A dark, almost mahogany Rip City dahlia drew excited squeaks
of delight from a passer by at
Stirchley Community Market, one sunny summer
evening.
Chatting with the emitter of
said squeaks, it transpired she was Kate, and bride-to-be of my market neighbour
Andrew – a.k.a.
purveyor of fine
culinary delights,
‘Urban Herbs’.
Kate had previously fallen so deeply, darkly in love with these
velvety dahlias, that she had already chosen the dusty antique colour of her
bridesmaid dresses specifically to tone with them – hence her squeaks on spotting
my Rip Cities.
Talking serious flowers a few weeks later at the
Tuckshop,
she described the wild and natural bunches she had in mind to decorate her
informal country wedding at the beautiful
Wethele Manor, near Leamington Spa,
in Warwickshire – a perfect fit for the homegrown, ‘just picked’ style of my
flowers.
I love it when ‘wild’ is part
of a bride’s vocabulary
because then I
know I have found my perfect customer.
And Kate was indeed a pleasure to work with as, apart from her obsession
with dark dahlias, she was exceedingly laid back and open to the many ideas we
swapped via our shared
Pinterest board.
Pinterest is surely a tool designed for florists! It’s a perfect way to create a scrapbook of
ideas, to get feedback from the bride-to-be and is a bit like climbing into
someone else’s imagination: a brilliant tool to find out what feel, which style
and colours float the bridal boat.
With dahlias and budget decided upon, we opted to double up the bridesmaid posies
as reception table flowers and designed them to be the perfect size to pop into
trimmed jam jars just before the meal.
We also chose to keep the table flowers simple – floating
dahlia heads in bright, almost Indian colours, with candles in glass bowls.
As a tribute to Andrew’s day job, I wanted to work herbs
into the flowers, so we had the vibrant blue of borage in the table bowls,
scented lemon balm foliage in the bride and bridesmaid posies, and Kate
supplied me with a couple of deliciously scented blackcurrant sage plants from which to pluck the
diminutive shocking pink flowers to complement the dark dahlia buttonhole for
the groom.
Photo courtesy of Kate and Andrew
Kate had been to see me when I was at the height of flower
crown frenzy, just before my stall at
CocoMad, a local music festival. She was infected by my enthusiasm and was easily
persuaded that a floral tiara was exactly what she needed! Like me on my own
wedding day, she wanted something light and small. But whilst I ended up with a mid-size
shrubbery, pruned to size with kitchen scissors before the ceremony, Kate got a
simple gypsophila circlet with a narrow satin ribbon tie. With her unfussy, elegant dress, it completed
her look to perfection.
When I arrived at the Wethele Manor to dress the tables, I
loved the famous couples theme which Kate and Andrew had chosen to identify the
tables for their guests. I think Gomez and Morticia would approve of the gothic blackberries and ivy which garlanded the top table for the bridal
party, and those dark dahlias, of course!
The day was captured beautifully by friends of the bride and
groom and by
photographer, Martin Cartwright - I’m delighted to share some of their lovely
shots, so thanks go to them, and to Kate and Andy for being a joy to work with
throughout the whole proceedings. May
you flourish and prosper together, along with your
Urban Herbs!
It's been another good year for apples. I still have Bramleys clinging onto the tree in the garden, which served as an all-you-can-eat buffet for the 7 magpies pecking away at them yesterday. Crunchy russets are waiting to be transferred from the porch to the fruit bowl, and the early eaters from the allotment are, quite frankly, now fit only for the compost bin.
