Tag Archives: sunny weddings

A joyful day at Belair House

Elaine Williams Photography

Elaine Williams Photography

It is a lucky day when you are asked to do flowers for a couple who are absolutely lovely and full of joy and excitement about their upcoming nuptials.  Meeting with Denise and Fabian in advance of their wedding and then being a part of their day was a total honour!

Belair House radiator cover with random vases

They wanted simple, unfussy flowers in muted pinks, whites and corals so we used a gorgeous combination of pale pink garden roses, coral dahlias, freesias,  hydrangea, astilbe, veronica and daisy-like feverfew with little flashes of dark claret astrantia.  All arranged in what I call ‘random’ vases.  Although, of course, they’re not random at all!  A bit like ‘barely there makeup’, it’s all thought through carefully and takes more time than you’d think.

Elaine Williams Photography

Elaine Williams Photography

Elaine Williams Photography

Elaine Williams Photography

Elaine Williams Photography

Elaine Williams Photography

Elaine Williams Photography

Elaine Williams Photography

And we made good use of fragrant, abundant foliage to fill spaces without breaking any budgets!

Elaine Williams Photography

Elaine Williams Photography

Elaine Williams photography

Elaine Williams photography

Thank you to Elaine Williams for sharing her absolutely beautiful photos with me. They capture everything about the day subtly and perfectly!

Elaine Williams Photography

Elaine Williams Photography

Venue – Belair House
Photographer – Elaine Williams Photography
Dress – Blush and Ivory

 

 

 

 

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.

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.

spring has (nearly) sprung

In fact, it was bucketing down with rain for alot of Easter Saturday but Stem Flowers brought the gorgeous fragrance and uplifting colour of Spring inside with (English) sun-yellow narcissi, purpley-blue hyacinths, and old-lady’s-p0wder-puff-pink lisianthus.

Vases filled with Tete-a-Tete narcissi and yellow pansies not only made a simple but beautiful mantelpiece display but also provided plantable gifts for the guests to take home. 

The White Room at Beauberry House was filled with prettiness and had the whimsical feel of Miss Marple’s local tea-room!