Hello all. As promised, I'm bringing you the wedding of Rachel and Ali who have chosen their venue as Hartington Hall, nr Buxton in the gorgeous Peak District. Hartington is now a Youth Hostel, but don't let that fool you - it's rural loveliness is complemented by the most gorgeous halls, reception rooms and snugs.
As you can see, not quite the YHA experience I've had in the past!
I came to work with Rachel through one of her closest friends, Nicola, of Perfect Finish. Nic and I met at my first wedding fayre and immediately hit it off, she was really friendly and lovely to me as I was a little bit nervous to start with. We then bumped into each other at a second wedding fayre, where she saw my little jug table arrangements and told me that they would be perfect for her friend Rachel.
So, after a quick email exchange, Nic ordered 6 table arrangements on Rachel's behalf. A couple of days later I bought all the jugs (just in case - I hate it when someone orders something and then you can't get them during the crazy wedding season!). A couple of months later, Nic asked if I could add three bridesmaids posies, a wand and some buttonholes to the order! Again, we had a bit of an email exchange and then Nic came to see me to pay the deposit. In all this time, I still hadn't met Rachel - something I've never done before and whilst I trusted Nic as the perfect intermediary, I just didn't feel comfortable designing flowers for someone I'd never met. The relationship I have with my Brides is incredibly important to me. I have a very clear picture in my head of how a design is going to look, but it is essential to meet someone and go through the consultation process, in order to accurately convey any ideas to a Bride who isn't, after all, a florist! So we met up and talked over the plans she had for her wedding.
Now I have a theory that there are only three degrees of separation in Sheffield - and Rachel's wedding proved this to me! It transpired that her divine dress is from Chloe at The White Room, her fabulous heirloom bouquet is by Debbie Carlisle of DC Bouquets and her hair is by the lovely Dani at Wigs & Warpaint. All of us are part of Chloe's 'Wedding Mafia' - suppliers she considers offer wedding excellence to Brides in Sheffield. When I told Rachel, she was delighted and said how wonderful it was to know that everyone who she had chosen was really good (her words!).
During the consultation, Rachel told me that she hates pink and wanted the table arrangements to be natural, just-picked designs in whites, creams and greens. I suggested adding soft greys in the form of brunia albifloria to the arrangements which would work beautifully with the platinum details of her dress and the crystals of her bouquet. The Bridesmaids would be wearing simple dresses of ivory, so I suggested adding an element of colour by introducing the soft, ethereal blues-grey tones of lavender and bluebells - eucalyptus provided a perfect link to the greys and blues.
Here are the designs I made, which had to be all packed up for travelling yesterday as the wedding is today, Saturday 19th May ...
Three pretty, dainty little bridesmaid's bouquets, finished with lovely grey raffia
A close-up of the bridesmaid's bouquet - I used lavender, scilla (bluebell), wax flower, astrantia, roses, achelmilla mollis, rununculus and eucalyptus
A cute little wand for the Flower Girl
Ladies' buttonholes were pretty little sprigs of bluebell, lavender, tiny white roses, ranunculus buds and eucalyptus - finished with a tie of grey raffia
The Mens' buttonholes were 'Avalanche rose', lavender and eucalyptus
The designs looked so pretty together, I couldn't resist a styled shot!
A detail shot of those gorgeous colours
The table decorations also included ammi and bear grass for more volume. Ammi really likes to be in water so, whilst beautiful, doesn't lend itself very well to buttonholes
Nearly all packaged up!
I made Rachel a little present of a 'throwing bouquet' - Debbie's heirloom bouquets are just too much like works of art to be lobbed across a room!
That's it! It was really lovely wedding to work and and I can't wait to see the 'official photographs' - they will be incredible I'm sure.
Congratulations and the best of everything to Rachel & Ali.
Tx
PS: If you like what you see - do let me know (in fact let me know if you don't like what you see!) it's just great to get feedback and your opinions.
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