Renowned as one of London’s finest florists, creativity, quality and passion are the values that have grown to become Lavender Greens signature. We sit down with Sue Barnes, the founder of Lavender Green Flowers, to discuss the all-important elements you should consider to ensure you choose the best flowers for your wedding day.
At what point in the process should the flowers be considered by the couple?
Most of our gorgeous couples contact Lavender Green Flowers right at the very beginning of the wedding planning process as they, like us, feel that the flower decoration is the easiest way to claim ownership of any venue and make it truly individual.
At Lavender Green Flowers we see our role as providing the backdrop to the most personal, and important, of family events, creating signature designs that are truly unique to that couple. We are fanatical about breaking the predictable wedding formula with our designs and believe that the flowers should be creative, adding interest and excitement at every turn, but be timeless. No one wants to look back on photographs of their wedding and regret style mistakes, so naturally beautiful wins over the latest trends!
We start with the premise, at Lavender Green Flowers, that it is pointless to create meaningless, formulaic designs. With this in mind we work with our couples from the earliest stage to create truly unique, signature flower arrangements. We enhance the most beautiful and poignant parts of the wedding. We help mask any less attractive parts of a church or reception and add joy, interest, fragrance and originality everywhere. This takes a fair amount of planning but we, together with our amazing couples, have so much fun working through the options as we show them exactly what is possible and just how beautiful their wedding will be. Seeing the relief on the faces of our couples, as we hand-hold them through this creative process is a real joy and a strong partnership is built that lasts forever.
Our clients put an enormous amount of trust in our ability to create and deliver the most sensational designs for their wedding and we do not take this responsibility lightly. The Lavender Green Flowers company ethos is, and always will be, that we are only as good as our last event. No pressure then!
How would you describe your wedding style at Lavender Green Flowers?
At Lavender Green Flowers we do not dictate any particular style but start by helping couples articulate what is their design dream. After all, they are the clients, it is their wedding day and we are creating the most important flower designs that they will ever receive.
Once we have worked together and found out what our clients would like to achieve, we go about attempting to exceed expectations by creating designs that tick every box. This could be in terms of colour, style, flower favourites or fragrance, always underlined by the Lavender Green Flowers mantra of absolute perfection.
Creating timeless designs that are full of natural beauty with exciting little details that really show we care is what Lavender Green Flowers wedding flowers are all about.
The biggest floristry trends for us at Lavender Green Flowers are……
Trends will come and go but naturally beautiful designs filled with wonderfully fresh, fragrant flowers will delight on the day and for years to come. Our aim is always to create designs that are specific to each couple in that season, at that venue, wearing those particular outfits. Only then do we consider, or set, trends as whatever we decide to create needs to be timeless. Perfection in all things is enduring and this is ultimately what we at Lavender Green Flowers aim to achieve.
What would your dream wedding look like?
I like to design multi-sensorial arrangements so that they look and smell, and sometimes feel sensational! The fragrance is also so important to me so I love to incorporate flowers that are full of fragrance that will, at different times throughout the day, enhance the mood and provide long lasting memories. I am always asked ‘which is the most beautiful wedding that Lavender Green Flowers has decorated’. Over the years, there have literally been thousands and I have loved every one but my favourite will always be the next one and I cannot wait to start designing, paper and pencil at the ready.
What is your favourite colour scheme this summer…
Really interesting as I have two favourites, both for summer. The first is the transition from blush and other pale tones into blush with accents of deeper shades such as burgundy. The second is a beautiful riot of soft summer pastels, all mixed together to form a floral sundae – palest lemon, blue, blush and sage – gorgeous.
What is your biggest no-no when it comes to floral arrangements?
Huge Domes of one type of flower (normally a really expensive variety) that says nothing about the couple, the venue, the season nor the style.
How can a bride be bold with her bouquet and make a chic statement?
At Lavender Green Flowers we ‘dress the dress’. Starting with a sketch of our bride in her dress, we show exactly what size, shape and colour the bouquet will be. If the dress is chic and elegant, the bouquet needs to follow suit. This does not mean however, that the bouquet needs to be boring, it just needs to be a beautifully designed accessory. It always surprises me that brides spend forever choosing exactly the right dress, only to allow their florist to produce a bouquet that is left to chance!
What is your favourite flower and why?
The fragrance of Gardenia puts this flower at the top of my list. I absolutely adore it and it is about the only thing that silences me as I breathe in its heady scent and marvel at petal perfection. It is notoriously difficult to work with but astonishingly glorious.
And finally, what’s next for Lavender Green Flowers ….
The next 3 years will see Lavender Green Flowers champion sustainability and drive awareness amongst our clients. We have been trailing a Donations Service for the past two years, which has now enabled local charities raise over £10,000, and amongst many other tremendous achievements has meant that 70% of our events are now recycled in their entirety and are therefore zero waste. This is at no extra cost to clients and is entirely volunteer led. We aim to define this module and share it with all in an effort to encourage a more sustainable industry.
For more details to go lavendergreen.co.uk
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