Wedding me!

I have been unbelievably remiss about putting up some of the stunning photos which the fantastic Simon at Lockeyear Photography was kind enough to email me during the summer. It's so wonderful to get some professional photos of weddings, since my photography skills leave a lot to be desired. Simon and I got chatting whilst I set up the wedding flowers and he took photos of the build up to the ceremony. He really put everyone at their ease in the stressful last few moments while annoying florists buzzed about, waiters polished glasses, the band set up and the pressure was on! It's great to have a photographer who isn't intrusive, but instead subtly captures the great moments of your day. After all, it's your wedding day, not a photo shoot! Check out his lovely photos, and then check out his fab website http://www.wedding.me.uk/

Happy days are here again

Greetings all. Just a little post with a lovely photo and some kind words from the wonderful Julie. Look at her amazing wedding dress! She had a sweet bouquet of garden flowers with lots of delicious scented herbs in, and she's just sent me this lovely note:

"I had the most wonderful wedding, the day was absolutely brilliant and I wanted to thank you for the beautiful bouquets that you created for Jessica and myself. They were just exquisite and complimented our dresses perfectly. Everybody commented on them and I have enclosed a photo of Terry and myself with my bouquet taking pride of place! Thankyou again, you are a star!"

Hooray!

Season of mists

Apologies for being so turbo-lazy (if such a state is possible) about updating photos. Basically it's because I have so many to put up that I have been dreading the amount of time it's going to take. However, it's pouring with rain, and I've hurt my back, so that means there is no excuse but to sit down with a cuppa and have a super mega upload fest. It's either this or doing the laundry. Exactly...

Simple September Celebrations.

Two weddings this weekend, and two very relaxed brides whose only demand was 'whatever you have in the garden'. Well, the garden is now a barren wasteland, but the weddings looked great!

Bridal bouquet

From the hedgerow!

An autumnal buttonhole for every guest

Simple, cheerful and chic.

Boxed up and ready to rumble.

Greeting guests at the entrance.

A corsage for the mother of the Groom

Boogaloo

No photos today, just a suggestion that you try this at your wedding. It certainly beats 'here comes the bride'.

The sun will come out...tomorrow

I don't know about you but I'm feeling all autumnal. Maybe it's the changing light in the evenings, or the colours of the flowers, the hedgerows full of berries and rosehips, the slight chill to the evening breeze, or the TOTAL COMPLETE LACK OF ANY SORT OF SUMMER WHATSOEVER. Thanks Met office, for raising our hopes, and then dashing them on the...cruel shore of...fact? Anway. Just as I gave myself totally over to autumn, started making jam like a loon, bought some new wellies (totally awesome, there will be pictures) and generally started setting store for winter, the blistering sun has come out. Too late sun. Too late...

So here are some photos to show that the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness is spilling over into the colour scheme of my flower arrangements. Some lovely little centrepieces for a late summer/early autumn wedding.

In other flowery news I got an absolutely lovely letter from the gorgeous Emma, whose wedding I did at the end of July (wow time has flown!) saying lots of nice thing about Rebecca Frere Flowers, so I thought I'd toot the auld horn and put it up here for all to see, toot toot:

Dear Rebecca,

I just wanted to say thank you for the flowers you provided for our wedding on Saturday 25th of July. The flowers were exactly what I wanted and the centrepieces were stunning. The guests were especially happy when we played a game with them that meant the winners would take home the vases; guests were fighting over them!

I was so pleased with the service I received, and it makes such a difference to have a friendly and helpful person such as you to assist the bride through such a hectic time!

Kind regards, Emma.

Hooray! She was really kind and enclosed a stunning photo of herself and her lovely bridesmaids with their flowers, which sadly I can't reproduce here, so I've put up a photo of the fab (though willful, as I believe I mentioned) gerberas she chose as her wedding flowers. Somehow a mass of ivory gerberas manage to be chic, simple and cool all at the same time, which is quite a feat for one flower. Emma's idea of giving the away the centrepieces as presents (or prizes, in her case, which sounds like fun!) is really great, because it means no wasted flowers, less money spent on thank you presents, and lots of people getting to enjoy the flowers for days and days, rather than just a few hours at a reception. Eco friendly, budget conscious. Brilliant.

1001 ways with a teapot

The garden is literally groaning under the weight of all the lovely flowers at the moment, so much so that I'm actually running out of containers to put them in. Above you see the rather sweet results, since I have resorted to teapots and biscuit tins. I think this sort of thing looks great as a centrepiece for an informal, or sort of bohemian, wedding.

Pinky and Perky

Some more photos of last weekend's wedding, since you can never have too much pink, or so they say. A mixture of pink wildflowers, waxflower, eucalyptus, Majolika spray roses and...I think the rose is called Heaven, I can't remember now! Agh how quickly the wedding season turns one's brain to porridge...

Similarly different

My My My Dahlia

Weddings ahoy. Feast your eyes on some bouquets, centrepieces and other dainty trifles.

Wedding fever

Well there's only one way to describe the state of my garden after two weeks away and that is 'seven shades of mental'. To say things have 'shot up' is a bit like saying 'I suppose I quite like cake', i.e. a powerful understatement. If only someone would have a weed-themed wedding then my ship would have come in. Here's hoping. I spent all afternoon weeding, and once I'd finished I stepped back to admire my hard work.....it looked exactly the same. Blast! I think the weeds grow faster than I can take them out. Anyway, amongst the weeds are oodles of cornflowers, stock, sweet peas, amaranthus, zinnias, dianthus and other treats for the discerning weeder.

Show me a florist who says that, on the morning of a wedding, they get up at a respectable hour, have a proper breakfast and the calmly get into their pre-loaded van, having checked everything off their check list, and I will show you a liar. It doesn't matter how well prepared you are, wedding mornings involve: getting up at an hour previously undiscovered by humankind, finding that at least one arrangement/type of flower has drooped/fallen over/gone purple overnight, you've run out of ribbon even though it was RIGHT THERE!, all the stuff doesn't fit in the van, it fits but you can't find your keys, you realise you've lost the directions to the venue, you rush out without breakfast and eat an entire packet of choccie biscuits in the car on the way while you get stuck in a traffic jam the length of the Great Wall of China, whilst the maid of honour calls you every twenty minutes just to 'check on your progress'. And YET, at the end of the day, somehow, it all gets done, everything looks beautiful, the bride looks beautiful, and you can go home and worry about that packet of biscuits...

Here are some photos of today's wedding in Dartford. If I ever work with gerberas again I give you permission to kick me in the face. Wilful flowers, gerberas...