The Great Flower Design 2016 Grand Final Images by Fairclough Photography

The Images used in this post have all been taken by the very lovely Katie Fairclough of Fairclough Photography

The 2016 Great Flower Design Off Grand Final, had finally arrived and last Wednesday saw the most wonderful group of 'budding florists' come together at FD HQ to get creative.

We were lucky enough to have some fabulous Judges hailing from far and wide Hein a flower expert of 20 years flew in from Holland & my lovely Mum a florist for over 50 years was acting as head Judge a kind of cross between 'Mary Berry & Len Goodman'

Our Charity for 2016 is the very wonderful North West Children's Support Group they do wonderful work taking children from the North West with a whole range of disabilities on remarkable and memorable holidays'. If you'd like to make a donations please head across to our MyDonate Page

Each year we have a nominated charity that the FD Events Team support, running small events, demonstrations etc to raise funds for our community. So over the past month we have been holding heats to determine who we would have in the grand final. We used our Face Book Page, and asked the public to 'like' the images of the contestants they liked the very best the votes were added to the judges scores from the day to select the finalists.

We changed it round a bit for the Grand Finale with two winners, one voted on by the Judges alone and the other voted on by the public. There was a lot at stake

with a chance to win fresh flowers from Flower Design every month for a year and Dinner Bed & breakfast at one of the James Places Venues, plus a spectacular trophy from Peter Jackson the Jeweller.

We are so lucky to have a remarkable group of friends and work colleagues who have whole heartedly supported our efforts and actually made it possible to run The Great Flower Design Off, massive thanks to Team Flower Design Shirl, Vicky, Chloe & Claire, to Gary Mill's DJ for hosting the heats and final, to the super brilliant Roland from RT Productions and Wedding Films for filming each weeks action for us, Photographers Stella, James Jebson, Dan Wootton and Fairclough's , Darren Robinson Magician who has entertained our contestants in between challenges, Ribby Hall Village Weddings for supplying the tables and to our wonderful Dutch suppliers CJ Vianen for their sponsorship we truly couldn't have done it without you all.

The scene was set for our finalists, with flowers and tools laid out for the 'Technical Challenge' a floral headdress

The contestants started to arrive

Everyone seemed very relaxed...

Gary Mill's DJ welcomed everyone

The wonderful wedding singer Paul Guard told our contestants just how much their generosity is appreciated by the great folks at North West Children's Support Group

I demonstrated the fine art of headdress making

We then let the contestants loose on their flowers

The very lovely James Fairclough stepped up to the plate, we had a last minute cancellation and the lovely James agreed (or was he pushed who knows) to fill the void and an exceptional job he did too.

Gary looked so pretty with his floral headdress

Rebecca had a great wiring technique

Natalie doing some beautiful work

Lovely Liz such an immaculate worker

Roland from RT Productions and Wedding Films looking lovely in his floral crown

Darren was doing a marvellous job

Paul was surprisingly artistic

James was all about precision

Jenny & Carole were enjoying their work

Shannon's very neatly laid out wired blooms

Mairead & Sarah were working confidently

Next up the 'Showstopper' I demonstrated a tropical arrangement

Chloe & I demonstrated the plaiting of a palm a leaf

The contestants had 45 minutes to complete the task of making a tropical design showing some leaf skills...

Me and my lovely Mum aka 'Head Judge'

Elaine was a vision of concentration

Then the judging began in ernest...

Judging was a very serious business

Hein did a great job of judging he was very particular

The lovely Deborah with her final design

Elaine crowned with Roses and Orchids

Lovely Lily did a brilliant job

Paul Guard looking so lovely with his brilliant crown

Megan and her fabulous headdress

Jenny's beautiful crown

Carole's magnificent tropical design

Mairead's magnificent headdress

Suzanne bought her arrangement then gave it away and the recipient the very generous friend Liz made another donation on our MyDonate Page how brilliant is that