FEATURED WEDDING - AMY AND JAMES LYALL

This weeks blog post is the first (of many I hope) featured wedding. This is a very special wedding to me as Amy is a very good friend of mine, we spent four years together at uni and I'm so happy she is my first featured Bride...

On August the 3rd 2012, in the most beautiful picture postcard church in South Gloucestershire, Amy married James... the wonderful man in her life.

During our consultation Amy was very keen on a blue colour scheme to complement the beautiful richness of the bridesmaids dresses. Blue can be such a difficult colour to get right as far as flowers can go... To begin with there aren't that many true blue blooms, secondly those that are, are the wrong form for handheld posy bouquets brides traditionally carry down the aisle. Things like Consolida (Larkspur) and Delphiniums are too tall for such uses. As this was going to be a summer wedding I decided to go forward with Hydrangea 'Verena blue' as the main blue component... As you can see it is the most beautiful shade of pale blue, just perfect against the blue of her Bridesmaids. I teamed this with Akito Roses and Freesia 'Crystal River', with a little gentle foliage in the form of soft Ruscus. This formed the basis of the design.

Amy wanted a traditional trailing bouquet... something a little more special compared to the very in vogue posy bouquet. As you can see the flower choice worked beautifully. This was a modern take on the more traditional shower bouquet that the lovely Brides of the 80's carried... It was completely packed with flowers, very structured, almost more of a teardrop bouquet. These bouquets look beautiful with fuller wedding dresses... the perfect complement to Amy's stunning dress. Her two Bridesmaids carried handtied posy bouquets and her adorable flower girl carried a pomander of the same combination...

Aside from the bouquets and buttonholes we also provided tablecentre arrangements for the gorgeous reception at Eastwood Park. For these we decided on a romantic candle arrangement. We grouped different sized candles and surrounded these with Hydrangea florets, groupings of Roses, Freesias and double Eustoma Rosita White, broken up with the silvery foliage of Eucalyptus Cinnerea and more soft Ruscus... very pretty... don't you think? It was a shame we were unable to light the candles in these arrangements as it would have looked stunning but Health and Safety is Health and Safety and better to be safe than sorry!

The cake was a real treat... Amy wanted it full of flowers to make a real feature of it. The top was structured using a teeny tiny floral foam disc and flowers literally spilled out of it. Each layer was then crammed with more Hydrangea florets, more Roses and more Freesia with some stunning unfurled Eustoma, making an appearance...

To top it all we included a pedestal arrangement that decorated both the church and the venue. We used even more of the same and included some very elegant 'White Heaven' Lilies to make a big bold statement, a showy display that sat proud at the front of the church and in the reception venue!

I hope you agree with me when I say what a pretty wedding this was... If you keep the flower choice simple you can't really go wrong. I could have used Delphiniums and other blue, line form flowers in the pedestal but I feel this would have taken away from the beauty of the blue Verena Hydrangea. That was the star of this wedding design and I'm so pleased to report that Mr and Mrs Lyall thought so too!

For a better look at the wedding and a little more insight into the overall look of the floral design please do have a look at this wonderful video, just click on the following link... Amy and James Lyall 

With thanks to:

• The wonderful video shot, edited and produced by Andrew McCabe. Do take a look at his other work. A truly talented man, all details to contact him found on my website!
• The beautiful photography by the super talented Caroline at  Bristol Wedding Photographic her website is full or gorgeous images and well worth a look!