Tag Archives: happy brides

A magical wedding fair

Candelabras with ivy antique pink carnations memory lane roses silver leaf tealights

A glorious evening at Belair House’s wedding fair.  Stemgirl went a little bit mad dressing the opulent dining room with an eclectic mix of flowers and foliage to give visitors several stylish ideas for their upcoming weddings.

Springtime table with Tete-a-Tete narcissi, violas, hyacinths

Forsythia, kitsch birds, bouquets

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was fabulous to be exhibiting alongside Belair’s other trusted suppliers including spectacular cakes by Blossom and CrumbBeverley Wilson floral design and styling and Craft Music who can organise a fantastic range of musicians for weddings and events. Details of other suppliers and a link to a short film about all of us to follow when Stemgirl gets organised…..

Hanging antique pink carnations

I had fun sewing these antique pink carnations onto fishing wire so that they appear to float in mid-air!

 

Woop Woop!

South London wedding flowers

Stemgirl is super-proud and a bit over-excited to have been named a regional finalist in The 2015 Wedding Industry Awards.  Thank you very much to all Stem’s supporters for your votes and for all your support!

A sunny and joyful wedding for Melanie and Ruairidh

Dan Biggins Photography

When I first met Mel I was really struck by how joyful and relaxed she was in her approach to planning her wedding.  To describe the kind of day she was hoping for, she used words like ‘relaxed’ and ‘happy’ and talked about wanting a welcoming party feel.  She also wanted the rooms at Belair House to feel really summery and fresh with lots of whites and greens while “not looking too weddingish”.

 Dan Biggins Photography

I suggested many different white and pale green flowers so that there would be a real feeling of abundance.  We went with several varieties of hydrangeas, roses and spray roses, freesia, astrantia, alstromeria and eustoma with delicate, daisy-like feverfew and lacy ammi majus.  And then I went bonkers with all the lovely seasonal foliage on offer at GB Foliage at the market as well as fragrant mint and rosemary.

Dan Biggins Photography

Ammi

 

Hydrangeas

 

 

 

 

 

Mel’s bouquet was made up of David Austin “Patience” roses, freesias, hydrangea florets, astrantia, ammi and mint with the stems bound simply with garden twine.  The buttonholes, in honour of Ruairidh’s nationality (the men looked very dashing in their kilts), were made of white eryngium thistles.  And the little flower girls carried posies of ‘Akito’ roses and wore Alice-bands decorated with tiny spray roses and freesias.  All really pretty and delicate and sunny!

 Dan Biggins Photography

Dan Biggins PhotographyFlower girl at Belair House

 

Mel decided she wanted the flowers for the tables displayed in lots of different glass vessels rather than in anything too formal.  So each table had what I call “a random collection of vases and flowers” placed in the centre.  Of course, just like perfecting so called nude make-up, making things look random is actually quite hard work!

Random table centres

top table

The results were gorgeous and I think you can see from all the fabulous photographs by the lovely Dan Biggins, Mel and Ruairidh’s wedding was a really relaxed and happy day, just as they’d hoped for.

 

 

Belair House wedding

You can see many more of Dan’s photos and my flowers on the super-cool A Touch of Modern wedding blog.

Wedding Industry Awards 2015 – do you dig Stem?

So, if you love Stem and we made you gorgeous flowers for your wedding or celebration between 1 November 2013 and 24 October 2014 please say some nice things about us by clicking on this link…..

http://www.the-wedding-industry-awards.co.uk/2015/london-and-south-east/florist/stem-flowers-london

Thank you!

Belair House Wedding Fair 16 March 2014

Love heart for Belair House

Stemgirl is very excited to be involved in a very special wedding fair event at Belair House in beautiful Dulwich.  It’s on the Sunday 16 March and it’s a chance to see this gorgeous venue, sample cocktails, listen to live music and generally have a lovely time!  More details to follow but save the date and come and say hello…..

all change at beauberry house

As you will know, stemgirl really loves working at Beauberry House in Dulwich.  Many happy events there have been made even more gorgeous with Stem’s flowers!  So it was a bit of a shock to find out that the venue had been sold and the team we know so well were moving out.  I have to say that stemgirl was in a bit of a panic….

 Beauberry House

…..until I arrived and met Nick, the new General Manager, and found out that this is fabulous news for the venue itself and also for the community around it.  Firstly, they have returned the house to its proper name – Belair House.  Secondly, the building is being fully refurbished to breathe some life back into it’s bones.  The restaurant, serving good, seasonal British food, will open throughout the week for lunch and dinner as well as brunch over the weekend and roasts on Sundays.  And there’s going to be a rather lovely cocktail bar too.

And thirdly, fabulous weddings and parties will still be a really important part of life there. 

So, all is well and the panic is over!  And stemgirl is really looking forward to bringing some Stem Flowers magic to many more weddings and civil partnerships and parties there.  Oh, and did I mention the cocktails?

And the sun shone too – finally!

Bright wedding flowers with gerberas,tulips and lisianthus

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.

Gerberas, lisianthus, tulips, bright colours

Red gerberas for bridesmaids

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.

Red gerberas, purple lisianthus, bupleurum, bright buttonhole

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!

 

Hannah and Adrian happy wedding bright flowers

Thank you to Rachael Emily Photography for letting me use her fantastic, vibrant photos.  They really capture the  joyous vibe of the day.

A lovely, busy weekend

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 HouseShot by the SheriffKatie FineSLR 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!

Come and 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.