Taking centre stage

I always wanted to be on the stage but never thought that flowers would be the way to get there! I created this big focal arrangement for a fabulous wedding at the wonderful Wilton's Music Hall theatre at the end of July. It was such a delight to be working in this beautiful period building pulling together several days worth of work creating flowers for the stage, dining tables, stairway and of course the bridal party.

The day started pretty early for me at the shop checking off all of the pieces that we had to take and then loading up the van before heading off to the theatre which is tucked away down an alley near Tower Bridge.  Everything fitted into the van perfectly and arrived in good shape so then it was just a question of unloading and getting everything in place.

Some of the pieces had to be finished off on site, like the big stage arrangements and the flowers for the stairs and we had eleven pillars in the main hall to dress with ivy and fairy lights too - that was Dawn’s job. She’s very patient and even though all of the lights were tangled and had to be straightened out she remained calm and got them all out of their tiny boxes and elegantly twisted around each pillar.

The brief had been for lots of colour and wild country-style flowers. I took my cue from the colours in the layers of peeling paint from the walls of this old building which seemed to be mostly blues, reds and ochres so that's what we went with. The time of year meant that we had plenty of flowers to choose from including white echinacea, blue delphiniums, golden achillea, soft floaty ammi majus and striking blue eryngiums.

I love making big arrangements and knew straight away what I wanted to do on the stage. I had the big wooden boxes made specially for the event by Jamie and Karen from JM Garden Obelisks in Beckenham and as a little surprise we had the date of the wedding stenciled on to one of them. 

Of course we weren’t the only people on site that morning. The whole place was buzzing with catering staff and theatre crew but we all got on with our jobs and finally the stage and auditorium were ready for the main event and the stars of the show.

We actually saw the wedding because we had to stay at the venue to reposition some of the arrangements for the evening and put out the table flowers, so we sat up in the dress circle and watched the guests taking their seats, the groom chatting and looking very relaxed and finally the beautiful bride who walked down the aisle with her Mum by her side. It was a lovely ceremony full of smiles, tears and laughter; the bride looked stunning and the groom looked stunned! Wonderful.

After we'd finished our bit we said our goodbyes to the happiest bride I think I've ever seen and returned to the shop where Alison who had made all of the stunning buttonholes, had been minding the shop for pretty much a whole day.  I'm so pleased that we also had the lovely Tricia from tricia@portrayedphotography with us to record the day with these wonderful photos.  I love the theatre so it really was a dream to be working at this venue and for a truly delightful couple too, so thank you Mr and Mrs McCartney, it was a pleasure to work with you and play a very small part in your big day.

If you're planning a wedding or event and would like to talk to us about your flowers please email kay@justsoflowers.co.uk to arrange an appointment. We're here to help.