Ready, aim, shoot!

So this morning I get up nice and early fully prepared to set off in search of a decent selection of flowers knowing that this would probably result in a 80km round trip to Bordeaux and may even involve attempting to make a purchase at the flower market; no easy task, believe me. Feeling a little apprehensive, last week’s scouting mission around what the more local flower shops had to offer was let’s just say ‘not exactly inspiring’, I took a walk around the gardens here at Rigaud seeking some solace. Alas when I actually looked outside my own front door there was a fantastic selection. From amazing deep red roses and dahlias to dried thistles and grasses in the meadow, it was all here right under my own nose, pretty jammy eh? I have to add that the flowers are for a photo shoot taking place here at the chateau tomorrow so there wasn’t the budget or the volume requirement to do a direct order from Holland. With the only restrictions on the brief being that colours should reflect autumn and the bouquet should take into account the dress style, I’m relatively free to be as creative as I wish (bonus!) Check back soon to see how I get on
 

Picked fresh from the garden

I think these thistle heads have a fantastic architectural quality that will tie in nicely with the detail on the dress

Beautiful traditional red rose from the pergola in the back garden

The couture dress

A Whiter Shade of Pale

Pew ends in position. Photo by Tom Darrieau

Fab couple Joanne & Ashley kept their colours simple to great effect, the flowers were all white  highlighted with a gorgeous steely blue ribbon. The colours were repeated throughout all the elements of their stationary from invites to orders or service and resulted in a very classy coherant overall look to their wedding back in August. 
For the ceremony here on the lawn at Rigaud we marked the special spot by hanging chrysanthemums and dahlias from the tree. Instead of the awfully fiddly fishing line this time I opted for 6mm white ribbon which was not only much easier to work with but I think looks prettier (will be ordering more of that for next year and banishing the fish line to the bottom of my kit box me thinks!) Another simple but incredibly effective element were the aisle runners using freeze dried white rose petals. Joanne's bouquet was made up from old favourite, David Austin Roses (where would I be without these when peonies are out of season!) sweet peas, bouvardia, dahlia and a selection of herbs from the veg garden here at Rigaud.

Lovely pic courtesy of Rigaud's most popular photographer Tom Darrieau

Dahlias and chrysanthemums threaded onto ribbon

Close up of pew end

Joanne's bouquet