Natalie and Karl - A Gretna Green Wedding

Natalie first met Lottie and I at a wedding fayre in February, when she told us that she and Karl had booked to get married in Gretna Green on 2nd May this year. She loved our wedding flowers and was really keen to have a wedding consultation with us, but was a little concerned about the logistics of travelling with flowers up to the Scottish border and how that would all work.  I assured her that this could all be done quite simply and that I had carefully packaged up wedding flowers to travel to the Lake District, Manchester and more locally, in Derbyshire.  So we booked an appointment.

During our first consultation, Natalie endeared herself to me immediately as, being the Mum and lovely lady she is, she talked in detail about everyone in the Bridal party including her daughters, her partner, her close relatives  and the needs of all the other guests - before herself!

I showed Natalie my portfolio and some magazines I had and she felt, initially, that she wanted a very simple bouquet of all ivory roses to enhance her gorgeous asymmetric, full-length, ivory dress  - embellished with lovely corsage-style roses.  Her two daughters were to be bridesmaids.  Her eldest, grown-up bridesmaid would be wearing a to-the-knee dress of ivory silk with a gold bodice and her youngest daughter, Morgan, would be wearing an ivory dress with a gold organza skirt overlay, finished with a gold sash.

Natalie went away and had a think and then bought a copy of Wedding Flowers Magazine and saw a design of soft muted blushes which inspired her to finally decide upon a combination of 'Sandstorm', 'Vendella', 'Avalanche' and 'Amnesia' roses.  I loved her idea and talked through the final details until we were both really pleased and excited with the designs.

Here is what we came up with:-

Natalie's bouquet which was so delicate and lovely

The binding point was concealed with a lovely satin ribbon and secured with pearl-headed pins

Morgan's bouquet was an exact replica of her Mums, but just a little smaller and with the addition of gold satin ribbon trails

A close-up shot of the gorgeous roses

Natalie wanted a vintage-inspired, simple wrist corsage for her chief bridesmaid, made onto stylish ribbon.  I used a large 'Avalanche' rose, a smaller 'Vendella' rose, together with sprigs of hebe and eucalyptus for texture

The guests' buttonholes were a simple 'Avalanche' rose, hebe and eucalyptus for the men and a double buttonhole of 'Avalanche' and 'Vendella' roses for the women

I made two wreath table arrangements, which Natalie gave to the 'Mums' as thank you presents -complete with hurricane lamps and church candles

I really loved working with Natalie, who adored her flowers so much so that she shed a few happy tears when she came to collect them.  Before I tell you the full story, I thought you should know that she sent me an email just about a hour ago entitled 'Mr & Mrs Smith' which said:-

"Hi Tracey

Just thought I'd send a picture from last night, we had an absolutely magical day, the flowers were perfect!

The table decorations were loved by the Mums as I knew they would.

I'll get you some other photos together

Many thanks again

Natalie and Karl"

All's well that ends well as they say - but I have to admit to a particularly sleepless night one night because of those roses. The eagle-eyed florists amongst you might have spotted that the roses I used weren't exactly the ones I ordered.  Truth be told, I ordered them, they came and they weren't of a quality that I would expect to use for my Brides.  So I got cross, in fact I got very cross - which is not something I do very often at all.  My supplier got a serious telling off! As a result, I lost a day out of my carefully planned schedule and I raced around every wholesaler I could to try and get my hands on 'best quality' roses.  

I got them (obviously) but they weren't the exact varieties Natalie had agreed upon and they were really, really tight and I wanted them open! Cue me moving them around my house into warm spots to try and encourage them to open - I had some them in the sunshine in the garden, some in the downstairs bathroom (with the underfloor heating on), some in my bedroom in the sunshine and with a fan heater on and some in the cool passageway with no lights on!!! 

My efforts were more than rewarded when I saw how much Natalie loved her flowers - which was all the more poignant as she had had an awful few days.  Following their wedding in Gretna Green, Natalie and Karl had organised a huge party at the Sheffield Ski Village on Friday.  As some of you might know, it was burnt down last weekend, leaving them without a venue at very short notice.  

They contacted local radio station Hallam FM and the The Sheffield Star and were eventually inundated with offers from lots of really caring local companies. I'm happy to say they have an alternative venue at the Magna Centre organised and all in place now but my heart went out to Natalie, having to not only find time to go to the offices of the various media to make the appeals, but having to rearrange everything from the catering to the music to the entertainment.

I'm sure they will have a fantastic evening tomorrow night - in the meantime here's the photo Natalie sent me: -

I will update you all when I hear from Natalie after their honeymoon.  

If you have had any wedding disaster stories which had a happy ending, I'd love to hear them. 

Tx