Amaryllis

Seasonal corporate arrangement with Amaryllis, Protea and Carnation.

The container is wrapped with willow sticks tied together with bullion wire.

Fragrant Christmas wreath

My Christmas door wreath, lovingly constructed on a traditional moss ring at great expense to my poor hands.

No bling, no bows, just fragrant blue spruce and eucalyptus and a few berries.

Rose & Protea bridal bouquet

Hand tied bridal bouquet of 'Sweet Avalanche' Roses, Protea, Hypericum, Pittosporum and Eucalyptus.

The Crown Inn at Amersham

Over the weekend it was my absolute pleasure to attend the wedding of our friends Ali and Chris at The Crown Inn in Amersham. The Crown is a delightful old coaching inn that featured in Four Weddings and a Funeral. You might remember it as the setting for the scene where Hugh Grant cosies up to Andie Mcdowell. It has since been exquisitely restyled by interior designer Ilse Crawford with Farrow and Ball colours, Welsh wool blankets, Ercol chairs and vintage radios combining to delicious effect to create a warm, welcoming and soothingly simple interior.

It was so lovely to relax and enjoy a wedding where I wasn't running around worrying about the flowers and the Crown was not only a perfect venue for an intimate informal wedding, it was also a lovely place for a romantic weekend break.

I could go on and on about the delicious food, the crisp white linen, the sumptuos beds, the chic bathrooms etc... but maybe I'll just show you a few more pictures instead and let you make up your own mind.

Roses & Calla lilies

Just back from the wholesalers with flowers for this weekend's wedding this weekend. These will be mixed with rich orange 'Cherry Brandy' roses and Ilex berries.

Grand Prix bouquet

Grand Prix roses for today's bride.

What to wear on your head when you wed is a much debated topic in the world of blogging brides. For me it was a beautiful Butler and Wilson crystal flower hairpiece which I fell in love with and designed my entire wedding "look" around, but rarely have I seen anything with the sheer show-stopping glamour of this stunning vintage inspired piece by Stephanie Browne Australia.

I loved Peony's what to wear on your head post over on A Practical Wedding but I loved her post about why when it came down to it she decided not to wear a veil even more. When wedding planning starts to spiral out of control and you start to obsess about details so much that you lose sight of what matters, sometimes you just have to take a step back and remember what it's all really about.

Autumn country wedding

In a few weeks time I will be doing the flowers for the wedding of Claire and Michael who are getting married at the beautiful Callow Hall in Derbyshire.

Claire has chosen a colour scheme incorporating rich autumnal shades of orange. I'm really excited about some of the ideas we've discussed and can't wait to see how the flowers turn out. Here's a moodboard I put together to work from.

Photo credits
Dress: David Fielden
Venue: Callow Hall
Arrangement of orange and white roses with mango calla lilies by CM Designs
I wasn't able to find the original credit for the calla bridal bouquet. If it's yours please let me know so I can credit you.

Willow wreath

I re-enrolled at college last month to continue my floristry studies with an advanced course focusing on contemporary and European design. For the first few weeks we have been having fun creating willow frames and other structures.

I really enjoyed creating this piece. My aim was to create lots of movement in the design with the overall effect soft, loose and flowing.

Vintage vase

Leftover roses and hydrangeas in a vintage Sylvac vase.

Sitting pretty

Did I mention that I'm not a huge fan of autumn? One of the few things I do however love about this time of year is the desire it unleashes in me to go shopping for new winter boots, especially if the shoe store is as pretty as this new Camper store opening on Regent Street later this month.

The design concept for the store features an installation and bouquet chairs made of folded tissue paper by Tokujin Yoshioka. And lets face it shoe shopping can be hard work, so why wouldn't you want to take a moment or two to relax and sink into a soft cushion of petals whilst pondering whether to opt for ankle boots or knee length this season.

via Dezeen

Calla Lily, Rose & Freesia wedding

A few images from today's wedding. The bride chose white roses, calla lilies and freesia for her bouquet. I always love green and white as a floral colour scheme. The two colours look so fresh, simple and elegant together.

Florist shop windows - No. 2

The Garden Room Florist - Porlock, Somerset.

Woodland Posy

Grouped woodland posy with white roses, 'Anastasia Green' chrysanths, carnations and ivy.

My other obsession

Scandinavian glass vases - my other obsession.

Long before I became a florist I had already acquired a huge collection of these.

Here are a few of my favourite pieces, mostly from the 60s. I love 60s and mid-century modern design. My favourites change from time to time as I find new pieces in junk shops or on ebay and sell old ones on. They look great when grouped together and most pieces are still relatively inexpensive, so it's possible to build up a decent collection without spending a fortune.

Seaside kitsch

When it rains on your summer holiday in England there are always kitsch and colourful treasures to be hunted out.

Seaside confectionary shop, Lynmouth, Devon.

(Mr H and I have just been away for a few days camping on Exmoor.)

Blackberry time

I picked some blackberries whilst out walking Albert in the woods this afternoon and did this mock up for the table arrangements at my sister's wedding.

Box of memories

I packed my wedding dress away this afternoon. The ritual of lining the box with tissue paper and carefully folding it away felt like one of the final acts relating to our wedding. The thank you notes have long since been written and sent, the photographs chosen for our wedding album. Now all that's left is to fold away my dress and, remembering how I felt on that day four months ago when I stepped into it, look forward to our marriage and all that is to come.






















































Box of memories photographs by me. Wedding day photographs by Fiona Ensor.

Coral vase

I love the subtle detail and simplicity of this porcelain 'coral' vase by Ted Muehling available from Rose and Radish.

More lovely porcelain here.

The Bay Tree at Chipping Camden

On the way back from Hidcote on Sunday we stopped for tea and cake at Chipping Camden where The Bay Tree surely has to be one of the prettiest florist shops in England. I loved this elegant white Anthurium arrangement in the window.

Don't choose a wife for her bonnet

"Buying a plant for its flowers is like choosing a wife for her bonnet".

Photograph by Dorothea Lange

Gardening wisdom found via A Rockridge Life.

August at Hidcote

I begin to get a creeping sense of dread at this time of year. I know August ought to be one of the nicest months of the year, but I hate the feeling that the summer is starting to slip away. My favourite month is April when Spring really starts to get going, the days begin to lengthen and you have the whole anticipation of summer befor you - it was no coincidence that Mr H and I decided to get married in April.

So before summer ebbs away we headed out into the Cotswolds today where I took these pictures at Hidcote Manor Garden. Although some of the earlier summer flowers had faded they had been replaced by abundant borders of Dahlia, Canna Lily and Agapanthus.

























































From top to bottom: Aliums; Dahlia & Canna Lily; Penstemon & Nicotiana; Astrantia.

Summer basket arrangement

Just a little basket arrangement I made in the shop yesterday. It's a traditional design, and in this case was a gift for an elderly lady.

I used Roses, Achillea, Echinops, Eryngium, Eucalyptus, Chrysanths and Carnations. There are a couple of pieces of Delphinium in there somewhere too.

A Norfolk wedding

One of the questions in a quiz Flora tagged me to answer a few weeks ago was

What is your favourite piece of clothing in your own wardrobe?

I never got round to answering all the questions, but I can answer this one without any hesitation whatsoever. If I could choose only one thing from my wardrobe it would undoubtedly be the blue five and a half inch Alexander McQueen shoes, bought at a greatly reduced price in a clearance sale for a party for a rather special birthday I celebrated last year.

They are just the right side of whoreish and create the very desirable illusion of legs that go on forever. These babies make me feel totally capable of outstrutting Carrie Bradshaw, and this weekend they got an outing. Since I don't have the type of social life that regularly demands the wearing of this type of ridiculous footwear I was very excited to have the opportunity to wear them to the wedding of our lovely friends Tom and Katharine in Norfolk.

The reception was held in a large tipi which had been erected in Tom's parents' beautiful garden. Katharine had decorated it with vases collected from car boot sales which she had spray painted and filled with hydrangeas.












The shoes drew lots of admiring glances as I tottered along the gravel garden paths in them after my third vodka and apple juice cocktail, but obviously even my Alexander McQueen shoes couldn't steel the show from the beautiful bride Katharine who looked stunning in this gorgeous Alice Temperley dress.


















We danced all night to the excellent music provided by a local skiffle band (who knew AC/DC and 'Hit me baby one more time' could sound so good on a washboard?)

And the next morning a lie in, fluffy bathrobes and Sunday papers in bed at the St Giles House Hotel in Norwich with the best croissants and freshly squeezed orange juice.

So, all things considered, not a bad weekend really.