Creating the Flowers for Your Wedding

The flowers for your wedding look spectacular - but have you ever wondered how they were produced? Here we give you a sneak behind the scenes look at the stages involved in getting your flowers to you.

Wholesalers

Here's Cindy loading up at the wholesalers. If you think she looks a bit tired it's because she got up at 4 a.m. We usually buy wedding flowers 2 days before the day so that they can be properly conditioned and looking perfect.

Conditioning

Paul does do a bit of work sometimes. Here he is conditioning some red roses.

Conditioning is the process whereby flowers are recut, stripped of unwanted leaves/thorns and put in fresh water to rehydrate.

This is a fairly straightforward process, but with some of our weddings having 1000+ stems of flowers, it is a process that can take all morning.

Making the Bouquets and Accessories

The day before the wedding we make up the table centerpieces, pedestals and bridal bouquets if they are handties and can be kept in water. If the bride's bouquet is a wired arrangement such as a shower (cascade), it is made on the morning of the wedding.

The photo shows Cindy on the evening before the wedding making boutounieres (buttonholes). In the background you might be able to make out the bride's bouquet of red roses and bridesmaid's bouquet of white roses standing in vases of water.

Delivery

The big day has finally arrived. This is the fun bit - delivering to the bride. It's always lovely to see the look of joy on the bride's face when we arrive with her bouquets. Just time to wish her well for the day and then it's time to head off to arrange the flowers for the venue.

Venue Decorations

This wedding was a civil ceremony at the same venue as the reception, so there was no need to travel to a church to decorate it. We created some large flower pedestal arrangements and hired 2 bay trees. The pair of bay trees (pictured) were placed either side of the doorway into the ceremony room.

Table Centerpieces

The all important centerpieces can really make a difference to the feel of your wedding reception. Here's Cindy unloading some centerpieces that contain ostrich feathers and white roses. And what a lovely sunny day to get married!

For ideas on types of flowers for your wedding, click here

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