Tag Archives: happy grooms

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!

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!

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!

cool and cosmopolitan

Hooray!  Have a look at Stem’s gorgeous flowers featured in the October/November issue of Cosmopolitan Bride.

Stem provided the flowers for Jude and Dave’s fabulous wedding at The Swan at the Globe in London (p.46-48).  More photos of their day will follow as soon as this very proud stemgirl gets back into the world of the organised blogger!

As I think I’ve said before, features in magazines or on other blogs and websites are the kind of publicity we just can’t buy.   I know I’m not an expert at the whole publicity thing but I am increasingly underwhelmed by the effectiveness of paid-for advertising.  That is, I don’t think it’s worth the cash.  I suspect our clients are most interested in recommendations and information about Stem from people who know what they’re talking about (i.e. other brides and grooms) rather than glossy ads that tell you nothing real about us.  That’s not a hint about recommending us, by the way.  Really not….