Heather’s Flowers

I had the great honour recently of creating the wedding flowers for my best friend Heather’s special day. And it was a fairytale wedding to end all fairytale weddings not least because her wedding was in the garden of her family home- Oranmore Castle which is a beautiful 16th Century Norman tower  and is Pre-Raphaelite like in its beauty.

Heather wanted flowers that reflected her and Niall’s personality and the surrounds of the castle. Flowers that were beautiful, relaxed, exotic and bohemian was the brief. I had the happy opportunity to  create the flowers from the Finn’s amazing walled garden which is home to an orchard, herb garden and an array of berry varieties along with vegetables and flowers.

The garden was just on the cusp of autumn and there was so much in bloom from roses, honeysuckle and hydrangea to autumnal fruits and berries. Trees were laden with apples, pears and plums and the hedgerows around her house were filled with wild flowers from blackberry branches full of red, green and ripe black berries, exotic orange monbretia, frilly wild roses and rose-hips and of course further afield heather- which as chance would have it is a symbol of good luck and happiness. With such a selection I built the flowers for Heather’s bouquet, larger arrangements for the Great Hall and mini arrangements for the marquee. To add some depth we selected some hot-house flowers from Oranmore Florist Flower Haven and  from Lidl an assortment of heavy headed rose-pink roses, tea-roses, white roses, lilac, babies breath and thistle.

THE BOUQUET

Heather’s bouquet pictured above and below was created from a mix of beautiful flowers from Heather’s garden. To centre the bouquet I placed a purple flowering artichoke head which I surrounded with white and pink roses and wild montbretia, purple heather, babies breath, lilac and thistle and an extra flash of colour with pink pigeon and deep blue parrot feathers and tied it all together with long lengths of cream satin ribbon to match her dress.

THE GREAT HALL

For the flowers in the Great Hall I created 3 different arrangements. Because of the size and drama of the space the flowers had to be big! For the main arrangement I centred pear-tree branches and artichoke heads  around pink roses, wild pink flowers, heather and hydrangea.

 THE MARQUEE

The marquee sat 130 place settings and almost as many mini flower arrangements. The wedding feast was laid out on trestle tables which I decorated with Heather’s very great friends Penny and Lally MacBeth who added colour and excitement to the tent with parrot pinatas, handmade neon hued napkins and napkin rings and endless colourful bunting and Mexican style paper decorations.

To work with this bright colour we used a brown paper base from which to load the colour on. Each place-setting was drawn in chalk marker and each name was handwritten in neon handwriting and decorated with tin-cans of wild flowers.

The Fairytale Ending

Heather and Niall got married on a sunny September day in the Great Hall of Oranmore Castle- lots of  merry making followed with much drinking of  champagne, feasting and dancing all night long. It was the most wonderful gathering and celebration of love and I wish them both a very long, happy and flower filled marriage. I’ll leave you with a song that  Eleanor Shanley sang at Heather and Niall’s ceremony which I think sums the day in verse.

I will build my love a tower
Near yon' pure crystal fountain
And on it I will build
All the flowers of the mountain
Will ye go, Lassie go?

Read Lally MacBeth’s fabulous blog on Heather’s Wedding here

Photos by Ruaruth and photos of Oranmore Castle and flower details courtesy of  the very kind Lally MacBeth of the blog Lady Macbeth. Thank you Lally!