Friday 27 April 2012

Flowers, Gowns & Shoes - My idea of heaven

Hello all.  It's been a bit quiet on the blog front this week as I've been catching up with lots of (essentially dull) paperwork! However, yesterday evening I had the pleasure of creating designs for the lovely Chloe of The White Room.  She contacted me recently to say that she was putting on a special event to showcase the new collection from the very fabulous Rachel Simpson and would I like to get involved and provide the flowers?  Seriously.  Flowers, gowns and shoes - three of my most favourite things in one gorgeous room - how could I resist?!

So, I did a bit of research into Rachel's exquisite bridal shoes.  Her business was officially founded in 2008 and since then she has specialised in stylish design which originates in elegant vintage ideas.  Her beautifully made shoes are from small factories as near to the UK as possible and her designs recently won an award for their understated loveliness.  Click on the link above to have a really good look at her fabulous, beautiful, yet comfortable designs.

Once I started sketching, I knew I wanted to design something which would fit the look and feel of Chloe's gorgeous boutique and compliment the elegant simplicity of Rachel's beautiful shoes.  As you regular readers will know, I have a bit of thing for seasonal flowers and so I decided my starting point just had to be bluebells. Chloe's 'boudoir' styling in her lovely surroundings is predominately white and grey and so I decided on a soft, dreamy palette of pale blues, creamy whites and soft purples, which would also work well with muted tones of Rachel's shoes.  I also love to work with scent too and so felt that was an important criteria for my buying list.

Decision made! All I needed was the flowers, which I ordered through my superb internet supplier. Sadly, when I collected them and got them home, they had all suffered from the cold and had to be returned.  My supplier was, I have to say, fantastic but my carefully thought out first choice was no longer available!  With a bit of improvisation and a very quick re-think, disaster was averted and, to be truthful, may possibly be an even better result than my planned design! We'll never know, but I'm a half-full kind of girl, so I'm thinking it was all for the good!

I'm glad to say that I popped into The White Room yesterday evening to take a few shots of the event and met Rachel who was incredibly warm and friendly.  Happily, both she and Chloe had had a really successful and busy evening and the flowers looked lovely surrounded by pretty, pretty shoes and soft candlelight. Aided by my daughter, Alice, I took a few shots with her fancy camera - I think they do go some way to capturing the ambience, but there's definitely room for photographic improvement!

Here they are:-


You just know you'd want to dance the night away in these lovely shoes - something tells me you'd be able to as well! 


A close-up of the materials used in the design above - gorgeous cabbagey 'Dolcetto' roses, creamy white wax flower, silvery-grey eucalyptus, scented stocks, delphinium, wheat and rose buds



Be your own kind of Beautiful - flowers, gowns and shoes!


A close-up of the design I made for Chloe's desk which also features wheat, tiny diadeem rosebuds and lavender for scent - along with the other materials mentioned above


I think I should have left the glass of champagne in this shot - it looks a bit stark!



 I just love the pretty ribbon tie on these adorable peep toes


Here's an idea of some of the range on display


The delicate soft tones of Rachel's shoes worked beautifully with the antique style roses


I designed a soft, flowing, delicate arrangement around this recently 'found' Wedgewood neo-classical vase.  Using just three of the roses as focal flowers, I wanted this piece to look stylish but understated.  


Rachel's attention to detail is wonderful - I just love the little embellishments which can be attached to her designs - my favourite is this sparkly little number



A final shot of that Dolcetto rose


It was such a pleasure to work with these gorgeous materials and for such a lovely event.  If you have a favourite design, it would be good to hear from you - leave me a comment below and I'll be sure to reply.

Coming up on the blog, it's celebration time as Campbell's Flowers reaches the grand old age of 6 months!

'til then, enjoy!


T x


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