Saturday, July 25, 2015

Wedding Flowers and the delightful Northern Flower

Northern Flower on Tib St. 
This is a copy of a post on my blog 'Jane's Essential Addictions 'Wedding Flowers and the delightful Northern Flower'.  For those of you who want to follow my continuing story and path to bridal bliss, here is my latest offering :) xx

Choosing flowers for my big day! YAY!

It's a strange but much of the language related to weddings has the focus of 'HER' big day.  The groom doesn't get much of a look in in all of this does he? My dress, veil, tiara, shoes and jewellery come to 5 times the cost of the suit hire for him and all of his groomsmen combined! Now I have my dress, my attention has turned to what else I'll wear, what I'll be carrying with me on the day and you guessed it; the wedding flowers. Those of you who follow this blog's Pinterest feed will know I've already pinned 71 pins to my 'Wedding Flowers' board! Some pictures even made it onto a mood board (you can create yours too at http://www.hitched.co.uk )

Jane's Floral Mood Board on 'Hitched'

So white roses then? Err no! So why not? There is so much talk of themes in bridal magazines and online these days.  Everyone (female) wants to know what my theme is.  So many of my friends have had or want quite outrageous themes.  Is it acceptable to say 'I just want a beautiful classical wedding?' Is THAT a theme or, as some seem to think, just a boring choice? Well, let's call the theme of my wedding: 'Chic City Classic with a slightly Boho twist', will that do?  We chose the grand, deeply retro Britannia on Manchester's bustling Portland St. for it's grandiose proportions, vintage chandeliers and beautiful staircase.

The Crystal Suite, Britannia Hotel, Portland St. Manchester

As a girl I dreamed of marrying my Prince in a Fairytale Castle.  Well having found Prince Martin, The Britannia, Portland Street is the nearest a girl can get to a latter day city castle. It comes complete (quite literally) with turrets, immense kitchens, banqueting halls and a truly grand staircase. So where does the boho touch come in?

Here's the shock; I don't want a bouquet of white roses.  White roses have become a wedding cliche. I do like them.  My mother had red roses but I wanted something alternative with a little seasonal October flair; I wanted snowberries.

Snowberries? Snowberries are a delightful wintery, magical and incredibly pretty alternative for white winter wedding bouquets.  My wedding is on October 28th this year, not in the very heart of the season but on the threshold.  I wanted to add a unique and quirky boho touch to my bouquet for the boutonnieres and my bridesmaid's posies.  Here's the sort of things I have in mind:



Snowberries combine well with so many other white flowers; lilies, spray roses and a little greenery to give a beautiful textured wintery romance to an October wedding bouquet.  It's such a lovely idea.

So how did I go about achieving all of this.  I didn't want any ordinary florists's shop. Cue Northern Flower in Manchester's Northern Quarter. Imagine a cute, quirky little boutique florist's, a potting shed style shop on Tib Street. It stands next to Sugar Junction; one of my fave tea shops and is staffed by Rowan and Lyndzey.  Nothing was too much trouble and I got the friendliest service when I went there to discuss floral arrangements.  My previous forays into flower shops have left me underwhelmed, frustrated that we weren't on the same wavelength. My experience has been shops that are sterile, over clever and immaculately arranged, who try to impose their own preconceived ideas on you.  My experience at Northern Flower was the opposite, completely different, helpful and incredibly easy.  I left feeling happy and even closer to the wedding of my dreams.

Lyndzey and Rowan

So what next? I'm sure you can imagine; centrepieces, menus, groomsmen, favours, honeymoon arrangements, hairstyles....so much to blog about!

Hugs,

Jane (the soon to be Mrs Williams ;) xx

3 comments:

  1. I'm sorry I missed the big day. From the looks and sounds of it, it will be a extraordinarily grand day.

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  2. Yeah you are absolutely right dear! Deciding on wedding decorations is not a quick decision. You have to consider lots of things before deciding on the decoration styles. Well, my sister is getting married. We have reserved one of the most beautiful Chicago venues for her wedding. It is a vintage venue so we would use vintage decorations for that.

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  3. Aw, you would have loved it :) I hope you get the chance to sample the delights of MCR one day. xx

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