I think blush and white is one of those colour palettes of which I will never tire. It’s the perfect romantic tone – not too much white and just the right amount of pink without going super girly. Its like a grown up romance novel translated into colours. All the tenderness you want with just the right amount of sexy.
Louise and Lewis married at the ever-beautiful Wasing Park back in April. The flowers were a seasonal affair, which works so well at this venue. Louise trusted us to go to town on the flowers and so in true Green Parlour style we did; with ranunculus, blousy roses, the last of the seasons anemones, lilac, trails of jasmine and astilbe. It encapsulated everything I adore about spring, wild abundance, un-arranged perfection and the perfect mix of textures. Plumes of fountain grass shot through the designs to give that delicate movement which I adore and I may have also snuck in a sweet pea or two, because there were some beauts available at market when I was collecting the fleurs and quite frankly it would have been rude not to.
This is what I love most about bridal work, the freedom that some give to create and flex the flowers used ever so slightly to achieve the look. Louise was a total dream to work with – she let me run with her brief and I knew from early on we’d be totally on the same page. Trust us florists, we literally adore flowers (believe me its not the kind of job you could do if you don’t adore flowers!) and we all want your day to be magical. I think choosing a florist is a little like buying a house, if you get a good vibe in the first meeting/contact then they are the one for you. Yes price can be a factor to consider, but it’s also important to have that connection. The florist is going to be interpreting what’s in your head, it’s so important your on the same page and that neither side has any niggling doubts.
If you’ve ever had the chance to visit Wasing Park you will know it has a certain elegance of its own. You don’t need to do loads to it to make this venue shine and there are no areas you need to hide! Louise opted for simple rose petal runners and lanterns for her ceremony. Romance, romance, romance! The more candles the better!
Tables were a simple affair but totally gorgeous with it. 5 jars each held a beautiful posy of flowers and throughout we scattered silver tea light holders just to make everything sparkle. Louise provided her own jars so the flowers could be given away as gifts for her guests. This is always one of my top tips because its so lovely for the flowers to be enjoyed that little bit longer and you’re guests will so appreciate the gesture.
“I just want to say a massive THANK YOU for the absolutely stunning flowers you did for us on Saturday. I actually can’t get over how perfect they were! We had so many compliments on how beautiful they are. We’ve brought them all home with us and our house is filled with them, it makes me so happy to be surrounded by them.
I’ll send you some pics when we get the official photos back, but it was just so wonderful, you and your team are incredibly talented and we can’t thank you enough!!!“
This week has been jam packed in the Parlour, with a total of 6 weddings leaving our doors over 3 days. I adored all the bouquets, but I have to say Laura's vintage rose wedding bouquet totally stole my heart. With the carte blanche brief of something of a grown-up but vintage nature, we blended rose after rose after rose to create her bouquet.
Laura married her boy Phil on Sunday at the Swan in Streatley and thank goodness the sun shone for there ceremony was taking place on the beautiful barge they have registered for weddings.
We often get asked if we have a minimum order for our wedding flowers, I know this is how some florists operate, but we wholeheartedly do not! Its so amazing to be part of a brides big day, however small. Basically we just totally adore making wedding flowers, from every bridal bouquet right through to church flowers and beyond.
Laura enlisted our help to create her bouquet, a bridesmaids bouquet, something cute for her bridesmaids to hold and the all important men's boutonnieres.
Laura's wedding was all about the DIY - she made the table flowers herself, there was a whole bevvy of helpers to decorate her village hall reception venue and there were the most darling cakes made by friends and family.
To recreate the vintage gown-up vibe of this bouquet, we blended a whole host of roses including Amnesia, Mentha, Safi, Old Dutch and Majolika roses. I love using herbs in wedding work and this bouquet smelt heavenly containing flowering mint, ammi majus, oregano, berried eucalytpus, rosemary and the most amazing sweet peas.
Laura's bridesmaids bouquet followed the vintage vibe with roses, sweet peas and scented herbs.
Watch this space for some pictures of our other creations
We were lucky enough to work with the super talented (and also very lovely) Hannah McClune back in May 2013. I know, its taken us forever to blog the amazing images she took of Tracey and Simon's big day, but, we're sure you'll agree they are worth the wait!
We know once you take a look at Hannah's images below you'll be hooked. As well as shooting fabulous weddings, she also takes baby portraits and family shots. Hannah's definately one to watch, after scooping the Wedding Industry Expert award for " Best new photographer, Berkshire" we're pretty sure she'll be on to even greater things in 2014.
The men wore succulent and herb buttonholes. Here's simon getting pinned, the succulent is the perfect match next to his charcoal/blue suit. I love playing with textures on buttonholes, for any regular readers of our blog you'll know I've done an extensive post on boutonniers ... get the lowdown here
Tracey's bouquet was filled with Sweet Avalanche roses, peonies, Majolika spray roses, scented eucalyptus, succulents and heavily scented sweet peas. Gorgeous soft pastel colours were chosen to compliment the flowers girl dresses. Each wore a different pastel tone from soft powder blue, through to pink and a subtle lilac. Beautiful!
I think you'll all agree, Hannah's photographs are wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing them with us. We're really looking forward to working with you again in 2014
Forget diets ... January is all about THE CAKE! We've been getting our Bake Off grove on, but I have to admit that our efforts are not a patch on these beauties above.
Style Me Pretty have done it again featuring my favourite wedding cake, possibly ever! Made by the super talented folks at Charm City Cakes (I've been browsing their site for at least 2 hours looking at all the deliciousness, its filled with tons of inspiration) and shot by Evelyn Alas Photography for a Peter Pan inspired photo shoot.
Get ready for your goldspiration wedding cake extravaganza ...
Ladies (and gentlemen of course), gold is going to be BIG in 2014! We'd love to know your latest trend watch for 2014, drop us a note below xx
Men, weddings and flowers.
There may be a few sweeping statements in this little blog post, and I know there are always a few occasions where people buck the trend, but generally men have little say in wedding flowers. I also know for most men its not always the most exciting topic when it comes to planning a wedding - food, yup I get that, drinks, suits, games, ties, table plans ... generally flowers come some way down their list. I'm not complaining, but I do like it when a groom wants to step away from the traditional rose buttonhole. I also love it when a groom says to hell with the bridal flowers, I want something unique thats going to match my suit ... so there!
Buttonhole inspiration is something we get asked about a lot, so we thought we'd take a few snaps of some more manly buttonholes to give you that lightbulb moment. I love all of the below for their texture, the fact that they are not too floral, and most importantly they are not massive!
Remember boys ... buttonholes don't have to be boring, they don't have to be floral and they certainly don't have to match everything else.
Hannah visited with her mother, Diane a few months ago to discuss all the flowers for Hannah's big day. Filling me in on all the details including lots of DIY bunting which would be hung throughout Ufton Court. I love setting up wedding flowers at Ufton Court, such an amazing venue and each wedding we do there is completely different! Hannah had chosen a colour palette of peach, blue and yellow, based around the amazing soft lemon bridesmaids dresses and her groom's love of cornflowers.
I admit it ... I am a complete David Austin rose-a-holic. This gorgeous Juliette rose is my absolute favourite, teamed with the soft blue delphiniums and deeper blue cornfowers, this is a bouquet I'm seriously considering for my wedding day!
I always feel a little uneasy uttering the word "carnation" but this soft peach Apple Tea carnation is perfect for weddings, just the right shade, not too orange and not too pink. I'm sure when I suggest it brides think I've completely lost the plot, but I hope you'll agree, its a stunning carnation.
Do you love Hannah's colour palette? Let us know what you think! xx
Red and gorgeous! Marshmallow Piano roses are my current new beau … they make my heart skip a few beats.
I’ve always wanted to use them in a bridal bouquet and finally I got my chance!
How happy we’re we when a beautiful bride asked us to create the wedding bouquet filled with berried ivy (delicious – although not when eaten) scented eucalyptus, the marshmallows aka Piano roses and Red Naomi roses.
Seriously romantic, seriously seasonal, seriously gorgeous.
More please!
Take a look at some more of our wedding work here: https://greenparlour.com/blog/category/wedding-flowers/
Emily and Paul came to see the Green Parlour wedding team over a year ago to start talking about all their ideas for wedding flowers.
Brides-to-be take note! we love brides who have an ideas book or 'look book' its great to start visualising ideas together and means that from the off we can start discussing the type of arrangements that will compliment everything from your dress to your venue. You don't even have to have images of flowers (that's kind of what we're here for!) but anything from your save the dates, to weddings that you've seen on all the amazing wedding blogs out there and magazines. Basically we want to see images of what YOU have fallen in love with.
Emily came to us with a book packed full of gorgeous glamourous, vintage images. Pearls were in abundance, with dusky roses, mercury glass tea lights, some quirky 'Mr and Mrs' letters and heaps full of 40's glamour. Heaven or what?
We designed the bouquet to reflect all these gorgeous ideas, with a slight country twist. The wedding bouquet contained soft Amnesia roses combined with Bombastic spray roses (queue the inevitable renditions of the song by Shaggy), scented ivory sweet peas, ivory Majolika spray roses, Upper Secret roses, subtle hints of eucalyptus and wired pearls, nestled between the flowers. The bouquet was bound in a ruched nude satin ribbon, with large pearls lining the length.
The reception was held at Warbrook House near Hook in Hampshire. Set in stunning grounds, Warbrook House was the perfect backdrop for the soft sage greens, vintage pink and ivory flowers we had planned. The reception room needed some height, each table centre was placed upon a tall lily vase with a country dome of flowers sitting on top. These stunning table centres filled with white delphiniums, Memory Lane and Amnesia roses, hydrangeas, eucalyptus and Bombastic spray roses, tied the whole theme together, adding a splash of Emily and Paul's day to Warbrook House.
The last little details make all the difference to a wedding ... we fell in love with Emily's signing tree (twigs and urn provided by Green Parlour) what a novel change from a guest book!
Zoë first contacted us almost a year ago to start thinking about the flowers for her wedding taking place in The Black Barn, Rushall Farm. The barn is stunning, set in the middle of the Berkshire countryside with fields as far as you can see. With this stunning backdrop, we took full inspiration from the barns surroundings when designing the bridal bouquet and table centres for the wedding.
Zoë's wedding bouquet was filled with English grown roses, scented stocks, sweet peas, lisianthus and hints of scented Baby Blue eucalyptus, it certainly smelt amazing!
Collections of old glass jars filled the long banqueting tables in The Black Barn, each filled with a miniature hand-tie of flowers. Queen Anne's Lace is complimented with scented stocks, English grown roses, garden sedum, alchemilla mollis, eucalyptus, mint and agapanthus to create these wild, garden inspired wedding table centres.
The final touches involved winding ivy and fairy lights around the rustic centre pillars in the barn.
Gorgeous
As soon as we had our first consultation with Samantha and Kevin way back in the deepest depths of winter, we knew this wedding would be right up our street! The brief: country elegance. The colours: creams, ivory and zesty green. The venue: Lodge Park a completely gorgeous National Trust property near Cheltenham. HEAVEN!
Samantha knew from the start that she'd love hydrangeas and peonies to feature heavily, and scent was important too. I'm such an advocate for splashing out a little more for a wedding bouquet with scent. Freesias have to be one of my favourites, their heady citrus scent instantly transports me to a tranquil holiday somewhere in the south of France.
With a rather regal entrance with stunning, uninterrupted views across the Chiltons, Lodge Park needed something to bring a splash of Samantha and Kevin's day to the venue for the ceremony. We toiled with heaps of ideas, but after much deliberation (and a sign from him upstairs) we decided on bay trees, decorated elegantly with white Avalanche roses.
I'm not a pedestal girl, I have never been convinced of their beauty. A vase filled with gorgeous spring and summer flowers ... great! A hefty black iron pedestal stand ... not my bag. Lodge Park needed something light, clear glass and plain unassuming plinths. Just perfect. We filled the vases with scented eucalyptus, white hydrangeas, peonies, viburnum opulus, white delphiniums, and white Avalanche roses in a simple hand tied arrangement, which complimented the stairway perfectly.
The venue: Lodge Park and The Bay Tree
The flowers: Avalanche and Snowflake spray roses, white delphiniums, white hydrangeas, white peonies, scented white freesias, viburnum opulus, scented eucalyptus and ivory stocks.
