Spring Dinner at Cowdray House

Well, a lot has happened since I last posted.

Who knew when I did the flowers for this showcase dinner for Event planners at Cowdray House in Midhurst, West Sussex, that we’d be in lockdown 2 weeks later. Who knew then what lockdown actually meant.

I went to this dinner and it was such a lovely evening. I’m so glad that I did as it was the last dinner that I worked on and, for those of us in the industry, one of the last times we were able to meet and who knows when we’ll have the freedom to bring so many people together again for a wonderful dinner that isn’t socially distanced or outside!

Jacaranda Catering, who are also based in Midhurst, provided the wonderful food and hospitality for the dinner and the team from Nyetimber vineyard in West Sussex treated us to a tasting of three of their award-winning English sparkling wines.

It was a fun evening and a memorable evening and I do hope that there will be many more of these for our industry in the not too distant future.

All photos are by the very lovely and very talented Nicole Haines

The Table at Cowdray House with candelabra and gorgeous sesaonal spring flowers

Nyetimber, camellia’s and jasmine

Dining in Buck Hall, Cowdray House

Spring Florals

Spring Dinner Tablescape

Espresso Martinis which I can vouch were excellent!

Cowdray Goody Bags for guests

A Valentine's Eve Dinner at Cowdray House

Seasonal Camellia Bower

I’m often asked to provide flowers for dinners at Cowdray House and a couple of times of year these dinners are to welcome senior professional wedding and event planners.

One of these recent dinners was on Valentine’s eve and called for a very special scheme to wow the VIP’s in attendance.

We created a bower of British grown pink camellias along the 36ft of table and lined the table with seasonal spring flowers.

The dinner was amazing (I was lucky enough to attend) and the super talented team from Caper and Berry had created some incredible dishes.

The super talented Louise Adby took these gorgeous photos.

Sussex Life and Wreath Workshop

This lovely article appeared in the Dec Edition of Sussex life magazine.
It’s about Christmas wreaths with tips on how to make your own with foliage from your garden.

If you’d like to make your own wreath with a great selection of materials, a glass of Nyetimber and mince pies then it’s not too late to book a place on one of our wreath workshops at Cowdray Hall this year. There are still a few places left on our afternoon workshop at Cowdray Hall on Thursday 5th December. Book online at www.cowdray.co.uk

I hope you can make it and if so I look forward to meeting you.

If you can’t attend the workshop but would like to buy a wreath then please get in touch as we are taking orders for Dec through to Christmas. We no longer sell our wreaths and flowers through the Cowdray Farm shop as we operate a local, weekly delivery service by electric van from our busy flower studio in Midhurst.

Sustainable White Wedding at Cowdray House

On last day of August we arranged the flowers for this elegant white wedding for Louise and John.

St Mary’s church, Easebourne, Midhurst was the venue for the ceremony and we dressed the outside with seasonal white flowers and woodland foliage. Inside the church we dressed the windowsills with trailing ivy, candles and clouds of gypsohilla and a large urn of seasonal white flowers with woodland greenery completed the decoration. All of the flowers were arranged into water with no single use plastic floral foam used in the mechanics.

The reception was at beautiful Cowdray House where we decorated the fireplace and the tables with ivy training from candelabra and gorgeous white and neutral shades of roses, seasonal flowers and Louise’s favourite Lily of the Valley.

Pink and White Summer Wedding at Cowdray House

This was a really lovely wedding at Cowdray House at the beginning of August.

It was a seasonal pink and white wedding with lots of gorgeous garden roses and hydrangeas and all made without floral foam just using simple and sustainable mechanics of chicken wire and water - yes even the fireplace flowers!

Buck Hall Banqueting tables for 150

Ceremony Flowers at Cowdray House

Hall flowers of seasonal hydrangea and beech

Fireplace flowers made without floral foam

Downton Abbey Inspired Dinner at Cowdray House

What a pleasure it was working with Caper and Berry at Cowdray House, Cowdray Estate to create this fabulous Downton Abbey inspired gala dinner for a really lovely clients’ 50th Birthday Party last week.

We used garden roses, sweet peas, peonies, jasmine and garden clematis along with an abundance of candles with our golden candelabra and lead crystal candelabra, lead crystal tea light holders and glass candlesticks.

Buck Hall is such a brilliant place for a gala white tie dinner!

Downton Abbey Inspired Dinner

Downton Abbey Inspired Dinner 

English Garden Flowers

English garden flowers  

Tatler Best Wedding Venues in the UK

Tatler have listed Cowdray House as on of their top 11 wedding venues in the UK and one of our weddings from 2016 has been used in the feature photograph.

The photo is by the very talented Nadine Van Biljon

Click here to read the article on Tatler

Tips on Decorating your House for Easter In The Daily Telegraph

Anna Tyzack, Senior Lifestyle Editor at The Daily Telegraph, interviewed me, as the Cowdray Estate florist,  this week for a fun and informative article on decorating your house for Easter.

They'll be lots of gorgeous Easter flowers, wreaths, bulbs planters and flowering branches available to buy from Cowdray Farm Shop on the Cowdray Estate from this week when Spring returns.

A Christmas Dinner at Cowdray House

This was a very special dinner at Cowdray House in December. 

It was glamorous, festive and fun and in addition to providing the flowers and dressing the Buck Hall for Christmas I actually went to the dinner. 

The food was absolutely sublime and provided by the fabulous Caper and Berry. What a great evening it was! 

Thank you to Cowdray Estate for letting me post these lovely photos of the event taken by a Chris Orange Photography. 

Audi A8 Launch at Cowdray House

Well, we’ve been flat out again since the last event I posted so I’m trying to play catch up again!

This event was very special as it was a dinner for motoring journalists and VIP’s to celebrate the launch of the new Audi A8 in the UK.

We created a large central autumnal tree and decorated the huge fireplace with a garland of autumn leaves and berries. The tables formed a cross shape and were filled with a runner of autumnal flowers, hips and foliage with decorated candelabra to co-ordinate.

I hope you like the photos! 

Winter White Wedding at Cowdray House

Amy and Andrew married at Cowdray House in Midhurst, West Sussex on November 18th 2017.

Candlelight was really important to Amy and Andrew and over 300 candles were used to create this fabulous romantic wedding.  

The ceremony took place in the cathedral like space of Buck Hall and we decorated the huge fireplace with ivy, seasonal greenery and white hydrangea heads. Candles were used on top of the fireplace, in the fireplace and lining the aisle; it looked absolutely stunning and so did the gorgeous Amy.

We stayed on site to turn the room around for the dinner with the caterers, Caper and Berry. The guests retired to the drawing room for canapés and champagne and within an hour the room was transformed with candleabra, white hydrangeas and hundreds of candles along the 108 foot of banqueting tables.

I can’t wait to see the official photos by Hajie as mine came out a little pink for some reason when it actually didn’t look pink!

Buck Hall dressed for the Wedding ceremony

Buck Hall dressed for the wedding dinner 

Macaron tower by Sylvia’s Kitchen

Autumn Dinner at Cowdray House

I really enjoyed creating the house and table flowers for this very special dinner at Cowdray House in October. It's an amazing time of year to be a florist as there is such wonderful material to work with and bringing the outside in as the days grow shorter is always appreciated by the guests.

I designed this dinner to come alive after dark when the candles were lit to create a real 'wow' factor. I used layers of candlelight that would illuminate the flowers, seedheads and grasses and although I didn't manage to photograph the table when the candles are lit I have seen photos that were taken that night; it really did look gorgeous and the feedback after the dinner was fabulous.

The Dining Room at Cowdray House

Hall Flowers at Cowdray House

The dining table flowers

Birthday Banquet at Cowdray House

I realise I've got some serious catching up to do on my blog posts to get everything up to date!  

Back in a June we worked with lovely Mauricio and his team at The Admirable Critchton on a fabulous birthday banquet for their clients who were staying at Cowdray House for the weekend.

The colour theme was rich reds and oranges with an abundance of candlelight and the tables were set in a horseshoe shape around a dance floor. 

As we left Cowdray House a team of actors were rehearsing their steps for the murder mystery game that would be unfolding throughout the evening. The stage looked set for a really fun evening and I understand that the clients had a really fabulous time.

 

Summer Polo Event at Cowdray House

Last Friday I had the pleasure of providing the flowers for a summer polo event at Cowdray House on Cowdray Estate.

Hosted by Cowdray Polo Club with catering by Caper and Berry there were canapés on the lawn followed by a dinner in the dining room of cowdray House.

I brought in some wonderful rhodendendrons from the gardens of Cowdray House and decorated the tables with seasonal peonies, aquilegia, hellebores, lilac to name a few of the ingredients. 

Its always a pleasure working at the fabulous Cowdray House! 

Brainwave Charity Clay Shoot at Cowdray House

The annual fund raising event for the Brainwave charity took place at Cowdray House last week and I provided the seasonal flowers for the delicious lunch which was provided by the wonderful Jacaranda Catering with fabulous wine provided by Nyetimber.

Spring Wedding at Cowdray House

As the preferred florist at the glorious Cowdray House in Midhurst West Sussex, we know this venue rather well and can wholeheartedly recommend you to book your wedding or event there; its a really wonderful house in an incredibly beautiful location and you won't be disappointed.

Last week we provided the flowers for Sally and Tom's fabulous wedding at Cowdray House. 

The theme was wild wood with plenty of greens and branches with new shoots emerging. We used seasonal flowers in whites, ivory and champagne with touches of blue. The flowers included anemones, frittilaria, ranunculus, jonquils, hellebores, bluebells and spirea.

We decorated the huge fireplace in Buck hall with branches of greenery, with a sprinkling of white flowers. This is where the wedding ceremony took place and the aisle was lined with candles in glass.

After the ceremony, the wedding party and guests had canapés and champagne in the gardens and other rooms of the house whilst Jacaranda Catering and our team laid out the banqueting tables for the dinner. We all achieved a very quick turnaround and the room was ready in just over an hour.

Flowers for Mothering Sunday at Cowdray Farm Shop

What a lovely, sunny weekend it's been for a Mothering Sunday.

I provide all of the flowers and plants for the award winning Cowdray Farm Shop on the beautiful Cowdray Estate in Easebourne, Midhurst, West Sussex and with Mothering Sunday and the exceptional weather this weekend it's been a very flowery and busy week,.

Here are a few photos of this weekend's bouquets, planters and plants.  

Lilac, ranunculus, scented narcissi and anemones

Lilac, ranunculus, astrantia, forget-me-nots and clematis

Ranunculus, lilac, scented narcissi and forget-me-nots

Mimosa

Zinc Muscari planters

Scented narcissi, ranunculus, anemones

Winter Green and White Tablescape

I thought January would be quieter with time to review and plan and update this website but its been quite the opposite with a really busy start to the year and I've got a considerable amount of catching up to do on my posts this month. I have been updating my Instagram account though, although I have let that slip in the last week! 

So, what have we been up to?

With any event immediately after the Christmas break simple and mainly white schemes seem so appropriate and with heavenly hellebores in season and at the peak of perfection they make a wonderful addition to any tablescape. With new seasons ranunculus in white and green, a sprinkling of paperwhite narcissi, birch and a little pop of mimosa in bud the table was complete for this early January dinner at Cowdray House in Midhurst, West Sussex.

Clean and calming florals for January 2017 before the riot of colour starts to awaken our senses in Spring!

A Joyous June Wedding

Miranda and James married on June 25th 2016. The wedding ceremony was held at St Mary's church in Eastbourne on the Cowdray Estate and the reception was held at the beautiful Cowdray House in Midhurst, West Sussex.

We provided the flowers and Jacaranda catering provided the hospitality.

It was a huge pleasure to work with Miranda and her wonderful parents, Sue and Bob, 

Miranda and James have kindly allowed me to share their gorgeous wedding video with you here.

December Tablescape

Well, it's a floral time of year and the last few weeks have been incredibly busy for us at This Floral Life. 

We've been making lots of wreaths, table decorations, planters and flowers for the Cowdray Farm shop and decorating trees, houses and shops for Christmas. It's been really hard work but so lovely and beautifully festive. It's a great time of year to be a florist!

We've worked on some gorgeous events recently and this weekend we set up gorgeous Christmas tablescape for a private dinner at Cowdray House, Midhurst.

The dinner was in the fabulous Buck Hall and with the huge Christmas tree, balcony fireplace garlands that we installed last week, the room looked amazing. With the fire lit and hundreds of candles around the room, the stage was set for a magical Christmas event.