Gosh I’ve just realised that my last post on the journal was more than a year ago which means that I’ve got a bit of work to do to get up to date.
Please forgive my shoddiness but in truth it was the business year ever.
Wedding Season 2021
We’re nearing the end of wedding season 2021 with just two more weddings to flower this week and next.
It’s been an extraordinary year with so many weddings moved from 2020 but I’m glad to say that we’ve safely delivered everything we planned and it’s been uplifting to see so many of our lovely clients finally get married.
Most of our weddings were at Cowdray House and The Walled Garden at Cowdray which are located 5 minutes away from our flower studio and home.
I’ll post lots more photos when I get the chance but if you can’t wait for that then our Instagram is a good place to look for wedding photos @thisflorallife
This wonderful photo is by David Jenkins Photography
Siobhan and Marinus’s Wedding at Cowdray House captured by DavidJenkinsPhotography.com
This Floral Life 2019 Weddings and Events
I decided to post this summary of a few of our weddings and events from last year for the people who don’t follow us on Instagram where we originally posted this after Christmas.
It’s always great to review the year and It’s been lovely looking back on some of the events and weddings we waved our floral wand over in 2019.
It was a fun year and it was wonderful to have created so many events without using any plastic floral foam or single use plastics. Sustainability is an overused but necessary word these days and it actually lays at the heart of our business. We’ve just come through the hottest decade on record and it’s never been more important to do everything we can to ensure that we protect the planet from further decline.
We’ve had outr electric van for 3 years now and it really helps to keep us on track on this important journey. We work locally and the majority of our work is within a very small radius of where we live.
We grow flowers using organic methods and pick foliage from our gardens and the surrounding area of woodlands and use plants where we can so that we can replant them. We de-rigg all of our own jobs and we we like our clients to take home the flowers we make so we seldom have green waste to collect from our events but when we do then we compost it ourselves and put it back into the soil.
We’re not perfect but we are committed to doing everything we can and in doing so it becomes second nature and a way of life.
Sustainable, natural floristry for events and weddings
Sustainable White Wedding at Cowdray House
On last day of August we arranged the flowers for this elegant white wedding for Louise and John.
St Mary’s church, Easebourne, Midhurst was the venue for the ceremony and we dressed the outside with seasonal white flowers and woodland foliage. Inside the church we dressed the windowsills with trailing ivy, candles and clouds of gypsohilla and a large urn of seasonal white flowers with woodland greenery completed the decoration. All of the flowers were arranged into water with no single use plastic floral foam used in the mechanics.
The reception was at beautiful Cowdray House where we decorated the fireplace and the tables with ivy training from candelabra and gorgeous white and neutral shades of roses, seasonal flowers and Louise’s favourite Lily of the Valley.
Pink and White Summer Wedding at Cowdray House
This was a really lovely wedding at Cowdray House at the beginning of August.
It was a seasonal pink and white wedding with lots of gorgeous garden roses and hydrangeas and all made without floral foam just using simple and sustainable mechanics of chicken wire and water - yes even the fireplace flowers!
Buck Hall Banqueting tables for 150
Ceremony Flowers at Cowdray House
Hall flowers of seasonal hydrangea and beech
Fireplace flowers made without floral foam
Downton Abbey Inspired Dinner at Cowdray House
What a pleasure it was working with Caper and Berry at Cowdray House, Cowdray Estate to create this fabulous Downton Abbey inspired gala dinner for a really lovely clients’ 50th Birthday Party last week.
We used garden roses, sweet peas, peonies, jasmine and garden clematis along with an abundance of candles with our golden candelabra and lead crystal candelabra, lead crystal tea light holders and glass candlesticks.
Buck Hall is such a brilliant place for a gala white tie dinner!
Downton Abbey Inspired Dinner
Downton Abbey Inspired Dinner
English Garden Flowers
English garden flowers
Tatler Best Wedding Venues in the UK
Tatler have listed Cowdray House as on of their top 11 wedding venues in the UK and one of our weddings from 2016 has been used in the feature photograph.
The photo is by the very talented Nadine Van Biljon
A Spectacular Autumnal Dinner at Cowdray House with British Flowers
This autumnal dinner at Cowdray House, Cowdray Estate was incredible. Hosted by the fabulous team at Caper and Berry the event was for the leading lights in the wedding and event planning industry, who stayed at Cowdray House overnight.
We used all British grown chrysanthemums from Hampshire and believe me these are nothing like the contrived chrysanthemums you usually find in supermarkets and garages. The colours were truly amazing and they were wayward and natural. We foraged bracken and browning ferns from The Cowdray Estate and used them to dress the candelabra and the fireplace. The result was really beautiful and the planners loved it.
I actually attended the event and the food and service by the incredible team at Caper and Berry was wonderful.
These wonderful photographs of the event are by the super talented Louise Adby
What a magical evening in Midhurst!
January Wedding Flowers at Cowdray House
Hellebores are simply amazing plants, surviving the British winter and continuing to flower in sub zero conditions. I’ve been selling lots of these gorgeous plants all through the winter at The Cowdray Farm Shop and I think I’ve used them in most of my winter events and weddings.
Well, here they are again in this lovely winter wedding at Cowdray House.
We used plants on the table and cut hellebores in the bouquets tied with jasmine, paperwhite narcissi, white lilac and a sprinkling of floribundas roses.
The floral candelabra, made naturally without floral foam, lined the banqueting table.
The fire was lit and we dressed the huge stone fireplace with ivy and candles; it was a perfect and romantic small winter wedding.
Archie’s caterers proved the wonderful food and hospitality.
Hellebores and ranunculus
Bridal bouquet of hellebores, white lilac, jasmine and floribundas roses
Banquet with floral candelabra of spring flowers
A Christmas Dinner at Cowdray House
This was a very special dinner at Cowdray House in December.
It was glamorous, festive and fun and in addition to providing the flowers and dressing the Buck Hall for Christmas I actually went to the dinner.
The food was absolutely sublime and provided by the fabulous Caper and Berry. What a great evening it was!
Thank you to Cowdray Estate for letting me post these lovely photos of the event taken by a Chris Orange Photography.
Winter White Wedding at Cowdray House
Amy and Andrew married at Cowdray House in Midhurst, West Sussex on November 18th 2017.
Candlelight was really important to Amy and Andrew and over 300 candles were used to create this fabulous romantic wedding.
The ceremony took place in the cathedral like space of Buck Hall and we decorated the huge fireplace with ivy, seasonal greenery and white hydrangea heads. Candles were used on top of the fireplace, in the fireplace and lining the aisle; it looked absolutely stunning and so did the gorgeous Amy.
We stayed on site to turn the room around for the dinner with the caterers, Caper and Berry. The guests retired to the drawing room for canapés and champagne and within an hour the room was transformed with candleabra, white hydrangeas and hundreds of candles along the 108 foot of banqueting tables.
I can’t wait to see the official photos by Hajie as mine came out a little pink for some reason when it actually didn’t look pink!
Buck Hall dressed for the Wedding ceremony
Buck Hall dressed for the wedding dinner
Macaron tower by Sylvia’s Kitchen
Spring Wedding at Cowdray House
As the preferred florist at the glorious Cowdray House in Midhurst West Sussex, we know this venue rather well and can wholeheartedly recommend you to book your wedding or event there; its a really wonderful house in an incredibly beautiful location and you won't be disappointed.
Last week we provided the flowers for Sally and Tom's fabulous wedding at Cowdray House.
The theme was wild wood with plenty of greens and branches with new shoots emerging. We used seasonal flowers in whites, ivory and champagne with touches of blue. The flowers included anemones, frittilaria, ranunculus, jonquils, hellebores, bluebells and spirea.
We decorated the huge fireplace in Buck hall with branches of greenery, with a sprinkling of white flowers. This is where the wedding ceremony took place and the aisle was lined with candles in glass.
After the ceremony, the wedding party and guests had canapés and champagne in the gardens and other rooms of the house whilst Jacaranda Catering and our team laid out the banqueting tables for the dinner. We all achieved a very quick turnaround and the room was ready in just over an hour.
Spring Flowers and Weddings
February really flew by and now March is here, Spring, Mothering Sunday and soon it'll be Easter.
It was a really busy month for my flowers and plants at Cowdray Farm Shop and I've been super busy this year with weddings and events work, visiting some amazing venues with wonderful wedding planners and beautiful brides to be. I'm so lucky to have been booked for some wonderful, wild, whimsical weddings this year and look forward to sharing these with you as they happen.
Unusually, I've had many early requests for my Spring wreaths this year, I absolutely love making them so I'm very happy. Here's one I put into Cowdray Farm Shop last week, It's made with mimosa, paperwhite narcissi, broom and forget me nots and the scent is fabulous.
Pudding Theatre
I had the pleasure of providing the flowers for this gorgeous 'pudding theatre' for Jacaranda Catering this month. They were showcasing their delicious desserts at a wedding fair at Ramster Hall.
The bike, and the most excellent idea, belong to the fabulous Minty Moore, one of the wonderful Senior Event Managers at Jacaranda Catering!
Happy New Floral Year 2017
Happy New Year to you!
Thank you to everyone I worked with this year, it was a really brilliant floral year and I enjoyed every minute of it.
It was a great year for my flowers and plants at The Cowdray Farm Shop and a very successful year for events and weddings too. My clients have all been, without exception, an absolute pleasure to work with.
Thank you and H appy New Year X
A Joyous June Wedding
Miranda and James married on June 25th 2016. The wedding ceremony was held at St Mary's church in Eastbourne on the Cowdray Estate and the reception was held at the beautiful Cowdray House in Midhurst, West Sussex.
We provided the flowers and Jacaranda catering provided the hospitality.
It was a huge pleasure to work with Miranda and her wonderful parents, Sue and Bob,
Miranda and James have kindly allowed me to share their gorgeous wedding video with you here.
An Autumn Wedding at Cowdray House
It was a glorious Autumn morning for Krisztina and Graeme's wedding at Cowdray House on 8th October 2016.
If you look through this journal you may have seen that I was the florist for the very first wedding held at Cowdray House, at the end of June this year. Well, this wedding included the first actual civil wedding ceremony at the house.
Autumn is a great time to get married and at Cowdray House the views from the ceremony room out to the garden are spectacular with all of the colours of Autumn represented in the landscape.
The flowers also included colours from the Autumn landscape mixed with pink and peaches and the last flush of the English roses.
The ceremony room at Cowdray House
The wedding reception in Buck Hall, Cowdray House, Midhurst, West Sussex
The Abundance of Summer; Flowers and Fruit
It's been a really beautiful summer and I've been lucky enough to spend so much of it outside, arranging flowers, tending plants and watering (a lot for the potted plants that I sell at Cowdray Farm Shop) in the cool of the evening just before sunset; a magical time of day.
The summer season has been non stop this year and the event work, like the flowers, has been abundant.
For this event at Cowdray House I wanted to showcase the abundance of summer flowers and seasonal fruits and also to showcase a small selection of the huge variety of plants that I've been selling at Cowdray Farm Shop this summer; verbenas, abelias, pelargoniums, senecio, clematis, honeysuckle, crocosmia, dahlias.
A sprinkling of garden roses and a few unripe blackberries from my own woodland garden complete the look; the abundance of summer 2016.
The abundance of summer
Summer table centres
Garden flowers at Cowdray House
Freshly picked
June wedding at Cowdray House, West Sussex
It's been an extraordinarily busy Summer and I have some catching up to do on this journal. Apologies!
Now, I posted a photograph that I took of Miranda, my gorgeous bride whose reception was at Cowdray House at the end of June, but I didn't post any of my other photographs so I aim to address that in this journal entry.
It was a fabulous wedding and the Lewis family were an absolute dream to work with. It's always such a huge pleasure for me to work with such lovely people on these really important occasions in their lives. Helping to create great memories through flowers and styling, it's hard not to be swept up in the happiness wave. We became firm friends in the run up to the wedding and we've met up on several occasions since and I know we'll always stay in touch.
The Lewis's wedding was one of the first weddings that Cowdray House had hosted and Sian and Jayne, who hosted the weekend on behalf of the house, made sure it was a huge success. Jacaranda Catering provided the food and a team to run the event over the weekend, led by the amazing Minty Moore and I hear that the food was superb. If you're looking for a caterer for a wedding or an event, do get in touch with them, I often work with them on events and the clients are always really delighted with their excellent food and brilliant service.
My team were superb (Nia, Sue, Rob, Alyson and Stuart) and we had a great time making and installing the flowers. We all went on to make and install the floral decorations at another large private party the day after so it was a very busy few days, but fun too.
Here are a few of the photographs that I took on the morning of the wedding.
Happy memories.
Entrance to Buck Hall
Entrance Hall Flowers
The Morning Room
Morning Room Flowers
Buck Hall Wedding Breakfast
Candleabra in Buck Hall
Buck Hall
Miranda leaving for the church
Beautiful Miranda
St Mary's Church, Easebourne, Midhurst, West Sussex
Milk Churns down the Aisle of St Mary's
A Country Wedding in July
It was another beautiful July day in West Sussex when Claire and Graham's wedding took place.
We used seasonal English flowers in pink, ivory and blue to create garden inspired table wreaths with candles ; candles being an essential component at all weddings, no matter what time of year.
Claire's gorgeous bridal bouquet was filled with garden roses, cafe au lait dahlias in blush pink, jasmine trails, pink oregano and pink garden anemones.
Claire's Bridal Bouquet
