Claire & John - Lovely Lavender, Music Sheets and a Rickshaw!

Hello again all

It's great to be back with another of our wonderful weddings featuring very special members of the Campbell's 'family' - Claire & John who married recently at The Hospitium in York. This is fast becoming one of my favourite venues to decorate - not only because of it's stunning location in the heart of the Museum Gardens and it's amazing historical heritage, but because the people there are just the nicest to work with and simply can't do enough for you!

I met Claire some while ago when she happened to be in Sheffield (they live in York) and we just hit it off straight away.  When she told me she was getting to the wedding by rickshaw, I just knew I was going to love all her plans! Claire adores deep rich purple and wanted to incorporate this colour into an otherwise very simple and neutral colour palette.  Her gown (which actually changed!) was white and she planned to accent this with either a sash (which you'll see is what she ultimately chose) or some kind of purple inlay or petticoat.  She also searched for and found the most incredible pair of gorgeous purple velvet pumps complete with adorable bows!

Although Claire and John both have a connection with the University, they both sing too and so this was going to be a really important feature of the day - with Claire making little cones from music sheets, she had the cutest containers for their natural grown confetti (purple of course)!  Other personal, musical details included little paper hearts, again from music sheets, a choir, a cellist - with even the Bride and the Groom singing at different times of the ceremony too.

During our initial consultation, Claire told me that she absolutely loves flowers but didn't want to blow her budget on blooms alone so I suggested fluffy, dreamy clouds of gypsophila highlighted with sweet scented Yorkshire lavender. She loved the idea and left her consultation delighted at how we'd managed to find a way to create pretty, pretty designs without breaking the bank!

Here are some really totally gorgeous shots by fabulous photographer, Shelley of Toast of Leeds. My thanks to her for giving me permission to use them ...

Clare found this pretty little vintage brooch to add the finishing touches to her bouquet

We designed two medium sized bouquets for the adult bridesmaid and a mini version for the flower girl - who looks just adorable in a photo further on!

Just brilliant!

 

... see, adorable!

Everyone just loved the scent!

I've only featured just a tiny selection of their fabulous photos - if you'd like to see more, then pop over to Shelley's blog of Clare and John's day - the pictures really do tell the story!

I do hope you've enjoyed this wonderful wedding and that it's maybe given you some ideas and inspiration for your day too - that's the idea!

If you're wondering about how you'd go about designing your wedding flowers, then pop over to our website where you'll find our downloadable pdfs at  Wedding Hints and Tips on all kinds of themes like seasonality, budgets and what to expect from a wedding consultation.  Hope you find them helpful.

We'll be back very soon with more pretties for you

But until then, enjoy

Tracey x

If you need more help with choosing your wedding flowers or are looking for inspiration, you can find lots of pics and information here:-

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A Wedding Event with a Difference

Hello lovelies

Well I have to say it's been a crazy couple of weeks with so much going on our flowery feet have barely touched the workroom floor! With Amy about to whizz off on maternity leave (don't fear she'll be back in the Spring time, easing her way back into Campbell's by sharing her time between our crazy flowery world and the intensity of motherhood and new borns - bless!)  I'm spending a few days in York with the Running Bear (as he's known in our house!) as he joins those crazy, but admirable 26+ milers in the first Yorkshire Marathon.  We're planning on spending a couple of extra days in York with some friends, mooching around and generally relaxing, so I thought I'd schedule this little post in the meantime.

So, last Sunday was our first experience of Save the Date's Wedding Event with a Difference - and what a fantastically different day it was too.  Amy and I had spent quite a lot of time planning our stand, thinking about the day itself and liaising with the lovely Abbi to make sure we did ourselves proud! Having recently completed a gorgeous barn wedding which used fresh hops, we decided we wanted to convey a sense of our very natural rustic style to everyone and so incorporated them into our stand.  As they'd started drying, they were incredibly messy to deal with but once we'd hung our little glass baubles in amongst them - they looked lovely and, happily, we had some amazing comments about them too!

Abbi and I had talked way before the event about the idea of doing a little seminar type workshop event and I suggested the pro's and con's of DIY Flowers with a little demonstration.  I was really pleased to see that quite a few people were interested in what I had to say and had lots of questions at the end which was fab.  Nothing worse than a dem followed by tumbleweed and no-one interacting! We've more plans with the lovely Save the Date ladies in the near future, we'll be updating you very soon!

Here are a couple of the designs I demonstrated ....

And these are a few more designs we put together - it's always a bit of a struggle to get across the wealth of ideas that you have and the infinite possibilities (I've always thought that the only limitations in floristry are your imagination!) but obviously we don't want to be too out there, prettiness does after all rule here at HQ!

It was truly wonderful meeting so many brides at this special event and just brilliant to meet up with old friends and make lots of new ones too.  A big hello to Karen from Darby & Joan who we were happily next to and who it was so fab to see once again - nip over to her site if you're looking for vintage loveliness - her stand was truly gorgeous!

Right, I'm off up Mam Tor with the hounds, the girls and the old boy and Amy's sorting her life out before that small bundle of loveliness arrives!

See you all soon

Tracey & Amy x

If you need more help with choosing your wedding flowers or are looking for inspiration, you can find lots of pics and information here:-

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Royal Opening of University Technical College Sheffield

We were really proud to be asked to design arrangements for the grand and official opening of the brand new University Technical College here in Sheffield, this week, by His Royal Highness (HRH) The Duke of Gloucester KG GVCO.

Readers of the blog will know that this isn't the first time we've been asked to design for a royal visit, when we were lucky enough to create floral arrangements during a visit by The Princess Royal to Sheffield earlier this year.

This time we were asked to decorate the brand new and very high tech UTC building which is extremely modern and quite geometric in its architecture. During a site visit, we discussed the brief in detail with our client and discovered that their logo uses predominately blue. We suggested using blues and white to create a strong colour contrast and to complement the very clean, white walls surrounding the designs.  It was decided to place a large scale pedestal design at the bottom of the stairs in the foyer where students and staff would congregate to meet and greet the Royal visitor.  In addition, we placed two long and low designs on the window ledges in the area the Duke of Gloucester was to unveil the specially designed plaque.

It was a real pleasure working with such a great new client and we really enjoyed designing for such a prestigious occasion too, as you can imagine!

Well, that's all we have for today, but we'll be with you again very soon with an update on how we got on at our latest wedding fair - the very fabulous Save the Date's Wedding Event with a Difference.

See you soon

Tracey

If you need more help with flowers for any occasion or are looking for inspiration, you can find lots of pics and information here:-

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Kelly & Matthew - The Botanical Gardens, Beautiful Flower Girls & the family hound!

Hello all

It's been a while since we've featured a wedding from one of our lovely Campbell's couples and so I'm really delighted to bring you this pretty, pretty wedding featuring Kelly & Matthew who were married at the end of May in my favourite place in Sheffield, The Botanical Gardens.

When I met Kelly she was really keen on using delicate, seasonal blooms in a really simple, stylish colour palette of pure white. Her vision was of a day full of 1930's glamour - classic, vintage and full of natural blooms with just a little greenery. In a nutshell - romantic, understated and elegant.

We decided on a hand tied, posy-style bouquet with a soft, 'just picked' look - not too large as Kelly is really slim and her gown (wait 'til you see the photos later) was stunningly simple with a wonderful back detail.  We decided on lily of the valley - just because it is so special and only available for such a short time and smells absolutely divine, white stocks (again for scent), green bell, white peonies and white gypsophila.  I also suggested finishing the stems with a band of pearls.  Kelly was so delighted with this idea during out consultation that she went all goosey and excited!

As the reception was to be held at the wonderfully historic Cutlers Hall, Kelly decided to collect little antique and vintage glass bottles and tiny vases which we filled with gorgeous pure white blooms such a white lilac, stocks, gypsophila, white peonies etc - the collective scent was just heavenly!

Here are a few shots I took ...

A close up of that gorgeous seasonal white lilac

The pearl handle detail that Kelly loved

Matthew's buttonhole with that sweet smelling lily of the valley

Buttonholes all ready to go ...

Corsages for the Mums, complete with magnets

The cutest little gyp bunches and floral crowns for the little flower girls - Kelly measured them for me first to make sure they fitted just right on the day!

At the weekend I was lucky enough to meet the very lovely Sarah of Key Reflections Photography who was Kelly and Matthew's photographer on the day and she's kindly sent me lots of gorgeous pics of the day - you can see for yourself how gorgeous everything was ...

Wow! How lovely, just beautiful ... and that dress!

I hope you've loved reading all about Kelly & Matthew's day and that together we've given you some inspiration for your special day too. 

So, what kind of florals suit you and your personality?  Stylish simplicity? Muted soft tones?  Or muti-coloured brights?  You can be sure whatever you love, we'll love it too!

We've added some of the lovely photos our brides have sent us  and updated our website with a few of this year's beautiful weddings.  Pop over to our Wedding flowers which is packed full of flowery inspiration.

Right, I'm off to create lots of pretties for this weekend's wedding fair Event with a Difference ... exciting!

Tracey x

If you need flowery help, guidance and inspiration, you can also find us on ...

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