Floral Inspiration

Another great blog I've come across recently is the lovely Style Me Pretty blog, and today I've been browsing through the Galleries section, which you can filter by categories my choice has been Flowers today to brighten up an otherwise fairly dull day!

Flowers can help to decorate and 'lift' your reception space. We had very tall glass vases with beautiful blooms in our chosen colour scheme with trailing ivy, and the water was tinted to match, which gave the whole marquee splashes of colour. And at the end of the day we gave the flowers to various guests so that they didn't go to waste.

Wedding Stationery Sussex

Susan Fowler Bouquet Preservation

When Mr LG & I married in April 2008 we had a wonderful display of spring flowers in shades of blue and lilac in tubs which we had planted specially for the occasion, as well as gorgeous tall table vase centrepieces which looked all the more stunning for the lilac coloured water in them. My bouquet was especially pretty with roses, scillia and other flowers following the blue/lilac theme. The day after the wedding I took the bouquet apart so that I could dry the more robust flowers but unfortunately the more delicate blooms were unsaveable. I wish I'd known about the service that Susan Fowler offers before our wedding as my dried roses are now rather sad looking!

I specialise in preserving any fresh flower, brides bouquet, buttonholes, corsages etc infact any flower from any memorable occasion. They are dismantled carefully then prepared for pressing, preserving and drying.  They take from 4-6 weeks to dry then after consultation with the client, are reassembled and laid on fabric backing of silk, satin, taffeta etc before being framed.  Variety of designs, new unique contemporary collage style available including the new “seaside theme” design.

NEW FREE SERVICE when you book preservation of your special flowers-PHOTO DIARY (on CD or by email) to show the flowers being dismantled ready for preserving so you can see what has happened to the flowers. Brides in particular love to see what was being done with their flowers whilst on honeymoon!

PRICES -from an affordable £90 upwards and smaller items such as paperweights (£25) are available.

TIMESCALE -I can preserve flowers up to approx 2 weeks old depending on condition. Even if a flower in a bouquet is going brown, it doesn't mean the rest of the flowers can't be saved.

DELIVERY/APPOINTMENTS- Simple no fuss advice on care and packing of the flowers before you send or deliver them to me. Local pick up can be arranged or you can if you wish deliver in person. If you post, it's easy...just send them by Royal Mail Special Delivery and I receive them the next day. Appointments available at lovely venues in Truro, St Austell and surrounding areas! View your preserved flowers or commission a special project in relaxed comfortable surroundings!

 Mob: 07799 160638

Hilltop Studio (By appointment only)

64 Currian Road

Nanpean

St Austell PL26 7YB 

Visit Susan's website to view her portolio, find her on Facebook, and follow her on Twitter. You can also email her direct.

Cute as a Button

Since giving up the day job last September to concentrate fully on my business I have become rather addicted to Twitter, as I think it may have been mentioned before! The wedding business is a particularly friendly and happy one to be involved in, and I have built up a solid base of both brides/grooms to be and other suppliers. Twitter is my 'office gossip' as well as being a support network and sometimes a sounding board for new ideas.

Emma Buzec was a bride to be when we connected on Twitter and has since started her own business and I'm very pleased to welcome her to the blog today with her alternative to the traditional flower bouquets and buttonholes.....

Cute as a Button was set up in March 2011. The idea was born from looking for ideas for my own 2012 wedding when I came across button bouquets on the internet and had my heart set on getting one. However, our wedding is being put together on a very small budget and I could not warrant spending so much on a bouquet - so I tried to forget all about it!

After quite a few discussions with friends, family and hubby to be, I decided I would try to make one myself. I tweeted photos of my progress and got some amazing feedback. Through tweeting I was contacted by another bride to be asking how much I would charge to make her a button bouquet - so that's how my first order came about!

I now have a website, Facebook page, and am of course on Twitter! I have had further orders, and one of our bridal bouquets was used in the catwalk show at A Most Curious Wedding Fair in Norwich this year. We had our first ever wedding fair stand at "Truly Vintage" wedding fair, Glemham Hall at the beginning of June.

 

Many thanks to Emma for sharing the story behind Cute as a Button with us and I wish her much success with her business. I had a beautiful fresh flower bouquet on my wedding day and have tried to preserve it as best I can but inevitably it will never look the same as it did on the day. Perhaps Mr LG and I should hold a renewal ceremony each year so that I can use all the new and exciting ideas that I keep coming across! 

Purple Princess

Yesterday I came across some photos of Princess Grace of Monaco which led me onto putting together this inspiration board full of princessy luxury ....

Wedding Gown - Madelineisaacjames.com

Bridesmaids Dress - 1950sdresses.co.uk

Tiara - Tantrumsandtiaras.org

Silk Invitation Box and Silk Favour Box - Lilguy.co.uk

Shoes - Queensandbowl.com

Flowers - Zaraflora.com

Cake - Cakecreationsbysarah.com

Bridesmaids Necklace - tiny-gems.co.uk

Bracelet and Earrings - chezbec.com

Rich Reds and Golds

To be able to do a job I love is a privilege and a pleasure, and it's taken me a while to really relax and enjoy myself - sounds strange? Perhaps, but after years of working for various companies in largely financial and administration roles, the fact that doing things like putting together inspiration boards is actually now part of my 'job' takes a bit of getting used to! I hope that somewhere along the line they help someone to have the wedding of their dreams. Today I have indulged my love of strong, rich colours.

Cupcake Tower from Cakes By Beth

Invitation from LilGuys Mhendi Range

Wedding Gown from Kekopean Stitches

Red Dress from My Evening Dress

Bouquet from Stylehive

Shoes from Crystal Couture

Styling from Sweet Days and Roses

Paris at night photo borrowed from Janey Butler's Facebook page!

Peacock Inspired Mood Board

Peacocks are spectacular show-offs and to see one with its tail feathers fully fanned out and the iridescent blues and greens glinting in the sunlight is breathtaking. I'm a lover of strong colours and couldn't resist putting together this mood board after seeing the simply gorgeous Peacock wedding dress on Archibald Photography's blog back in March.

Peacock Wedding Dress by Lindsay Fleming Couture Photography by Archibald Photography

Hat by Esemee Fascinators  Photography by John Farrar

Bedroom at Peacock Pavilions (where else?!)

Invitation by Lil'Guy Stationery

Bouquet by Sarah's Flowers

Cupcake Tower by Blue Door Bakery

Shoes by Jimmy Choo

Bridesmaid Dress by My Evening Dress

Jewellery by Julieann Beads

BareBlooms

Mrs LilGuys fills up our Sky + recorder with many different programs to do with weddings - apparently this is 'work' (much like all the wedding magazines piled up in her office!), and I must confess that for some obscure reason I do sometimes sit and watch them with her!. From all these programs it shows that there are very different budgets and very different priorities for each wedding. Some couples go overboard on the venue, some on the outfits and some on the flowers. Others prefer to cut back on one area to concentrate on another. We are incredibly lucky where we live in that we are surrounded by fields, hedgerows and footpaths which are filled with a great variety of wild flowers and greenery. We (Mrs LG!) planted loads of bulbs in advance of our home based wedding in 2008 and they still flower each year at more or less the right time in a burst of bluebells and other similar coloured blooms. Budget was priority for us in all areas, but we managed to have a lovely variety of flowers without breaking the bank, partly from our home grown blooms and partly because we are lucky enough to have a very good friend who is a florist.  Our guest today is Chloe Plester from BareBlooms with some advice and ideas on budget flowers for your big day........

I think the general trend at the moment for 'Vintage', 'Shabby Chic' and 'Homemade' is filtering into the floral trends, coupled with the state of the economy and everyone trying to save money, natural, home grown British flowers seem to be appearing more frequently then the over stylised imported exotic flowers. This trend is also environmentally friendly (which is a bonus) all great for anyone trying to save money!

So why not skip the florist (I am doing myself out of money here!) and arrange yourself or get friends and family to help? If you plan far enough in advance you could even get friends and family to help grow too? Or find a company such as BareBlooms that grow themselves or source locally from their (in the process of being formed) ‘Flower Cooperative’.

When working with flowers that have been grown locally and naturally in this country one really can't go wrong. The less fuss and arranging the better which is perfect for the 'do-it-yourself' wedding. My tips: - Take a walk along a native British Hedgerow for inspiration. Look how nature does it. This random informality with lots of greenery is what one is looking to replicate to achieve a natural look   Ideas for cheap table centres: - Check out junk shops, car boots, etc for old bottles and mustard jars. Or even recycle tin cans or jam jars, tied with pretty ribbon or jute twine. These make simple 'shabby chic' table centres. Their small size mean they are easily and cheaply filled with simple posies of sweet peas for example or other British garden flowers. In my opinion much prettier than formal oasis filled exotic blooms. Add some bunting to your hall and you have the perfect 'village fete' style reception, perfectly on trend at the moment. - You don't have to have cut flowers at all, how about a very simple pot with one of your favourite plants inside? Something simple and very English such as a native primrose or viola??

Many thanks to Chloe for sharing this budget buster with us.  You can contact her through her website as well as finding her on Facebook  and you can follow her on Twitter.