All posts by Lib Adams

September Flowers | Wedding Flower Ideas

My guide to a September Wedding

September is a beautiful time of year, it can still be gorgeously warm or it can feel decidedly Autumnal – either way I think it’s a great month (of course that has nothing to do with it being my birthday month…) Here are some of my favourite seasonal flowers available at this time of year. If you are planning your wedding for September and are feeling confused about what might still be available you’re in luck as there’s loads of treats to be had! And best of all a lot of these flowers are still available from English growers.

Dahlias & Zinnias

Gorgeous shapes and colours, some dahlias are the size of a dinner plate! Check out the ‘cafe au lait’ dahlia for soft blush pink perfection (below left) Zinnias seen below right, come in all kinds of beautiful bright colours and work great with the rich jewel tones that early Autumn provides.

Snowberries

Pretty berries available in both pink and white, I love them for adding interesting texture and shape to an arrangement.

Cosmos

Available in both pink and white and still growing in English gardens throughout September, this is a really pretty dainty flower which looks great in bouquets and arrangements.

Ammi majus

Known as ‘Queen Anne’s Lace’ it’s pretty and delicate as you’d imagine from the name. It tends to finish from English growers until around mid September but is available as an import later into the year.

Lisianthus

This pretty flower has rose like heads and a really lovely blousy feel. Available in white, cream, lilac, purple, apricot, pale pink and some really unusual gorgeous deep purple and red tones too . It is still around from English growers but weather dependent. Dutch varieties are really good quality and available all year round.

Gladioli

The British gladioli crop is still going strong and they are brilliant for larger arrangements when you want to add a bit of height. They are a very cost effective way of achieving a larger looking arrangement without breaking the bank and they come in a wide variety of colours. What’s not to love?!

Celosia

Coming in some gorgeous warm jewel tones, this celosia is still available from British growers and adds great colour and soft fluffy texture to bouquets and arrangements.  Below picture is courtesy of Floret Flowers 

 

There are plenty of flowers available all year round if none of these beauties float your boat. Roses, freesia, Dutch lisianthus, lilies, alstromeiria, carnation, chrysanthemum, gerbera, gypsophila, statice/limonium, and iris to name a few! For more information and advice on choosing luscious September wedding flowers contact me on hello@bettierose.co.uk to have a chat or set up a meeting.

Thanks or reading,

Lib xx

 

June Flowers | Wedding Flower Ideas

 Early Summer Inspiration

June is a truly lovely time of year to get married, the garden flowers are in full bloom and the evenings are long. Garden roses are blooming left, right and centre which makes for a gorgeous addition to any outdoor wedding. I recently provided the flowers for a wedding at the English Wine Centre in Sussex and the garden was so beautiful – bursting full of flowers!

So what are your options if you are getting married in June? There’s plenty to choose from and in all colour palettes too, there’s soft tones and bright bold punchy flowers too. The English growing season is well under way so you can even have all your blooms from English growers and as it is British Flowers Week from 19th – 25th June this year there is plenty of inspiration to be had with what you can create with British blooms. If you are interested in going British for your wedding here’s a handy chart telling you the seasonal availability.

Where to start….the peony of course!! Available only for a very short season, usually late April until early July but there are at their most fabulous in May and June. Below centre we have the blousy pink Sarah Bernhardt peony, fluffy and sweetly scented this is a very popular choice for weddings. In the arrangement to the left and the bouquet on the right theres the slightly darker but super-duper fluffy is Jules Elise. Also in these pictures are English grown roses.

Coral charm peonies are also amazing, they start off a strong coral tone and then fade as the days progress until they are almost white.

There’s lots of other treats to be had in June including: nigella, stocks, sunflowers, agapanthus, allium, roses, lisianthus, dahlias, garden roses, delphinium, scabiosa, astilbe, sweet william, to name but a few……

So if you’re unsure of when you are getting married and June is a consideration have a look at these beauties and see if you fancy a June wedding – I say go for it 🙂

Until next time,

Lib xx

Meeting Your Wedding Florist – What to Expect

I think a lot of people feel pretty clueless about the whole process surrounding wedding flowers, they feel worried about not knowing anything about flowers or not knowing the names of any. Don’t worry! Us florists are here to help, we can guide and advise you with colours and seasons as well as budget. And really, you don’t need to know about flowers – that’s our job! Below are a few tips I’ve put together which will help you know what to expect from your meeting with your florist.

What happens in the meeting?

Meeting with your wedding florist is as much about making sure we are a good fit as it is about floral design. It is really important that you feel comfortable with your wedding florist, you want to understand their style and of course have full confidence that they know what they are doing – you are after all handing over a considerable amount of money so you want to be sure! We will ask you all about your vision and style ideas as well running through all the important details of your big day

tips for meeting with your florist

What to do before you arrive

It really helps for you to have done some research into styles and colours you like, don’t worry about the flower names or seasons (that’s our job!) just having an idea of the type of thing you like is a real help and gives us a good starting point.

Things to think about are, do you like soft subtle pastel tones or something bold, bright and vibrant? How about natural, loose and relaxed floristry or clean modern and elegant?

Having a colour scheme in place really helps as a starting point, and as an idea on the colour your bridesmaids are wearing too.

In advance of our meeting it’s great if you can send over a Pinterest board you have been working on that way I can do a bit of homework before meeting you.

How long will the meeting take?

An informal chat in a cafe discussing a smallish wedding I’d say usually takes approximately 1 hour.  A site visit for a larger wedding would be a little longer so I’d allow up to 2 hours – this really does depend on the amount we are discussing and whether there are logistics to figure out (i.e hanging chandeliers or garlands

What to ask your wedding florist about bright flowers

The dreaded word – budget!

I understand that budget is of course a consideration for almost everyone, most people have a budget they are sticking to whether it be 3 figure or 5 figure. My advice is don’t make it all about budget when looking for your florist. The reason I say this is with floristry price shopping is difficult as you aren’t comparing like for like, every florist is different.  Experience, knowledge and expertise come into play with prices as does customer service, these are things to consider when looking around for a florist who is the right fit for you.

I’m not saying don’t choose the cheapest quote you’re given, everyone prices their work slightly differently, just be aware why they might be cheaper. Some things to consider are, have you been waiting an eternity to receive your quote? Are they difficult to get hold of? Have you had to chase emails? A cheaper florist may be less experienced which can often be fine – we all have to start somewhere – but you might find you feel more comfortable knowing the florist you’ve picked has many years experience and will have the tools (both mentally and physically!) to deal with a whole host of issues if they should arise. These little extras might not seem much at the time but having someone who is with you every step of the way really makes a difference.

Should I mention I’m on a budget?

Of course you have a budget, and it is really important that you mention it to your florist as this allows us to make the best possible suggestions when it comes to creating the look you are after. So you want a luxurious look for less? This is totally doable (within reason!) if you mention your limitations and also remain open minded about seasonal suggestions. That being said we aren’t miracle workers, flowers are expensive and if you’ve got your heart set on peonies and garden roses then you’ll have to pay the hefty price tag. I know people sometimes are wary of revealing their budget as they think the florist will just fill it up immediately, this isn’t the case as knowing your budget allows us to really make the best suggestions for you and also tailor a quote to your needs – it’s a waste of everyones time if we are on completely different pages budget wise.

I hope these tips are helpful, if you’d like some further inspiration check out my Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest pages.

Top photo by Laurence & Ella Photography See more of this gorgeous peach and pink spring wedding here 

 

Brighton Fabrica Wedding with Mexican Inspired Flowers

Quirky Dinosaur Floral Fiesta!

Georgia and Jim’s Mexican fiesta inspired wedding was so much fun to work on! They chose the fabulously stylish Fabrica as their venue with their ceremony at Brighton Town Hall. I love a Brighton wedding, nice and local and always super stylish!

This wedding was bursting with bright colours (which if you know me you’ll know is right up my street!) and the venue was decorated with Mexican blankets, succulents, colourful moon cacti and even dinosaurs in glass vases! It was a real treat for the eyes and a proper colourful Brighton wedding.

Spring weddings are a favourite of mine, I love the flowers that are available and the huge variety of colours which come with the season. Tulips and ranunculus are particularly special to me and luckily for me Georgia was really happy to go seasonal and embrace the Spring flowers! We used pinks, reds and oranges in the bridal bouquet with some bold green tropical style foliages which all tied in fabulously with Georgia’s orange nails and red lipstick. What a stunning bride!

Lisa Devlin worked her magic and captured the most amazing photos, you can see more pictures of this gorgeous couple over on Devlin Photos

Those flowers with the pink bag and red lipstick! Beautiful Georgia looking glam on her doorstep in Hove.

bride and groom in Brighton, mexican inspired colourful wedding

Congratulations to Georgia and Jim! Such a lovely couple and a real pleasure to work with.

Brighton Proud Cabaret Wedding

Pride Weekend Wedding Fun For Sinead & Guy

Sinead and guy tied the know in the most fabulously flamboyant way on Pride weekend in Proud Cabaret, Brighton. Their wedding was so full of personality and that is my favourite kind of wedding! It’s so nice to see couples just fully going with what they love and not worrying about tradition.

Sinead wore a beautiful pale gold lace vintage dress with the most fabulous cape and collar lined with peacock feathers. She wanted the flowers to work with the vintage style but also with the bold turquoise greens of the peacock feathers. We settled on pale peachy toned roses with lilac ‘memory lane’ roses too and kept the style simple with a classic dome of roses. The bridesmaids had more colour to their bouquets and featured a mix of colours to match the purple of Guy’s suit and also with peacock feathers in intertwined with the flowers. The buttonholes were a peach rose tied together with a peacock feather, this looked great against the purple of Guy’s suit.

Amazing pictures by Emma at Shotgun Weddings apart from photo 4, 5 & 6 which are my own.

This was a great wedding to work on, I love being part of the quirky and stylish community that is Brighton! There are so many ways to be creative with your wedding and I for one really enjoy being part of the creative process, working with a couple to come up with something fabulous and flamboyant. Proud Cabaret is a great venue of you are looking for something theatrical with a bit of flair for your day.

Congratulations Sinead & Guy and thank you for choosing Bettie Rose to be part of your day.

To see more pictures from this event head over to Shotgun Weddings and check out their blog post.

Winter Wedding flowers at Cissbury, Worthing

White and silver winter wedding inspiration

Winter wedding flowers – I love them! It’s so nice to really work with the seasons and Christmas is such a cozy and pretty time of year. Nicky and Chris had a gorgeous winter wonderland inspired wedding at Cissbury in Worthing. Their wedding took place on 22nd December so it was feeling very festive at Cissbury with their Christmas tree up! Flowers were a combination of whites and icy silvers with wintery foliages and seasonal branches.

We used a wintery mix of eucalyptus, white asapragus fern, silver birch branches, singapore orchids, white tulips, white ‘avalanche’ and ‘countdown’ roses, silver conifer foliage, white lisianthus.

The table centres were large flower arrangements placed on top of tall conical glass vases filled with Christmas baubles (Nicky had been gathering these throughout the festive season!) The theme was festive winter wonderland and we used loads of interesting foliages and textures to really represent the season. I love working with loads of different foliage, I find it brings the arrangements alive by adding movement and texture and also frames the blooms and stops them looking squished!

Winter wedding flowers sussex. Bride and bridesmaids in frozen ice blue dresses

white winter bridesmaids bouquets

Bride & Groom. Winter wedding at Cissbury

 

Colourful Wedding Flowers

Great news guys – colour is here and if you’re a full blown colour enthusiast such as I you will find this pretty exciting. Last year’s wedding season saw a rise in people opting to have stronger notes in their flower colour palettes, a splash of cerise pink to brighten up the overall look or some yellow to add zing. Colourful wedding flowers are a great way to really brighten up a ceremony or reception room. Uplifting zesty, citrus colours have become very popular along with peaches and corals being a 2016 favourite.

Before I was fully immersed in the wedding world it hadn’t crossed my mind that there would be such a thing as wedding fashion trends, I thought people got married and simply chose colours that reflected them or which worked well with the venue or season. But nowadays there are so many visual references, particularly Instagram, Pinterest  and Facebook where we are surrounded by fabulous pictures of these amazing events it is hard not to be unknowingly sucked into following the trends. I am happy when the trend is for bold and bright, it is always really fun to work with punchy colour schemes.

Photo credits – top centre, centre left and centre right Fleming Photo. Lower left Ride Again Photography  Lower centre Laurence and Ella Photography Bottom right Sara Reeve Photography

We’ve been seeing a rise in relaxed and more personal weddings in the last couple of years and 2016 saw many festival and fiesta style celebrations taking place. Personally I have seen a reduction in the pale rustic jam jar style wedding an a rise in the brighter bolder Mexican fiesta style. Small jars and vases are still popular though, having clusters of smaller arrangements rather than one large one on each table remains a popular reception decor choice.

Photo credit – lower left Fleming Photo

January is one of the busiest times of year for wedding planning with many newly engaged couples getting excited and starting to plan their big day. I’d advise getting started with a Pinterest board, pin away with any images you are inspired by – even if you aren’t sure on the style or colour scheme you are going for.  Over time you will start to see a pattern emerge and it seems to come together in terms of a theme, or if you can’t see the theme then I often can – and that is where your florist will help you out!

Happy planning!

Lib xx

Weekly Flowers from Bettie Rose

It probably looks to you all like it’s a little quiet here at Bettie Rose HQ, I know I’ve been slacking a little on social media updates but it’s been full steam ahead behind the scenes as I’ve been getting ready to launch the brand new side of my business. So allow me to introduce Weekly Flowers by Bettie Rose recently launched here in Brighton.

free delivery flowers brighton and hove

Like a veg box but for flowers

The idea is for you to have a fresh selection of seasonal flowers delivered straight to your door. The flowers are chosen by us at the crack of dawn on the day you receive them so the flowers are as fresh as they can possibly be, meaning a longer vase life for your flowers which equates to more joy for you!

The flowers are then arranged into a nice bunch, wrapped in protective paper and then hand delivered to you – free of charge, yes that’s right no nasty extra delivery costs. We delivery every Thursday to Brighton and Hove.

Lets keep things simple:

  1. Choose your bouquet size
  2. Fill in your details
  3. Receive your flowers

The website is designed to be fuss free and easy to navigate as we understand that you folks have busy lives and have no time for messing about! You can feel good about the fact that your bouquet is made up of the freshest best quality flowers available on the day, nothing has been hanging around waiting to sell.

weekly bouquet brighton sussex

You can choose from 3 different sizes for your weekly bunch to be delivered: small £15, medium £25 and large £35 and they are delivered on Thursday every week.

There’s also a gift section where rather than paying for flowers every week you can treat a loved one to 1, 2 or 3 months worth of weekly flowers – Christmas gift ideas anyone?! Ahem.

So spread the love, as a customer if you refer a friend to us then you will both receive a free bunch of flowers! Pop on over to www.bettieroseweekly.com to see more.

This service is currently only available in the Brighton and Hove area but watch this space as we hope to be expanding our coverage very soon. If you are just outside of Brighton and Hove, Portslade for example, drop us a line and we might be able to fit you in already.

flower subscription brighton

Beautiful photos by 7two9 photography  check out their work at 7two9.com

Autumn flowers at Patricks Barn Chiddinglye – Vivian & Sam

Rich berry shades and rustic foliage

I truly love working with the seasons and I’m pretty sure Autumn is my favourite (but ask me again in Spring and I might tell you something different!)  Vivian and Sam tied the knot in the beautiful gardens of the Chiddinglye estate, a gorgeous farm tucked away in Sussex with Patrick’s Barn ready and waiting onsite to hold a fabulous reception in. There’s the added bonus of having your food freshly prepared right next door by Becky who runs The Garden Chef (I strongly urge you to try her chocolate brownies, so good! Becky very kindly kept me fed whilst I was setting up!)

Vivian and Sam wanted the focus of their wedding to be seasonal blooms and full of luscious foliages, I was pretty happy to be allowed to get stuck in to rich Autumnal colours. Dahlias, amaranthus, euphorbia, roses, crocosmia, the most gorgeous colour cerise vanda orchids, a whole load of green goodness including asparagus and sword ferns and eucalyptus were all used to create a natural wild look with a pop of colour.

Vivian’s bouquet was a natural looking, cascading posy full of gorgeous greens and rich Autumn oranges and pinks.

The ceremony took place in the gardens and it was touch and go with the weather – but they did it and it looked amazing!

Patricks barn looking awesome, I love the colour of the lanterns against the flowers. The clever folk at Not Your Average I Do provided and installed the lanterns and fairy lights which really adds to the atmosphere of the barn.

I really enjoyed working on this wedding, congratulations to Vivian and Sam and thank you for choosing Bettie Rose!

sussex wedding florist bright flowers

Pangdean Barn Spring Wedding – Katie & James

Spring wedding flowers in Brighton

What a beautiful wedding to start off this year’s wedding season with a Pangdean Barn Spring wedding! I love working at Pangdean Barn, everyone is so lovely and welcoming and it is a really pretty location – and not to mention nice and local to me just outside of Brighton!

The spring flowers were in full bloom and ready to be made into fabulous wedding bouquets. Katie and James chose a really pretty mix of seasonal flowers in pale blush pinks and whites with loads of loose and lovely rustic style foliage. The bouquets featured, tulips, ranunculus, roses, wax flower and eucalyptus.

For the tables at Pangdean we used rustic log slices and placed jam jars of pretty pink and white spring flowers which fit in nicely with the barn’s low key relaxed feel. We also decorated the table plan (which was made out of an old door!) with garlands of eucalyptus and gypsophila.

How it all begins, buckets full of beautiful blooms…..

The above photos are my own. The beautiful pictures below are from lovely local Brighton photographer Sara Reeve. If you’d like to see more pictures from this wedding check out Sara’s blog post on her website Sara Reeve photography  – they are really beautiful pictures. Thanks Sara for letting me use them on my site.