Elopement Wedding Flowers - the brave and the bold

“Many people spend more time in planning the wedding than they do in planning the marriage”

— Zig Ziglar

A marriage is between two people. Yourself and your love. Most people want to share this special event with family, friends, friends of family, family of friends – and anyone else who they may have bumped into on the bus.

But a brave few choose to escape the centre of attention and opt for an elopement wedding. The choice to elope may be for any number of reasons – diplomatic, financial, personal – but the result is a day that just focuses on the two that really matter.

I’m extremely fortunate to be a recommended supplier for a local award winning wedding venue here in North Devon that specialises in small, intimate and elopement weddings. With two stunning locations in which to get married in and tranquil settings to relax and spend a couple of days together in, it’s easy to see why people choose the elopement option.

The weddings may be small – but they are perfectly formed. All elements are there – the dress, the hair, the cake, the styling, the photographer – and the flowers.

When it come to the flowers, there is no matching of bridesmaid dresses, no centrepieces to plan around table settings and outlandish themes. More often than not it’s just a bridal bouquet and a buttonhole. This does not make it any less important, in fact the opposite. The wedding is so much more focused on the ‘two’  - so flower choices are so much more personal and central to the day.

I rarely get to meet the couple, planning is often at short notice. But with the power of email, Pinterest and occasionally the phone we can work together to create that perfect wedding bouquet for that very special day.

They say there is safety in numbers, so again I say it’s the brave few that will stand up there and declare their love to each other without the fanfare, frivolity or fuss. Just personal perfection.

Spring time wedding on the 'farm'

“In the Spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours”

— Mark Twain

Who doesn’t love spring? After the dark, cold wetness of winter we all love the fist glimpse of the sun, the first feeling of warmth and the first sighting of roadside daffodils. 

Spring flowers. They are just so god-dam cheerful. Bright cheery daffodils, bobbing bright tulips, scented hyacinths and the delicate ranunculous. What’s not to love. Put them altogether and they really are everyone’s favourite flowers.  

So take a bouquet of spring flowers, a sunny day, a beautiful ‘bride’ and (best of all) a cute four day old lamb and you get the happiest photoshoot ever! Or actually as we had the brilliant Katie on board it was the “best day ever”

Grace and Elegance supplied the bubbly smiling Katie with one of their beautiful bridal dresses. Wedding Belles and Isabella Grace worked their combined magic and produced pure gorgeousness. 

The Big Sheep were our hosts of the shoot and had built a brilliant straw and hay backdrop. The best.day.ever styling van turns up and like a Mary Poppins carpet bag, produces the most spot on props and styling. Add a good sprinkling of spring flowers and the result is the perfect setting for our star of the show: “Lottie the lamb”. He really was the most chilled out cuddly lamb ever. Stole the show with not a spot of lippy required.  

We were especially blessed to have Gavin Warland on board to capture all of this spring sensationalism.  

There's not a lot more I can say but just let these fabulous images do the talking.  

Should Pinterest or your personality shape your wedding?

“If you do not express your own original ideas, if you do not listen to your own being, you will have betrayed yourself”

— Rollo May

I love Pinterest, I waste many an hour browsing through pictures of .... well just about anything. From gardens to kids crafts, campervans to wedding bouquets. It's an amazing source of images and articles in an easy accessible form that can be organised and kept for future instant recap

I also use it lots when I'm meeting and speaking with brides to be. It's a perfect way to get across pictorially the bouquets they like, their style, theme and thinking behind the wedding.  

But is it realistic? Is it achievable? And rather than giving ideas is it not just copying others ideas rather than encouraging original thought?

Images on Pinterest are the 'best of the best'. A majority of them are taken by professional photographers during photo shoots where the lighting is perfect, the models are beautiful, the budgets are astronomical and it all comes together to make an amazing 'wow' image that we fall in love with. But do we stop and think how that image captured in Southern California, in near perfect weather after hours of set up, make up artists and photo editing will look when recreated in wet windy north Devon?

We all want a fairytale wedding with towering cakes, 5ft high floral arrangements and designer gowns but unless we have a real 'prince' charming to finance it we have to be more realistic. Of course there are some great budget conscious ideas on Pinterest but are they your ideas or someone else's? 

I'm often sent the same images from brides to be of wannabe bouquets, centrepieces and arches. So how unique is your one special day going to be if you are merely copying ideas of others. 

Does your intended really love burlap and bunting? Yes it creates a beautiful rustic charm, but does it truly reflect what you and your partner are really about? Does it show your own individuality? Does it reflect your personality?

Of course use Pinterest to capture those great ideas and photos. But make sure they are reflecting what you truly love rather than poster pin ups of the best.  

Take inspiration from other things around you. That garden you pass everyday on the way to work that always catches your eye, your favourite dress at the back of the wardrobe that doesn't fit any more, but you can't throw away because the colour is delicious. That restaurant you went to with your fiancé last year on holiday that you still talk about. All these things are a true reflection of you and your fiancés personalities and loves and they should help shape the wedding of your dreams.

After all, do you want your guests to come to your wedding and look at your set up and say 'lovely - it looks just like that picture I saw on Pinterest' or do you want them to take one look and say 'wow' that is so 'you'!

Six ways to make the most of Pinterest when planning your wedding:

1 Manage your expectations
We can all be guilty of champagne taste with a sparkling water budget. Keep your budget in mind when your start pinning images. And don't forget seasonality - peonies may look beautiful but are very expensive out of season. 

2. Leave room for own style and ideas
Upload your own images rather than just repinning other people's images. You can add a Pinterest option to your uploads direct from your photo library

3. Use non wedding related Pinterest boards
Variety is key. Take inspiration from other streams such as travel, interior design or fashion. 

4. Include your offline life
You do have an offline life don't you?! Do you and your partner have a shared interest in theatre or 80's music or even rugby? Try and incorporate these shared interests into your wedding to make it truly unique. 

5. Narrow it down
It's very easy to get carried away and find you have hundreds of images. You need to get strict and delete, delete, delete. Hone the images down to less than, say, twenty and then you will have a clear vision of what you are wanting to achieve

6. Stick to it
Once you have your board - stop pinning! Move on to planning and physically doing else there won't be a real wedding to enjoy!

The Friday Photograph - the One of Me

“Who sees the human face correctly: the photographer, the mirror or the painter?”

— Pablo Picasso

This week's Friday Photograph has been triggered by a blogger that I follow; Me and Orla. Sara is a real whizz when it comes to anything Instagram or photography related, and when she posted a blog a couple of weeks ago about 'putting yourself in the picture' it struck a chord. 

I am always more comfortable about sharing pictures of my flowers and letting them 'sell' the story and speak for themselves. But of course there is much more to 'Church Park Flowers' than just the flowers and I must show my face occasionally to show that, obviously, there are people behind the scenes squirrelling away - planting, weeding, watering, picking, creating and delivering. So....... Here I am! 

'Modelling' a bouquet and flower crown that I made for a recent wedding fayre, you can just about make me out. The flowers still take centre stage, but firstly I am more comfortable with that and actually they should be the focus!

The Friday Photograph - the First One.

“I like to challenge myself. I like to learn - so I like to try new things and try to keep growing.
”

— David Schwimmer

I have a long list of blogs to write. Some are just ideas, some for future use, some are drafted out and others as good as completed just waiting for the right time to post. But scheduling is something I have yet to master and I am acutely aware that this blog page seems a little neglected - a little forgotten - and it needs some attention, some content, some interest. So I have set myself a little challenge. A blog series called 'The Friday Photograph'

This will 'challenge' me on a number of levels and serve several purposes;

1) it ensures more regular and up to date posts. 

This is good for me and you. Hopefully for you it will give a greater insight into the world of Church Park Flowers. In return I hope to see what posts are popular, find out what people like and what people like to know.

2) it will help give me more confidence in my writing

Writing does not come naturally to me, by making myself regular pen something - albeit short - I hope to become more comfortable with the written prose

3) it will chart my planned improvement in photography 

Good images are essential on a website, and more so when illustrating a creative art such as floristry. I am determined to improve my photographic record of behind the scenes and 'front of house' images of Church Park Flowers. By putting them under a series heading it will be easier to map any progress made

So the First One is a picture I took last week of a spring arrangement I made for a couple of wedding fairs.

I really like how this arrangement turned out. The container is a copper footed urn found in a charity shop. Asymmetrical arrangements are on trend right now and I think they work so well with natural and seasonal flowers. The shape mirrors so well how these flowers and foliage would be found in the garden and hedgerows in early spring.

Narcissi, primroses tulips and ranunculus nestle in with foliage, twigs and even feathers to create a tableau of spring.

The photo is taken on my iPhone against the battered door of the workshop. The door may be 'distressed' but I like the rustic look it gives to the image.

So.... The gauntlet is down, I have started the Friday Photograph blog series. Let's see where it takes us.