Late March Wedding

March is a great month for a wedding in Tasmania.  The days are still warm but the autumn rains have usually begun meaning that the tired summer grass is refreshed and the landscape starts to green up again.  In March 2016, I provided flowers for a wedding in Northern Tasmania.  March is great for native flowers too.  The flowers that are blooming have a fresh, autumn glow the combinations of colours and textures can be so beautiful.

Wanting soft pinks, greens and creams, I was able to use one of my favourite late summer flowers, the Banksia Baxterii.  It is a creamy white banksia also called the Birdsnest Banksia because of its shape. I teamed it with a Protea White Ice, a gorgeous creamy white protea that in autumn has a purplish tinge to its centre. 

Flowering Brunia Albiflora, with the "berries" completely covered by their flowers was also one of the focal flowers, with 2 Protea Compacta in clear pink either side.   I love the leaves of the Banksia Baxterii which you can see in this photo.  They are a striking zig zag shape which add to the structure of the the design.

Flowering lemon-scented tea tree foliage, blue Eucalyptus Risdonii foliage and the purplish silver swirls of Leucadendron Galpinii were some of the foliages used.  A few early green leucadendrons and some silvery grey gum nuts were the final ingredients. 

For the groom, I used a Banksia Baxterii leaf with its strong zig zag shape.  It was softened with more blue eucalyptus foliage, some flowering tea tree and a fine, yellow-green leucadendron.  A gum nut and  some Brunia Albiflora 'berries' in flower were also used.  

Boutonnieres look great all lined up!  I loved using these special little gum nuts. 

I really enjoyed using the super-fresh autumn natives to create this bouquet - its a pleasure to work with blooms that are looking their best.  

Fresh Summer Natives for a December Wedding

A December wedding, held at Steeles Island Retreat in Southern Tasmania called for fresh summery natives.  The brides dress was a deep blue and the rough colour scheme of the wedding was blue and yellow.  In terms of colours for the flowers, the bride loved vibrant reds, yellows and deep greens, pincushions and gum nuts.     

Perfect colours for summer natives!  

The larger flowers I used for the bouquets were pincusions in red and orange teamed with orange Banksia Ericifolia.  The dark rich burgundy of summer Safari Sunset Leucadendrons provided contrasting tone.  The lime yellow leucadendrons with the silvery central cones are Leucadendron Pisa and I used gum nuts from Corymbia Ficifolia.

Bright sunshine yellow Kangaroo Paw really brightened up the bouquets.  I also used the last of the Berzelia Button Bush, in its fluffy white flowering stage and, just seen peeping out are some orangey-green cones of Leucadendron Goldstrike with the outer bracts removed.   For the foliage, I used Tasmanian myrtle beech - a gorgeous rich green.  Some flowering Agonis Flexuosa provided beautifully draping foliage as well as little white highlights.  And a lovely last minute find of some acacia in bud really added something special in the way of texture.  

All together, the bouquets made real statement of colour.  I love this fresh summery look.  

The profusion of foliage had a draping effect I really loved, but its difficult to capture in the pictures.  I think these colours would have really popped with the navy blue dress! 

For the boutonnieres I used more gum nuts, teamed with the yellow Kangaroo Paw, L. Safari Sunset and L. Pisa, all backed by some of the myrtle and acacia foliages.  The grooms boutonniere stood out with the addition of some Berzelia.

I love that little touch of texture that the acacia buds provide!  It's the little details that really make wedding flowers special.  

The fresh, vibrant, summery colours of seasonal natives really make an impact.  I hope the bride and groom had a wonderful, memorable day.

April Wedding

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In April 2015 I had the privilege of providing flowers for a beautiful wedding held here on the Tasman Peninsula.  I had such a great time doing these flowers and have been lucky enough to receive some professional photographs to share.  

In my flower shed, the colours came together, using fresh native foliage and silvery greens, with shades of pink.

There were three bridesmaids and a bride's bouquet to do and I was excited to be able to use the first ever picking of my red mini-king proteas in the bouquets.  

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You can see Brunia Albiflora starting to actually flower.  Pink Ice Protea were accompanied by the red King Protea, and some rich pink Kangaroo Paw called Bush Pearl.  I also used a Silver Tree Cone in each bouquet.  Their velvety silver look was complimented by silvery silken foliage from Leucadenron Pisa.  

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This close up shows the colours and textures so well!

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The wedding was held at a local venue called Stuarts Bay Lodge which has cabins dotted throughout a beautiful bayside bush setting.  The bridal party stayed there over the weekend, and the ceremony was held on the lawn overlooking the bay. 

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Such beautiful details!  

I made quite a few corsages for this wedding and had a lot of fun with them.  

The Kangaroo Paw teamed with Pisa foliage and Risdon Peppermint was softened with Wax Flower.

There were quite a few boutonnieres and corsages to be done!

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With so many boutonnieres and corsages, they need to be labelled.  I like this professional photographer's shot of the grooms boutonniere.

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The grooms boutonniere used the silky Leucadenron Pisa foliage, teamed with Risdon Peppermint foliage covered in tiny buds.  

A gum nut from the spectacular flowering gum called Corymbia Ficifolia was the centrepiece of each boutonniere.

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Such a beautiful wedding!

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This box of goodies was packed up ready for decorating the wedding reception tables.  I had a friend from interstate visiting that week who came with me for the set-up. We had fun!

The reception was held at Gabrielles Restaurant, on site at Stewarts Bay Lodge.  Each table was decorated with a group of bottles and jars sitting on top of a sliced log round.

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Little pegs held up cute little table numbers above the flowers.

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In keeping with the theme, there were masses of bud-covered peppermint foliage, proteas and silver tree cones, and to add a sculptural element, some twisted willow branches.  It such a beautiful venue for a wedding!

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I was so happy to be able to provide flowers for this gorgeous wedding.  Thanks to the bride for being so great to work with.  It's such a treat to be able to share some of the professional photos.

DIY Bush Wedding in March

In March this year, I supplied flowers for a wedding held on a local property here on the beautiful Tasman Peninsula.  When I delivered the flowers on the morning of the wedding, I could see why the couple were keen to have their wedding here.  A gorgeous bush property right next to the water on Norfolk Bay - a great place for a memorable wedding.  

The colour scheme was pink and pretty, with native blooms, and the idea was for the bride and groom to do their own decorating and possibly the bouquets.  

In the end, I supplied the brides bouquet, and what fun it was to play with such gorgeous colours and textures.  Corymbia Ficifolia is the name of the gum that produces those spectacular pick blossoms.  The same tree also produces the silvery grey gum nuts.  Protea Pink Ice were perfect in the mix, with pink Kangaroo Paw called Bush Pearl.  A locally occurring grey-leafed tea tree which was in flower, and the gorgeous pink tinged silvery jade of the Eucalyptus Crenulata were the main foliage used.  

I also used Brunia Albiflora, at its peak in March in Tasmania.  Silver Tree cones were used too, and a sprinkling of various leucadendrons including Jester a variegated pinky one.  

To save time,  I made the boutonnieres too.  The E. Crenulata was the main foliage again, with added wax flower.

The grooms boutonniere also had a Corymbia Ficiolia nut, and some blossom from the same tree - this years and last years blooms.  Pink Kangaroo Paw, and a silvery cone from the Leucadendron Galpinii which has lovely purple foliage throughout the year and makes these silvery cones in late summer and autumn.

The smaller boutonniere had a little touch of the feathery foliage from the Brunia Albiflora.  I also love the little pink buds from the gum blossom that hasn't yet flowered.  So pretty!

A floral crown for the bride was a late addition.  It was to be quite large, with a loose fit and a spray of flowers of the left side of the face.  

The body of the crown was made with the blue-grey tea tree.  E. Crenulata softened the addition of more pink Kangaroo Paw, Corymbia Ficifolia blossom and nuts, and more of those buds that were yet to flower.  

Such a pretty combination of colours and textures!

The DIY element of the wedding required a fair bit of planning.  The unstructured look of multiple vases looks effortless but really requires some thought.

Bunching up the extra gum nuts for the table decorations created this gorgeous sculptural bunch.

And more gum blossom in that stunning pink looked great en masse too.

Bundles of foliage and lots of Brunia and Silver Tree cones filled up the box quickly.  

And it was left for the wedding party to make the extra bouquets and the wedding decorations from this box of goodness.

I had made some "mock-up" decorations to check that the overall look would work.  

I think the combinations worked well.  

It was such a pleasure to be involved in this DIY bush wedding!