Login/Register
/
£0.00
Clockwise from top left 1. Cake by Sheri's Edible Designs photo by Birds of a Feather 2. Invitations by Elegant Wedding Invites 3. photo courtesy of Party Mosaic 4. Flapper headband from Etsy 5. Bridesmaids dress from Rock My Vintage 6. Wedding dress by Vera Wang 7. Buttonhole by Green Parlour

We have a little obsession with anything green and as a continuing trend for 2014, mint tones perfectly suit spring/summer weddings. If you want to update this look, combine shiny metallic silvers, burnt bronze tones and a myriad of emeralds, sage grees and deeper leafy tones for an elegant, up-to-date flapper inspired wedding day.

For me capturing the colour green is all about textures, tints and tones. Gather lots of different foliages, using handfuls of eucalyptus (try populus, nicholi, cinerea and baby blue) combine with dusty millar, flowing winter jasmine (or as a summer alternative clematis would work wonderfully) and hellebores for a striking, natural look.

If your after the glitz and glam, keep your flowers simple, again lots of foliage combined with soft domes of ivory ranunculus. This style would work perfectly next to a detailed flapper style dress or the gorgeous Vera Wang number featured above.

Image courtesy of After Yes Weddings

Weddings are all about YOUR detailing. Every little bit you add transforms the flowers, the venue ... everything into YOUR day and not the normal wedding. Try adding detailing to your bouquet; I love the sequinned ribbons you get in most haberdashery stores, how wonderful do they look tied around a bouquet for a glitzy streamer look!

Book an appointment with our wedding co-ordinator for more top tips and floral inspiration for your big day www.greenparlour.com

From the moment we met Tanya and Angus way back in September last year we knew the flowers were right up our street!

Sage greens

Soft pinks

Dusky purples

Basically a whole lot of heaven.

Brides-to-be take note: Tanya provided us with the most amazing book of fabric samples allowing us to match everything perfectly. It was such a joy to have this piece of kit at our disposal!

Clusters of vases adorned the tables, each filled with peonies, Amnesia roses, veronica, scented eucalyptus and herbs, flowering nigella and Majolica spray roses.

I know I shouldn’t have favourites but Tanyas bouquet has to be one of my favourite of the year so far. Filled to the brim with blousy peonies, little groupings of ivory Majolika spray roses, darts of veronica, nigella and to top it off …sweet peas! Yum!

Congratulations to Tanya and Angus.

We love getting professional photographs of our flowers and these were provided by the Groom’s company www.angusthomas.com

Red and gorgeous! Marshmallow Piano roses are my current new beau … they make my heart skip a few beats.

I’ve always wanted to use them in a bridal bouquet and finally I got my chance!

How happy we’re we when a beautiful bride asked us to create the wedding bouquet filled with berried ivy (delicious – although not when eaten) scented eucalyptus, the marshmallows aka Piano roses and Red Naomi roses.

Seriously romantic, seriously seasonal, seriously gorgeous.

More please!

Take a look at some more of our wedding work here: https://greenparlour.com/blog/category/wedding-flowers/

Part one of a three part series to help you get the most out of your wedding flowers!

Choosing the right flowers to reflect you and your wedding day can be mind blowing! First there is the style of bouquet, then you have to think about colours and on top of that flower names and what may be available at that time of year ... and it goes without saying ... cost! Flowers are so important for adding the finishing touches to your day, reflecting your style, colour theme and enhancing your dress.

So where do you start in this daunting flower world? Follow our step by step guide to prepare for your first wedding consultation ...

It sounds a little interior-design-meets-changing-rooms but mood boards are a great way of gathering all sorts of visual information to show your wedding florist (and other suppliers). Go traditional and get creative with your scissors and glue and grab all of those lovely wedding magazines you've been hoarding and start ripping them to shreds! Fill it with images of your dress, your inspiration; basically fill it with you, your personality! If you are a little more technology minded give some of the online sites a try, some allow you to create your own mood boards using some of their existing photos as well as uploading your own images and taking a look at other peoples boards of inspiration while you are there (www.dessy.com).

Take a look at the blogs below for some gorgeous wedding inspiration that is sure to get you drooling at all the wedding loveliness out there:

... and don't forget to photocopy/print your creative hard work and give a copy to all your potential suppliers!

Budgets are always a difficult subject - how on earth with no knowledge of the cost of flowers are you meant to think of a figure to put in your budget? There is so much varying advise out there, it sounds pretty obvious but the more you spend, the more floral your decorations will become. We usually find the budget for the flowers should be between 5% - 10% of the total wedding budget but this is not prescriptive. It really depends on you!

The best advice we give is to be open with your budget, it allows you to get the most out of a consultation with any supplier and means that any ideas being discussed will be achievable for you!

Phew!

This is one of the most exciting parts! We usually suggest putting by around 1 hour 30 minutes for your first consultation, giving us plenty of time to talk about your dress, the look and feel of your day and of course the mood boards we talked about earlier! You can contact us about a consultation online here or you can call us on Tel: 0118 984 4000.

See you next week for part two ...

There is something about white wedding flowers that I love. Perhaps its there timeless elegance and the fact they can be a complete chameleon! Able to transform from crisp modern orchids right through to a relaxed, English country garden theme, they retain their simplicity and grace of style no matter what venue, vase or dress they find themselves near.

I personally love white flowers in a relaxed country feel, a look that suits Bradfield College perfectly, complimenting the dark wood that is present throughout the Main Hall and bringing a taste of the buildings gorgeous grounds inside. Filled with Avalanche Roses, white Veronica, scented Eucalyptus, Majolica spray Roses, Astilbe and Waxflower these glass cylinder vases work perfectly with the relaxed but elegant brief we were given!

I had to take a snap of the Bride and Groom's cake of cheese, the woodblock is amazing! and the theme of the white flowers become a little more obvious.

Anyone who reads a few of our notes will know that I have a huge amount of love for kissing balls! This one is a particular favourite of mine, the heavy oak door leading to the Main Hall in Bradfield College would not be out of place in a Harry Potter film is the perfect backdrop for a kissing ball filled to the brim with scented Eucalyptus, Ammi Majus, white Veronica, Majolica and Avalanche roses. Yum!

Sometimes you get the opportunity to meet a bride who wants something a little different for her wedding day, and is willing to put in the time to make it happen.

It was such a joy to meet Alice (the Bride) and Penny (Alice's Mum who just happens to be handy with a needle and thread and growing flowers amongst other things!) way back at our first meeting in deepest darkest depths of February. As soon as they started describing the theme for their wedding, relaxed elegant English country garden with a fete, party feel in the afternoon. Perfect! Its exactly how I'd have my wedding.

Alice's dress sounded perfect - lace with an elegant vintage feel and was having a birdcage hat specially made, their ideas for the marquee they were erecting in Mapledurham Estate just outside of Reading, Berkshire were getting more elaborate and ornate by the day.

I always have images of Penny sitting there surrounded by mounds of pastel coloured triangles ready to be made into the pretty bunting that adorned the interior of the marquee and definitely will never forget the amount of jam jars they collected ready to house the pretty table flowers that ran the entire length of the marquee. I think if you flashed a jar in front of them, to this day they would be able to identify exact content of the containers. Filling them with small hand tied arrangements was an absolute joy and I love the en mass look they create effortlessly. Less is definitely more.

At one of our first meetings Penny informed me of the plan to decorate the church, St Celement in Ashampstead, Berkshire, themselves. So a few weeks before the wedding I was invited up to Penny's house in the blazing summer sun to take a look at all the flowers she has been growing ready to be cut and arranged by her and her sister on the Thursday before the wedding. I was greeted with a garden full of lovely goodies including Ammi Majus (one of my all time favourite flowers) as well as Molucella with their lime green zest bringing the garden alive!  At this stage, been in complete awe of her talents I decided that I want Penny to plan my wedding!

We set to work on creating the bespoke flower decorations for the big day, using all the wonderfully shaped jam jars and filling them with an abundance of seasonal flowers. Each jam jar was individual and so the flowers reflected this too, really adding to the mismatched relaxed look that the day was all about. I really think spreading the arrangements across the entire length of the table, scattered between cutlery, cake stands and, later on, storm lanterns created a pretty, country tone to the marquee, and I always think its lovely when your guests can leave with a little floral gift. The flowers reflected the time of year with some of my personal favourites including Peonies, Roses, Eycalyptus, Scabious, Ammi Majus, Molucella, Sweet Peas and Guelder Rose.

My favourite item however had to be the large kissing ball that hung from the central point of the marquee. Filled to the brim with a whole host of Eucalyptus, Ammi Majus, Avalanche and Deep Water Roses and Guelder Rose, it suited the theme and venue perfectly! I love having an unexpected twist in marquees and the kissing ball fits the bill perfectly.

They also hired an aeroplane stunt man to draw a heart in the sky.

We've made it to the national press! with the help of some wonderful images by Rosie Parsons (not only does she write a mean blog she also takes some pretty amazing photos to boot ... look out for her brand new shiny blog coming soon http://rosieparsons.com/blog/) and of course we couldn't have done it without the help  the Bride and Groom - Ruth and Mike.

Here are the snapshots of their day (and our flowers...hurray!)

I thought you all might like to sneak a peek at the David Austin Patience rose wedding bouquet we created for Lorna and James! It smelt delicious!

Its wedding day! so another early start and croissant for breakfast (secretly I like getting up early, the pastry at 7.00am is worth it!)

Am really excited about white rose and freesia bouquet! Have them all lined up on the counter and the shop smells amazing! The girls made the table centers late yesterday ... can't wait to see them on the tables in the marquee at Basildon Park.

Finally have managed to take some pictures (hurray!) click to make them big!

An early start but does it matter when I get to use my favorite roses in a wedding bouquet and pomander this morning?!

Whats in - Juliet roses (perfect, the brides name is Juliet!) Patience roses, scented sweet peas, Peach Avalanche and Sweet Avalanche roses, peonies and a good dollop of creativity.

Enjoy!

We accept the following payment options
VISAMastercardMaestroAmexJCB

Green Parlour Limited, Registered Office 34 Mansfield Road, Reading, Berkshire, RG1 6AJ. Registered in England Number 927 6769 69

Copyright © Green Parlour Limited 2008 – 2024
cartmenuchevron-down