There is not much that needs to be said about these plump, pale pink Sarah Bernhardt peonies. Coming into season now, they play a gorgeously sumptuous part in spring and early summer weddings.
Perfect peonies
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Tag Archives: Ruth Curran Crawley
Stem in glorious colour
Stemgirl is very proud to have a double page spread in the March/April issue of Wedding Flowers and Accessories Magazine. It’s a fabulous publication that is packed full of ideas for stunning flowers as well as all sorts of fun and interesting bits and pieces to beautify your wedding with. Grab it while you can!
I really enjoyed putting together this riotous collection of flowers. And found an excuse to go mad with my glue gun on those cool chalk-board place settings (they have a tiny peg attached to the back) and my vintagey sequinned headband. All a bit bohemian, jewel-inspired. I was put a little in mind of Ellen Terry or Vita Sackville-West….
Belair House Wedding Fair 16 March 2014
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…..
stem flowers is feeling quite breathless…
‘BREATHLESS’
10 October on ITV at 9pm
Stem’s flowers appear throughout this new drama set in 1960s London. Stemgirl had great fun researching and producing designs that are quite different to the style of things I normally do. I really appreciated the help from the lovely men at the market (thank you Terry, Eric, David and Dennis!) who gave me their memories of the flowers that were on sale in the early 60s. And old Pathe newsreels were brilliant too. I used almost exclusively British flowers and foliage although it was interesting to find out how many varieties were already being imported from abroad. I was really challenged by, but really enjoyed, the speed at which I had to turn things around. When I provide flowers for a wedding, I think long and hard about everything. But on this job I sometimes had only a few hours notice before I had to put together and deliver arrangements. It was a very buzzy experience and I hope there’ll be more of it!
This first series runs for 6 episodes and I know, from the flowers I did, includes a wedding dress shop, a buffet party, a beauty pageant, an affair, a wedding and a funeral! Quite how all that fits together I’m waiting to see. The drama revolves around life in a hospital so I am expecting handsome doctors and stylish frocks and, perhaps, some insight into an interesting time in medical politics. Take a look if you can and let me know what you think……
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….
…..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?
welcome to stemblog
This is the new home for Stem Flowers’ gorgeous blog. Hope you enjoy it!
And the sun shone too – finally!
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.
Simple and beautiful
Not much Stemgirl needs to say here (for a change)….
Fragrant, delicate and magical Paper White narcissus. Completely gorgeous.
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 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!
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.
