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Read MorePastel Peony Wedding Flowers
It's almost peony season again and as I'm writing a few quotes for pastel weddings I thought I'd blog about another great wedding from last year.
The lovely Joanne and Ewan tied the knot at Sloans in Glasgow city centre. Joanne's bouquet was a romantic pastel beauty full of soft tones and blousey blooms. I used peonies, scented stocks, white nigella (also known as "love in a mist", white alliums, astilbe and atrantia to create a gorgeous whispy hand tied bouquet.
Another favourite ingredient used was blushing bride protea which had a gorgeous colour and soft curve to it. When I was researching blushing bride proteas I discovered that apparently French Huguenots farmers would approach their girlfriends with this flower in their lapels when about to ask for their hand in marriage. The name "blushing bride" derives from the fact that the suitor's intention was apparent to all who met him, much to the embarrassment of his bride to be. The deeper the pink colour the more serious the intentions of the suitor.
For a luxurious and ethereal twist I used hand died heirloom silk to finish the bouquets which was so light it caught the wind beautifully in her photos. I love using this delicate trailing material to finish bouquets and it's perfect for this style of wedding.
In Joanne's hair I made a pastel comb and her bridesmaids and flower girls had matching posies and flower wands. Ewan is a little allergic to flowers so I made a succulent based buttonhole which toned in really well with their muted colour palette - and of course I had to add some blushing bride too!
Photos by Zoe Alexandra Photography
Gold, Teal and Hot Pink Geometric Wedding
It's been sunny for the past couple of days and I've started to see signs that spring is around the corner with snowdrops and even crocuses peaking through despite the January gloom. It's making me think of some of one of my favourite spring weddings of last year at Sloans in Glasgow city centre.
The bride, Aimee, is an amazingly talented dress designer (she was even making her own dress!) and it was great working with her brief of clean lines, geometric shapes and a punchy combo of colours: hot pink, teal and gold.
To create her look I used sprayed gold craspedia (also known as billy buttons), eucalyptus and succulents for the bluey green shades, and a mixture of pink roses. I liked the way the craspedia and succulents had the clean lines and geometric shapes she was looking for and I teamed them with bouvardia, ranunculas (one of my favourite spring blooms) and hypericum berries to give a great textured look to the bouquet.
For the buttonholes I used succulents and craspedia died gold which looked great against Michael's teal tweed jacket. In the venue Aimee had dip dyed glass vases in teal and I filled them with hot pink spring flowers. It was a really unusual, fresh look perfect for Spring!
Photography: Lauren McGlynn
A riot of colour - Martha and Craig (and Dotty)
Often flowers are one of the final elements to be chosen for a wedding so when Martha approached me to do her wedding flowers and said she wanted me to set the tone for everything else I was over the moon. Martha and Craig were a dream couple to work with, they were so relaxed and laid back and gave me complete creative freedom with their flowers, fitting in the other decor elements to the designs we came up with at our first meeting. They weren't afraid to try something different, to be bold with colour and design choices, and the result was a riot of colour and fun!
Bridal Party Flowers
Martha didn't want a formal or traditional wedding so instead of a bridal bouquet she opted for a bespoke headpiece and matching wrist corsage. Dotty, her pug, was not left out and I created a fun floral corsage for her to wear at the wedding too! The buttonholes included succulents, craspedia, and strawflower among other materials to fit with the bright and colourful theme of the wedding.
Decor
Because they were getting married at the Woodside Warehouse in Glasgow they effectively had a blank canvas and were keen to fill the unusual space with colour and fun florals. Martha's mum is a textile designer so we combined her striking prints with bold Mexican fiesta colours for the flowers, using lots of funky textures with elements like succulents, leucospermum and craspedia to give an exotic fun feel. Martha is a baker so we filled treacle and golden syrup tins with summer wildflowers and created a foliage table runner dotted with mini succulents.
The ceremony space was dominated by an amazing hanging backdrop of colourful paper cranes that Martha had spent many months making so to complement this we dotted around arrangements of Scottish grown summer flowers such as dahlias, cosmos and poppies in Martha's collected syrup tins.
Next door in the bar area I created a flower wall mixed in with Polaroids of Martha's friend's and family to fill the white walls with a wave of colour.
Govanhill Baths Photoshoot
Earlier this year I organised a styled shoot in Glasgow’s iconic Govanhill Baths which was then featured in the Sunday Herald magazine. I’ve been meaning to blog about it since then but this being the wedding season time seems to be flying by! One of my goals this year was to take part in more styled shoots as it’s a great way to collaborate and meet with other creatively minded suppliers and set your own creative briefs.
I’d been looking for a location to do a shoot in for a while and wanted to shoot flowers in an unusual context so the idea grew from then. I was inspired after watching a vimeo documentary about the occupation of the Baths in which there were some kids holding a banner saying “let democracy bloom”. From there the idea blossomed.
Govan is one of the most diverse communities in Glasgow and the Govanhill Baths was a key service where people from all different backgrounds mixed. Apart from the pools themselves, there was a steamie and slipper baths which were crucial services to the local community who often lived in housing that didn’t have these amenities.
It’s been 15 years since the Baths were closed, and they provided such a key service for the community there was a huge outcry when the council tried to shut them. There was an occupation for several weeks and after the supporters were forcibly evicted, the building was left to ruin. Now the Govanhill Baths Community Trust has been formed and some initial funding has been granted by the Heritage Lottery Fund to restore it to its former glory.
The way the community mobilised around the Baths and the things the building came to represent really inspired me, so having done a site visit with photographer extraordinaire Chantal from The Gibsons I knew it would be a really special project. Many of the original features of the baths are still present and although some areas are pretty run down and we had to dodge a few dead pigeons, you can really imagine what the Baths would have been like in their heyday.
With this being the year of Architecture, and the annual Doors Open Day festival about to start, it seems like re-imagining and resuscitating modern ruins is in the popular consciousness, with projects like St Peter’s Seminary / Hinterland taking place earlier in the year.
For the shoot I wanted to go for a 1920s/30s faded Gatsby glamour look, and the brilliant Natasha from Lovedeluxe Lingerie provided some great piece for our model, Maddy, to wear. Cat Robertson did a great job on make-up, managing to match the lip colour to the flowers in my bouquet perfectly! And Laura Slaven represented Anne Marie McElroy creating a great 20s style wave in Maddy’s hair.
For the flowers I wanted to create something that seemed full of the rich opulence of the 1920s Gatsby era but gone a bit wild and to seed (like the Baths themselves), so I included rich jewel tones and even an airplant as a focal element to the bouquet.
Other pieces included an installation in one of the overflow areas of the pool, a flapper headband, which would make a great substitute for a flower crown, and a statement necklace of succulents and celosia. The piece de resistance however was a swim cap created entirely from fresh flowers like artificial ones popular in the 20s and 30s.
The video that initially inspired me is on Vimeo and called United We Swim and the details of the other suppliers are:
Images: The Gibsons
Make Up: Cat Robertson MUA
Hair: Laura Slaven for Anne Marie McElroy
Wardrobe: Lovedeluxe Lingerie
Venue: Govanhill Baths
Peony Problems
When talking to brides at consultations or at recent wedding fairs in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Stirling, the word “peony” has loomed large. Undoubtedly a beautiful flower, and one of the most popular luxury wedding flowers, many brides have their hearts set on this bloom for their wedding bouquet. Unfortunately, as with many beautiful ephemeral things, it has a very short season, making it all the more precious. Its peak season falls between April and June, but this year I have seen beautiful peonies at the flower market from early March, and last year there were peonies well into July. They go hand in hand with blousey full-bloomed roses to give a sense of stately home elegance and they have an amazing heady scent.
This beautiful flower is full of diva-like habits and can strike fear into the heart of many florists as they are notoriously capricious. Often a number of stems per wrap will never open at all, despite the ministrations of panicking florists equipped with warm water and hairdryers. Other times they will unfurl their taffeta skirts all too soon and be ready to dance before the day of the wedding. Because of this your florist might over order the number of peonies needed so they will have enough usable stems.
That said, they are definitely the stars of the show in a bouquet, the prima ballerina of any arrangement, despite their Victorian flower meaning of “bashfulness”. So it is always difficult when a bride full of enthusiasm for peonies then reveals her wedding date is out of peony season. However all is not lost, there are many alternatives to peonies which work well in natural, classic and rustic bouquets at other times of year. Perhaps the first step is to think about what it is about the peony that charms you.
If it is the big headed round shape consider using Ranunculus or double tulips in spring. You might also like David Austin roses for their ruffles and spirals of petals. Or if you love the scent, try something like Matthiola to capture the perfume of summer. Whatever it is that attracts you, there are plenty of alternatives out there.
