Tag Archives: working to a brief

stem flowers is feeling quite breathless…

Breathless ITV Jack Davenport

‘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!  

Breathless ITV all the ladies

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……

Breathless ITV cast

Stem’s in print again…

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!

a riot of colour

Dendrobiums, delphiniums, roses and mint

“Apart from the vows, the flowers are the most important part of my day” said my bride when I first met her.  No pressure, then!  This wedding was a real challenge for me because I knew how vital it was to get things right.  Not because Emily had outrageous demands but because getting the colours and textures spot-on were fundamental to making a massive, creative impact.  Oh, and the flowers needed to be individual, distinctive and un-weddingy….

Bridesmaid's bouquet of Grand Prix and Milano roses with mint and bupleurum

Flower girl's bucket of dendrobium orchids, Grand Prix roses and bupleurum

 

 

 

 

 

I have to say that I absolutely adore the combination of flowers and foliage we decided upon.  Magenta dendrobium orchids, intensly blue ‘Volkerfrieden’ delphiniums, deep cerise ‘Milano’ and garnet red ‘Grand Prix’ roses literally popped out of lush green flowering mint and zinging green bupleurum.  And the little details of red and pink satin ribbons on the bouquets, or the red pail for the flower girl, just added to the slightly quirky impact of the flowers.  Completely gorgeous!

Colour-filled tableAn abundance of flowers for tablesAbundant table vases

Beauberry House is a very beautiful venue and a fabulous backdrop for gorgeous flowers so the absolute abundance we had really did the job of bringing colour and excitement to every room.  A wonderfully riotous and (not so) random selection of vessels and flowers adorned every availabe windowsill, table, mantelpiece and loo with everything coming together in an enormous expolsion of foliage and blooms in a contemporary Entrance Hall pedestal.  The two olive trees at the main doors didn’t get away with staying as they were – red and pink ribbons were candy-striped down the trunks and complementary kalanchoe plants were crammed around the bottom of each.  A rather exhausting day for stem flowers, I have to say, but there’s nothing so good as knowing that a venue looks fantastic and that the bride and groom love what you’ve done!

Olive tree with candy stripe ribbons with red and pink kalanchoes