Romantic Wedding.

So the Wedding Day has finally arrived! This photo was taken at the place the reception is to be held the day before and as you can see it's raining! I was hoping and praying that the clouds would get it all out of their system on Wednesday and give us a lovely sunny day Thursday, but sadly that was not to be. However, although windy and cloudy, it didn't rain.

As promised I will let you see the work I did and the flowers we chose. When Kara first came to see me, she was quite clear that she did not want formal flowers, no roses, no lillies. She liked a simple hand-tied arrangement, that looked as though it had just been picked from the garden. We were on the same wavelength straight away. Kara had been to another wedding I had done for Leigh and Stuart, and she loved the quirkiness of Leigh's wedding, all her personal touches and vintage vignettes. We were actually able to use some of Leigh's lovely quotes, which she had as table numbers, in a different way.
She also knew what colours she wanted, which is a big help when planning what flowers to use. She wanted a mix of purple, blue and pink.

When I go to the wholesaler to pick up my order I always feel a little nervous and also excited about the choice of flowers, but when I go in and can pick my order out from all the others, a sense of relief floods over me. I bring them home, strip the stems and condition the flowers by placing up to their necks in buckets of water. This makes sure that the flowers get a good long drink and therefore last longer. I have to say, when I see them all in the buckets, I wish I could just place buckets around the wedding, and not arrange them at all, because they look so perfect to me as they are.
I have blue hydrangea. purple delphiniums, lavender, lilac stock, pink astilbe, astrantia ,palest pink sweetpea,
lilac freesia, pink peonies, blue nigella, ammi, ferns, rosemary, purple eustoma, blue agapanthus and pink gypsophila. The gardeners and flower lovers among you will know that these flowers together will create an intoxicating scent. It really did, my car smelt like heaven when I was transporting them. The only thing missing to my mind was some old-fashioned roses. I love to use flowers and leaves that smell good enough to eat.
It gave me great joy as the bride was getting out of the car and her driver was getting her bouquet, that he put it to his nose and took a long breath in.

The bride's bouquet.

The bridesmaid's bouquet.

Bride and bridesmaid snapped by me!

Button holes were done a little differently, and I love the simplicity of these little wreaths, made from rosemary or thyme and lavender, and finished with a little bow.

And some larger wreaths for the double doors of Mussenden temple. I had suggested moss wreaths for the doors and had shown Kara various versions, she chose the version that was slightly wild, and I just love how these look, I think they are very 'Wuthering Heights'. I used a copper wreath ring unto which I bound some hay, using reel wire, and then sheet moss, and finally Asparagus Fern, which gives it that lovely ethereal quality.

I think if you don't mind kind reader, that I will stop there for today, and show you the reception another day, it has been a very busy couple of days, I think I need an assistant, and a good sleep!
I do hope you have enjoyed what you have seen so far. Thank you for visiting, and commenting, it really makes my day! With much love, Linda x