Wedding at Westminster Abbey

 It was very exciting and a huge honour to be asked to arrange flowers for Ned Salisbury and Annalie Emmott who were married at Wesminster Abbey just before Christmas.

We have been asked to do Christmas weddings before but since we don’t have any flowers, we’ve always decided against it. This time around we just couldn’t say no.

So, the challenge for us was how to do it in a way that looked fabulous and used as many seasonal British grown flowers as possible.

 After our initial consultations, we’d decided on a ‘secret garden’ feel to the designs. Soft and natural arrangements, each slightly different, created as if either growing from their containers or cascading down from candelabra. We limited the palette to white flowers and dark green foliage. The main flowers were some highly scented ‘paper whites’ narcissi from the Isles of Scilly, of which we bought by the hundred! (www.scentednarcissi.co.uk )It was truly amazing how their fragrance filled the vast rooms of the Horseguards Hotel where they had their reception. I used them in all the table centres, in little posies hanging from Christmas trees and had scattered heads at the base of candelabras. Amaryllis added a sense of scale. We also planted hellebores and cyclamen into silver bowls, which created stunning low-level table centres when surrounded with night-lights and scattered flower heads.

We needed more foliage than the garden could provide, so I found a great supplier of British foliage at Convent Garden Market called GB Foliage  (thanks Dave, you’ve been so helpful and it is much appreciated!) We used a selection of ivy, camellia leaf, viburnum, rosemary, magnolia leaf, choisia and moss.

 We had some wonderful feedback, so feel we rose to the occasion quite well. We’re now waiting on professional photographs but for now, here’s a snap shot from the abbey.

 Rachel and I are excited about the year ahead. We have lots of weddings booked in and the course dates are up on the website. We are now offering gift vouchers for the courses, so we’re hoping they will make great presents for Mother’s Day.

While making the most of the mild weather, Rachel and Ash and have planted all the new stock. It seems ages to wait before we’ll see the flowers. January/February is our quiet period, so we are charging our batteries before the spring, when things will get pretty busy again. Rachel and Ash are off to South Africa for three weeks for a well-deserved rest. I’ll be responding to all the enquiries, organising the photographs from last year, trying to get our press pack together and working on our ‘ladies club’ idea. Hopefully see you all in the Spring.

 Happy New Year!

Jo Wise