While Mr. Longman is responsible for the design of many royal boquets, there is a person, a different person who actually puts the flowers together, actually building the bouquet. Ther person who acutally created Princess Diana's bouquet was Doris Welham. Miss Welham worked for Longman's for 36 years before retiring in 1991.
Knowing the skill and patience involved in making a bouquet such as this, I consider Miss Welham a hero in the floral design world. She's my idol.
This past weekend, I got the rare opportunity to create a bouquet for a bride that was somewhat on the proportions as the above famous royal boquet. Fully wired and taped, all flowers and no foliage... at the request of the bride... it consisted of nearly 60 stems of white dembdrobium orchids (most removed from the stems and wired individually or in pairs or in threes) and 25 stephanotis blossoms with pearl centers.
From the picture below, Miss Welham had a handfull of helpers while constructing three almost identical bouquets for Princess Diana. I however did all of my own wiring and taping, so the bouquet I made this weekend took me nearly 6 hours to make. But, the result was well worth the labor. Here is a pic of the bouquet that I made.
Lastly, I have found a picture from the internet on a website dedicated to Princess Diana. I recommend taking a look/read of this site, as there is much interesting information about Diana there and it's called "Diana Forever" here is the web address... www.dianaforever.com/granday.htm and here is the picture of Doris Welham and her staff at Longmans assembling one or three bouquets for the princess.
Royal Wedding Tidbit of the day... Not even a princess is immune to mishaps on their wedding day. On the morning of Nov. 20, 1947 just a couple of hours before her wedding at Westminster Abbey, Princess Elizabeth's (Queen Elizabeth II) tiara snapped in two! Hastily the jeweler was sent for to make the last hour repair before she departed the palace.
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