After yesterday’s post about the preparations that took place in my potting shed preparing for this April wedding, today I am sharing photos of the church and barn once the flowers were in place.
For this Saturday wedding, I had spent Thursday at home preparing all the flowers and then early on Friday morning they were driven by a convoy of cars over to the reception venue. The set up was quite speedy as so much had been finished the day before. I was very lucky to have both the brides mother and a lovely friend helping me at home, so we had made good progress. The key to success in an event like this is in the planning – I knew exactly what was going where and had a detailed list of all the arrangements so that I could check everything off as we went along. There will always be hiccups, but the more thoroughly you prepare beforehand, the greater the chance that everything will go smoothly. I still had the bridal party bouquets to make so I needed to be finished and on my way home as quickly as possible!
The church was the first to be decorated as the wedding rehearsal was taking place at midday.
The flowers in the church included pew ends, pots of spirea on flower stands, the window urns, jars of pussy willow and a couple of alter arrangements.
The church had beautiful deep stone window ledges – perfect for flowers and candles.
Two Spirea ‘Arguta’ shrubs stood on flower stands by the entrance to the alter, forming a loose arch over the bridal couple. You will have to use your imagination as the flower stands had not arrived when I took the photo above!
The pew ends were made using the little bottles that were purchased for the wedding flowers I did in September – luckily the mother of the bride is a friend, so she not only lent the bottles but also helped me to tie them in place. Each bottle was filled with flowers from my garden – a few narcissi and a sprig of ivy. After the wedding these were all moved into the barn and hung on hooks which are permanently attached to the barn walls.
My stone urns were perfect for the window arrangements and again they were moved into the barn to decorate the side tables after the wedding ceremony.
The pussy willow and candles were very atmospheric. On the day the sun was shining, but we had planned the wedding knowing that rain is very likely in April – the candles would have added a lovely glow if it had been a dark day.
The Mount Tacoma tulips held up very well – despite having been cut on Monday!
Once the church was finished I moved into the barn whilst the wedding party got on with the rehearsal. While I had been setting up in the church, a team of family and friends were helping set up in the barn and had arranged all the twigs for me, saving a lot of time.
On the top table I used a series of jars of flowers from my garden and the two lanterns that I showed you yesterday – now filled with gypsophiia. I was able to add the last of my Paperwhite narcissi to these jars – I will now have to say goodbye to these lovely flowers until December.
You might remember the hyacinth handles I made for this In A Vase On Monday – I just had time to make them for the wedding – although I have to admit to popping back on Saturday morning to complete this detail – flowers would never survive the night like this.
Tall vases of twigs stood on the eight round guest tables – in a room with a high ceiling such as a barn it is good to fill the space at eye level with something decorative. The advantage of the twigs was that they did not block the guests view of each other.
The wreaths at the base added color to the tables and the stems of gypsophila added a spring like feel to the bare twigs.
Finally the beautiful cake! This lovely creation stood on a round table in the middle of the guest tables. As the top of the cake had been left empty I added strings of hyacinth and narcissi flowers to provide a fresh flower finish. Again – I did pop back to decorate the cake on Saturday morning.
So with the church and barn complete I headed home for a cup of tea and then started work on perhaps the most important detail of all – the bride and bridesmaids bouquets!
I will be back tomorrow to show you how the bouquets turned out and then on Friday with my monthly Cutting Garden Review, including another little giveaway.