Shh – don’t tell the bride but I am sharing a few photos with you taken today in my greenhouse as I played with ideas for the wedding that I am helping with this weekend.

Today was all about gathering my props and equipment into one place and using a few snippets of flowers to see how my ideas would work in practice. When working with seasonal flowers (in this case home grown) it is hard to make detailed plans for arrangements until close to the event date as you can never be certain what flowers you will have to work with. For todays play I used pinks and purples, but the theme for the weekend wedding is much more vibrant.

As my week will be dominated by wedding preparations I thought you might like to see  the preparations as they progress. After gathering all my equipment in one place today, we will be cutting and prepping the flowers and foliage tomorrow and leaving the flowers in a cool shed overnight to have a long drink. Friday will be arranging day and most of the finished arrangements will be put in place in the church. On Saturday morning I will pop back to the church to check that everything is looking fresh and to put the outside arrangements in place.

Flower arranging on a large scale starts with a good set of kit. I keep mine in a toolbox that my son bought me for Christmas about 5 years ago – at the grand age of 10 he came up with the idea to store my bits and pieces in this toolbox instead of the assortment of plastic bags that I was using and it has worked well ever since. In here I keep my wires, tapes, scissors and knives as well as a few decorative ribbons and accessories. It is good to know that everything is to hand when I need it.

Florists-Workbox

I have had this set of 5 small stone urns with imitation moss rings for a couple of years now and they have proved to be a great investment. I have used them for a few friends events and often have one or two in use at home. My notebook is essential – I make a plan of all the arrangements I need to make, together with the props I will need for each and a plan of the flowers and foliage I would like to use. Writing everything down in advance helps me to work quickly on the day.

Urns-With-Moss-Rings

The first arrangement on my list is two flower globes to mark the Entrance Gate to the church. It was difficult to see a way to attach anything to the stone walls, so we decided to use shepherds crooks to support the globes.

Flower-Globes

I have been collecting bits and pieces for this wedding for a few months now – I am hoping these galvanised zinc pots and hessian ribbon will come in handy.

IMG_7123

I have two of these metal urns, which will form the base for the pedestal arrangements outside the door to the church. They look quite stark when empty, but I am sure they will look lovely filled with flowers and foliage.

Pedestal-Container

The window ledges in the church are long, narrow and very high. I need to make arrangements that will fill the space and have plenty of interest when viewed from below. I tried out my plans on a shelf in the greenhouse. The finished arrangement will be much fuller than this and in different colours, but I like the way the hawthorn branches are filling the space in this demo.

Flowers-For-Church

For the pedestal arrangements at the entrance to the church I will be using a selection of tall flowers and grasses. I have been considering how to add some drama to the metal urns and finally hit upon the idea of decorating a floral ring with apples, ivy and sedum to add a base to the taller flowers.

Flowers-For-Church-Entrance

I have cut the apples in half and used 2 tooth picks per apple half to secure them to the floral foam.

Flowers-For-Church-Entrance

I left the greenhouse tonight feeling very upbeat now that my plans are in a more final form – I am looking forward to starting to pick the material early tomorrow morning!

Church-Flowers

I am hoping to take more photos to share with you over the next two days, including some final shots of all the flowers in the church.

Life has been very busy for the last couple of weeks. I have had my trip to France, a lovely couple of days with Libby from An Eye For Detail last week and a house full of guests all this week, so my normal blogging routines have fallen apart. Hopefully life will return to normal next week when I will be back to making my usual and much missed Vase On Monday!

 

 

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