas lilies, have huge heads that unravel as they open.  They are very tall so are perfect for big vase arrangements or pedestal arrangements.  They are a premium flower but they offer a big impact for their price tag and will last several weeks in a vase.
Super-Green-Rose1 – Super Green Rose
Roses had to be number one in the top ten, they are still one of the most popular wedding flowers. This rose is exactly what it’s name suggests, a huge green rose. Super Green is a type of rose known as a garden rose or cabbage rose as it has lots of petals and opens up very big.  Roses work well in any wedding flowers from bouquets to arrangements.

Images:
Super green rose –foxpointfarms.com
lady slipper orchid – hiloorchidfarm.com
Green Goddess Arum -  plantsgaloreonline.co.uk
Gladioli – gee-tee.co.uk

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McFly-Tom-Fletcher-Wedding

Giovanna Falcone and McFly guitarist Tom Fletcher recently tied the knot at One Marylebone in London.  The theme was a romantic, woodland glade; the couple wanted the decorations to give the venue a magical feel.  London florist By Appointment Only provided all the flowers for the day, they created designs in a palette of soft pinks, lilac and papery blues with lots of natural looking foliage.

The ceremony took place in the Soane hall, the vast space was dressed with lots of floral displays and fairy lights were hung with ivy wound through them.  The alter was decorated with a long woodland style arrangement using stocks, lilac, viburnum, roses, hydrangea, spray roses and peonies in pinks blues and creams, with green viburnum and moss.  Behind the alter two large pedestal arrangements were placed with summer flowers and delphiniums for added height.

The beautiful bride wore an ivory Phillip Lepley gown with a vintage lace overlay and bead detailing.  She carried an informal teardrop bouquet of garden roses and peonies in shades of pink and cream, with trailing variegated ivy.

Giovanna’s bride’s maids wore full length dusky pink Kelsey Rose dresses.  They carried small hand tied bouquets of white sweet peas and roses in shades of pink and cream.  The men wore grey suits, with green ties and pink rose buttonholes.

McFly-wedding-flowers-Tom-Fletcher

blue hydrangea - Grey Wulf Flickr, lilac - Marisa DeMeglio

The room was transformed for dinner with a combination of low centrepieces and tall canopy arrangements.  The low designs featured summer blooms and candles.  The tall arrangements rested on twisted willow bases and featured lots of summer flowers and natural foliage.  The tables were dressed with paisley cloths in moss green and the napkins were tied with ivy.  For favours the guests were given personalised guitar picks that featured the couple’s initials and the date of the wedding.

The couple also had a magnificent floral arch that many of the photos were taken in front of.  It was packed with summer flowers in soft shades of pink, blue, lilac and cream, with lots of foliage including asparagus fern, photina, ivy and French ruscus.

I think the flowers achieved the magical woodland look perfectly, the bouquets and the venue looked truly wonderful.  Full photos are in OK! Magazine issue 829, May 29th 2012.

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Jennifer-Murphy-Chelsea-2012

photo: Flowers by Moira

First time Chelsea competitor Jennifer Murphy walked away with a Gold Medal and the coveted title of RHS Chelsea Florist of the year.  Jennifer travelled from Dunshaughlin in Ireland with all the parts of her design to compete at Chelsea.  The brief was to create a chandelier to be hung at the Queen’s Jubilee dinner.  The fabulous design contained 60 mini crown charms each embellished with a tiny button chrysanth to signify the Queen’s 60 year reign.

Jennifer used roses, chrysanthemums, carnations, calla lilies, phalaenopsis orchids, eryngium, and hypericum, all in reds and purples to represent the royal colours.  She made metres and metres of braided and crocheted silver wire and 500 diamante pins to decorate her chandelier. The design featured large rings of test tubes which mirrored the uniformed rows of crystals on chandeliers.  The design was a staggering 1.85 metres in length when complete.  Jennifer said she spent many hours preparing all the wire work for the design at home and then worked all night to finish it in time for judging.  The hard work and preparation was definitely worth it, Jennifer’s design was a worthy winner.

Jennifer-Murphy-Chelsea-2012-close-view

photo: Flowers by Moira

List of Medals for RHS Florist of the Year 2012

Winner:
Jennifer Murphy, Flowers by Moira

Gold:
Kate Bainbridge, Simply Flowers
Heather Rogers, Springbank Flowers

Silver-Gilt Grenfell:
Julie Cambridge, Julie Cambridge Floral Design
Amy Ford, Curtis & Ford
Jillian Page, Something Special Flowers

Silver Grenfell:
Lisa Fowler, Eden Taunton Floral Design
Tracey Griffin, Tracey Griffin Flowers
Younghyun Kim, Writtle College
Sherrie Phelps, B1 Blooms

Bronze Grenfell:
Lana Bates, Anastasia Flowers
Amy Curtis, Curtis & Ford
Sachiko Hojo Smale, Bicton College

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gothic-wedding-ideas-mood-board

I’ve put together some ideas to give your gothic wedding a dramatic and mysterious style, based around a colour scheme of reds and black.  Picking a suitable venue will help you achieve a gothic look more easily; Victorian buildings or medieval castles are perfect.  If you can’t find a gothic venue that’s within budget don’t panic, there are plenty of things you can do to transform a venue into a gothic masterpiece.  Lighting plays a big part for gothic weddings; low light with candles will help create the right ambience.

You can really go to town dressing your tables for a gothic theme.  You might want to book the services of a venue dressing company or event planner to provide most of the items as they will be able to hire them to you. To dress your tables, hire black cloths and team with red and black accessories.  Linen companies can provide baroque print table cloths like the one on the mood board, the fabric gives a luxurious opulent feel.

red-rose-bouquet-with-ivy

For your centrepieces you could use black candelabras with Ivy wrapped around the arms.  Or for floral centrepieces stack some vintage horror books on the table and place a collection of apothecary bottles on them, place single flowers in the bottles in black, deep reds and purples.  You can’t really get a true black flower but some purple and red flowers are so dark they appear black so they are named as black.  Deep red flowers include black dahlias, black baccara roses, and chocolate cosmos which are a velvety red/chocolate colour.  Dark purple flowers include schwarzwälder or black forest calla lily, queen of the night tulip and moonvista carnation.

Use red charger plates, black napkins and ornate goblets to continue the theme.  Calligraphy is perfect for a gothic look so have your place cards written by a calligraphist.  Miniature potion or apothecary bottles would work well for favours.  If you want to make your own favours make some sloe gin and decant into bottles with personalised labels.

apothecary-bottle-favours

Mood board supplies:

Carmen rose bouquet – theflowerco.co.uk

Mixed wedding bouquet – anastasiaehlers.com, photography Anne Nunn

Red wedding dress – gothic4weddings.blogspot.co.uk by KMKdesings.org

Black baroque fabric – Robert Kaufman fabric

Black candlestick – clevelandaccessories.co.uk

Invitation – royalsteamline.com

Wedding cake – Cake Girls via realsimple.com

Wedding favour bottles – labouroflovepreserves.co.uk

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