Our First Wedding of The Year.
Our first wedding of the year and it was amazing!!
We have have had the prviledge of doing this wonderful couples wedding at a stunning location not far from us.
Norma and Mark got married at the end of Jan 2017 in a small intimate civil ceremony of only 40 guests at The Old School House in Weeford Lichfield.
Believe it or not was achieved in only 4 weeks!!! Norma did come to see me in November but i was ill with flu so would not see her as she was expecting her baby, but then life got in the way for both of us- Norma had her baby and my flu turned into pneumonia.
When I met up with Norma for her consultation she told me she had 2 bridesmaids’ and they were wearing different coloured dresses, one in Berry and one in Navy, she was a bit concerned how to solve this problem with flowers. We discussed flower options and agreed on a mix of roses after she saw one of my other bridal bouquet designs. Norma wanted small bridesmaids flowers.
Now, I am a florist first and foremost, but Norma had asked if I could also do a few other things that normally a wedding planner or venue dresser would do, but i had the know how on some areas and others i had help with my mom.
Lets get to the flowers first.
These set the whole feel for the wedding.
The Roses were in Hot Pinks, Very dark Burgundy, pale pinks with red Skimmia and foliage. The designs were all hand tied with the buttonholes and corsage’s replicating this feel.
Flower consisted of
Bridal bouquet, with navy blue blow in satin ribbon with trails.
2 bridesmaid’s bouquets,
Buttonholes and Corsages,
Windowsill arrangements, Jam Jars with flowers, Chair flowers, Registrar table arrangement.
The rest.
We supplied Table linen, Real peal confetti in cones and her Order of Service.
Table linen consisted of White table cloths, navy blue napkins, and Berry chair sashes.
Petal confetti cones these were purchased by us and put together by ourselves.
Order of service Made by us. ( well my mom who makes cards and myself)
Tied cutlery with ribbon which we also did.
THE STORY OF THEIR BIG DAY.
With the help of my husband, who I may add, I would not be able to achieve all that I do without his help, big shout out to him for all he does. Norma’s wedding day started at 8am loading up both cars.
8am- hubby delivered the grooms flowers, 8.30 am I deliver flowers to the bride, 8.45 am we both go to venue and set up wedding room:
SETTING UP THE WEDDING ROOM
This consisted of placing chair sashes on chairs and tying flowers on, placing windowsill arrangements, placing jam jar flowers around the room, placing the order of service on the chairs and leaving the confetti cons where they could be seen.
Whilst we were there the lovely cake ladies arrived from Bunty and Paggy’s Cake Shop in Cannock with a stunning wedding cake, I told her where Norma would like the cake as previously discussed the few days before.
10.45am finally finished in time for guests to arrive at 11.3o.
WOW what a difference flowers and sashes make to a room.
As Norma’s reception was in the same room as her wedding, we had to go back to venue at 12 noon where we waited for Norma to get married.
I had the chance to see the bridesmaids with their flowers too whilst waiting for the bride. When the photos were being taken we went into room and started the transformation from wedding room to wedding reception.
SETTING UP THE RECEPTION ROOM.
With the help of restaurant staff, we laid the table cloths, folded the napkins, placed cutlery, favors and name cards from the seating plan, sprinkled confetti, placed the registrar arrangement on the top table, and jam jars that were used for the ceremony room on the tables.
It all looked stunning – have a look at this transformation:
Your wedding flowers are not just for one day as some may think, your flower arrangements should keep for 1-2 weeks after your wedding if watered properly, if you have arrangements or flowers in water keep them topped up with water on a daily basis, they are yours to keep, you paid for them so you can take them home with you the day after your wedding and adorn your house as a reminder of your wonderful wedding. Norma collected her flowers the day after she got married and has adorned her home with them.
A GLIMPSE OF BEHIND THE SCENES TO CREATE HER DAY.
Here is just a glimpse of what was done behind the scenes to create Norma’s wedding day.
First consultation with bride lasted 2 hours this is free.
3 hours working out her quote, looking for the right shade of roses to go with the shade of berry, then rearranging the quote to get it into budget for the bride.
Visit the venue to measure up the windowsills for the flowers, measure chairs and tables for chair sashes table cloths.
Internet searching for competitively priced real petal confetti and table linen.
Visits to the bride to show fabric samples for table linen and sashes, flower confetti and cones that were purchased, collect favours, table plan and name cards.
Emails back and forth to the bride with pictures of confetti and cones etc. to get the ones she liked.
Visits to the venue with the bride to ease her mind about how everything will be done and have a final chat with the manager.
Answering numerous txt messages and emails from the bride with questions she had.
Time sorting out a company for good quality table linen.
Phone calls to the venue speaking to the hotel manager sorting out days when bride and myself can visit when I can visit, when the room will be free to be decorated and when we collect the cutlery.
Ordering flowers online from Holland, making sure we have a few more than needed in case some flowers break or are not right as flowers are a natural item you just never know and with a wedding it must be perfect. Conditioning flowers upon arrival this can take up to half a day depending upon the number of flowers, 2 days making the flowers.
Waking up at 4 a.m on the morning of the wedding to place ribbon on the flowers and make sure everything is okay, if not replacing flowers, getting flowers ready for delivery, writing labels for the buttonholes so everyone knows whose buttonhole is who’s. Trying to make myself look presentable on 3 hours’ sleep 🙂
Then the hard work begins on the day delivering flowers and so on.
delivering flowers to both groom and bride, delivering flowers to the venue, setting op of wedding room, going home, going back to decorate reception room, going back home, then going back at the end of the day to collect table linen this then must be inspected, dried if wet then bagged up for collection and sent back.
But it’s all worth all the hard work to see the brides face and the tear that starts to show when she sees the flowers and her room.