The whirlwind that was Rosie bowled me over nearly a year ago at The Gardens Yalding Open Day, her energy and enthusiasm was instantly infectious and she positively bubbled over with ideas and excitement. She was so full of fun and smiles it was easy to to please her and the only issue we had was narrowing down her many ideas to form a coherent and gorgeous plan without going overboard.
The colour theme was lavender fog 'without too much lavender' and no lilac! After sitting down together we came up with a mood board that really represented the way she was thinking, filled with all the goodies Rosie loved. The mood board was changed and tweaked over the months but it this is key and essential for me to guarantee the detail is all correct; a good mood board avoids any misunderstandings and gives confidence that we are on the same wavelength.
Images by Sarah Jane Ethan
So we filled this wedding with dusty and frosty shades of grey, green, lavender (no too much!) watery sand, wheat colours, antique pink and ivory. The more unusual and gorgeous the better.
The only hiccup we had was the weather and boy was it hot! Right in the middle of that June heatwave. The wedding was held in London and the bouquet had been out of water just a little too long by the time it reached The Gardens several hours into the afternoon. Happily I was able to breathe a little life into it at the venue with a tweak here and there so all was saved!
Rosie was brave with her bouquet and carried a huge wild and unruly bouquet of roses, cafe au lait dahlia's (which aren't so happy in the heat) thistles, veronica, lysmachia, grevillia and wild natural foliage. Jame's buttonhole was made with thistle and finished with twine and open stems.
The 5 beautiful bridesmaid's carried trailing bouquets of mostly silver foliage in various textures made with eucalyptus, cinerea and olive and studded with a few amnesia roses and white thistles.
The gazebo at The Gardens was imaginatively decorated with hanging geometric shapes filled with wild flowers. The tables in the tipi's were decorated with random displays of mixed flowers in the same style, in jam jars and antique glass bottles.
A lovely long table runner was made for the front of the top table mainly with mixed foliage but studded with flowers and a single yellow rose in remembrance of an absent friend.
All in all a spectacular wedding. Worth every bit of the preparation and time given by everyone involved, what a gorgeous day for a gorgeous couple, many congratulations and happy times to come!
Thanks to Sarah Jane Ethan for sharing all her amazing photographs!
Mood board created for Rosie and James