October 27, 2009

Here is another teaser pic of the most recent royal wedding, Freddie and Sophie... here we see the ceremony in progress. The wedding party is understated. Like many royal weddings the bride's attendants are all young children... and all dressed age and occasion appropriate! I don't see them carrying any flowers, but all have floral headbands of what appears to be baby's breath or some small white flowers. You'll have to wait until tomorrow for the reveal of the bridal bouquet!

Royal Wedding tidbit of the day... Freddie and Sophie's wedding took place in the chapel of Hampton Court Palace. Hampton Court was on of the residences of King Henry VIII, it is located on the River Thames.

October 26, 2009

Joy, Rapture! A royal wedding has occurred. Lord Fredrick Windsor, son of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent has married Miss Sophie Winkleman. The wedding took place on September 12th at the Chapel Royal of Hampton Court Palace. It has been suggested that I do some blog posts in installments. I have a couple more wonderful pictures of the event... so I will share them one at a time, with all of you. In the picture here, we see the interior of the Chapel royal during the ceremony. The flowers we can see, are all in white. Perfect! all white flowers for a royal wedding, a perfect setting.

Soon in a blog post to come in a couple of days, a picture of the bouquet!

Royal Wedding Tidbit for the day... The Queen, Prince Phillip and Prince Charles were not invited to this royal wedding event. The wedding took place during the royal families annual Balmoral retreat... by not inviting them, the pressure for them to interrupt their much deserved holiday was removed.

Sorry for the absence, I hope to be back posting on a much more regular basis.

Terry.

Ahhhh, nothing like a bouquet of all white roses, and plenty of variegated ivy... The rose variety here is Eskimo, the most well behaved and bridal-esque white rose I can think of.

Roses played a big part in Princess Diana's wedding. Her bouquet contained a pale yellow rose name the Lord Mountbatten Rose, big butter colored blooms that were half way to full openness that acted as a focal point of her bouquet. David Longman designed that bouquet as well as the all white floral arrangements in St. Paul's Cathedral. Mr. Longman shared with me that he would have liked the t.v. cameras to have been more focused on the flowers in the Cathedral. Alas, I think that day that no one wanted to miss a second of Diana's walk to and from the altar.

Royal Wedding Tidbit for the day... Princess Elizabeth's (Queen Elizabeth II) bouquet contained not a single rose... her bouquet was composed of all orchids grown in England.

October 14, 2009

The word for today... Profusion. Yes, a look that has been popular for a while now, and I sure like it. A lot of one flower all pulled together tightly, roses, stephanotis, orchids, lilies, Lily of the Valley... even the lowly alstromeria. They all look wonderful in big round bundles. Not only does this look good for bouquets but also for centerpieces. But, watch out for the price of these fully packed arrangements. Without foliage and spacing between the flowers there is a lot of space to fill. The bouquet to the left is a profusion of green cymbidium orchids with a collar of seeded eucalyptus.

No royal weddings that I can think of, in recent memory have used this effect for the bride. However, when Autumn Kelly married Peter Phillips last year, the brides maids carried nosegays, all a profusion of Lily of the Valley. Peter Phillips is the son of Princess Anne and grandson of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip.

Royal Wedding Tidbit of the day... Due to the rules followed in Great Britain for ascension to the thrown, royal family members who wish to retain their place in the line of succession are forbidden to marry Roman Catholics. Autumn Kelley, from Canada, was Catholic... however, she renounced her Catholic Faith for the Church of England so that Peter Phillips would not loose his place in the line of succession to the throne.

Also, many thanks to my followers, especially my #1 sister-in-law, Colleen. I value her input concerning my blog and support for me in all my endeavors. Terry.

October 10, 2009

Hi Everyone, just a short posting tonight before heading off to bed...

All white, and all one kind of flower, I like this look a lot. It can be all white roses, all white lilies, or tulips, or orchids, or Lily of the Valley, or stephanotis... but, you don't see this look in royal weddings... and I am wondering why not. Maybe because the royals choose traditional arrangements of white flowers for their bridal bouquets. This all one flower, one color thing seems to be a newer trend in wedding flowers... brides are wanting what I have heard a thousand times... "I want something simple, but elegant." These all one color all one flower surely fit that description. I have to say that I like both looks, "all one flower/color" and a mixed assortment just about the same. For me, it would really depend on the general formality factor of the wedding, that would determine the choice between the two styles. Also, I have heard it said that the one color/one flower shows a lack of imagination on the part of the floral designer. Conversely, I have also heard it said that going with the traditional white mix shows equal lack of initiative by the designer. Most times, I found it easier to let the bride determine between the options. At that point the designer can say that the customer/bride was definitely satisfied.

Royal Wedding Tidbit for the day... When Sarah Selleh married Crown Prince Al-Muhatadee Billah of Brunei in September 2004, Sarah's bouquet didn't contain a single flower! However, it contained gold and blue diamonds in settings shaped like flowers.

October 9, 2009

Hello Everyone, sorry for the days away, finding that getting home in the evening, now that the sun is going down earlier, is leaving me so tired and I have really slacked off on my blogging.

But, I am enjoying a peaceful Friday evening at home, and really feel like blogging a little about royal wedding flowers. The pic shown here is a not very much seen pic of Diana and Charles returning from St. Paul's after their wedding. Even though we don't get to see the whole length of the bouquet in this picture, we do see it from a rare side view angel. From this angle the intense amount of stephanotis is very apparent. Just love that stephanotis, such a traditional bridal flower.

I don't know if you have ever worked with stephanotis, but if you have, you will have your own opinions of it. I find working with stephanotis simply wonderful. I really enjoy it's versatility. And, it's not as delicate and fragile as, say, Lily of the Valley. In fact I find it quite hardy little flower. Also, there are so ma many ways to incorporate it in an arrangement. One, you can single stem it with manufactured stephanotis stems, or stem them, and gather them in groups of three to emulate how they grow naturally on the vine. Another way to use them, in a very vintage sort of 50's/60's style is to stack them on chenille stems. Lastly and even more vintage style, you can thread them on a narrow ribbon, tying knots along the way to separate them down he ribbon. And, there are ways to decorate the stephanotis themselves. Most popular ways to do this are to insert a pearl headed pin down through the tube, or use a single rhinestone inserted in the flower. A mass gathering of stephanotis in one round nosegay is an impressive and fragrant bridal bouquet.

Royal Wedding Flower Tidbit of the day... David Longman designed the bridal bouquets for Princess Diana and Sarah, Duchess of York, prior to creating the bouquets for the weddings, Mr. Longman presented his own sketches of his vision of the bouquets for the brides' and the Palace's approval.

Thank you to David Longman for being a great help and inspiration during my quest of research on royal bridal bouquets.

Terry

October 5, 2009

Another great royal wedding party. Princess Grace's gown was designed and made by the movie studio that she left behind to marry Prince Rainier. Helen Rose of MGM Studios created the gown. Also, MGM won the film rights to movie reels of the wedding.

The princess' bride's maids wore matching gowns in true 1950's style. The bouquets, unlike that of Princess Grace were of a very traditional "colonial" style, nosegays of what appear to be rose buds circled with lace collars. Grace's bouquet, well, a classic and understated arrangement of Lily of the Valley carried on what I assume is a prayer book. I love the look of this wedding and it's demurely elegant flowers.

Royal Wedding Tidbit of the day... During their engagement, Prince Rainier gifted Grace Kelly with a piece of jewelry every day leading up to their wedding on April 19, 1956 in Monaco.

October 2, 2009

Thought I would talk today about one of my favorite flowers to use in a bridal bouquet. Lily of the Valley. This tiny, yet fragrant flower is quite a traditional choice for bridal bouquets. It is difficult to grow, I understand, thus is relatively expensive to use in an arrangement. However, it has the classic bridal flower look... small, white, and very delicate.

Royal bouquets have included it... Princess Diana, and Sarah Duchess of York, both carried bouquets of all white and cream tone flowers, of which there was a profusion of Lily of the Valley. Traditionally in the Victorian era language of flowers, Lily of the Valley is said to represent the tears of the Virgin Mary.

Lily of the Valley, like I stated previously is very expensive, also, I have found it extremely delicate. Therefore, much care must be taken to keep the flowers refrigerated as much as possible to preserve them. I have often seen Lily of the Valley go limp and begin to wilt in a bouquet soon after it leaves the cooler. Great care must be taken to add the lily of the valley to wired and hand tied bouquets at the last possible moment before use or carrying by the bride.

If you are going to use Lily of the Valley... good luck and take extremely good care of these tiny yet elegant flowers.

Royal Wedding Tidbit of the day... there are no formal pictures showing the bouquet carried by Elizabeth, Duchess of York, later Queen Mother. She began the tradition of leaving the bouquet at the tomb of the Unknown Warrior during her wedding to Albert, Duke of York on April 26, 1923. I have read that the bouquet actually contained white roses and Lily of the Valley, however, there are other reports that say the bouquet consisted of white roses and heather from her native Scotland. There is also confusion over who made her bouquet; was it Edward Goodyear, or some unknown floral designer at the Worshipful Company of Gardeners?? Looks like I have a mystery to solve!