Colourful Summer Wedding in Early December

Colourful Summer Wedding in Early December

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"I just love things that are colourful" said the bride.  Music to my ears!  Early summer gave me plenty of colour to play with for this December wedding.  

The bride also loved combinations of interesting shapes and textures - leafy and flowery.  So The main flowers I used were Protea Compacta in rich pink/red, Banksia Ericifolia in deep rich orange and Leucospermum Scarlet Ribbons in their red phase with orange styles.  

The secondary flowers I used were Leucadendron Safari Sunset in a rich burgundy for contrast, Leucadendron Safari Goldstrike in its post-flower phase having green bracts around a large orange tinged cone, and Leucadendron Discolour female in its creamy pink-tinged phase of late spring early summer.  The Boronia Heterophyla was great to use with its intense pink and beautiful fresh fragrance.

You can also see dried Leucadendron cones, some late flowering Berzelia, Risdon Peppermint Gum foliage and some foraged native fern.  Overall, the colours are fruity and warm, perfect summer natives.

The flower girl carried a basket of flowers.

I bet she looked extra gorgeous with the flower crown too.

It was made with a mixture of Walpole Wax flower and Berzelia.  My wax flower bushes have been almost unusable this year after a possum decided they were his favourite winter snack.  They've never been touched before so it took me by surprise.  I have had to use the wax flower sparingly!

The bride wore a floral comb, with touches of colour and texture, using Leucadendron Discolour, Berzelia, Dried Leucadendron Cone, Boronia, Peppermint Gum and Native fern.  

The grooms boutonniere matched, with Leucadenron Discolour, Boronia, Wax flower, Peppermint and Fern.  I also added some Banksia Speciosa leaves with a touch of orange on them.  Banksia leaves are brilliant shapes!

Simple table decorations in wooden boxes carried on the colourful summer theme.

I really enjoyed using the native fern.  I think it really made the whole theme come together.

Epsom House, Pontville

The wedding was held at Epsom House in Pontville, a beautifully restored historic building.  The reception was set up in the ball room - very grand!  Epsom House has many bedrooms, where the wedding guests stayed.  Brilliant for an intimate wedding with lots of guests from interstate.  

Epsom House, Pontville

I would recommend Epsom House for a venue - just beautiful!

I really enjoyed playing with the fruity summer colours and textures for this wedding.  I hope the bride and groom had a wonderful, memorable day.

Early Spring Wedding

Early Spring Wedding

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Spring is a fabulous time for native flowers, and a fabulous time for weddings.  I get to put the two together when I'm doing spring wedding flowers!   Early this spring,  I did flowers for a lovely Hobart bride who wanted bouquets with highlights and pops of colour. 

The bride's bouquet combined the creamy white of Maui Sunset Leucadendrons, a late-winter or early-spring flowering leuco, with one of the first of flowers from a newly planted Protea called White Ice.  White highlights were added with Bushman's Bootlace, a local native Pimelea.  

Providing pops of colour were early flowering Waratahs in rich deep pinky red, Protea Satin Mink in pink with black fringing, and the startling pink of Boronia which also smells fantastic, which made working with the bouquet all the more enjoyable.  

Dryandra Formosa, with its glowing golden flowers and beautiful leaves provides texture, as does the fabulous Berzelia.  It's green in early spring and is such a great texture plant right through the season until it bursts into fluffy white flowers just before summer.  I also used some native Tasmanian Richea Dracophylla flowers which you can just see poking out on the left at the rear of the bouquet.  

The grooms boutonniere combined all the colours and textures of the bouquets in a tiny package.  I love the colour combination of the dryandra and boronia.  That pink really packs a punch!

Groomsmen's boutonnieres were a simple combination of the golden dryandra, some berzelia and pimelea.  

I really enjoyed the opportunity to play with these early spring flowers.  I hope the bride and groom had a brilliant day.

Native Spring Wedding Flowers

Native Spring Wedding Flowers

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October is a brilliant month for native flowers.  A bride is spoilt for choice!  Last October I was privileged to be able to provide flowers for a wedding at MONA in Hobart.  The bride and groom were from Sydney so NSW Waratah's were a perfect choice.  My Telopea Speciosissima hybrids were just bursting with colour.  

The bride was wearing gold, so the red was really a standout colour.  I added Dryandra Formosa flowers to tie in the gold.  They are at their height in early to mid spring.  

The Dryandra leaves also add a  lovely textural quality to the bouquet.  They have a fine, zig-zag shape and fall at nice angles.

For the flower girl's bouquet, I chose some smaller waratahs to keep the size and weight manageable.   The bright pink is added by Boronia which not only creates a burst of colour, but smells divine, making it a pleasure to handle.  I used Leucadendron Lemon Spice, a selection of the female Leucadendron Discolour.  In spring its colour is spectacular, changing from a sage green to a gorgeous creamy ivory with a pink blush.  

Another ingredient I loved using for this wedding was some fresh green eucalyptus pods, immature and not ready to flower until summer.  In their immature state, they are bright green, and the textural quality adds another layer of interest to a bouquet bursting with spring goodness.  

In early October, the Berzelia or Button Bush is just ready to begin picking.  The "buttons" are green and they add another fresh textural layer to the spring native bouquet.  

One of the things I loved about this wedding was that the bride was particular about the boutonnieres.  The groom wanted white.  For the Fathers, I was given pictures of the suits and ties they were wearing, so I could create something that worked well.  It was a great way to work.  

White was a little tricky with so much colour available!  I used both wax flower and thryptomene (another duo that are fabulously perfumed) teamed with Berzelia and an immature Leucadendron Silver Tree cone.

The Silver Tree cone really glows. 

For the Fathers' boutonnieres, I used small waratahs.  I usually cull these smaller flowers, pruning them off the bushes and leaving them.  They are pretty but too small and often at odd angles so no good for selling wholesale.   I decided that they were perfect button holes for this spring wedding though - like a scaled down version of the main bouquet flowers. I like the way the red bracts surrounding the flower sit at interesting angles.

For the other boutonnieres, I used Dryandra.   These Australian Natives have a strong almost citrusy smell that can be a bit overpowering when they are first picked so I pick them a week early and sit them in the cold room till it fades a little.  They are teamed up with Lipstick Boronia and wax flower.  

Such a joyous combination of spring goodness! 

Natives are a vibrant and memorable choice for a spring wedding.