Wednesday 11 April 2012

A tale of two weddings

It was a busy time in the workroom a few days ago, when I was lucky enough to design wedding flowers for both Shani and Becky.  Now any of you who have read my blurb under wedding flowers will know I make it a policy not to take two weddings on one day, as I've always worried this could stretch me too far.  I've always felt proud of the fact that every one of my Brides gets my full attention and that their wedding bouquets aren't passed over to a member of staff they've never met.

When Becky won my recent competition, I was a bit taken aback that her date was the same as Shani's - who had booked with me some time previously!  Isn't that just the way?  Luckily it transpired that they were at completely different times of the day and the second one, Becky's, was really close by.  So, after a very careful afternoon of planning,  I decided I could do it.

But, what I love about my job is that people are so different and, as you will see both my lovely ladies wanted very different designs - which just made my time designing job incredibly stimulating and fulfilling.  Here are a few pics that I took and a brief explanation of the concepts behind each of the weddings.


Shani's Wedding


Shani and I hit it off as soon as she came to see me with her little daughter and her mum, Jane.  Her venue was to be the gorgeous Wood Lane Countryside Centre which provides beautiful, natural surroundings and the choice of two Georgian Barns.  Her dress was a Boho-style full length gown of ivory lace with crystal detail, while her adult bridesmaid would be wearing a stunning bright coral dress. Shani described the style of her bouquet as 'beautifully accidental' and asked me to include roses to match the coral colour - a real challenge.  Luckily she left me a silk corsage from the Bridesmaids dress as a colour match!


Shani's Bride's bouquet, the adult bridesmaid's bouquet with cream roses and Libby's tiny version of her Mum's bouquet ... and transport!



To create Shani and Libby's bouquets I used wax flower, 3 kinds of roses, spray roses, astrantia, cornflowers, ranunculus, scabious seed pods, wheat and alchemilla mollis - all in shades of pinks and corals


Two of the Mum's corsages - the bright one was for Jane


The guest's buttonholes and the Groom's


A close-up of the Groom's buttonhole with 'Lovely Lydia' spray roses, scabious seed head, wheat and alchemillia mollis


 I made two Bridesmaid's Alice Bands at the last minute as Alchemilla Mollis is notorious for not 'standing up' (that's florist parlance for wilting!)


A close-up of the headband


All wrapped-up and ready to go! Shani also had a selection of hair flowers.  


Becky's Wedding

So once that was all delivered, it was on to the lovely Becky and her wedding, which couldn't have been more different!  Becky is a wonderfully happy, bubbly lady who wanted her wedding to be very chic, stylish and sophisticated.  Her gorgeous asymmetric full-length gown was to be complimented by  bridesmaids in a fabulous rich aubergine colour.  She wanted her flowers to pick up the colour in the dresses and so we came up with a theme using the incredibly rich and sumptuous 'Vermeer' Calla Lily. We initially thought of a trailing, waterfall bouquet, but Becky sent me some pics she found on-line and emailed me lovely images of amazing compact hand tied shower bouquets.  The decision had been made!


Becky's shower bouquet - technically one of the most difficult bouquets I've made in a long time, but beautiful in its elegant simplicity



Becky popped in the day before her wedding to see me and drop off these lovely little photos she had of loved ones who couldn't be with her on her day

   

 I attached them to the back of her bouquet in such a way that she could remove them after the ceremony if she wished


A trio of gorgeous calla lily designs - one of which was a tiny memorial bouquet to honour her baby sister



The wand up-close


An elegant wrist corsage for the adult bridesmaid


The Groom's buttonhole up close.  Becky had a heart theme for her invitations and other wedding essentials and so I suggested incorporating a little heart shape made from bear grass which subtly linked in to her overall theme and made the Groom's design just that extra bit special


All ready to deliver!


Hope you've enjoyed looking through these designs, I certainly had a wonderful time making them.  Congratulations and good luck to both Shani and Becky - I can't wait to see the 'real' photographs!

If you would like any information about either of these weddings, please leave me a comment - I love hearing from you.

'til then, enjoy!

Tx



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