Wedding of Maria & Craig, Clonabreaney House

A gorgeous September day in the Meath countryside was the setting for Maria and Craig shown here on the steps of Kilskeer Church. The entrance was framed with small olive trees and rustic lanterns.

This church is perfectly placed for those having their reception at Clonabreany House. The house is breathtakingly beautiful as you’ll see in this post.

Maria opted for a simple and elegant posy of pure white hydrangeas to compliment this amazing gown

The bridesmaids bouquets were a picture perfect mix of pale pink roses, astrantia and waxflower. They looked goregous against the dusky pink of their dresses.

And not forgetting the other gorgeous girls of the day, the super-cute flowers girls shown here walking down the lantern lit aisle.

And last but not least the men were dashing in grey suits. Craig stood out with his pink rose buttonhole while the groomsmen had a mix of astilbe, waxflower and astrantia bound in twine. How fab is this picture, go on Craig – turn around!!!

Following the ceremony it was only a short hop over to Clonabreany. I took along my wedding sign to guide the guests.

The entrance and bar area contained the most wonderful wishing tree. I was really proud of this creation. Twisted willow with a natural leaning structure was set into florists foam which was decorated with roses and moss. Maria had sourced the most amazing tags to hang on the tree and she tells me the tree was a real hit with the guests.

Hopefully the guests were even more blown away when they entered the marquee. Clonabreany has a permanent marquee in place with huge windows framing the most amazing view. The marquee provided a blank canvas for striking hydrangeas in bright pink and pale pink. The tables held a mixture of high and low arrangements.

The pretty details included these placecards which I stamped for them and the candy buffet which Maria set up herself.

Huge congratulations, you two. Thank you for letting me create the flowers for such a stunning wedding and I wish you every happiness x

Wedding of Aisling & Ian, The Church and Reception

 

Aisling & Ian were married at the Church of St Martin, Culmullen near Dunshaughlin. This is such a picturesque country church….

 

Aisling was brave enough to be the first to try out my new idea of recycling church flowers.  She chose the platinum package which includes everything you could ever need for church! Along with this is removal of the flowers to your reception venue with the flowers used in a new way as you’ll see below.

Starting with the entrance.  In place of the traditional trees Aisling opted for large baskets of heather.  It was her idea to bring in heather to remind her of home.  I wanted to be sure it was right so after checking with the Heather Society for the type I needed, the lovely people at Galloway Heather sent a type of Calluna Vulgaris.

After the ceremony this heather was then going to find a new lease of life dressing the place settings at the reception

For the walk up the aisle, lanterns were placed on either side along with country style posies for the pew ends.

The pew ends were then taken to the reception and taken apart to be placed into vintage glassware.

The altar held 2 pedestals full of flowers and a hurricane vase with candle.

Which were then moved to the reception area of Tankardstown House.

An arrangement was left on the altar ready for the unity candles. 

This would normally be destined for the top table at the reception but as the bridal party were sitting at a round table it was placed on one of the fireplaces.

The beautiful windowsills in the church were decorated with greenery and on top of this small posies were placed to decorate.

Four of these small posies made up a circlet of flowers around the candelabras on the reception tables. A really great way to have an abundance of flowers at your wedding. 

Finally the remaining pew ends and flowers from the chair backs…

…were placed in vases in various areas at the reception, including the table plan

and in a vase of marshmallows to compliment this most lovely of sweet treat tables…

So, if you want a day full of luscious blooms then recycling is the way to go!

If you want to read more about this wedding check out the blog post of Rangoli jewellery.  Aisling Nelson of Rangoli designs the most stunning bridal head pieces as you can see from this shot and Aisling spoke to her after the event about the planning of the wedding.

Finally, a big Congratulations to Aisling & Ian. You were an absolute pleasure to work with and I wish you both many years of happiness together x

Vintage Glamour at Tankardstown House…

Well here it is, a long awaited blog post. One a week from now on I promise! I had to start with one of my favourite weddings from last year. The absolutely gorgeous Aisling & Ian…

After a few initial emails, Aisling called out to me at home and we started to go over the look she was hoping for. I absolutely loved her ideas and was thrilled when she decided to use me as her florist and I was really looking forward to working with her. She described her unusual ‘Claire Pettibone’ dress which you can see below.

A colour scheme of ivory, peaches and cream was chosen to compliment the gown and Aisling wanted to use heather to remind her of home in the Mourne Mountains. I chose Peach Avalanche roses, David Austin ‘Patience’ rose and dahlias which were the same shape as the flowers on Aislings dress.

The bridesmaids carried the same flowers as Aisling, along with stocks and sweet peas. As you can just see from below, Aislings differed in that her bouquet was asymmetric like her dress. There was one large white hydrangea placed to one side of the bouquet.

Next, was the flower girls. These beautiful girls carried small posies and wore crowns of flowers…

Aisling had asked for fresh rose petal confetti for church so rather than throw away fresh petals that are removed from the flowers when you are preparing them I made some paper cones and popped them in. These were then placed in to baskets and the girls gave them to the guests as they left church.

Last but not least was the men! The buttonholes were a delightful mix of lavender, herbs, astilbe and bound with twine.

And they certainly looked the business in these fab navy suits…

If you're wondeirng about the amazing headpiece Aisling wore, it was made by the uber talented Aisling Neslon of Rangoli Jewellery. You can read more about his wedding on the Rangoli blog...

http://rangoli.ie/

Next post, the church and reception…