Wild and Whimsical Wedding at Cowdray House

I LOVE it when I’m challenged to create something unique for a wedding: something that has not been done before at a venue. This is what we creative florists dream of.

We’ve created many, many unique floral events at Cowdray House in Midhurst and last August we added another one to our portfolio.

Our bride, Danica, wore a unique and beautiful embroidered, colourful floral dress and she sent me an image which inspired the colour palette and the flowers.

Here are the wonderful photos by the hugely talented Lily Bungay and Co @lilybungayandco on Instagram

The aisle for the outdoor wedding ceremony

Wedding Ceremony at Cowdray House

Danica’s beautiful embroidered dress

Wedding Banquet at Cowdray House

Danica’s Wedding Bouquet

Table details

Table flowers for the wedding banquet

The Bride and Groom

Sustainable Dinner in January at Cowdray House

This was an absolutely lovely event at Cowdray House on The Cowdray Estate last week.

The event was a familiarisation trip for event planners.

It was a sustainable event and therefore music to my ears of course!

We used British grown flowers of tulips, ranunculus, scented narcissi, catkins, early blossom, snowdrops, camelia and eleagnus from Cornwall, Lincolnshire and Hampshire with a few things from our own garden.

The delightful team from the family run and super sustainable Lettice Events showcased their food and hospitality and Firebird Events provided the lighting.

The photographs are by the very talented Stephanie and Nicole

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Sustainable Dinner at Cowdray House

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.

This Floral Life 2019 Weddings and Events

I decided to post this summary of a few of our weddings and events from last year for the people who don’t follow us on Instagram where we originally posted this after Christmas.

It’s always great to review the year and It’s been lovely looking back on some of the events and weddings we waved our floral wand over in 2019.

It was a fun year and it was wonderful to have created so many events without using any plastic floral foam or single use plastics. Sustainability is an overused but necessary word these days and it actually lays at the heart of our business. We’ve just come through the hottest decade on record and it’s never been more important to do everything we can to ensure that we protect the planet from further decline.

We’ve had outr electric van for 3 years now and it really helps to keep us on track on this important journey. We work locally and the majority of our work is within a very small radius of where we live.

We grow flowers using organic methods and pick foliage from our gardens and the surrounding area of woodlands and use plants where we can so that we can replant them. We de-rigg all of our own jobs and we we like our clients to take home the flowers we make so we seldom have green waste to collect from our events but when we do then we compost it ourselves and put it back into the soil.

We’re not perfect but we are committed to doing everything we can and in doing so it becomes second nature and a way of life.

Sustainable, natural floristry for events and weddings

Flowers for a Dinner in January at Cowdray House

Happy New Year to you all!

We’ve hit the ground running this year with lots of flowers and bulb planters going out for delivery ,dinners to arrange flowers for and lot’s of wedding quotes, mood boards and plenty of exciting projects in the pipe line.

The photos are from last week’s lovely formal dinner for 16 people at Cowdray House.

White flowers look fresh in January so we chose seasonal ranunculus, paperweight narcissi, hellebores, muscari and ivy.

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

A Spectacular Autumnal Dinner at Cowdray House with British Flowers

This autumnal dinner at Cowdray House, Cowdray Estate was incredible. Hosted by the fabulous team at Caper and Berry the event was for the leading lights in the wedding and event planning industry, who stayed at Cowdray House overnight.

We used all British grown chrysanthemums from Hampshire and believe me these are nothing like the contrived chrysanthemums you usually find in supermarkets and garages. The colours were truly amazing and they were wayward and natural. We foraged bracken and browning ferns from The Cowdray Estate and used them to dress the candelabra and the fireplace. The result was really beautiful and the planners loved it.

I actually attended the event and the food and service by the incredible team at Caper and Berry was wonderful.

These wonderful photographs of the event are by the super talented Louise Adby

What a magical evening in Midhurst!

January Wedding Flowers at Cowdray House

Hellebores are simply amazing plants, surviving the British winter and continuing to flower in sub zero conditions. I’ve been selling lots of these gorgeous plants all through the winter at The Cowdray Farm Shop and I think I’ve used them in most of my winter events and weddings. 

Well, here they are again in this lovely winter wedding at Cowdray House.

We used plants on the table and cut hellebores in the bouquets tied with jasmine, paperwhite narcissi, white lilac and a sprinkling of floribundas roses.

The floral candelabra, made naturally without floral foam, lined the banqueting table. 

The fire was lit and we dressed the huge stone fireplace with ivy and candles; it was a perfect and romantic small winter wedding.

Archie’s caterers proved the wonderful food and hospitality.   

Hellebores and  ranunculus

Bridal bouquet of hellebores, white lilac, jasmine and floribundas roses

Banquet with floral candelabra of spring flowers

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.

Mothers Day Competition with Penguin Books

I've just completed a lovely project for Penguin Books who asked me to design some flower bouquets to celebrate the publication of Before The Rains, a new Novel by Dinah Jefferies. 

To coincide with Mother's Day, which is on a Sunday 26th March this year, Penguin Books are inviting you to enter a competition for the chance to win one of these gorgeous orchid bouquets along with a hard back copy of Before The Rains for both you and your Mother.  

Before The Rains is the latest in a series of novels written by Dinah Jefferies and I was asked to design bouquets inspired by the four novels in the series, their covers and their fabulous locations of Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and India.

I chose orchids as the fabulous flower of choice as the colours are incredible and these luxurious flowers grow in each of the countries where the novels are set.

I was lucky enough to be sent an advance copy of Before The Rains which was a really brilliant read and I thoroughly recommend it.

To enter the competition click the link below!

 https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/competitions/2017/mar/dinah-jefferies/

Pudding Theatre

I had the pleasure of providing the flowers for this gorgeous 'pudding theatre' for Jacaranda Catering this month. They were showcasing their delicious desserts at a wedding fair at Ramster Hall.

The bike, and the most excellent idea, belong to the fabulous Minty Moore, one of the wonderful Senior Event Managers at Jacaranda Catering!