Wedding Flowers

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Choosing a wedding florist part 1 – searching online

15 May 2012 | Permalink

sweet avalanche

It can be daunting when you begin looking for a florist, a quick search online will bring up hundreds, some with shops, some studio based and some with rather dodgy looking websites.  How do you know which florists are any good? How do you decide which ones are worth meeting?  This guide will give you a few hints and tips to help you find your perfect florist.

When searching the web for things like florists, be sure to include the area your wedding will take place in, such as wedding florist Cheshire.  You don’t want to set your heart on a florist only to discover they are 100 miles away, after you’ve drooled over their beautiful bouquets for half an hour.

Don’t be tempted to book your flowers online with a company that says you can just book your flowers online and they will post them to you.  It might seem like a cheap and easy option, but these types of companies are often churning out bouquets production line style with little care or skill.  Wedding flowers also do not travel well by post; your flowers should be perfect on the morning of your wedding not turning brown because they were bashed about in the post for several days.

Once you have found a website that seems promising have a look around, does it look fresh and up to date? If the florist takes care to ensure their website stays current and looks perfect hopefully that will be reflected in their work.  A good florist will provide examples of their own work and probably a gallery of wedding flowers.  Do you like their work and the style of their designs?  If they specialise in funky exotic flowers but you want a soft romantic look for your wedding, then move on to the next florist.

maroussia rose

Many florists will have a price list or guide to their pricing on their website, this will give you an idea of costs before you book a consultation.  Price guides can be very helpful if you have no idea how much things cost.  As a rough guide brides spend on average around 10% of their overall budget on flowers.  Of course some people don’t want many flowers so that figure may be less.  The plant and flower association website has a useful guide to the average costs of wedding flowers.

Once you have found a few florists you like the look of check how they advise you to arrange a consultation, some may ask to you fill out a form online or some may prefer you to phone them.  As you are arranging a bespoke service you might want to book appointments with several florists to compare what you are offered in terms of design ideas and costs.

Part two will be posted later this week covering your consultation and looking at quotes afterwards.

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Roselily an exciting new lily variety

21 February 2012 | Permalink

Roselily Belonica

Roselily is a gorgeous new lily that has at least 18 petals per head! It’s double flowering nature and rose alike appearance is what inspired it’s name.  Apart from looking fabulous, Roselilies have other unique features such as no pollen, a subtle fragrance and a long vase life.

It’s tricky to use ordinary oriental lilies in wedding flowers as the pollen on stamens can stain fabrics and the stamens can only be removed once the flower heads have opened.  Roselilies contain no pollen, so are perfect for any wedding flowers from bridal bouquets to table arrangements.

Roselily Fabiola

Some lilies have a very strong fragrance that can be a little overpowering, especially in enclosed rooms; Roselilies have a much lighter fragrance than normal scented lilies and also benefit from a long vase life so you can enjoy them even longer.

There are currently two pink varieties available Belonica and Fabiola.  Several more varieties will be available soon including a cerise variety Elena and a white variety Carolina.

Images with kind permission from:

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How to re-create the wedding flowers in Breaking Dawn

24 November 2011 | Permalink

Breaking Dawn wedding ceremony

Image source Wedding Inspirasi

In the previous blog we had a quick look at the stunning flowers used for Edward and Bella’s wedding.  The designer Tammy Polatsek went to town with the natural woodland theme .  Thousands of flowers were using to make the wedding set, but don’t despair you can re-create the fabulous look without a big film budget.  To help keep your flower costs sensible try to use ivory flowers that are in season when you get married.  The flowers used in the film included roses, delphiniums, stocks, sweet peas, hyacinths, ranunculus, freesia, cherry blossom, wisteria and viburnum along with umbrella ferns, and lots of moss.

Bella's wedding bouquet

Image source Twitter

Bella carried a simple hand tied bouquet packed with beautiful ivory flowers.  It must have smelt truly scrumptious, it contained hyacinths, freesia, stocks and ranunculus.  Freesia and ranunculus also make beautiful buttonholes with a couple of simple leaves.  Although you can’t currently get married in a forest in the UK, you can get around this by having a legal ceremony in register office, and then having your ‘real’ big day with all your friends and family at a later date in your favourite woodland. Or you can of course bring the great outdoors inside.  Create a woodland feel by lining your aisle with tall branches with mossed arrangements at the base and flowers arranged to look as if they are growing.

Viburnum

The floral arch in Breaking Dawn was breath taking; it was very tall and packed with flowers.  It featured delphiniums, cherry blossom and other white flowers.  The arch in the film was so full with flowers, it would be budget busting for most brides.  A scaled down version could still feature lots of gorgeous flowers but with a bit more foliage and moss.  Many florists will have an arch structure that they decorate and hire out for weddings.

Ranunculus

The reception tables had a very natural organic looking design on them, but they were quite tall and sprawling, so the plates and tableware were very close to the edge of the tables.  Things can get knocked over when the table is that full and if your guests can’t see across the tables they may even move your lovely flowers elsewhere.  I would opt for a design with the candelabra at the centre of the table and have the flowers around the base, arranged in a natural style with lots of moss and foliage.

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Twilight Breaking Dawn wedding flowers

18 November 2011 | 1 comment

We’ve had a few glimpses of the amazing Twilight wedding scene.  The trailers promised a magical woodland setting, but only showed the flowers for a split second. But the time has finally come, Breaking Dawn is released today.  The lady behind the wedding set design and flowers is Tammy Polatsek.  She was responsible for designing and sourcing all the flowers for the wedding and reception.  She also designed a porcelain dinner set for the reception that was used in the film.

Twilight wedding scene

Image source Entertainment Weekly

The wedding had a Mid-summer nights dream feel to it, everything was very natural and earthy in a forest setting surrounded by lots of flowers, foliage and moss.  The colour scheme for the flowers was white and ivory with lots of deep green ferns.

The ceremony featured low woodland style arrangements lining the aisle and a stunning floral canopy.  The canopy was made with thousands of white wisteria flowers made into 40-50 feet lengths. White lavender and cherry blossom also featured in the ceremony flowers. There were tree stumps dotted around the ceremony to complete the woodland theme, these were decorated with flowers so they appeared to be growing from the stumps.

The aisle was strewn with white petals and at the end of the aisle there was a magnificent floral arch where Edward and Bella said their vows.  It was covered in white flowers including delphiniums and cherry blossom.

Breaking Dawn reception table

Image source casasugar

The reception tables were dressed with moss green table cloths with fabric leaves attached to them.  The centrepieces were large natural designs with viburnum opulus, delphiniums, sweet peas, hyacinths, ranunculus, umbrella ferns and moss.  The centrepiece incorporated candelabras shaped like tree branches.  Small candles were also dotted around the arrangement.

Breaking Dawn wedding cake

Image source Summit Entertainment

The wedding cake was a large five tier design, simply iced and decorated with ivory and white flowers.  The floral ring surrounding the cake contained roses, viburnum, and sweet peas.

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Flower of the week – Lily of the valley

24 May 2011 | Permalink

Lily of the valley Close

Common name:  Lily of the valley, May lily, May bells

Botanical Names: Convallaria Majalis

Origin: Northern Hemisphere, Asia and Europe

Colours: white and more rarely pink

Lily of the valley is also known as May lily which comes from the Latin convallis meaning valley and majalis for May-flowering.  It is said to symbolise purity, humility and the return of happiness.  It has long been associated with May and is said to bring good luck or protect your garden from evil spirits.  Lily of the valley has been the national flower of Finland since 1967.

This pretty plant is a herbaceous perennial that spreads it’s rhizomes (roots) underground to form extensive colonies.  It grows up to 20cm in height and has tiny bell shaped flowers up to 10mm in diameter.  The flowers have a beautiful sweet fragrance.  The plants offer good ground cover and thrive in shady areas.  Although after several years they can take over large areas or other plants if not divided and kept on top of.  All parts of the plant are poisonous including the berries.

The herb is used medicinally for various conditions.  In the First World War it was used to treat victims of mustard gas to lower blood pressure.  It contains cardiac glycosides which are used to treat heart problems.  The roots of the plants are used by herbalists to make an ointment that treats burns.  It should only be used by a qualified medical practitioner as the side effect can be harmful if used incorrectly.

Lily of the valley bouquet

In floristry Lily of the valley is used predominately in wedding work, as it’s petite stems are not long enough for normal bouquets and it is one of the dearer flowers.   It’s main season is March to May as a cut flower.  It is available in some other months, but it is usually more expensive out of season.  It’s delicate flowers look beautiful in hand tied bouquets or shower bouquets, and it’s sweet fragrance has a gorgeous old fashioned quality.   The delicate flowers are so petite a vast number are needed for bridal bouquets of only lily of the valley.  It also works well mixed with roses for an elegant vintage look.

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