Grandiflora News

Firstly, we’d like to wish all our customers and friends a very happy New Year and thank them for all the lovely weddings and parties they asked us to help with last year.

Despite the snow, or perhaps because of the snow,  straight after Christmas brides started thinking about the flowers for their summer weddings, so we’ve had lots of lovely conversations about fresias, peonies and hydrangeas.

It’s comforting to think that flowers prices will have settled down by then too - the prices over the Christmas period, made even worse by the weather conditions, have been staggering. I overheard a florist the other day charging £11.95 for three stems of eucalyptus. Outrageous! Obviously this reflects the prices that the growers are demanding but by the time the flowers end up in the florists shops, the prices are almost prohibitive. And that’s really sad for brides with Christmas weddings as they really do have to pay a lot more.

However, if you really do want a Christmas wedding, my advice would be to think ‘outside the box’! Instead of shelling out for hundreds of very expensive roses for example, how about going very Christmassy and having less flowers but loads of silver twigs,  perhaps silver baubles and lots of candles. Really do search out a florist who can not only come up with the flowers, but the ideas too. There are a million and one ways to decorate a venue or church without it being exhorbitantly expensive. Your florist just needs to have a little imagination.

Anyhow, better get off my soap box hadn’t I! Here’s to a great 2010 for all of us and some beautiful weddings.

This summer was fabulous. We were asked to do lots of  glorious weddings and a few, very glamorous I have to say, parties. What’s so wonderful about weddings though is that, although we do lots, every one is special and everyone is so very different. And that, of course, makes it so much more fun for us. Most brides seem to know exactly what they want and even if they are not too sure about which kinds of flowers, they know eaxctly what colour scheme they want and what kind of bouquet. It’s just up to us then to add our imagination and ideas and come up something extra-special which is the bit we love.

Of course, we enjoy it too when the bride looks to us for inspiration and it’s wonderful when she sees a picture or listens to an idea and says ‘Yes! That’s what I want’.

Our very own wedding.

This summer was also made more special by Mel’s son, James, who married the lovely Becky. Of course, they had to ask Mel and I, Grandiflora, to supply the flowers otherwise they would have been disinherited. I can honestly say that I’ve never seen a groom who is so in love with his bride. Tears all round of course.

Party, party…..

Another highlight was my good friend Helen’s Big Birthday Bash at the Blue Lion Hotel, West Witton in the Yorkshire dales. The countryside there is truly beautiful and the sun deigned to shine for the entire weekend. As she’s a secret Cosmopolitan drinker [that's a fib actually - she drinks them often and quite openly]  we decided to create Cosmopolitan flower arrangements for the tables. We filled huge martini glass vases with cosmopiltan coloured water [cranberry but no vodka] and chose flowers to echo the theme - dark red roses, orange gerbra and lots of zingy green alchemilla - really vibrant. Once we had added hundreds of t-light candles the marquee looked magical. We also arranged  delivery of 40 sky lanterns which we lit at midnight and watched, very excitedly I have to say for  supposedly sophisticated people, as they magically floated up in to the  starry Yorkshire Dales sky. Just lovely and I would really recommend them for adding that extra touch of magic at the end of a wedding or party. However, I think the jury is still out on just how environmentally friendly they are, so watch this space.

So what’s next?

Sadly, there will be fewer wedding now until about next April but…….Christmas is coming.  Now I don’t want to frighten you girls, or whip you up in to a spending frenzy, as if you’re like me you won’t want to even think about Christmas shopping until at least the end of November, but it’s lovely to think that at Grandiflora

The beautiful bride

 we can soon get started on Christmas wreaths and party flowers. Whoopee!