A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of spending the day with lovely Claire from Hibiscus Floral Design. We created a foam free asymetric arch and bridal bouquet during a one to one flower workshop. It’s been a strange year for obvious reasons. Like many other fellow florists I know the majority of our weddings and events have unfortunately been postponed until next year. So you can imagine what an absolute joy it was to see the studio filled with blooms once again.

The Majority of the flowers bought for the class were British from the Real Flower Company and also via Zest’s selection at New Covent Garden Flower Market. The colour pallet very much inspired by the seasonal shift of late summer to early Autumn. Beautiful garden roses (my favourites!) in vibrant shades of coral, peach and pinks. Varities included Cafe Latte, Princess Charlene, Jubilee Celebration and Princess Alexandra. Paired with Autumnal pops of burgundy with Scabious and Rudbeckia along with the Black Eyed Susan variety (who comes up with these names!) which added a hint of burnt yellow/orange. Along with Annabelle Hydrangea (I love it’s pointier shape as opposed to round). Cosmos (another favourite at this time of year) snowberries and delphiniums. Foliage was abundant with a mixture of different varities to add texture and interest. Some of which included Beech, Cotoneaster and Berried Ivy.

Foam Free Mechanics

The first part of the day we spent creating this asytmetic arch which was so much fun! I showed Claire the foam free mechanics involved to create the structure and talked through how you may need to adapt the design depending on if it was to be placed outside as a church entrance design for example taking into account the weather (if its windy it needs to be really stable) etc. The initial shape we created with the use of beech then adding the different foliages to the design. To create depth and texture and ensuring all the mechanics were covered. Once we were happy with the design it was time to add the flowers! The delpinums and hydrangea were placed at the bottom with the garden roses trailing up as if growing like that naturally. So pleased with how this arch design turned out, Claire did a Stellar job!

Front Facing Bridal Bouquets

At this point we had built up a healthy appetite! So we stopped for lunch (quiche and salad was on the menu that day) followed by a slice of delicious apple and rhubarb cake which went down a treat! Satisfied that we were full we spent the afternoon focusing on bridal bouquets. I showed Claire my front facing techinque which I use to create my bouquets. The main reason for this being I prefer the shape, it creates a more oval like/rugby ball shape as opposed to being round. Below is the demo bouquet I created which included some of the seasons finest bounty! Finished with beautiful hand dyed silk ribbon from Little Acorn Silks.

Then it was over to Claire to give it a go and she totally nailed it! She picked the techique up straight away. Which was amazing as it can be a little fiddly, particuarly at the beginning! How beautiful is Claire’s bouquet! I love how even though she used a lot of the same ingredients as me her bouquet still looks completely different. That’s the amazing thing about flowers! Although she didn’t use any of the Rudbeckia but included the basil mint instead which worked rather nicely.

I hope you enjoyed todays foam free one to one flower workshop. It was such a wonderful day! Claire has a wedding coming up fairly soon and is hoping to put into practice the mechanics for the foam free arch, I can’t wait to see her creation I’m sure its going to be gorgeous! If you would like to find out more about our one to one workshops check out the website.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend