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  • This Floral Life
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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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British Grown Flowers by This Floral Life for Cowdray House

Sustainable Dinner at Cowdray House

tags: cowdray house, cowdray, Cowdray Florist, British Grown Flowers, Tablescape, Midhurst Flowers, Midhurst Florist, Event Flowers
categories: British Flowers, Cowdray House, Events, In season, Sustainable Floristry
Wednesday 02.01.23
Posted by Karen Watson
 

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!

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Buck Hall dressed for the Wedding ceremony

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Buck Hall dressed for the wedding dinner 

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Macaron tower by Sylvia’s Kitchen

 

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tags: Wedding Venue, Cowdray House, Hydrangeas, West Sussex Weddings, Wedding flowers, Cowdray Florist, Midhurst, Candlelit wedding, Cowdray
categories: Events, Weddings, My Floral Life, Cowdray House, News, Cowdray
Tuesday 11.28.17
Posted by Karen Watson
 

Autumn Heather Wreaths

Autumn wreaths are now incredibly popular and this week we've been making lots of gorgeous autumnal heather wreaths for orders. Our red and orange wreaths decorated with seasonal foliage, rose hips, physalis and seed heads are still popular but the demand for our pink, red and chocolate wreaths, inspired by the heather woods where I live in Midhurst, West Sussex, has been very high indeed. We've also been making some beautiful dried wreaths which will last throughout the year. I love making the dried wreaths and they look beautiful propped on the mantelpiece or hanging on doors around the house.

This will be the last week for our autumn wreaths as we've been working on our Christmas collection which we'll launch at Cowdray Farm Shop on Saturday 2nd December when they're holding their Christmas tasting day. 

If you'd like to order a wreath for collection or delivery do get in touch!

 

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tags: Autumn wreath, Cowdray, Cowdray Farm Shop, Cowdray Florist, heatherwreaths, Autumn
categories: In season, The Nature of Things, Cowdray Farm Shop, News
Tuesday 10.24.17
Posted by Karen Watson
 

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, scented narcissi and anemones

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

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

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

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

Mimosa

Mimosa

Zinc Muscari planters

Zinc Muscari planters

Scented narcissi, ranunculus, anemones

Scented narcissi, ranunculus, anemones

tags: Cowdray Farm Shop, Cowdray Florist, West Sussex, Flowers, Cowdray Estate, Seasonal flowers, Easebourne, Midhurst, Mothering Sunday, plants
categories: In season, Cowdray Farm Shop, News, Cowdray
Sunday 03.26.17
Posted by Karen Watson
 

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.

 

tags: wedding, Wedding flowers, West Sussex, midhurst, Cowdray Florist, Cowdray, Cowdray House, Cowdray Estate, Wedding florist, Florist
categories: Events, Weddings, South Down National Park, Cowdray
Wednesday 12.28.16
Posted by Karen Watson
 

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.

 

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tags: Cowdray, doorwreath, Flowers, amazingvenues, floraldecor, fireplacestyling, Cowdray Estate, florist, West Sussex, Cowdray House, dressingthehouseforchristmas, Cowdray Florist, Eventprofs, EventStyling, floraldesign, Eventflowers
categories: News, My Floral Life, Cowdray, House Flowers, Events
Sunday 12.18.16
Posted by Karen Watson
 

Autumn Wreath

It's been another great week for our Autumn wreaths and flowers generally.

With half term happening this week and Halloween on Monday our customers seem to be entertaining at home and decorating their doors and homes to welcome in their visitors.

The wreath below is welcoming in visitors at The Cowdray Farm Shop Cafe in Midhurst this week and it's prompted people to ask us about wreath making workshops. We'll be organising wreath making workshops in early December at Cowdray Hall in Easebourne, Midhurst, West Sussex and if you're interested in joining us then please do get in touch.

Autumn Wreath at Cowdray Cafe

Autumn Wreath at Cowdray Cafe

tags: Midhurst, Cowdray Farm Shop, wreaths, autumnstyle, Cowdray, Autumn wreath, Autumn, Cowdray Florist, octoberflowers, Christmas Wreath Workshop
categories: News, The Nature of Things, Cowdray Farm Shop, In season, House Flowers
Wednesday 10.26.16
Posted by Karen Watson
 

An Autumn Wedding at Cowdray House

It was a glorious Autumn morning for Krisztina and Graeme's wedding at Cowdray House on 8th October 2016.  

If you look through this journal you may have seen that I was the florist for the very first wedding held at Cowdray House, at the end of June this year. Well, this wedding included the first actual civil wedding ceremony at the house.

Autumn is a great time to get married and at Cowdray House the views from the ceremony room out to the garden are spectacular with all of the colours of Autumn represented in the landscape.

The flowers also included colours from the Autumn landscape mixed with pink and peaches and the last flush of the English roses.

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The ceremony room at Cowdray House

The ceremony room at Cowdray House

The wedding reception in Buck Hall, Cowdray House, Midhurst, West Sussex

The wedding reception in Buck Hall, Cowdray House, Midhurst, West Sussex

tags: Thisflorallife, Wedding, bestweddingvenues, Cowdray, Cowdray Estate, Eventflowers, Midhurst, Wedding flowers, Cowdray House, Autumn, West Sussex, South Downs National Park, britishflowers, autumnflowers, autumnweddingflowers, eventflowers, autumnstyle, dahlias, Cowdray Florist
categories: Cowdray, Weddings, News, In season
Tuesday 10.25.16
Posted by Karen Watson
 

June wedding at Cowdray House, West Sussex

It's been an extraordinarily busy Summer and I have some catching up to do on this journal. Apologies!

Now, I posted a photograph that I took of Miranda, my gorgeous bride whose reception was at Cowdray House at the end of June, but I didn't post any of my other photographs so I aim to address that in this journal entry.

It was a fabulous wedding and the Lewis family were an absolute dream to work with. It's always such a huge pleasure for me to work with such lovely people on these really important occasions in their lives. Helping to create great memories through flowers and styling, it's hard not to be swept up in the happiness wave. We became firm friends in the run up to the wedding and we've met up on several occasions since and I know we'll always stay in touch.

The Lewis's wedding was one of the first weddings that Cowdray House had hosted and Sian and Jayne, who hosted the weekend on behalf of the house, made sure it was a huge success. Jacaranda Catering provided the food and a team to run the event over the weekend, led by the amazing Minty Moore and I hear that the food was superb. If you're looking for a caterer for a wedding or an event, do get in touch with them, I often work with them on events and the clients are always really delighted with their excellent food and brilliant service.

My team were superb (Nia, Sue, Rob, Alyson and Stuart) and we had a great time making and installing the flowers. We all went on to make and install the floral decorations at another large private party the day after so it was a very busy few days, but fun too.

Here are a few of the photographs that I took on the morning of the wedding.

Happy memories. 

 

Entrance to Buck Hall

Entrance to Buck Hall

Entrance Hall Flowers

Entrance Hall Flowers

The Morning Room

The Morning Room

Morning Room Flowers

Morning Room Flowers

Buck Hall Wedding Breakfast

Buck Hall Wedding Breakfast

Candleabra in Buck Hall

Candleabra in Buck Hall

Buck Hall

Buck Hall

Miranda leaving for the church

Miranda leaving for the church

Beautiful Miranda

Beautiful Miranda

St Mary's Church, Easebourne, Midhurst, West Sussex

St Mary's Church, Easebourne, Midhurst, West Sussex

Milk Churns down the Aisle of St Mary's

Milk Churns down the Aisle of St Mary's

tags: Wedding florist, Cowdray, Wedding flowers, blushpinkflowers, Cowdray Florist, June wedding flowers, eventprofs, West Sussex, bridalbouquet, Jacaranda Catering, eventstyling, South Downs National Park, Cowdray House, cafeaulaitdahlia, Midhurst, eventflowers, Wedding, britishflowers
categories: Weddings, Cowdray, Events
Sunday 09.04.16
Posted by Karen Watson
 

Wedding at Cowdray House - The beautiful Bride

This was such a beautiful wedding and the family were an absolute joy to work with.

Miranda and James got married on 25th June 2016 at St Mary's Church, Cowdray Park, Easebourne, Midhurst and the weekend reception and celebrations were held at the fabulous Cowdray House, Midhurst.

Miranda looked incredibly beautiful and I managed to take a few photos of her leaving Cowdray House for the Church. I'll post more shortly but here is one of my favourites...

Miranda leaving for the church

Miranda leaving for the church

tags: Wedding flowers, Wedding florist, June wedding flowers, Cowdray Florist, Bridal Bouquet, Midhurst, Thisflorallife, West Sussex, Wedding, Cowdray House
categories: Weddings, Events, News
Saturday 07.09.16
Posted by Karen Watson