The Stunningly Beautiful Coral & Lavender Wedding of Lesley & Stuart Evans at The Ashes in Leek
I thought, as this wedding is one my favourites, Lesley & Stuart are both gorgeous and Lesley's colour choices were a little off the beaten track,( I have to say I do adore anything a little different!!!!) anyway I figured this would be the perfect wedding to show the whole Flower Design experience from start to finish so to speak, so sit back, have your "scrolling down finger" to the ready and enjoy the ride....
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Way back, more than a year prior to this great day, Lesley & I started exchanging emails, "Were we free for 13th July 2012? etc etc, she'd found my blog and knew she liked the way we arranged flowers, so that's a really good start, the next step was to arrange a 1st appointment...
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We got together for a sort of "Getting to Know You" chat, I wanted to find out about their taste, their style, what kind of a day were they hoping for? Was it to be all showy and glam, pale & vintage, Romantic & candlelit the possibilities are of course endless! Lesley wanted to know if we'd travel to Leek for her wedding almost a 100 miles away, Were Peonies in season? and so on, we got along like a house on fire.
Our Wedding Flower Romance blossomed, we Facebook chatted occasionally, Lesley "liked" (And still does) lots of our weddings as they came along, giving me a really great picture of her taste!
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Next Stop: The "Catch Up/Mood board Meeting" this really is a splendid meeting (Usually we do these a good few months before the wedding) and Lesley & Stuart ('ish) had worked hard to produce a board that very clearly displayed their preferences, colour choices, favourite flowers, invitations, fabric swatches basically the jig saw puzzle of the wedding day they hoped for, we also set a budget at this meeting and planned the actual designs and placements.
Before we knew it it was time for "Trial Bouquet" appointment, usually 6-4 weeks prior to the wedding, this is my favourite appointment bar-none, it's creative and interactive, so this is my first effort at Lesley's bouquet after much deliberation we decided to make the colours much stronger and bolder for the big day!
The Ashes was a venue completely unfamiliar to us, so a visit was planned, this ensured that Lesley & Stuart made the right choices, we figured out what could be used twice i.e. from Ceremony to Reception and which parts really did need decorating and which parts didn't in other words how to spend their budget wisely!
The Ashes is a cluster of Farm buildings in a fabulous location, the Ceremony takes place in the Barn on the left as you're looking at it from the gate and the Reception in another Barn to the right.
We decided that the gated entrance would benefit from a little softness and Lesley really loved the idea of candlelit lanterns creating a warm welcome
In the Reception Barn, naked candles aren't allowed but our lovely Bride Lesley really wanted Candelabras, we investigated using glass chimneys but finally Lesley decided on battery operated candles, the result was splendid and worked well alongside the real candles in glass chimneys on the top table
So the formal quote was sent out, final choices were made and fresh flowers ordered!
The studio was awash with vibrant corals and lavender shades, the entire team were hard at work creating Boutonnieres, Candelabras and top table designs
Finally the big day arrived, Jason was in charge on the day, delivering the Bridal bouquets to a local hotel where the girls were getting ready
The Bridesmaid's were shown how to carry their bridal bouquets
Before Jason headed off to The Ashes to meet up with Lesleys' super handsome Bride Groom Stuart, Jason pinned on his rather special boutonniere
The Groom's Boutonniere was designed to reflect the contents of the Bridal Bouquet, a stem of fragrant and elegant Lily of the Valley, a beautiful coral Rose, and lavender Hydrangea were combined to create the perfect Button Hole
The Groom's Men all had their Boutonniere's pinned in place and jolly lovely they looked too!
The entrance to the Ashes was dressed with two glorious "Welcome Rings" and candle lit lanterns
Bay Trees were strategically placed to show the route to the Ceremony
On the windowsills around the Ceremony room we arranged Birdcages and vases of fresh flowers
The Barn at The Ashes looked magnificent with candles in hurricane lamps lining the aisle, two fabulous candelabras on pedestal stands, a regal design with candles in chimneys on the Registras table and the Minstrels gallery above dripping in fresh flowers
Alternate chairs lining the aisle were dressed with posies of fresh flowers, including fragrant Sweet Peas, sweet scented Stocks, Gloriosa and Hydrangeas
The Garland on the Minstrels Gallery looked great
The adorable little Flower Girl carried a gorgeous little posy
The Bridesmaid's arrived looking quite fabulous in their coral gowns
Next to arrive was our totally stunning Bride Lesley, she enjoyed a paparazzi style welcome! The fabulous photographer on the day was Lesley Meredith
The Coral shaded Roses & Gloriosa were an absolutely perfect match with the Coral Bridesmaids gowns!
Massive Congratulations to the very lovely Lesley and her equally love Groom Stuart
The Celebrations moved across the courtyard to the Barn where the tables were dressed with our quite fabulous Candelabras all looking mighty fine with battery operated candles (Excellent Idea Lesley)
The Registrars table design took up position on the Top Table where two other parts created a full and dynamic look
Windowsill designs were moved across
Our work here was done, we took some photographs and invited our Bride & Groom in to take a look
Jason went back at midnight to help Lesley & Stuart hand out the flowers to their guests just before they left, the candelabras, lanterns, vases and Bay Trees were returned to FD Events ready for an outing on another wonderful wedding day!!!
Huge Thanks to the wonderful and lovely Lesley & Stuart, thank you so much guys for choosing Flower Design Events to create the flowers for your wedding day!!!!
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