The gorgeous Aimee and Mark’s August wedding promised to be a colourful affair, so I was so excited to help them with their flowers. The venue, One Friendly Place in South East London is a former spice warehouse and is now a photography studio, so I knew the flowers had to be bold to stand out amongst such an interesting location.
Aimee and I met over Zoom a few months before the big day to discuss her vision; she was looking for colourful bouquets which reflected their bright colour scheme. Aimee had already sorted the table arrangements - dried flowers in gorgeous, rich oranges, pinks and blues so I knew that the bouquets and buttonholes were going to be great fun to put together.
The afternoon before the wedding, I arrived at Aimee’s mum’s house with buckets of flowers and vases. I had grown lots of dahlias in the right colours, but Aimee had also requested roses, which are unreliable in August, so these I sourced from a wholesaler. Other flowers we used were Astrantia, Sweet Peas, Ammi, Verbena, Echinacea and Hydrangea. I used Physocarpus and Cornes for the foliage.
Aimee had invited some of her bridesmaids as well as some of her and Mark’s family to help with the arranging. I demonstrated how to put together a hand-tied bouquet and buttonholes and then we set to work. It was a lovely, relaxed atmosphere with cups of tea and glasses of Prosecco on the go; both are a perfect complement to flowers, I find. 
Everyone quickly got the hang of the techniques, with a little trial and error, producing bouquets and buttonholes to be proud of. As you can see from the photos, they are all individual, yet have a coherent theme throughout which matches the jewel tones of the bridesmaids’ dresses. We didn’t add the ribbons to the hand-tied bouquets at the time; instead I showed Aimee how to do it so she could match each bouquet and ribbon to the bridesmaid’s dress on the day of the wedding.
Thanks to Sophie Burrows, of BB’s Photography, for the gorgeous photos. You can find more of her work here.
Thanks also to Aimee and Mark for giving me the privilege to be part of your day and also for the use of your photos.
