December!

I cannot believe it is basically a month since I posted the last blog! I think its alot to do with twitter as one 'tweets'the blog gets over looked. Anyway last blog advertised the wreath workshops now this one is confirming the first one is tomorrow evening and then another three before the end of the week - we'll be wreathed out given there are still many to make up in the shop too.

Other news - a lovely winter wedding in Rye on Saturday with masses of 'gyp' and mistletoe, it was very pretty.

Hopefully there will be pics of the bride and groom soon as her dress was stunning.

Christmas Wreath Workshops

It's that time of year so put on your creative hat and enjoy making a welcoming wreath for your door. Be inspired by the images below and then call up to book - 01435 873984

Places are still available on Tuesday 6,Wednesday 7&14th December(but going fast!) costing £45 for 2 hours and includes all materials and refreshments.

Rye Wedding

What a wonderful day for a wedding and The George in Rye is such a lovely venue. The bride provided us with an eclectic mix of containers she had collected including a lemonade bottle, jugs, birdcage, perfume bottles to name a few. We filled them with pink and mauve flowers including tulips, ranunculas, hydrangea...the best thing is to see the pictures but please excuse any crates but the hotel were still setting the tables!

The bride just carried a simple bouquet of ivory tulips, photos of which I will post at a later date.

Corporate flowers

We had the pleasure of supplying flowers for the opening of a new shop in Tunbridge Wells last week. Its so nice to see an independant retailer start up in these difficult economic times, not that Sue Hill Handknits is a brand new business, it has had an on line presence and already supplies high end department stores globally. Sue Hill makes hand knitted cashmere and merino wool clothes for children along with a range of Liberty print items. Take a look when you are next on the Pantiles.

Wedding Fairs

Last weekend was a busy one with a wedding:

And two wedding fairs:

We decided to have various colours and styles to show:

But the colours which came through strong again were blue and purple.

September Wedding

A rather nice tale to go with the table settings at a recent wedding. The top table was named Central Park and all place names were stuck in apples as the groom had proposed on a trip to 'The Big Apple' - a nice touch and so personal which is what weddings should all be about.

Intimate wedding

Friday saw an intimate wedding ceremony, celebrations with family and friends to take place over the weekend.

The Bride and groom

We also did some flowers for a vintage fair and spent Sunday giving the shop a fresh lick of paint. It makes such a difference and gives the flowers a good back drop.

Weekend Away

We actually had last weekend away which was great but what did we do but visit 2 gardens and look at flowers! We went to The Lost Gardes of Heligan which has been on the 'to do list' since it was first restored some 21 years ago and it did not disappoint. The planting, glass houses and views are stunning and the sun came out.

The Walled Garden

A Splash of colour

Zingy Zinnia's amongst the veg

We also went to the much acclaimed 'Garden House' near Yelverton in Devon where the walled garden there was still full of colour set off beautifully amounst the ruins.

And just to finish off, a glimps of the sea.

July Wedding

To brighten up this dull day I thought I would transport you back to a warm summer wedding at the end of July as we now have the professional photo's, or at least some of them. So enjoy the cool creams, greens and white with the particularly lovely nigella:

Pew end

Bridesmaids

Brides bouquet

Table centre

Late Summer Wedding

September already, can you believe it! We have started the month with a lovely sunflower themed wedding which made such a great change from the norm although it still had that country feel with alchemilla, lisianthus and roses. The buttoholes were sunflowers too as were the cake flowers but I only managed to take a picture of the bridesmaides bouquet. Once again I will have to wait for the professionals to reveal more but for now:

Anniversary - 10 years

This week saw the 10 year anniversary for a resturant client of ours so to help them celebrate we created a culinary welcome wreath with sage, rosemary, mint, lavender, blackberries and ivy - here's to another 10 years!

We also had a wedding with calla lilies, dendrobium and roses which hopefully I will be able to show images of later in the year. I am sure there will be a whole gallery once the professional images start coming through.

Weekend weddings

Another busy weekend followed a busy week as we had the funeral of a well known lady, also a florist, in our village. We did numerous tributes, many containing iris as that was the ladies name. Talking of tributes I particularly liked this one we did for a 101 year old lady the other week.

Back to the weddings. I haven't posted pics of the one at the end of July which was blessed with beautiful weather befitting the marquee setting. The marquee incorporated espalier apple trees with fruit and just looked great. My photos do not do it justice so I will wait for the professional ones. But here are a couple of images.

Bridesmaids headdress

The Chapel

So finally to the weekend weddings - Saturday's was a very country style with that 'just picked' look with cornflower, feverfew, dill, thistle and lisianthus. The bridesmaids wore navy as they did on the Sunday wedding, a very popular colour this year as I have mentioned before. Again I will wait for the professional images but below is just a taste.

To end, here is a picture of one of my favourite bouquets so far this year.

And the buttonhole

An Average Florist!

What is an average florist? I pondered this question recently when I read a local grower quoting that they grew flowers ‘not commonly found in the average florist’. They listed astrantia, scabious, nigella and larkspur, well we stock all these regularly when they are in season along with others that customers have not seen before such as celosia and ereumus. So I guess that means we are not ‘an average florist’ which I am so pleased about as it saddens me emormously when you see a lot very basic florist shops when there are so many lovely things out there. End of rant and a couple images from weddings we have done with the type of flowers I like:

Fringe weddings

Last weekend we were involved on the fringes of 3 weddings! Firstly there was the village wedding who used the local flower guild but wanted us to do the thankyous. Secondly we provided the hair and buttonhole flowers in antique pinks for a local 2nd marriage.

Thirdly we had two seperate people contact us for the same low key wedding, the bride for a bouquet of roses and lisianthus and then a guest for the cake flowers as the artificial arrangement had turned up much too big for the cake - The Flower House to the rescue again!

And to finish this posting, a combo from home grown flowers:

Next posting will be of this weeks weddings and a previous ones 'official' photos.

Party,party!

It's definately that time of year as we hosted a 21st birthday tea party in our coffee shop this Saturday. It was a great start to the celebrations as the birthday girl was toasted with champaign after tea and cupcakes made by our regular cake maker Jenny of Timeless Tarts. The girls were then off to dinner and a swim (or the other way round)back home.

I am waiting for photos on that one as I am for the next party which was an evening do in an Indian themed marquee. The arrangements were simple, white calla lilies in tall vases, nothing too fussy so as not to interfere with the colourful interior. They also hired mirrors and tea lights to set the scene together with large plants to add to the ambiance.

The tables were not clothed when we arrived so again photos will have to come later.

The last 2 Sundays have just been great for a day off and I have taken advantage and enjoyed the garden. Last week I even sat in it and read the paper! The cut flowers, although not in great quantities, are thriving and the other halfs veg is diong pretty well too.

Have what you want!

This weekend brought another wedding and the bride was able to incorporate her love for sunflowers when they did not go with the overall colour scheme. The bridesmaids were in purple, as were the invites, table place settings and napkins so the flowers chosen for the bouquets and reception were lilac stocks, veronica, cool water roses, lilac wax and freesia:

The tables had a collection of 'vintage' vases with similar flowers but with a touch of yellow dotted here and there:

The pew ends (these are work in progress!) were along the same lines:

And then there was the arch - a 'sunny' welcome to all the guests. Fortunately the wind didn't play too much havoc with the weighty stems of sunflowers!

So you can have it all!

Weddings

Another week has passed and we are busy keeping in touch with future brides, checking all the final details. We also had a small wedding this Saturday which was very pretty with creams, ivory and a hint of blue. The bridesmaid was wearing navy blue which has proved very popular this year,we have four weddings with that colouring!

We also managed to pop over to The Wealden Times Summer Fair at High Halden which was great. I have wanted to go for the past couple of years but until we decided to close the shop at 1pm on a Saturday it has not been possible. It was well attended and sported a significant amount of 'shabby chic'ware but I did buy as I found some ideal vases for a wedding coming up later this month. I am sure they will feature in a future posting.

Summer Parties

Half term is always a funny week as you never know whether everyone will go way and therefore not be busy or the complete opposite. Well I would say it was somewhere inbetween, we were steady on the flower, plant and coffee front but it did seem to be the weekend for parties and all rather last minute!

We were asked to get in a selection of English Country Garden flowers for a 50th birthday celebration so we opted for scabious, cornflower, astrantia, stock, peony, larkspur and alchamilla, they looked beautiful, shame I didn't get a quick picture. If the customer sends us any images I will be sure to post them.

However I did manage to get the camera out for the next job. Another party where the customer had planned to do the flowers herself from her garden but felt she would loose too much colour if she cut from her garden. We put together posies of roses, alchamilla, astrantia and sweet peas in simple small hurrican vases.

And on mass