Wednesday 27 May 2015

Ideas for Brides, Taken from Pinterest



I don't know about you but in our house the girls and I love Pinterest. We are constantly looking through to find inspiration for our homes, our clothes and our work. So I thought I would start to put up some pictures each week on what we have loved on Pinterest to give our brides ideas.

It can turn into a bit of a compulsion, so we thought we would just select those that "really spoke to us" and we'd share them with you, hope you enjoy looking at them!

















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Friday 22 May 2015

Summer time Hues!



Well here we are fast racing towards Summer and one of the bonuses of being a florist is being surrounded all day long by all those beautiful flowers which are beginning to come into their prime at the minute. One of my absolute favourites which are out now and last for such a short season is Lily of the valley. The scent is just utterly amazing. I had some in the shop last week and I couldn't stop sinking my head into them to just inhale that beautiful fragrance. I must admit I took them home along with some early sweetpeas and placed them next to my bed . Every morning I woke to that wonderful aroma filling my bedroom, what a way to start your day!





Next on my list of most beloved blooms would have to be the Peony. I love the frilly ruffles of this beautiful flower. Just recently we have been selling one called " Coral Sunset". This lovely large headed Peony starts out as a really vivid pinky coral coloured flower. As it opens the colour gradually changes and fades to a soft apricot colour, then continues to a creamy lemon kind of hue. It's just unbelievable to watch over a few days as this transformation takes place. The wonder of nature!



 One of the most charming things about peonies is the legend that surrounds it's name. So the story goes the Peony is named after Paeon a student of Asclepius who was the Greek god of medicine and healing. For some reason Asclepius became jealous of his pupil and wanted to kill him. Zeus stepped into save Paeon from the anger of Asclepius and turned him into the Peony flower.



Whatever the truth about peonies, one thing is for sure a few of these beautiful blooms sitting in a vase where you can see them will certinaly lift your soul heavenwards!















Pictures from Pinterest


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Wednesday 13 May 2015

A scent for Roses!



              " The rose speaks of love in a language known
                              only to the heart."
                                                                       Unknown





I don't know about you but I love roses. My particular bent is pink ones. I don't mind what shade of 
pink, just any pink will do.There is something very intoxicating about their scent and the lovely 
velvety petals, delicately shaped. Starting out as that oh so tight bud and gently unfurling into a ruffle of petals. 





I really love some of the David Austin roses. David Austin have being growing roses for 50 years and they always seem to win gold at the Chelsea flower show, so you know they must be good!
My parents always had his flowers in their garden at home and whenever I was there I loved to go up the garden first thing on a morning while the dew was still out and bury my head in the blooms and smell the sweet fragrance. The closest I have ever come to finding that smell is in Crabtree and Evelyn's "rose" collection of creams and potions. Whenever I get a chance I rub some of their cream on my hands especially if I have spent the day in the garden and my hands and nails look like grubby old tan leather. I then end the rest of the day "sniffing" my hands much to the bemusement of my family!






One day I am going to have a whole bed dedicated to roses. At the moment I have an old chimney pot outside my back door which has a beautifully fragrant rose growing the doorway. I have long since forgotten it's name, but each year it gives me beautiful pink roses with the most heady scent. Not only does it do this once but it kindly graces me with a second crop slightly later in the year. 





On our terrace climbing over a pergola I have the lovely rambling rector. Again this is just stunning full of small pink roses that just smile and smile in the sunshine. There is nothing nicer than wandering around the garden and picking some of these lovely little gems and bringing them inside. I just hate it when I don't have flowers in the house, like brides, flowers always make me smile especially roses!














Pictures courtesy of DavidAusten 

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Wednesday 6 May 2015

Elizabeth's wedding!






I must admit to feeling a little flat this week. I think tiredness and my lack of companion in the shop with me is adding to this feeling. Elizabeth's wedding was beautiful. It was a joy-filled day, in fact the whole week was joy filled. We knew there would be much to do in the days leading up to the day itself. But I didn't expect them to be quite so relaxed. On the Wednesday Emily and Elizabeth did the bulk of the Church flowers, Thursday we finished them off and got them into the Church. After collecting all the flowers for the reception we scooted home to start making some beautiful big hearts and filling jugs with beautiful white stocks. The scent was unbelievable. Because the weather was so glorious we stood outside soaking up the first real days of warmth. We had a very entertaining morning as The Journal, Lincoln's top glossy magazine came around to interview Elizabeth. Three lovely ladies turned up with notepads and cameras in hand. Thankfully it was almost lunchtime so we cracked out the fizz and we sat 
drinking and chatting while they asked Elizabeth all sorts of questions. It was such fun! 


 
 
 

Many hours later the barn was finished (see Emily's post). I was thrilled to bits with the transformation. Emily's ideas all came together beautifully and the finished result was the talk of the party.





 
Then Friday saw Emily and I in the shop making the bouquets, buttonholes,and corsages. When we got home we needed to sneak these around to the barn so that the bride did not see them. She wanted them to be a surprise on the morning of her wedding.
 


Our guests were beginning to arrive, so more champagne and lunch in the garden was the order of the day. The final touches, the dreaded table plan and then the sigh of relief it was all done. After a very noisy rehearsal dinner, I collapsed into bed not quite believing that the dress hanging in my bedroom was going to be worn by my beautiful little girl.







The day dawned bright but blustery, Elizabeth and I found ourselves awake and up before anyone else. We prepared the breakfast, more fizz! Then when Emily arrived she and I did the final binding of the bouquets before we presented them to Elizabeth who was thrilled with the finished article, much to Emily's relief

The flowers we used for  Elizabeth's beautiful bouquet all came from our usual supplier. Taking pride of place were  David Austen,s  "Kate", and "Keira" roses. We also used Red Naomi and pink sweet avalanche. We interspersed the roses with ranunculus in , Aazur pink, Picotee wit and Aazur red. The scent was heavenly. I loved the way the colours all blended together. We styled the bridesmaids to be the same, but a slightly smaller version of the brides. They were then bound in tartan ribbon to keep with the Scottish theme. 



 
The morning passed in a jumble of hairspray and froth as everyone's hair was done( good job one of Elizabeth's sisters is a hairdresser) and the little bridesmaids got their tutus on. The boys, dressed in their kilts, (You can imagine, I'm sure, the hilarity that followed as they all came downstairs in their wedding attire) looked very handsome, proceeded to drive off without their buttonholes, thankfully the photographer, who also happens to be one of Elizabeth's brothers took them to the Church before we arrived.
 
 




Dressing ones daughter for her wedding day is a very emotional thing. I was absolutely fine until I lifted her veil over her face, then the pair of us began to "leak". I knew I should have worn waterproof mascara! She looked beautiful as only a bride can.
 

I had organized for a bus to drive the bridesmaids and all our guests who were staying with us which was just a great idea. No panic about cars, we just got on and off. It was great fun!
 


The service itself was amazing.Admittedly we know the priest well as we go to the parish but he was telling stories to help relax us all before that long walk down the aisle. 
The music was fantastic, in fact I was very composed until the choir began to sing "Guide me thou o great Redeemer", then I was a gonna, it just sounded so beautiful.
We had a local harpist Thea Butterworth who played the harp, through the communion part of the service and her music just lifted your heart to Heaven. 
 

After the service it was back on the bus to head for home. Halfway there the Heavens opened and it began to pour. Now this was not on my agenda at all. We arrived home to find all the boys out with umbrellas leading guests into the adjoining marquee. It caused quite a bit of hilarity as we tried to get everyone including the bride under shelter. There is nothing you can do about it you just have to go with the flow. Thankfully we were prepared with big blankets hanging in the barn which were put to good use. Other than delaying the photographs until after dinner the weather did not stop the fun. Once we were seated the new Mr and Mrs Morton-Smith were greeted with everyone waving ribbon sticks and cheering.
 


As usual at our parties people don't get off entirely Scott free! Each table had to carve their own meat, so the gentleman at the end of each table needed to go to see chef to be given his joint of pork, carving set and apron. This caused much fun and got everyone laughing and talking. The staff at Salted Orange Food Company who oversaw the whole event did a marvelous job.
 

One of the cheeky guests ran a sweepstake  on the length of the speeches. Money was trading hands all over the place!


 

Once we got to this stage of the game my husband and I could relax. It was wonderful to look out from the top table and see all our nearest and dearest enjoying themselves, and to see the radiant smiles on the new Mr and Mrs. It  made it all worth while!




 





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