eco flowers Birmingham

As a gardener, I’m always looking forwards and anticipating the flowers, the jobs and the bunches which are yet to come.  Ordering next season’s dahlia tubers is already top of my to do list, and my fridge is full of potential, in the form of carefully ordered seed packets, filed by sowing month in various tins and containers.

But as a florist, I’m can’t resist the temptation to look back at the last growing year, and re-visiting the happy weddings and lovely bunches which have emerged from my workshop over the past 12 months.

British cut flowers for a spring DIY wedding, Birmingham I started the year with a DIY wedding in oranges, reds and yellows at the Burlington Hotel in Birmingham City Centre and still remember the feeling of mild panic when faced with a dug up road blocked by barriers and a parked digger in between me and the venue on delivery day!  But these lovely cheery colours and the scent of Sweet Williams made it safely to Leanne and Oystein, who’d organised their wedding from Norway.  These buckets of DIY flowers were ably mustered into table flowers and bouquets by their many willing friends and family.

tipi wedding at Alcott Weddings

English rose bridal bouquet for Alcott Weddings tipi weddingI’ve done several weddings this year at Alcott Weddings – a rural venue in Worcestershire, which is perfect for festival style celebrations where I have encountered the snazziest marquees and tipis ever!  I loved the tipi chosen by Yan and Amy for their big day and was impressed by the jam jars for the tables, fashioned from my DIY buckets by Amy’s mum.  I’m always pleased when I get to do June weddings because they’re the perfect stage for English roses to do their very beautiful thing, and they smell like summer heaven too – fell in love with the small but perfectly formed bouquets for the bride and bridesmaid, made with frothy Aruncus and scented ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ English roses.

early summer flowers for weddings in the UKRoses and pastels were the order of the day for several of my brides – Chrissy came to see me wanting something physically light and relatively small, with her beloved roses  echoing the detail on her wedding dress. I had lots of fun with blooms from my newly planted 2015 roses  trying out ideas for her. If you’d told me (even when I first saw it burst bud) that I’d fall for the  coffee-coloured ‘Julia’s Rose’, you’d have had a very quizzical look thrown your way.  But I don’t think I’ve got it in me to hold out against the charms of any flower, and fall I did, especially when I tried it in a bunch. The scabious which accompany them in the pic (right)  belie the ugliness of their name, and have proved  stellar performers this year – indeed a few are still bravely flowering in the garden as I type.  Chrissy loved her bouquet of simple September cosmos, roses and gypsophila, with a smaller version being carried by her daughter, Mia.

Blue and yellow bridal bouquet using British grown flowers. Tuckshop Flowers, Birmingham, for a wedding at Wethele Manor, Worcestershire.
September. A colourful, relaxed bride’s bouquet for a late summer wedding at Wethele Manor, Worcestershire.

Winning the prize for loveliest photos were Alexa and Ben, whose beer festival themed wedding at Wethele Manor looked like so much fun!  (Wedding photography by Paul Goode).  It’s so nice to look back at those cheerful colours amidst the current drab weather and know that however far away it seems right now, summer will eventually return.

So many lovely couples await in 2016, and I sense a whole lot of Pinterest coming on!

 

 

 

 

 

Glancing back at 2015

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