Classic Wedding Flowers - Gardenia

Gardenia is a Classic Wedding flower that deserves a bit of attention. An amazing shape with a perfect spiraling centre, they are a creamy white shade and look as if they could almost be made out of porcelain. As well as being incredibly pretty they also have the most wonderful scent. So if fragrance is your thing these unsung heros really should be on your wish list.

They grow on shrubby bushes and so tend to have shortish stems. This means they will often need to wired to be incorporated into your bouquet and because they are quite delicate you're better off leaving these sort of bouquets to the professionals.

That said, they make an amazing hand tied bouquet. You could use them en masse, head to head in a round bouquet, or in a dome shape, softened with a few tufts of foliage around the base to frame.

If you like a stronger, clean look try mixing them with groups of other cream and ivory flowers like peonies, garden roses, and lily of the valley. Grouped clusters of flowers create a neat modern style - always a good option if you don't like fussy or frilly.

Don't be afraid to use greenery in your bouquet because it can make all the difference and it would be a crime to waste their beautiful glossy leaves. Your florist will know how to best to use foliage to set off your flowers.

Personally, I think Gardenia look their best when they're given a little room to breathe, so that each individual flower can be admired in all its glory. Greenery can provide that visual space. See how above, gardenia leaves are used to break up the bouquet, and tufts of fern add movement and soft texture. 

To create interest while still sticking to a mostly ivory colour-way you could mix in silvery greys like textural round Brunia and soft Dusty Miller leaves. I like how the black Vaccinium berries in the top image tie in with the black ribbon wrap on the handle, and love the discrete decorative touch that the Cameo brooch adds.

Keeping things soft and subtle, one way to give the traditional ivory bouquet a little twist is to use a hint of colour. Blush shades like apricot, peach or pale dusky pinks are pretty and understated. Try flowers like Dahlia, Peony, and garden style roses like those by David Austen.

You can even carry the colour through and have the bouquet bound in a co-ordinating satin ribbon. Fasten with a pretty vintage brooch, or ask your florist to incorporate some gems, or special jewellery into the bouquet. This can be a nice way to include a meaningful memento from a loved one.

Another great thing about Gardenia, because they're so light and flat they're perfect for using in your hair, a la Billy Holiday, and they make the most lovely scented corsages. Wear on your wrist or hair and you'll get wafts of gorgeousness all day long.

Images: All my wedding flowers, bouquet-bouquet, martha stewart weddings, mary claire crow.com, the brides cafe, brillliantblooms.blogspot, bouquet-bouquet, dmagazine, ?, iloveswmag, bhldn

Classic Wedding Flowers - Lily of the Valley

A firm favourite of both Hollywood and British Royalty, Lily of the Valley was the flower of choice for the classically beautiful Grace Kelly when she married her prince and last year was used by our own fairytale princess Kate Middleton for her dainty bouquet. 

In honour of Will and Kate just having celebrated their 1st Wedding Anniversary, I thought it only right to shine the spotlight on this little gem and run through some of the different ways you can use Lily of the Valley in your wedding.  

As a hand-tied bouquet its so sweet. This simple style really shows how delicate and exquisite the flowers are.

• A simple posy of 30-50 stems is helped by foliage used through the bouquet to separate and add oomph. 

• Bigger bunches of 100+ stems are fab with the lily's own leaves framing the flowers. 

• Add glamourous details like ivory satin ribbons pinned with antique brooches or cameos.

Kate's shower bouquet (top) used Hyacinth pips and Lily of the valley along with Myrtle, and Ivy all of which would have had to have been individually wired.  This sort of bouquet requires great skill and time to create and prices tend to reflect that.

If you're keen to recreate this royal beauty, bear in mind that out of season they can be extortionately expensive for such a tiny flower and because they are so dainty you need quite a few stems to achieve a similar effect. 

Worth it though, I'd say.  

Alternatively you could always use a few mixed with other seasonal flowers like frilly sweet peas, with trailing fritillary, or dotted through a handtie of peonies.

Be warned though, that with other larger flowers they can get overshadowed, so to avoid this ask your florist to arrange a grouped bouquet, or use them in clusters throughout to add texture and of course a wonderful scent.

• For table decorations use them in little glass jars, sparkly mercurised silver votives, or antique crystal wine glasses. 

• For a little novelty diy pierce plastic cups, thread with ribbon and secure before filling with flowers and hanging from pew ends or chair backs or wherever takes your fancy. 

• Or you could have a go at making a wire heart. Using pliable thick wire available from hobby stores and more than likely your local florist, bind a few stems at a time with reel wire to your outline shape until all the wire is covered. Make a wire loop or hook for hanging or attach with a ribbon. 

It is worth noting, if you are planning to prep any of the flowers yourself, that as with a lot of the most delicate flowers, they do have a short life as a cut flower and are best conditioned by the experts, kept in water and not bought or used too far in advance. 

Are you thinking about using Lily of the Valley in your bouquet, or perhaps you used it for your wedding flowers? It'd be interesting to hear what you make of this little flower. 

Pop back next week for more classic wedding flowers when I'll be chatting all things Hydrangea.

Ta ta for now x

Images from here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

Which roses for the blushing bride?

Blush shades have been a bit of an obsession of mine lately (see also "peachy keen" and "peaches and cream") and it seems I'm not alone. Personally, I think its just the prettiest way to work a hint of colour into an otherwise fairly neutral theme.

These beautiful roses are called Talea. They are a pale creamy blush with warm peach tones that radiate from within their tightly wound spirals.  In fact their colour is kind of hard to pin down. They're a bit of a chameleon as they take on different tones when put with other colours, which means they're incredibly versatile.

With whites, creams, greens, and silvery grey foliage they appear fresh and elegant. They work wonders with warm russety reds, oranges and corals as they have that underlying peachyness. And because their base colour is a sort of flesh tone they're also lovely combined with pinks.  Raspberry, plums and berry shades would be my recommendation.  

If your colour inspiration starts with peach, raspberry, plum, chocolate browns, sage or olive greens, Talea roses would definitely be worth a look. If you're not sure what type of roses would complement a vintage theme, dress or bridesmaids dresses in any of the above colours, this could be the rose for you.

If you're in need of more blush inspiration pop over to pinterest. There's lots more lovely stuff on my wedding inspiration board and I've just started a wedding cake board too. (I must be hungry!) You can follow me here and there to keep up to date with latest finds. 

Ta ta for now x

Peachy keen

I've never really thought of myself as a particularly girly girl, but being a florist has really taught me to appreciate the beauty of subtlety.

First there were dusky pinks, then blush and now, I am officially in love with peach. I love it with lime greens, (in fact I love pretty much anything with lime greens) its great with chocolate browns too, gives them a little pep.

This is a twist on a bouquet I made for a wedding fair recently. At the end of the day it was snaffled in exchange for a box of cupcakes before I even had the chance to photograph it!

I wanted to make something with a loose and wild feel. The original had Jasmine too.

Here I've used a combination of Ranunculus, the most dreamy flower, Astrantia, limey green Guelder Rose and Alchemila.

Oh and the rose you see below, is Vendella. I spoke about this in the last post. It looks more peachy here.

I have a new found fondness for ribbons too and bows. God I AM girly! I'm not sure what this one is, its not lace, its sort of cottony, is it crochet? Whatever, I thought it worked.

Village Fete Wedding Rock n'rolls on and on

The table centres and bridal flowers I put together for this village fete wedding appeared on Rock My Wedding this week, twice! 

I may have harped on about it previously here and here, but now you can see more pics and steal plenty of ideas for your summer wedding here and here. Such a lovely couple and a great day, be inspired by all their nifty, thrifty ideas.