When your faced with choosing flowers for a loved ones funeral its so difficult to know where to start. A lot of undertakers have an in house florist with some set designs that you can choose from, this can make life a lot easier, especially when there is so much to organise, but what if you don’t want to organise a standard arrangement – you want something a little bit more personal.
With March whizzing by in what felt like a moment, and a sea of soft pastels, Kelly and Alan’s big day came along and kicked us into full on bright, bold and colourful mode. I adore punchy colours and Kelly and Alan’s scheme didn’t disappoint. Plums, cerise, dusky mink tones and most importantly lots of texture – a florists dream!
Kelly and Alan tied the knot at their local church and then headed to The Olde Bell in Hurley for the big celebrations. We’ve been to The Olde Bell on many occasions and have floralled up so many different schemes over the years but nothing as bold and beautiful as this. Tying the knot at the end of March, we had the pick of the spring flowers to use along with some early summer fleurs making an appearance.
Whether you go to market or buy your flowers online, how on earth do you decide what flowers you want to sell. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of varieties available and tons of different colours.
Some florists go for the scatter gun approach – a little bit of this and a little bit of that until they have every colour under the rainbow in their arms or virtual trolley. Sure this is the way you can work, and indeed this is the way loads of florists shops around the country have run for decades, but we like to think of ourselves as a fine artists picking our paints very carefully so we can blend and get depth.
I call it a ‘currated’ colour palette which sums up whats happening not only in the floral world but also in fashion and lifestyle. We’re constantly looking around, gathering inspiration and then transporting it to our flower stand in tints and tones that blend together beautifully.
Sometimes after a really busy, stressful time you need a few weeks to fully relax, take stock of everything and evaluate where you want to go in life. With Valentines and Mothering Sunday well out of the way, and our new approach to weddings giving us more time to be creative and bespoke with our work, it also means we get to share all that gorgeousness with you. I’ve been thinking about what we want our blog to achieve, not just the whole get more comments, have more likes mentality, but more the ‘what does this blog represent’ mentality. What do I want this to be about. When I read blogs, the bits I like best are the personal post entries, or a real look behind the scenes. I feel I can so connect with that person and more importantly I want to find out about their life – I want to be part of their club! I want to make our blog more of a personal journal, where we can freely share our flowery world with you, and hopefully you’ll join us and peep at what we’re getting up to. Its not going to be about presenting the perfect image to the world, but its going to be about capturing a feeling and trying to convey the smells, the colour and ambiance of the shop.
So welcome to OUR CLUB, the place where you can find out what real florists get up to behind all the perfect Instagram shots. I’ll be posting weekly on a variety of different topics about flower life and up next week will be a blog about how we choose what flowers to sell on our stand. Its going to be a good one!
Here’s a picture of me making you a virtual ‘welcome to our club’ flower crown. Wear it with pride!
TTFN x
Every man should wear flowers … and not just on his wedding day. I’m such a firm believe in this – a little nod to the seasons pinned onto ones jacket certainly gives the wearer such an air of distinction it would be a shame to limit this effect just to your wedding day.
And boys, guess what – you don’t have to wear a single rose with a teeny tiny leaf … no! The modern man dons a tiny collection of fleurs fully embracing the season. Here to inspire (as always) are 3 of our winter buttonhole recipes (or if your feeling awfully posh, boutonnieres)
I’m still pinning down a name to call them, I know everyone KNOWS what a buttonhole is, but it just sounds so … none floral! Perhaps a floral jacket pin … or a jacket posy …. Ideas very much welcome!
A huge hello to all our new readers and followers! To celebrate you joining our flowery crew I thought a little introduction about myself might be in order.
No one wants to read a huge blow-by-blow account of how much I adore flowers (heck you probably already guessed that they are the greatest thing on the planet!) Instead this is 10 fun facts about me. A chance for your to get behind the florist, so to speak!
Now I must hold my hands up here and completely admit that I’m also indebted to Karen over at Smashing The Glass for this. I loved her 10 facts and have totally borrowed her format. If you’re planning a Jewish Wedding or celebration you totally have to visit her blog Smashing The Glass – its packed full of wedding gorgeousness and inspiration overload.
1. I’ve worked with flowers since I was 16 and we always talked about owning a shop over the dinner table with my family. We opened Green Parlour in 2008, when I was 25.
2. A chicken once escaped in the shop and hid behind the toilet. It took over an hour to free the bird and a total re-build of the facilities. I bonded with one of the most amazing women, Debs, during this ordeal and I’m so grateful to have her as a lifelong friend (thanks chicken!)
3. I may be a tiny bit obsessed with Kate Bush. And I cried when she sang Hounds of Love live in 2014.
4. I happened to be involved in the flowers for the royal wedding in 2011. It was the most amazing experience and something that not everybody knows about me. I took the call from Catherine in the lavatory so no one would hear!
5. I can play the piano, recorder, violin and oboe and I’m currently teaching myself the ukulele.
6. If I hadn’t become a florist my other vocations I had pinpointed were an astronaut and a pool shark/hustler
7. I do have a favourite flower … sweet pea’s! I cannot help but stick my nose in them and breathing in heavily.
8. I LOVE the smell of play-doh.
9. I drink far too much tea – around 8 cups a day. I know I should cut back, but floristry is a cold job and the tea is required for warmth.
10. I talk about flowers a lot in my sleep. My latest musing went a little like this “I’ve almost run out of mistletoe” …. uttered in February.
We’d love to hear your 10 fun facts – pop over to our Facebook page to introduce yourself!
