After: Cathy's wedding

Our last wedding of the weekend was for Cathy. Cathy was after a soft and pretty looking bouquet and she was very happy with what we delivered. We knew that she was after bouquets of white roses, white lisianthus, white freesias and another white soft flower. The soft flower that we were able to get was hydrangea. Ooooohhh so pretty.

See what you think. Here are Cathy's flowers.......

Bride Bouquet: white roses, white lisianthus, white freesias and white hydrangea (Cathy wanted the foliage to be just peeking out so that it wasn't really noticeable)

Bridesmaids Bouquets: the bridesmaids had a smaller version of the bride bouquet with white roses, white lisianthus, white freesias, and white hydrangea

Buttonholes: the groom, groomsmen and the brides sweet little nephews had a rose on camellia leaves

Corsages: Cathy's Mum had a wrist corsage of white roses and ivory lisianthus

Cake Topper: and lastly we made a little posy to go on top of the cake. It has white roses, white lisianthus and white freesias in it. We left the hydrangea out as the cake topper was completely wired and hydrangea doesn't last well out of water. The last thing we wanted was for it to look limp when the cake was cut later in the night.

That is all we have to show you from Cathy's wedding. We hope you liked them.

To Cathy - We hope you had and absolute blast! Congratulations to you and your new husband xx

After: Megan's wedding

We had another beach wedding on the weekend so thank goodness for the beautiful day!!

When I delivered Megan's flowers she had just slipped into her wedding dress. And...... WOW. WOW WOW WOW!! She looked so completely gorgeous and I hoped that Ricky was prepared to have his breath taken away.

Here are the flowers we made for their wedding......

Bride Bouquet: posy of white roses and white lisianthus

Bridesmaids Bouquets: smaller posy of white roses and white lisianthus

Buttonholes: the groom and the groomsmen had a white rose and white lisianthus buttonhole on camellia leaves (but to make the grooms a little bit different, his leaves were placed differently). And the Dad's had a plain white rose on a camellia leaf

Corsages: the Mum's had a dress corsage of white spray roses on camellia leaves, and a ribbon to match the colour of the bridesmaids dresses

Our congratulations go out to Megan and Ricky! We hope your wedding was everything you dreamed of and more.

After: Diana's wedding

Diana had a small and intimate beach wedding, and it has been the most beautiful weather for it. I have always thought that March is the nicest time of year to get married. It cools down just a touch after summer, and the days are comfortable and sunny. Beautiful!

This was a very simple wedding and we didn't have to do too much, here are the flowers.......

Bride bouquet: posy of white freesias and a touch of gardenia foliage

Flower girl: small basket of white rose petals

Groom Buttonhole: white freesias on a camellia leaf

See - simple but very pretty and elegant. One of the best things about the bouquet is how gorgeous the smell was. Freesias have a very strong sweet scent and I wish that I could send it through the computer screen to you. Soooooo yummy!

Before: Cathy's wedding

This week you get a third wedding to check out! We are also making Cathy's wedding flowers. Cathy is pretty relaxed about her flowers. She has kept the colours to white (just like our 2 other weddings this weekend), and is specifically after something soft and pretty.

We decided on roses and lisianthus for certain with a touch of some freesias in there, and we also wanted something else soft like a david austin rose, sweet pea or hydrangea - all of which are just out of season. We had to wait and see what flower would be available that would fit the soft, fluffy and pretty description.

Here are Cathy's flowers......

Clockwise from the top left: white lisianthus, white roses, camellia, white hydrangeac, and white freesias

Yep we were able to get a tiny bit of white hydrangea! These bouquets are going to be beautiful. I'll show them to you on Monday. Have a great weekend!

Before: Megan's wedding

I met Megan and her partner a few months ago to talk wedding flowers. They are such a sweet couple and planning a wedding by the beach. Recently I was checking out a local photographers blog, and saw their familiar faces as they had just had their engagement photo shoot. You can see the photos here. I love how relaxed, happy and excited they look and can't wait to see how great their wedding photos are going to be.

Before I get too far ahead of myself, I should show you the flowers we are using for their wedding....

From the left: white lisianthus, white spray roses, white roses, and camellia leaves

I'll be back on Monday to show you how the flowers looked!

Before: Diana's wedding

I have had alot of last minute bookings over the past month. One of them was Diana. I met her exactly a month ago to talk about her wedding flowers. She came to me with a couple of ideas but as she looked through my gallery of photos, she fell in love with a freesia bouquet that I did last year. She decided to have the exact same bouquet, a small posy of all fressias.

Here are the flowers we are using for Diana's wedding...

White freesias and a touch of gardenia foliage.

It is going to be a small wedding so I am only making a bouquet for the bride and a buttonhole for the groom. I'll be back after the weekend to show you Diana's bouquet.

After: Karina's wedding

What an absolutely beautiful day it was for Karina's wedding on Saturday!

The lead up to the day was another stressful one for me. The bride really wanted fresh frangipani's in her bouquet and I had no luck sourcing them. So I used the artificial ones instead and was extremely worried that Karina wouldn't like them.

I needn't have worried. When I delivered the flowers, Karina loved them so much that she got all teary! It was so sweet. That kind of reaction really makes all the stress, time and effort you put in completely worth it.

Here are the wedding flowers.....

Bride bouquet: posy (with a vine trail) of white roses, ivory roses, white singapore orchids, white artificial frangipani's, green privet berry, dodda vine and magnolia leaves

Bridesmaids bouquets: posy of white roses, ivory roses, white singapore orchids, white artificial frangipani's, dodda vine and magnolia leaves

Buttonholes: the groom had a different buttonhole to everyone else (which is something I like to do), he had a white rose and white singapore orchids with some vine, and the groomsmen had an artificial white frangipani with some vine, and lastly, the Dad's had a single ivory rose with some vine

Corsages: the Mum's had wrist corsages of white roses, white singapore orchids and vine, whilst the Nan's had a dress corsage of the same thing

Cake Topper: Karina wanted some flowers for her cake so we used the artificial white frangipani's and vine to sit on the top of the cake as well as on the corner of each tier. (You can also see Karina's little throw-away bouquet in this pic)

                                             

I hope you all liked Karina's flowers.

Congratulations to the newlyweds!! Karina looked amazing and I am sure a fantastic day was had by all!

Before: Karina's wedding

We have a very easy weekend ahead with only one wedding on!

Karina is having a lovely mix of flowers. Here they are:

From the top left (clockwise): white roses, ivory roses, green privet berry, magnolia leaves, green dodda vine, white singapore orchids and some frangipani's

The vine is going to be used throughout the bouquet, but for the brides bouquet we are also going to add a little vine drop as seen in this picture (ignore all of the flowers)...

And Karina has requested that the leaves sit unevenly around the bouquet - so not an even frame right around the posies like we usually do, more something unstructured like this.....

I can't wait to see how these bouquets look. I'm a sucker for anything with berries in it, and the magnolia leaves with their green glossy front and rusty back are devine! I don't get to use either of them very often so it's a real treat when I do.

Come back after the weekend and I'll show you how the bouquets turn out.

After: Kathy's wedding

This was our native wedding!

Kathy gave me a pretty free reign with her wedding flowers. I kept her informed along the way at what I was looking at and got her feedback, but she mostly just trusted me with it. She had her parents in law come and pick up the flowers the morning of the wedding so I didn't get to see her reaction and know wether she loved her bouquets or not. Mind you her parents in law were extremely happy with them so I was pretty confident that Kathy would feel the same. It was so so sweet when she called me before the wedding to tell me how happy she was and how much she loved them! Getting that feedback makes you feel all gooey inside.

Here are Kathy's flowers.......

Bride bouquet: a posy of white paper daisies, tetra nuts, sparsa, pittostrum, ficifolia nuts, kangaroo paw, tea tree, silver dollar gum, crenulata, emu grass and wooly bush

Bridesmaid bouquets: they had a smaller version with the exact same flowers as the bride (but with less of the white paper daisies as we wanted the bridesmaids to be a little bit less white than the bride)

Buttonholes: the groom had a ficifolia nut with some tetra nuts at the base and a touch of dodda vine, and the groomsmen and Dad's had just a plain ficifolia nut with the vine (sorry about the blurry picture)

Corsages: the Mum's and Grandmum's had a dress corsage of small ficifolia nuts, tetra nuts and a touch of tea tree

So what did you all think of our first native wedding? I hope you liked them.

Congratulations to the newlyweds! I hope you had an amazing day Kathy. And I want to send out my sincere thanks for giving me so much of your trust. You were a delight to collaborate with.

After: Alicia's wedding

Well how do you think I went with Alicia's wedding? Did my lilies open in time for the wedding or not?........ oh the stress!

Well the day before the wedding the lilies had started to split - this is a good sign as it shows that the lilies are in the process of opening. Another good sign was that the weather was no longer cold and rainy, but fine and sunny - still not the hot and humid I needed but it would do.

Usually I make wedding bouquets the day before the wedding. All of my orange tiger lilies opened so I was able to make the bridesmaids bouquets, but with not a single white oriental lily open, I would have to leave the bridal bouquet until the day of the wedding! Are you feeling my stress? I went to bed knowing that the lilies had split and with the confidence that I would wake up in the morning with the 3 open white lily flowers that I needed.

I was wrong. I woke up very early to see that they hadn't budged at all. So after a few tears I regained my composure and set off to find some lilies I could use. Luckily it didn't take long at all. My former boss came to my rescue as she had some open ones in the shop. Relief....hooray!!!!!!

So it all worked out well in the end. But the lilies and I now have a fragile relationship and it's going to take some time for them to get on my good side again.

Alicia had a beautiful beachside wedding at Toowoon Bay. The surf club there is gorgeous with the most amazing views over the beach!

Here are how Alicia's flowers looked.....

Bride Bouquet: teradrop of white artificial frangipanis with a few white oriental lilies and cordyline leaves draping and folded around the head of the bouquet

Bridesmaid Bouquets: posies of white artificial frangipani's and orange tiger lilies

Flower girls: the flower girls held baskets of rose petals (the ribbon around the handle is the same colour as the bridemaid dresses)

Buttonholes: the groom had 2 white artificial frangipani's on camellia leaf and the groomsmen had 1 white artificial frangipani flower on a camellia leaf

Corsages: the Mum's had a corsage of white artificial frangipani's on camellia leaves

If there are any other florists out there reading - I bet you all have a lily story or two! Isn't it the worst feeling just waiting to see if they are going to come through for you - and knowing that there is nothing you can do? It's the one thing I don't like about my job  - I can't control nature. And that is hard for a perfectionist like me to accept. LOL!

Alicia - I hope that you had a beautiful wedding and would love to hear all about it!

Before: Kathy's wedding

This is our very first native wedding!! Exciting!

Confession time - I have worked with natives for years in the florist shops, and whilst I know the varieties pretty well (eg: protea, banksia, waratah etc) I get completely lost on the gazillion different species each one of them has (eg: Banksia Baxterii, Banksia Menziesii, Banksia Praemorsa, Banksia Prionotes, Banksia Occidentalis etc).

So when Kathy came to me to discuss her wedding flowers, I knew it was going to be a learning curve.But Kathy kept it very simple for me. She didn't mind what was in her bouquets but she had 3 requests: that we use natives that are specifically Australian in origin, that if we were going to use colours we would stick to white and oranges, and that the bouquets have a 'just picked from the yard and whacked together' unstructured look to them. The only thing she really wanted included were paper daisies, but unfortunately they are out of season. Kathy was happy to leave it to me and didn't even mind if the bouquet was just full of different textured foliages.

So I began doing my research. I hear alot about brides who want an 'Australian' bouquet and so they pick natives. For any brides out there who are thinking the same thing, please be aware that some of our most popular natives are not Australian in origin. The popular things like your proteas and leucodendrons whilst they are grown in Australia, they actually originated in South African (gasp)!

We ended up with alot of beautiful natives to pick from. Here is what we got:

From the back (clockwise): we have some teatree, kangaroo paw, eucalyptus (silver dollar), sparsa, wooly bush, emu grass, eucalyptus crenulata, pittostrum, eucalyptus tetra nuts, ficifolia nuts, and some white paper daisies (yay I managed to get a little bit)!

I can't wait to see how these bouquets are going to look with so many different textures in them. I'll come back and post some pictures after the weekend.

Before: Alicia's wedding

Alicia is having a beautiful beach wedding this weekend - and wouldn't you know it? It has been cold and raining all week. Hopefully it will improve in time for the big day.

This cold snap has provided me with one huge problem - this wedding includes lilies. Lilies arrive as a closed bud so you have to order them in advance to give them enough time to open. With the heat and humidity we have had for the last few months, it only takes a couple of days for them to open into a flower. However when it is cold, it can take a week or more.

When I ordered the lilies, it was hot and humid so I didn't think there would be a problem. And I only need 3 white lilies for the bride bouquet and 16 orange lilies for the bridesmaids so that should be easy right? Well I have been watching and tending to my lilies all week and whilst the orange ones are great, the white ones just aren't budging! And did I mention that I only need 3?! It's probably time to put a backup plan in place.

Here are Alicia's flowers: (you can see how tightly closed the white ones look)

Alicia's flowers are white oriental lilies, orange tiger lilies, some cordyline leaves and camellia leaves. She is also having some white artificial frangipani's too.

I'll be back after the weekend to let you know how I went. Keep your fingers and toes crossed for me that these white lilies open!

After: Simone's wedding

This is the last of our 3 weddings from the weekend. And there are quite a few pics to get through!

Simone wanted colourful and bright wedding flowers and that is exactly what she got. Unfortunately my camera didn't pick up the vibrancy in the colours very well, but hopefully Simone's photographer was able to.

Here are her flowers.....

Bride Bouquet: the shape of this was more of a posy but with some drapes hanging from it. The flowers used were hot pink roses, orange roses, yellow roses, blue hyacinths, blue delphinium, yellow freesias, hot pink vanda orchids, purple lisianthus and lilliana grass

Hair flowers: Simone wanted some flowers to scatter through her hair so we made some yellow roses and a few hot pink vanda orchids, and there was also a tiny little orchid hair clip for her beautiful baby girl

Buttonholes: the groom had a buttonhole of an orange rose with a touch of the lilliana grass, and Simone's dad had a yellow rose

Corsages: the Mum's had dress corsages of roses - ivory roses for the Mother of the Bride and peach roses for the Mother of the Groom

Reception Arrangement: And lastly, we made an arrangement to sit on the bridal table which included a mix of all of the flowers used in the bridal bouquet

Simone - I hope you had the most amazing day. Conratulations to you and your new husband!

Well that is all I have to show you from our weekend full of weddings. We have another two coming up this weekend, one of which is a bit different from the bouquets we have done before so I can't wait to show you. Talk to you in a few days!