On Saturday I flowered my biggest wedding to date yet! Emma and Tom were married at Staple Fitzpaine church in Somerset and held their reception at The Manor, Wellington. An exclusive wedding venue just off the M5 however in beautiful gardens and countryside you do feel like you are well and truly in the sticks!
Emma chose a mixture of purple, ivory and lilac seasonal flowers for her wedding flowers and chose natural and rustic style bouquets for her and her bridesmaids. I used beautiful lilac antique looking ‘memory lane’ roses, spray roses, trailing clematis, veronica, lisianthus, stocks and lavender for the bouquets with a mixture of green and pale grey foliage. The stocks and lavender made the bouquets smell gorgeous, perfect summer smells!
The church was decorated with pedestals at the altar, tied country style pew ends and a lovely floral arch at the entrance to the church. It had rained all night and early am so it was such a pleasant surprise when the rain stopped before I arrived to decorate the church, and held off all day…Despite the horrendous forecast!
The couple had chosen a marquee within the grounds to hold their wedding breakfast which was all white including the carpet, therefore it was important to introduce some colour here so I used a mixture of tall glass vases filled with domed arrangements which offered colour and decoration to the top half of the marquee space. On the other tables I used lower glass pedestal bowls with a lower arrangement which offered colour onto the tables. It is always a good idea to use both high and low flower arrangements within a maquee to spread out the flower love throughout the room!
The top table was decorated with a traditional long and low trailing arrangement, with two large stone urns placed either side. I filled these with amazing, huge lilac delphiniums, larkspur, stocks, clematis, roses and hydrangeas. I also placed large urns in the corners of the marquee which brought the whole room together.
On the side of the marquee I hung a floral heart which filled with back space and offered a focal point. People either go one way or another with a marquee throwing every type of decoration they can at it, or by not using enough decoration. I think Emma and Tom decorated the marquee with the right amount of flowers and colour which was done in an elegant and classy way, yet using country style, natural looking flowers.
The day after the wedding I went back to clear down the vases and met the Father of the Bride to quote ‘the flowers were spectacular’ it is lovely when everyone enjoys the flowers and you get feedback that they helped make the day special. The Father of the Bride also told me a story that I have never heard done before at a wedding… the photographer took a photo of the happy couple as they left the church and handed the file to a guy on a motorbike who was waiting, who then drove to a printers and had this photo printed off with a special message from the happy couple. This was then left on each placemat so when the guests arrived they had this little memoir of the day already… what a surprise!! Congratulations to you both wishing you lots of love and happiness from The Rose Shed!
