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