Here Comes the Sun, Little Darling!

The Beatles were right – it came and more importantly stayed! All my lovely April brides were blessed with the weather – it seemed to shine all month. I hope it made the days even more special for them and their guests. For me, it meant a chance to work outside. Heaven…

Saturday 30th April saw Laura marry Patrick. I met with the couple way back last year but it has flown around in no time. Laura looked absolutely stunning in an amazing dress. There were a few nerves from Patrick which I’m sure will have been blown away by the sight of Laura walking in to church. They married at Church of the Most Precious Blood, their local church in Cabra. It has a really grand entrance which I dressed with bay trees and flowers on the railings.

The pew ends in church contained one hydrangea head with an ivy trail set against an ivory organza ribbon.

The pedestal arrangement waiting to go in.

And thank you bouquets left at the entrance for the ushers to collect

I hope to update you with some shots of the wedding party soon after a chat with the photographer x

Royal Wedding

Well I ended up totally hooked! From being anything but a royalist I have found myself devouring 24 page pull-out specials! I'm english so remember being dragged into the school hall to watch Andrew & Fergie - I remember being rather bored and annoyed at missing Matball!

So, this was quite a turn up for the books - think it's because they seem so grounded and actually in love! After spending Easter in my hometown amongst the bunting and the media hype, I realised I would end up quite homesick if I came back to Ireland and sat watching it on my own - so, I invited a few friends for our own royal wedding breakfast. Obviously being in the wedding business meant I got a bit carried away! Chair covers, bunting and favours! I wrote out place cards with our royal titles. To find yours - take the title Lady and use one of your grandparents names. For your very own double barrel surname use the name of your first pet and the name of the street you grew up on. Guests included Lady Esther Trigger-Berryfield and Lord Edmond Fraser-Bramley.

As you can see in the pics I went totally over the top but it was a good laugh and a great excuse to have a glass of champers before 12 midday!

Seeing how this is meant to be a flower blog I'll finish the post with a little bit about Kates bouquet!

Yours,

Lady Elizabeth Lulu-Munsbrough!

x

Kates bouquet was a relatively small bouquet of seasonal British flowers. Although it looks relatively simple, it is in fact a wired bouquet. Each of the small delicate flowers has to be individually wired before shaping into a bouquet. It contained lily of the valley, sweet william, hyacinth, ivy and the traditional sprig of myrtle. This has to be taken from that which was planted after the wedding of Queen Victoria in 1945! The meanings of the flowers was very important to Kate....

Lily of the valley - return of happiness
Hyacinth - Constancy of love

Sweet William -Gallantry

Ivy - Fidelity, marriage, wedded love, friendship affection

Myrtle - The emblem of marriage, love

Just one point of note though is made by celebrity florist Nick Priestly below:

"Despite the fact that the bouquet is the one part of the wedding that can be replicated by us commoners, it will come at a price. Lily of the Valley is already one of the most expensive wedding flowers costing around £5 per small stem. A replica of Kates' bouquet would cost from around £450 - at least five times more than the average bridal bouquet"

My hot tip is that the meaning of flowers will make a big come back in bridal bouquets. I often get requests from brides to use things that have a certain siginificance. This weekends bride asked for pink hydrangeas as the pew ends in church in a reference to the garden of her late grandmother which had a huge pink hydrangea bush in the front garden.

Maybe now, brides will revert back to the age old language of flowers in their bouquets. You can see some of the most common at:

http://www.meaningofflowers.co.uk/

I hope I'm right - otherwise I'll be lugging living trees into the aisles of churches from now on!
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