Finally, after all the pictures of the preparations, I am now ready to show you the photos that I took of the finished arrangements on the morning of the wedding.
Before we start though, my first job on Saturday morning was to decorate the ivy globes at the entrance gate to the church.
To the plain globes I added small sunflowers and lots of the bright orange cosmos ‘Bright Lights’.
So, in the order that the bride would have seen the arrangements, we start with the entrance gate where she would have left the wedding car to progress on foot to the church door.
Our local church has a very long path up to the doorway!
As she rounded the corner this would have been her view of the church ( minus the orange buckets which we had yet to clear away!).
The sunflowers and grasses were ready to greet her.
Inside the porch both stone benches were covered with dahlias.
Moving along this ‘runway’ of flowers the bride would pass through the bedecked entrance door into the church.
The font marks the turning point into the aisle.
Here you can see the grasses and the seed heads of the crocosmia used in the font arrangement.
Along the aisle the pew ends were decorated with miniature hanging bottle arrangements.
This is the view looking back down the aisle from the altar.
The colours of the window arrangements worked well with the stained glass windows.
Finally as she moved up to the altar the bride would have seen the swags decorating the choir stalls and the altar arrangements.
So there you have it – the full monty of the church flowers! I have to add that I cannot take credit for the altar arrangements or choir swags, nor the brides bouquet etc – I was happy to leave the really important stuff to more experienced florists.
I am very proud of the fact that all the flowers and foliage you have seen was home grown, either in mine or other friends gardens. It made my Cutting Garden feel very worthwhile this year, knowing that so much of the produce would be used for such an important event. Also I need to say a big thank you to my team of ‘flower fairies’ (both family and friends) – without their help I could not have made anywhere near as many arrangements in the two days we had!
I have learnt a lot whilst growing and arranging for this wedding – in particular how much you need to upscale ideas in order to make any impact in the lofty surroundings of a church. Also the importance of successional sowing and regular dead heading to make sure the flowers are as fresh as possible for the big day. The quantities of foliage and grasses these arrangements took was huge and sunflowers that seemed almost too big to be used in the their growing positions were dwarfed once they entered the church. My other take from this experience was the importance of having a team of helpers for such a big event.
I hope you have enjoyed this final look at these wedding flowers and I will be back on Monday to share a vase for the house with you. In the meantime I hope you have a very happy weekend and that the weather is kind wherever you are.
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I’m so impressed and excited for you. The arrangements look perfect. Along with everything else, I love the dahlias along the stone benches. Hope you have a relaxing weekend.
Thank you Susie! I did think about relaxing but gardening is always much more fun and the weather was perfect for it.
fun to see the progression … what a lot of flowers … and a lovely old church … love the floral and fruit mix …
Thank you Dawn – I am pleased that you enjoyed seeing how the flowers came together.
Your local church looks about the same age as ours, they look so beautiful when decorated. You and your band of helpers certainly worked very hard and having all the greenery and flowers from your garden is such an achievement, congratulations to you all. Time now for you to put your feet up!
Thank you Pauline – these old churches are such special places aren’t they – it was a delight to decorate it myself instead of admiring other peoples floral creations in it!
How very rewarding and satisfying, your flower work is really lovely Julie, I bet the bride was thrilled.
Thank you Julie.
You certainly deserved to put your feet up after all that. Splendid! I especially like the grasses and sunflowers in the urns, and on the font. And the garlands are such a lovely touch. Well done! 🙂
Thank you Cathy – I have been inspired to start planning a grass border now – I love grasses but have not got round to planting them in this garden yet – seeing them with the sunflowers made me realise how much I need to get on with it.
Now I really wish we had stopped and gone into the church! What a beautiful place. Every last detail is so well thought out, but I do think that entrance way is just lovely. What a joyous way to begin the ceremony.
Thank you Libby – yes – I should have stopped and let you take a look inside!
A very lucky bride is all I can say!
Thank you – I know that it was all appreciated!
Wow the flowers were truly amazing, glorious autumnal colours.
Thank you Fiona – I really love the autumn colour palette!
Wow Julie – just gorgeous! You should be really proud – it’s an awesome achievement.
I bet the bride was absolutely delighted.
You have achieved such a wonderful display, so many flowers all in perfect condition is not easy. I loved them all but the Annabell arch is exceptional.
Thank you Christina – the Annabelle arch was lovely but it does mean that I have no flowers left to decorate bushes in the winter. Still it will probably do the bushes good to have a hard prune this year.
As the mother of the bride, I cannot thank my friend Julie enough for the most fantastic wedding flowers ever! Our wedding party enjoyed and appreciated every bit of it, the photos are stunning but the real thing was mind blowing. We had such fun in the planning and growing, sadly I did not have the time to help with the arranging but the flower fairies did an amazing job. Every bride to be needs a Julie in their lives and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Reading this brought a few tears to my eyes Joanna! You are all very welcome and we did have a lot of fun planning.
Julie,
That was an awesome work you did as a Gardner .Very productive and give peace to your soul. Really enjoyed what you have displayed. They are all beautiful both the flowers and the arrangement and the beautiful church.:)
Thank you Sajina – I am so pleased that you enjoyed both the flowers and our beautiful old church.
Julie, we count ourselves very very lucky. We lost count of the number of people that complimented the church. I know a lot of effort went in throughout the yr, not just the day so thankyou very much for helping make our day so great. As Joanna said – every bride to be needs a Julie in their lives! See you soon . Nick (groom for the day)
Thank you Nick – I am very touched and glad to know that I helped to make your wedding day a day to remember.
Dear wonderful Julie, mum has just given me the link to your website – the flowers were absolutely the most picture-perfect thing I had ever seen and I am so glad you have taken all these beautiful photos so that I can see them all again without a church full of people and the going-up-the-aisle nerves!! When the official wedding photographs are back I will send them to you as well. I can’t even begin to think how much work went into all these stunning displays but I’d like to thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for all your incredible kindness in creating such beauty and being such a big part of making my fairytale wedding come true… Alys xxx (the bride!)
Alys how lovely to see you here and I am so very excited to see your official photos – I met your photographers at the church and am sure they will have something very special for you! It was an honour to be part of creating your fairytale wedding – a day for all of us to remember.