Wednesday 29 April 2015

Wild flowers and Bees





This year I have decided to try planting a wild flower meadow in the garden. I have been inspired by an article in Country Homes and Interiors Magazine. But also I know we need to increase our bee population, and seeing  as I love honey I thought it would be a good idea to combine the two.
 Here in the shop we have been given some wild flower seeds as a promotion from "Wildlife world" who are trying to get everyone planting native seeds to encourage wildlife back into our gardens. So I thought this is the year I am going to get my garden straightened and alive with colour.




There is something typically English about a country cottage garden and I can never resist stopping to take a peek over a wall that is in full bloom in the summer. I always get a little green eyed when I see them. Having had eight children, four of which were boys you can imagine that anything I tried to plant just got kicked over or trampled on as they rescued their rugby or football. Anytime I tried to suggest that I might like to plant a border or make some nice flower beds this was just met with groans and moans. I must say not just from my children but also from their Father at the thought of having to go and get his spade!



But now that the youngest has reached twelve I am hoping I might begin to create some quiet little oasis where I can retreat to. In my wildest dreams I would love a Romany caravan situated under the apple trees in the orchard where my Grandchildren can come and have tea. Possibly walking through my wild flower path to reach Grandma. Now in this ideal world the little tykes won't trample over them, or snap their heads off. I quite like the idea that they may pick a few to fill a jam jar for Grandmas windowsill!
However they do say an apple doesn't fall far from the tree so I' m not holding out much hope, just daydreaming!





Share:

Saturday 11 April 2015

A hat trick!




So here we are with two weeks to go. I have one very excited bride on my hands as you can imagine. Today we have the final dress fittings, hopefully when I contact the carpet company they will say that the carpet will be with us next week. Our son-in-law is an electrician so he has sorted out all the electrics in the barn. Slowly one by one my to do list is getting smaller. There have been glitches along the way, two in the last week. I have already told you about the bridesmaid dresses being the wrong colour,  well poor Elizabeth went to pick up her wedding ring from the jewelers   (having
waited about six weeks for it.) only to find they had ordered a ring made of white gold and not the palladium one she ordered.  Needless to say Elizabeth was a bit upset especially when she was told they would not be able to get another ring in time for the wedding and could she just use the white gold one and return it when the wedding was over. Now I don't know about you, but for me the wedding ring is pretty crucial to the whole affair. I just don't believe that an object that has been blessed on your wedding day should just be handed back to be sold on to someone else, and for you then to receive the ring you should have had at a later date which is not blessed.
     So what does an upset bride do? She phones her Mother! Well let's just say when I went into the shop I was given a very different reception to the one Elizabeth received! They assured me the ring would be there on time. Now what I don't understand is why they could not give that level of customer service in the first place. They had quite clearly made a mistake, own it and rectify it. All it needed was one of the sales staff to make a phone call, which they did and the situation was rectified. They have now assured us the ring will be here on time, let's hope so

This all happened on Friday then on Easter Sunday we received a phone call from the lady who had organized some staff for us, they were going to come and help serve on the day. But now due to
personal reasons she, and they would not be able to help out. This was a bit of a blow. However I refused to panic, we were seeing the caterers on the Tuesday who thankfully have said they will provide us with some, hooray for the Salted a Orange catering company. Failing that it will be all hands on deck and we will serve our guests ourselves.
 So that is three things, let's hope we now have a plain sail up to the day itself.

Share:

Wednesday 8 April 2015

The wedding of Isabelle and Leigh






The choice of florist for our wedding was probably the easiest of all the decisions we made for the day.  We had moved to Lincoln 18 months prior to the Wedding and on our first trip down Steep Hill 
we saw The Arbour and have never been to another florist since!




When we first went in to talk to The Team about the wedding flowers they were so relaxed and happy to take on board all our ideas.  As an Anglo/Scot couple we knew we wanted the traditional English
 Rose and Scottish Thistle. 






 We also wanted to incorporate Leigh's family tartan into the flowers.  From those ideas the team helped us come up with the most beautiful arrangements.  







The Bridal Bouquet was wrapped in Leigh's family tartan and was made up of three individual bouquets so that after the wedding it could be split in 3, with one part being kept by Isabelle and one going to each of her sisters.






  The tables at the reception were named after Scottish Whiskeys (our dog Kinchie is named after GlenKinchie - so we wanted to keep the theme going), we had whisky bottles for all the tables and had the idea of the bottles being at the centre of a wreath of flowers and the table decoration, again we wanted to include the family tartan.

The flowers did not just last for the day, we were able to give key members of the Wedding party some flowers to go home with as a thank you to them for being part of our day.













Everyone who attended the day commented that the flowers were beautiful and we can only agree with them - in our minds we were luck enough to find the perfect florist.






Again, Thank you to the team at The Arbour for the most beautiful wedding flowers
Isabelle and Leigh.






Church - St Peter's, Dunston
Reception venue - Washingborough Hall
Bride's dress- Belle and Bouquet,
Photographer - Bethany Clarke Wedding Photographer .
Share:

Monday 6 April 2015

Preparing the Barn!


Sorry meant to post this last week!

Well here we are less than a month to go until the big day. last weekend we had a very simple{by todays standards} Stag do. A group of young men arrived and before they could get down to the nuts and bolts of watching the rugby and having a beer the barn that is going to host Elizabeth's reception needed to be cleared out, washed down and cleaned.So with  mop and buckets in hand these young men needed to go and sort out some of my parents "treasures" that they no-longer used. In fact  the barn had become a bit of a dumping ground for all of us, so Elizabeth's father was like an army drill Sargent directing operations and deciding which articles needed to be kept and which needed to go.
The boys built a huge bonfire with much of the rubbish which they enjoyed later in the evening.

So now we have an empty swept barn. We are just waiting for some carpet to arrive which will not only give us some much needed warmth, but also a uniform of colour. it is quite exciting to have a completely blank slate to decorate. Emily and I have been discussing the various ideas for decoration and though we don't want to go over the top{ it would be very easy to get carried away}. we do want it looking pretty.

I do know I want some lovely floral hearts hanging on the doors. Stags will be playing a part, as the groom is Scottish, and know doubt eryngium will make an appearance. Lots of Eucalyptus, pussy willow and soft ruscus will be in use. Alongside some lovey creamy Avalanche roses, Ranunculus , Eustoma, Alstroemeria and many other beautiful blooms.    
Share:
© The Arbour Florist | All rights reserved.
Blogger Template Crafted by pipdig