Relaxed Native Wedding in Early Summer

K & S Photography

 What a great setting for a relaxed summer wedding - the Coal River Valley is a beautiful part of Tasmania with many fabulous wineries.  Pooley Wines is the setting for this wedding I was privileged to provide flowers for.  

The three bouquets combine pastel summer tones with the textures of native foliage and gum nuts.

In the bouquets you can see Wax Flower, Eucalyptus, Dryandra Formosa, Proteas and a number of different Leucadendrons including Pisa, Safari Goldstrike and Safari Sunset.  There is also some late Berzelia.

K & S Photography

I love the style of this informal, yet well-considered wedding theme.  

Early wax flower, some still in bud, combined with gum nuts, eucalyptus foliage and the soft silvery yellow of the Leucadendron Pisa bracts surrounding silvery cones - simple rustic boutonnieres.

K & S Photography

A beautiful country scene!  And great photography by Kat from K & S Photography.   

K & S Photography

They look so happy!

K & S Photography 

There were so many lovely details included in the celebration.  Floral centrepieces were created in vintage fowlers jars and suited the long table style of seating.  Bunches of flowers were also hung on the doors of the beautiful old stone barn where the wedding was held.  You can see a Leucadendron Silver Tree cone, more gum nuts, Silver Tree foliage, Leucadendrons and Proteas.

Native summer blooms are combined with foliage, gum huts and twisted willow.

The pincushions are Scarlet Ribbons which are early in their season here, and are softly purple and red coloured.  

Little details provide personality to a wedding.  This wedding had loads of personality!  The chair decorations were simple but added soft summery colour to the ceremony seating.  

K & S Photography

Leucadendron Love

Leucadendron Red Gem

It's this time of year that I fall in love with Leucadendrons all over again.  Not that I ever really fall out of love with them.  Its just that as autumn deepens, their new growth matures and their colours really pop.  Maybe I forget over the summer, just how sparkly they can be.

Front: L. Safari Goldstrike,  Middle: L. Jubilee Crown,  Back: L. Safari Sunset

In the foreground, the Leucadendron Safari Goldstrike are still in their growth phase, and too droopy to pick.  But that startling red in the back row is the Safari Sunset, showing off one of the reasons why it's the most widely grown leucadendron.

Front: Leucadendron Maui Sunset, Backgrounds L. Tall Red

Everywhere I look in mid autumn there are leucadendrons showing off.  Some of the Maui Sunsets have just set their flower heads and others are still growing.  Their colour is dusky but fresh.  Behind them is the glow of Leucadendron Tall Red.

Leucadendron Tall Red

The Tall Red are such a great filler.  

Leucadendron Inca Gold

Inca Gold are a fabulous yellow winter flowering Leuco.   Most of their growth has happened by this time of the year and the winter weather brings the colour.  They can be picked green, and often have a bronzy orange tinge as the you get towards the red tips.   

Leucadendron Safari Sunset

Picking Leucos is a pleasure.  It's one of my favourite jobs on the farm.  There's always a feeling of satisfaction at this time of year when they're a fabulous colour, and great length.  

Leucadendron Safari Sunset

And there are also moments when I gasp, and have to whip out the camera to capture the light and colour.

Safari Sunset at Sunset

I love Leucadendrons!

"Rustic Vintage" Native Wedding

Natives are a great choice for a spring wedding because there are so many gorgeous colours and textures available to use.  I was excited to be able to provide flowers for a lovely bride for her November wedding.  Her idea was for a "rustic vintage" look.

A beautiful vintage lace dress with red lipstick and green shoes was the starting point for these bouquets - not too big, and in a simple hand-tied style.  

That gave me the perfect opportunity to use some lovely vintage lace that I've been keeping in my stash.  

All the bouquets and boutonnieres were bound with the lace.  Its so nice when you find the perfect use for that special something you've been keeping!

For the brides bouquet, I used a white waratah surrounded by some Satin Mink Proteas.  You can also see some Safari Sunset leucadendrons providing the darker tones.  Some pink kangaroo paw called Bush Pearl also adds to the pinky red tones.  The creamy leucadendrons are Lemon Spice, a female Discolour leucadendron that is green most of the year but in late spring changes to a this gorgeous cream with pink tips. 

 For the greens, there are eucalyptus buds, peppermint gum, and some thryptomene foliage.  The silver balls are a Leucadendron called Purple Haze.  The foliage has a purple tinge, but these cones produced after flowering are a pretty silvery addition to a bouquet.

Wax flower was also sprinkled throughout the design, seen here in the boutonnieres.  I was also able to use Berzelia.  It is a spring flowering plant that is often used at its green stage, but in late spring the little green balls "flower" and become a gorgeous fluffy white.  They are just perfect for weddings.  

So the "rustic vintage" look came together with a pink, green and cream colour scheme.