Lavender Hill Mob

Buying fresh lavender in the South of France in June should be easy right? Wrong! As I discovered three days before the bride arrived... Cue panic and a rather stressful Sunday evening. All was resolved on Monday after a quick phonecall to Bordeaux flower market and a order was placed for twenty bunches to be collected on Thursday morning. Meanwhile we could get to work on the table centres, which, inspired by an idea on one of my favourite bridal blogs style me pretty was to be living lavender plants. The pots were chosen to co-ordinate with the scallop edging feature on the brides dress (it really is all in the detail!) and I think the overall effect makes a fantastic alternative to cut flowers, not to mention all these lovely plants have now found a new home in the Rigaud gardens = beautiful grounds for many more weddings in the future.






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1st garland under construction
in the veg garden

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After rain stopped play and
required relocating to the barn

With the sister of the bride taking control for the bouquets and church displays that left me free to get to work on garlands for the barn




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Many hours later...

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The finished result

And last but not least the strung carnations for hanging on the beams of the church. Having learnt my lesson from the week before regarding transport issues this week threw up the challenge of moving lengths of fish wire strung with flowers. After some debate (and a bottle of Rose) it was decided, that the best way to avoid hours of untangling on Saturday morning was to tape the prepared strings to the van floor... so at 10.30pm on a Friday night with a little help from my friends we did just that

Parma Violet

Ever popular and perfect for a spring wedding lovely bride, Sarah, opted for a lilac colour scheme. The flowers of choice included hydrangeas, sweet peas, delphinium, lavender and peonies, we even managed to sneek in a few flowering artichoke heads from our veg garden! Complementing the violet tones perfectly were the two grey urns found lurking in the corner of the Rigaud lounge which were allowed out for the day to make a trip up to the church at Pujols. As we packed up the little white citreon C5 van I remembered the wise words of my tutor Duncan at McQueens who told me to always ensure arrangements were very secure for transportation, I'm not convinced he meant that I should wedge myself in the back of the van with the flowers but needs must. I imagine the image of me peering out through masses of purple flowers as we zoom through the vines, shouting at Eric to slow down seems quite funny now...

Rustic cones at the church

Urns from Rigaud Lounge at the church