Iris for Iris

Flowers for a fifty-sixth wedding anniversary today. A black and white photograph was produced from the gentleman's wallet of a stunning shy looking girl with chiselled cheekbones and shiny bobbed hair. 'She's even more beautiful now' he whispered.
He chose a bouquet of soft pink roses and scented white garden roses with a single iris in the centre as her middle name is Iris. 'She doesn't like it, but I do'.
A little pink satin picotee ribbon was added as she was once a dancer.

I love my job.

How lovely are thy branches?

The answer is no. So, please stop asking. I will not be selling Christmas trees. Except maybe dear little tabletop or desk top sized ones. It is a man's job and we are just delicate little flowers. Besides, there's a bloke down the road who sells them from a lock up garage who will do it far cheaper than I would. Oh, and don't bother asking him if they are organic because he'll probably ask you if you are going to eat it.

Seasonal loveliness

A quiet week of contemplation for The Emporium. Some perfectly crisp autumnal days followed by some pretty cruddy dank ones. Looking forward to lighting candles, creating cosiness and telling myself to look forward to the clocks going back.
Why??? I'm always confused by it, can never get my head round it. So when its actually 8am its really 7am or does it mean when its actually 7am, its really 8? Sigh, maybe I'll apply myself to it one of these days. Or maybe I won't and just consider myself lucky to be surrounded by gorgeousness in the shop that isn't even technically flowery.

Vive l'ambience.

Lovebirds and glamour

No I am not alluding to a Hitchcock film. I am talking glamour, my lovelies, pure unadulterated, smooth as silk glamour. This weekend's wedding took place at the most handsome of country retreats, the Buxted Park Hotel near Uckfield in East Sussex. Set amongst beautiful rural scenery, this hotel was once frequented by Winston Churchill and Marlon Brando.

The bride was dressed in cream silk with fresh white orchids in her hair and a fur stole, the groom was tall and dashing in grey suit with shiny hair. Their flowers were decadent and romantic, heavily scented with a hint of dark drama. Her bouquet shimmered with vintage crystal beads. Pairs of adorable feathered birds adorned the table decorations and the perfect autumn sun shone through the windows of the Orangery in the late afternoon. Just perfect.

Here's just a taster of les fleurs until the real deal arrives.

Beauty or beastie?

Just glancing around the shop actually provides me with hours of floral fascination. Check out these insane specimens here. Part scientific experiment, part fun, part Ugly Betty.....personally I don't think they would look out of place in a mad scientist's laboratory but I still love them in all their weird glory. Very Halloween.

Oh and I am dying to do somebody's dog flowers for their wedding . Oh please, come on people, wouldn't you just love to see a rottweiler with roses, doberman with daffodils or a labrador with lilies.....

Trick or treat me.........

Is it my inner witch calling? I get very excited by this time of year, maybe its just the idea of getting my hand inside a pumpkin or roaming around in the golden sunshine with a brisk wind swirling the leaves. Enough of that, I need suggestions for a Halloween window display that don't involve either a) orange b) black c) putting eyeholes in my best 400 count Egyptian cotton sheets. Answers on a postcard immediately please.

Cackle.

Teacups and Ruffles

Woop! Woop! I am thrilled, I tell you, thrilled to share the details of this gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous wedding with you. Megan and Mike were just a pair of honeys. They were all smiles and giggles the first time I met them to chat about their wedding flowers. These guys put in one Serious amount of hours into their wedding planning and their vision turned out perfectly. The flowers they chose reflected the wedding theme of pale blues and vintage rose pinks. They had spent a lot of time hunting down exquisite vintage teacups and saucers and jugs to use as centrepieces for their guest tables and these were filled with arrangements of Quicksand roses , nigella, rosemary, cream spray roses and flowering mint. Megan had chosed one of the most beautiful coloured roses I have ever seen alongside blue hydrangeas. They were exactly the colour of some really expensive French lingerie I once saw in Paris and was too stupid not to buy. Imagine a cross between oyster, nude and pale pink. Just breathtaking. The day was captured by the my photographic heroine Joanna Brown of Brown's Photography http://www.joannabrownphotography.co.uk.

And DOUBLE HELPINGS of joy on this one as this wedding has been featured on uber cool US website Ruffled, a veritable treasure trove of information and inspiration for the bride to be http://www.ruffled.com

Enjoy the pics and the blog. I'm off to put a cold, wet flannel across my eyes, its been too exciting!

Paper parasols and peacock feathers

I'm so chuffed to be able to share the details of this wedding from earlier in the summer that took place at The Hotel du Vin in Brighton.

When I first met this bride to be for her initial wedding flower consultation, she came hot off the heels of her bridal hair and make up trial. Her hair had been styled in to Dita von Teese soft waves and her lips were painted scarlet. Woweee. What a stunning look.... The flowers she chose for her bouquet and bridesmaids were a soft palette of dusky pinks and mauves using vintage pink roses, cream lisianthus, flowering mint, rosemary and fresh lavender and the posy was studded with crazy little scabious bitterball seedpods. Her boys' buttonholes were vibrant peacock feathers with a sprig of lavender and rosemary. What a gorgeous combination.

Full photography credits go to the uber talented Joanna Brown http://www.joannabrownphotography.com and Sue Kwiatokowska at http://www.suekwiatowska.com/ who both did an amazing job capturing the day.

A rose is not just a rose......

On the last beautifully warm day in that freakishly hot spell of weather, we took a trip to Nymans gardens in Handcross. What a gorgeous National Trust garden this is. Not too big and overwhelming, not too crowded and still bursting with colour. There was a walkway planted with dahlias in the craziest colours you've ever seen, wild cyclamen nestling underneath a katsura tree whose fallen leaves smelt of burnt sugar and faded lacecap hydrangeas just beginning to fade into papery skeletons. Swoon. But the bit I am bursting to share with you was the rose garden of David Austin roses. Oh my giddy Aunt!!! Now as you may or may not know, roses do happen to be an absolute favourite flower of mine. I agonise over colours, fragrances, longevity, names of the roses that I buy in the shop each week. It just takes me an age. If I could fill the shop with only roses, I would ( oh and bankrupt myself in the process ) so this brief sojourn in this rose garden was sweet torture. One day soon ( and do keep pestering me to do it ) I am simply going to HAVE to have a Rose Week where the shop will be rammed with pure indulgence and I will imagine myself to be Mrs Fantin La Tour. Enjoy these pictures and imagine me running around squealing with my nose buried in every bloom like a greedy bee!

Till death us do part - part two

The big day arrived, the sun was blazing, perfect wedding weather. As we loaded the wedding flowers to deliver them to the seafront venue, the scent from the roses was incredible! The bride's bouquet looked amazing. When we arrived, the groom was dressed and ready to go and jumpy as a cat on a hot tin roof due to sheer excitement and sleep deprivation. The wedding cake was being kept cool, the white chocolate pouring down the sides of this masterpiece was deliberate, I am hoping that they put the skull on top of the cake! The choice of red and black for the flowers was totally inspired due to the bride's careful planning and vision. I am promised pictures from the day itself so do please keep an eye out. Congratulations Gemma and Jo!

By the way, dear readers, have I completely misquoted the vows, can anyone enlighten me?