Hooray for the magical, fragrant narcissi from the Isles of Scilly! Produced by family growers in the open air, there are a huge number of varieties, all with surprisingly different perfumes. They’re normally available from late winter to the end of spring. There were loads at the market this morning – despite the cold and drizzle outside, they made me feel that, finally, spring is on its way.
I don’t think I have to say anything, really. How absolutely perfect are these nerines? They’re in season now and are completely magical! The bright pink ones above were used for all the bridesmaids (and buttonholes too) and the fantastic combination of white cymbidium orchids and nerines below was for Emma’s gorgeous bridal bouquet.
Well, I think there’s no denying it. Pink flowers are completely and utterly gorgeous. And pink peonies and roses are just about as good as it gets. For this summery wedding, Stem used an abundance of marshmallow pink ‘Sarah Bernhardt’ and lipstick pink ‘Dr. Fleming’ peonies throughout Beauberry House. Then there were the armfuls of delicate pink and fragrant ‘Sweet Avalanche’ roses and romantic, lacy ammi. Ooh, and tiny-leaved variegated ivy just to finish things off.
I love the simple groupings of flowers on the tables which were made a little more fancy with Stem’s posh silver-leaf votives! And the newly painted pink wall in the Entrance Hall was zingingly complemented with loads of peonies, roses and acid green molucella (that’s Bells of Ireland to you and me) in a grown-up not grannyish pedestal display. Little details, like the floating peony heads up the stairs with sparkling wire, make everything feel just a little more thought out and special. A stunning, beautiful, romantic, sexy collection of blooms!
In fact, it was bucketing down with rain for alot of Easter Saturday but Stem Flowers brought the gorgeous fragrance and uplifting colour of Spring inside with (English) sun-yellow narcissi, purpley-blue hyacinths, and old-lady’s-p0wder-puff-pink lisianthus.
Vases filled with Tete-a-Tete narcissi and yellow pansies not only made a simple but beautiful mantelpiece display but also provided plantable gifts for the guests to take home.
The White Room at Beauberry House was filled with prettiness and had the whimsical feel of Miss Marple’s local tea-room!
“Apart from the vows, the flowers are the most important part of my day” said my bride when I first met her. No pressure, then! This wedding was a real challenge for me because I knew how vital it was to get things right. Not because Emily had outrageous demands but because getting the colours and textures spot-on were fundamental to making a massive, creative impact. Oh, and the flowers needed to be individual, distinctive and un-weddingy….
I have to say that I absolutely adore the combination of flowers and foliage we decided upon. Magenta dendrobium orchids, intensly blue ‘Volkerfrieden’ delphiniums, deep cerise ‘Milano’ and garnet red ‘Grand Prix’ roses literally popped out of lush green flowering mint and zinging green bupleurum. And the little details of red and pink satin ribbons on the bouquets, or the red pail for the flower girl, just added to the slightly quirky impact of the flowers. Completely gorgeous!
Beauberry House is a very beautiful venue and a fabulous backdrop for gorgeous flowers so the absolute abundance we had really did the job of bringing colour and excitement to every room. A wonderfully riotous and (not so) random selection of vessels and flowers adorned every availabe windowsill, table, mantelpiece and loo with everything coming together in an enormous expolsion of foliage and blooms in a contemporary Entrance Hall pedestal. The two olive trees at the main doors didn’t get away with staying as they were – red and pink ribbons were candy-striped down the trunks and complementary kalanchoe plants were crammed around the bottom of each. A rather exhausting day for stem flowers, I have to say, but there’s nothing so good as knowing that a venue looks fantastic and that the bride and groom love what you’ve done!
I spent this morning dressing Beauberry House with flowers in preparation for a Wedding TV filming session. Guess what – I love doing things like that! The house is going to be featured in a guide to fabulous wedding venues. I think there’s some kind of competitive edge to it in that one venue will ultimately be crowned as the best place to get married in any particular region. My gorgeous ‘Ruby Red’ and ‘Tyler’ gerberas looked suitably lush in the restaurant where I had a bit of fun with funky pink wire too. Just as I was leaving, wonderful Oleia (she who runs that place so brilliantly) told me that the BBC were also pitching up this afternoon to film a programme for BBC3! Could stem flowers have a future on the box….?
Posted in life at stem flowers
Tagged bright flowers, colourful wire, lily vases, South London
