Mr Blue Sky

"Sun is shinin' in the sky
There ain't a cloud in sight
It's stopped rainin' ev'rybody's in a play
And don't you know
It's a beautiful new day hey,hey"

  

A week before the wedding this was looking very unlikely; it rained everyday of April, the forecast was for thunderstorms, marquees and umbrellas winged their way from the UK - not what you want when you've travelled 9000miles across the world for your wedding. But alas the magic of Rigaud happened and the sun shone down on Angela and Edward and their glamorous guests. Angela choose a beautifully simple white and green theme for the flowers with a pop of fuchsia pink to contrast with the vibrant blue of the bridesmaid dresses.

Hot off the sewing machine the Dove grey runners were used and really helped to lift the tables in the barn, 90 wine corks were sliced to form place-card holders in keeping with our location in the heart of the Bordeaux region, paper confetti cones were rolled and stuck, the outdoor sofas were given a luxurious make-over with beautiful new cushions Mary, one half of Rigaud's winter chef team, was comissioned to write the place cards and blackboard with her fabulous handwriting. Not only that but our new-look garden themed canape tables were unveiled for the first time.... phew busy week with lots of photos to share!

Table flowers and grey table runner

Wine cork place-card holders

Bride's bouquet feauring peonies, roses, bouvardia, astilbe rosemary and eucalyptus

1 of 3 fuschia pink bridemaid's domed rose bouquets

Planted trug for vegetarian canape stand

Foie gras and bayonne ham stand dressed with tree trunk stumps

The re-styled vegetarian canape stand

Oysters and saucisson stand

Broncante shopping day purchases

Pew end

pimped up sofa cushions

Barn entrance cone and blackboard table plan

Table centres featured individual flower types in different jam-jars, candles and mirrors

Wedding Barn set-up

Beautiful wedding cake dressed with fresh flowers

Top of the Class

Back en France after a fantastic couple of days in London. First stop after the delights of flying Ryanair was the fabulous brand new boutique hotel the Zetter Townhouse - I took some pictures but have a look at their website photo gallery for much better ones Zetter Townhouse Gallery

This was my first experience of staying in a 'boutique' hotel and these guys have really set the standard high. So what rocked for me at the Zetter? I would say the in room George Cloony Nespresso machine and milk frother, the hand knitted hotwater bottle cover, the cross-stitch sampler room sign and having loose tea, a tea pot and tea strainer oh and the very original interiors. And what sucked? Not having anyone to share it with. Anyway enough about hotels, the whole purpose of the trip was to attend the intensive wedding flower course at McQueens. Having arrived at McQueens nice and early prepared to meet my classmates I discovered I was the only person on the course - so not only was I getting to attend the best flower school in the country but I had two days of one-on-one tuition. First off we covered flower conditioning then onto some wired work forming buttonholes and corsages.

 

After lunch we moved on to a hand tied bouquet and wired bouquet

  

Day two started with some more practice at wired work

Next on the agenda was different styles of table centres

With the final task of the day a hand tied white rose domed bouquet (very on trend)

Leaving just enough time to have a look at the online flower ordering system for Metz.  

A big thank you to my lovely course tutor Duncan for all his advice and enthusiam, and I guess I get to boast finishing the course top of the class! (somewhat by default)