Oh August, where shall we start...
On Saturday I was basking in the late afternoon sunshine on the banks of the River Thames celebrating the most wonderful wedding of two very good friends (so much more to come on this soon) with a Pimms in one hand and sunglasses in the other. Yesterday I found myself curled up in front of a log fire eating apple and blackberry crumble whilst the rain poured outside and everything seemed tinged with grey. For those who don't know me, this is my idea of heaven and I rather enjoyed myself, but it has all been a touch confusing to find myself doing so at the beginning of August. To spot rain battered roses and large pom pom headed phlox clinging on for dear life in the garden through my steaming bowl of crumble and custard by the fire is a touch seasonally confusing, but I suppose I shouldn't be quite so surprised by this very British summer.
However, this afternoon I'm casting my mind back to a rather lovely May day in the Buckinghamshire woodland at GreenAcres with the most wonderful team of suppliers. I was thrilled to share the full feature on Love My Dress a few weeks ago, and have been sitting on these film photos for a while thinking they might make a rather lovely behind the scenes edit.
It was such a joy to be given the opportunity to work with Emma and Kat from Coco & Kat, who created the most beautiful brief focussing on the lush woodland backdrop of GreenAcres and the sea of bluebells we hoped would provide the prettiest of backdrops on the day - and we weren't disappointed. Colours were confined to soft bluebell, dusky rose, white and pops of peach, set amongst boughs of lush green foliage to echo the woodland in which we were shooting and I was given free reign over which flowers to choose. Of course, seasonality was key and I gathered as much spirea, lilac and jacobs ladder as I could get my hands on.
With two ceremony spaces to dress, both inside and out, plans were made for a floral arch in the Woodland Hall and a floor standing arc for the woodland clearing. I had been eyeing up a mass of Clematis 'Montana' in pink and white for a few days, knowing it would be perfect for the natural asymmetrical arch and tumbling from bridal bouquets. I was in luck the week of the shoot and filled the van with buckets of its blooms alongside plenty of cow parsley, hawthorn blossom and an array of the prettiest peachy-pink roses I could lay my hands on to join the rest of the florals.
We assembled an asymmetrical arch of hawthorn blossom and spirea, reflective of the environment in which we were dressing, and a final flourish of those candy coloured clematis tendrils completed the brief. Either side of the aisle lay free standing aisle runners in pretty peach, white and blush with pops of bluebell, arranged in a natural way to give the feel that they had simply grown there.
Fuelled by a big lunch and plenty of tea, we then headed down to the woodland dell with its carpet of bluebells and beautiful props that Hire Love had set up ready to be dressed with blooms. The floral runners were placed either side of the carpeted aisle, mirroring the large floor standing curved arc surrounding the double peacock chair. The arches were created using palest peach Pampas Grass to give height and movement, surrounded by a mass of foxgloves, larkspur, roses, cow parsley, pale pink astilbe and clematis.
Alongside the bouquets and ceremony blooms, dainty buds and sprigs of foliage were used in dusky rose and blush pink, soft bluebell and white for a statement buttonhole. White clematis nestled between spray roses in barely-there blush, creating a more traditional style buttonhole with wisps of bluebell and foliage to give a natural feel. We then added trails of white clematis, with its twisting bud heads and bold star-shaped flowers and longer lengths of foliage and spirea to create a larger statement buttonhole.
The whole shoot was captured effortlessly by the incredibly talented Hannah Duffy Photography, and you can see her beautiful photographs over on Love My Dress. We were also very lucky to be joined by Roost Film Co who captured the day on film - to really see the blooms in action have a watch here... enjoy!
Charlotte x