Hints & Tips
It can be difficult to know where to start and when to start thinking about your wedding flowers. We always recommend it’s worth having a chat with us about 6-8 months before your wedding date. By then you should have settled on a venue, the dress, a theme and colours so now is a good time to have an informal chat with the team.
Talk to Gemma
An initial meeting with myself Gemma will give you a starting point, ideas to think about and a good start deciding on your spending for your wedding flowers. We always say to our brides and Grooms you can change your mind and discuss as many options as often as you need to up until a week or two before your big day.
Always ask our opinion, we will be honest with you!
Be completely honest, tell us your likes and dislikes, we won’t be offended!
Tell us your budget if you have one – we will always try our best to ensure you get all that you would love to fit within your budget.
Always ask us for recommendations – people forget we work within the wedding industry almost all year round so we see many companies, network with many suppliers and see most aspects of many couples wedding days.
Your wedding flowers
We always recommend you try and make use of flowers in more than one place, moving arrangements from the ceremony onto the reception. This can help with budgets and may enable you to have something extra you didn’t think you could afford.
Who to buy buttonholes for? Where do you stop?… Start with the main bridal party first, perhaps the chaps you are supplying suits for. The Groom, best men, Ushers, Dads. After that it’s up to you but these things can bump up your final bill.
If you choose to collect your flowers from us, make sure it’s been made clear to you how to look after your flowers from the collection to the wedding.
Always check your travel and transport arrangements with our team. Remember we specialise is the safe transport of your flowers. We don’t have a problem with you collecting your flowers but sometimes this is more hassle than it’s worth.
If you choose to marry in a church and wish to have flowers, check with the church first that they are happy for us to do this.
Hand-over any contacts you may have for areas that require flowers, i.e. hair, cake, church, venues ect. This is always helpful if we need to contact them for any queries without bothering you.
Let us know about any allergies,
i.e. hay fever.
Once you have chosen your venue it’s always worth jotting down a few details if you would like flowers, i.e. ceiling height, are there any window sills, fireplaces, how many guests at each table, table shape, how many are seated on the top table…etc
If you have chosen a marquee the stability of the flooring can have a lot of influence over the choice of container for your flowers.
Keep the consultation numbers to a minimum, it can be distracting for you if you bring a lot of people with you and can sometimes be a bit over-whelming when making decisions.
These hints and tips should enable you to come and see our team with a better understanding of your wedding flowers and the queries that might crop up in the run up to your day. Don’t feel you have to make all your decisions in your first consultation; there is plenty of opportunity to have a second or third with your wedding florist.
Where to get help for ideas…
Our online web gallery
Our portfolios, other people weddings give the best ideas because you can see what’s already been done.
Bridal magazines, but be careful don’t read too many, it all gets a bit too much!Colour card swatches, try making a mood board and showing us, this can not only get the creative juices flowing but are also a fun way of putting your wedding ideas together.
Seasonal Flowers
Spring
Tulips, Muscari, Anemones, Cornflower, Lily of the Valley, Hyacinths, Iris, Daffodils, Ranunculus, Bluebells, Lilac, Brodea
Summer
Agapanthus, Alchemilla Mollis, Amaranthus, Antirrhinum(snap dragons), Astrantia, Astilbe, Bouvardia, Aster (end of summer), Delphiniums, Dahlia, Gentian, Gladioli, Hydrangea, Local sunflowers, Sweet peas, Stocks, Herbs, Nigella, Peonies (may-until end July), Scabious, Veronica, Viburnum
Autumn
Asclepias, Oak, Aster (beginning of Autumn), Carthamus, Crocosmia, Local sunflowers, Kniphofia (red hot poker), contorted willow and hazel, Physalis (Chinese lantern), Pussy willow, Rose hips, Snow berries
Winter
Berries, Hydrangea (more winter, rusty colours), Hippeastrum (amaryllis), Hyacinths (end of winter), Iris (end of winter), solidors, paperwhites, Malus, Berries, contorted willow and hazel, Pussy willow, rose hips
Good all year
The majority of flowers can be sourced all year round now due to polly tunnels and special heating. Prices vary throughout the year and can change as much as every week. Roses, Germini, Anthuriums, Carnations, September flowers, Orchids, Eryngium Thistle, Lisianthus, Freesia, Sunflowers (not local, just Dutch), Lilies, Spray roses, Zantandesia (calla lily), Hypericum berries, Ferns, Foliage and grasses
Notes
Some flowers cross over seasons and some will have a shorter season then others depending on the weather that year. This is especially important if you require local flowers for your wedding, the weather has a huge impact on the availability throughout the year.
Colour Trends throughout the Seasons
Spring has shown a huge rise in the use of locally grown flowers, brides are becoming increasingly aware of the costs to local flowers and flowers that have travelled. We source as much local as possible and the colours available can create the nicest of atmospheric weddings. When choosing a specific season as a theme for your wedding brides have thrown out tradition and gone for all the colours and flowers choices available at that time.
Spring is the perfect season to do this; it can be fun, creative and colourful. Spring is also a popular time for the colour blue as there are some really delicate flowers in these colours at this time.
Summer is a hugely popular time for vintage; every bride can take this theme down a different route. This could be rustic vintage; punk vintage, 20's, 30's and 60's are good eras to get plenty of inspiration from. The most popular is the country garden, Kath Kidston style with stunning blooms of roses, peonies, mixed herbs, plenty of scent and large blossoming flowers. Summer is the best time for all of those pastel shades, soft colourings and also the muted metallic vintage colours.
Autumn is the start of a complete change in our weather but also in the colourings and textures around us. Autumn weddings are becoming increasingly popular as there is no stress put upon yourselves for perfect weather on your day, but what is perfect weather?! Autumn can bring that beautiful crisp and fresh feeling, clearer air and lovely fresh air smells. This is a great season for lots of different shapes in flowers, lots of texture and shades of oranges, reds, rusty colours and fresh yellows.
Winter weddings can be a romantic time of year to get married, many couples choose to go down this route but often forget that with Christmas cropping up at this time of year flower costs can rocket. It might be romantic but can be costly. It's lovely to make the most of your foliages at this time, we have many couples that seem to limit themselves in winter and associate this time of year with red, and they stop there!
Again, winter is full of textures with berries, holly, textured foliage like pine, spruce and soft ferns and rich smells like cinnamon and pinecones. We have enjoyed making more use of the smells at this time in using fruit, limes and oranges, cranberries and crab apples. Running on a more romantic theme in winter using whites, this can look absolutely stunning, fresh and delicate. A really up-lifting colour in cold months.