Stem Flower’s finally on holiday till 30 August. We’re taking a breath and looking forward to more gorgeous flowers in September. Email any questions you have and we’ll answer as soon as we can.
By the way, that’s a photo taken by stemgirl – quite good for a change!
The fabulous bright colours of Hannah and Adrian’s wedding flowers were totally in keeping with the joyous feeling of the day. They are a really cool couple and they carried off with style the beautiful clash of dark purples, pillar-box reds and acid greens.
I used a combination of gerberas, tulips, lisianthus and bupleurum to create contemporary, summery bouquet for Hannah with red gerberas for all her bridesmaids and the buttonholes and corsages. Adrian was happy to go for it with his buttonhole so he got the sexy dark lisianthus too.
The reception was held at St. Dunstan’s College in South London which has a large and very grand hall. Hannah organised the arrangements for the tables but I sorted out the quantities and purchase of flowers from New Covent Garden Market to ensure that the quality was good and costs were kept down. There are lots of ways of keeping to a budget (something Stemgirl is a bit fanatical about) and this is a nice example of florist and client collaborating to make things work. Here’s what Hannah has to say about Stem:
“Ruth was a joy to work with, from the first meeting when she welcomed us into her home to her smiling face as she handed over the bouquet on the wedding morning. The flowers were gorgeous, she chose perfectly for a us as we had no idea of all the varities on offer, one of the best things was during the consultation being shown in a book what flowers she was thinking of. The final result was even better than we expected and looking back at the photos they match perfectly with our bright colourful day!” Thank you, Hannah!
And very well done to you both!
Thank you to Rachael Emily Photography for letting me use her fantastic, vibrant photos. They really capture the joyous vibe of the day.
Not much Stemgirl needs to say here (for a change)….
Fragrant, delicate and magical Paper White narcissus. Completely gorgeous.
Well, what a great (if exhausting) weekend Stem had at The UK Wedding Show! Once we’d negotiated the slightly mad roads around the ExCel Centre London, managing to get lost only a couple of times, we set up our stand with fabulous spring-time flowers and a collection of beautiful bouquets.
In planning the flowers we were going to use, we tried really hard to come up with a way of giving a good indication of Stem’s personality and creativity. We hoped to create a slightly whimsical, magical display and I think it worked!
Quirky accessories, cute little brightly coloured birds, loads of seasonal foliage and branches of blossom looked absolutely gorgeous next to the fragrant narcissi and hyancinths, tulips, anemones and feverfew. We even planted jewel coloured primulas in teacups, milk-jugs and sugar bowls.
We had a smashing day working alongside Beauberry House, Shot by the Sheriff, Katie Fine, SLR Management and Eloise Prouse and were really frantically busy talking to lovely people on both days. Thanks to all of you who came to say hello!
Stem Flowers will be exhibiting at The UK Wedding Show at the ExCel Centre, London on 4 and 5 February. Come and say hello to us at Stand 116 where we’re working with Beauberry House (lovely venue), Shot by the Sheriff (photography) and SLRP (PA, lighting and event production). Our stand is called South Side, just to give a hint about where we’re all based! South London florists on a South London stand! I’ve got some complimentary tickets so make contact with me as soon as you can if you’d like one…..There won’t be many other florists there so I hope you’ll enjoy all the gorgeous seasonal flowers and foliage we’ll be using.
Take a look at the September/October issue of Wedding Flowers Magazine and you’ll see some of our gorgeous flowers. Hooray!
As the photoshoot took place at the very beginning of the summer, I made full use of the fabulous English flowers and foliage – Sarah Bernhardt peonies and Sweet Williams from John Austins and sorbus from GB Foliage. The rambling rose was foraged in West Norwood!
Wow! Professional photos of my flowers are on the wonderful Love My Dress blog after a really fun photo-shoot at Beauberry House. Wedding organiser Andri Benson brought together a group of fabulous South London women who are all in the wedding trade and we rocked the whole day. Pretty vintage flowers, romantic dresses, amazing cakes. And now one very proud stemgirl.
And here are some of the photos I took. Just so you can see the difference between my efforts and what a professional can do!
If you’re thinking pretty and vintage I think the delicious colours of this delicate rose are absolutely fantastic in a bouquet or table centre. I’ve used them here with ‘Akito’ roses, ‘Jana’ spray roses and wonderful, wonderful ‘Roma’ astrantia so the bright pink just pops here and there. However, ‘Mimi Eden’ looks really beautiful when used on its own. Recently, little posies for flower girls looked very cute.
On the down side, the petals are really delicate so I am very picky about the bunches I buy as there’s often already evidence of bruising at the market. And they are not cheap! But worth it, I reckon.
Hooray for the magical, fragrant narcissi from the Isles of Scilly! Produced by family growers in the open air, there are a huge number of varieties, all with surprisingly different perfumes. They’re normally available from late winter to the end of spring. There were loads at the market this morning – despite the cold and drizzle outside, they made me feel that, finally, spring is on its way.
I don’t think I have to say anything, really. How absolutely perfect are these nerines? They’re in season now and are completely magical! The bright pink ones above were used for all the bridesmaids (and buttonholes too) and the fantastic combination of white cymbidium orchids and nerines below was for Emma’s gorgeous bridal bouquet.
