TRAILING WHIMSICAL GARDEN | TAMINA + WEIS
/BRIEF: French Whimsical Garden meets a Modern Luxe Backdrop
LOCATION: Curzon Hall, Mansfield, NSW
13th January 2018
COASTAL ROMANCE | JESS + JAMES
/BRIEF: Contemporary Minimalism meets Bohemian Luxe
LOCATION: Rusty Gate Weddings, Curlews, VIC
November 18th, 2017
Timeless Romance | Tamara & Jesse
/I met this bride in person at our site inspection. From many previous emails I had worked out that Tamara’s wedding would be pretty, pink, bohemian & romantic. Tamara & her fiance’s love was obvious & cute. They clearly respected one another & were just as clearly excited for their future. But it wasn’t until I met this sweet, soft, elegant & understated beauty that I really visualised her & her loves day. I remembered her slight apprehension when I explained in great detail her bridal table installation. She reallllly wanted to be totally on board but I could sense she was worried it would be a little over the top. In my world I believe ‘more is more is more’ so sensing this worry & knowing I would need to rein it in a little was in itself a challenge. But chatting with her & her BMoH I truly gained some perspective. She may not have been about OTT WOW factor but certainly loved abundance, intricacy & an overall feel. She would rather the look be entirely captured throughout the whole room than a show stopping bridal & less is more guests tables. She was a giver, someone who wanted everyone to feel & experience the magic. She was also a little reserved & not the kind of bride that demanded the attention. I realised this when we broached the subject of her bridal bouquet. She wanted it bountiful but not too big with a few pops delicate refined blooms & didn’t want it to swamp her. I personally believe that a bridal bouquet is the perfect reflection of the bride’s personality. I decided in that moment that her bouquet would be a slightly smaller take on what I would usually do, ensuring I used an abundance of various pretty garden roses in various shades of pink & apricot with pops of white & earl grey, wisps of trailing jasmine, whimsical in shape with a rarity of green. It was to be a tidy take on bohemian with the wild factor removed yet still ethereal at heart & heart stoppingly beautiful. This quick yet effective thought is what would go onto ring true throughout the whole design.
As it was a smaller budget, we decided to opt for a heavier table styling package so we could use the blooms on every second table & allow those arrangements to make a proper statement! A flawless combination of brassware & cut glass were used in addition to blush silk table runners draped & gathered across each table to create the bohemian yet pretty & whimsical vibe. Clustering each type per table & layering in a few stems continued the look throughout the room. The arrangements were an extension of the bridal bouquet, beautiful, bountiful & cascading with a refined feel. Although I did add a few stems of vines to create a little drama & height to help fill the room. But it truly was the bridal table that helped the room go from beautiful to Holy Moly WOW. The table was quite long with white cloths & a not so romantic beige/brown curtain behind it. There was a desperate need for some luxe & romance, enter silk fabric draped along the front in an evocative fashion, stage right. I then created pockets of styling stories with branches of delicate greenery sitting amongst them. The couple would then be framed by a backdrop made of our ‘Star Gazer’ brass lace arbour adorned in endless blooms & organically shaped branches. In front of the couple was an installation made up of fleur’s only, whimsical in design, leaving only enough space for styling treasures to be woven throughout. I have a small collection of blush coloured glassware that I don’t get to use very often but this was the perfect opportunity! Erect a string of festoons for bohemian goodness, place almost too many candles in styling treasures & bobsyouruncle, incredible bridal table done!
Overall it was a wedding of epic & timeless beauty & feel overwhelmingly privileged to be part of it!
The Secret Life of Flowers | Baz Luhrman
/You know that old age question; out of everyone in the world, dead or alive, who would you have dinner with? My answer hasn’t changed since I was 14. This was around the time Baz Lurhmann's Romeo + Juliet came out, & never (not since my Hanson/Spice girls days) have I ever been more obsessed with human being. Leo, would be the obvious answer, with his boyish good looks & passion for his Juliet. But nay, my heart was giveth to another… Baz ‘Creative God’ Luhrmann had my heart, and has had most of it (hubby & baby have some of it) from that day on. So what he was old enough to be my dad? His brain was otherworldly & I would have sold my little sister to have a chance to pick it.
I was reminded of this lifelong obsession when my creative sister Nina sent me a random link. With nothing to indicate what I was about to open, my trust in her taste & timing coerced me to eagerly click… It was a 4 minute advert written & directed by the genius that is Baz, for the Erdem + H&M collaboration. From the second it starts it’s as if you are falling down some moody, sexy rabbit hole into something so magical & evocative, you feel as though you have been swallowed up by the most wondrous of dreams.
“I hold no preference among flowers, as long as they are wild, free… and spontaneous.” This line in itself sent me over the edge. Spoken by the mysterious, eccentric & effortlessly glamorous ‘great aunt’ figure Lady Demere who the story suggests owns the fantastical paradise in more ways than one. As if what you see in front of you is actually an extension of her imagination that is somehow tangible, real. SO real. The ’secret garden that grows within the outrageously beautiful influenced by designer Erdem Moralioglu's signature floral print
Overall it is a love story. I mean it’s Baz. It HAD to be a love story. But what brought this story into the 21st century, regardless of the endless & captivating visual nods to 17th-19th century aesthetics was the ‘unconventional’ & bohemian love story.
At the beginning you feel a beautiful connection between the young protagonist Adam & his lover, as if he is being scandalously whisked away to meet his loves favourite people. Not in your average way. You could be watching a visually spectacular episode of skins at this point.
Over an endlessly seductive candlelit dinner with ‘the young, the celebrated & the beautiful’ Lady Demere asks stunning young Adam ‘what forms do your pleasures take’? As if in a dream like state his eyes fix on an incredibly beautiful woman. This is one of my favourite shots as the juxtaposition between the femininity of the woman’s gown & her exquisite beauty along side her almost gender neutral shaved head is incredibly captivating & fits into the ‘unconventional’ theme seamlessly. It turns out that shock horror, the unique beauty is the Adam’s lover’s sister. ‘Such a lot of temptation, isn’t it’, thank you Lady Demere.
The story effortlessly moves quickly into the climax of the short film with the love triangle acting out a game of ‘hide & seek’, and the protagonist stumbling on the newly suited up sister and so takes place one of the best kisses I’ve ever seen on screen. But what I love most about this scene & the film itself (although the kiss itself is very hard to beat) is that everyone, girls & boys, are wearing both the female & male clothing lines. Mixing & matching everything from suits, to frill neck shirts & endless accessories. This imagery gives the ultimate sense of bohemian freedom and it’s no wonder you feel elated & excited in equal measures when you get to the end of the magical 4 minutes.
So although on first view, as always with a Baz Lurhman production, you are completely taken by the overwhelmingly spectacular visuals - the blooms, the chandeliers, the beautiful people - what it’s really about, and celebrates even, is diversity, freedom, equality & beauty in all forms. Such is what should inspire the world & it’s people. Completely & flawlessly inspiring.
MEDIEVAL LUXE | Kate & Barry
/I remember the exact moment my beautiful friend Kate rung me to tell me that her great love Barry had proposed. I was driving down King Street in Newtown, heavily pregnant and the news pushed my over the edge. I started sobbing, gushing tears SO heavily down my face, all over my lap that I had to pull over; not an easy feat on King St. I was just SO happy. And relieved. For some reason it had felt like forever that they had been together and it was so obvious that they were meant for each other I had become impatient. From the moment I met them however many years ago, I took every (usually wine filled) opportunity to pester poor Barry, who I will be honest, does not like being pestered. It always came from a good place; I just wanted everyone to be loved up & get married! Because I love weddings - loved being engaged, loved being proposed to, loved planning the wedding, loved the wedding & then loved being married. I literally sound insane, but explains why I do what I do so passionately. I just love love. Lucky for him, I got pregnant & my dinner party ramblings became less intense and he got a break. Which is when he actually did it. Bless.
They were planning on a long engagement as his family are English & they had decided to get married in Kate’s crazily beautiful home, New Zealand, so giving everyone time to save was important. But this gave us time. I immediately insisted I do their flowers regardless of never having done a wedding over in New Zealand, but I was convinced it wouldn’t be all that different to Sydney.
Kate is an artist by trade, so concept, design, palette & overall look was entirely up to her. It was quite nice however to help create a wedding that resembled my dear friends. Kate is elegant, classy, kind, creative, generous & has a crazy amazing eye for detail. Barry is a proper ‘northerner’ & can often seem to be quite hardened & brash, but underneath he is a big gooey pot of sentiment who adores the people he loves. He too is kind & generous & both of them are quite the traditionailists at heart & live by quality over quantity.
Deciding very quickly on Stoneridge Estate in Queenstown for obvious reasons (it’s like Lord of the Rings meets GOT), the vibe & look of the wedding was cemented. Medieval, romantic, intimate, evocative, cosy & WOW are just a few words to describe what you feel when you walk into the intricately detailed almost-castle. To compliment the already incredible setting Kate chose a palette of blush, navy, the darkest burgundy, mustard & gold with pops of white. When I started researching wholesalers in NZ (it turned out that the market system ran VERY differently to what I am used to here!) it was incredibly important we had roses. Roses on roses on roses, big puffy roses in EXACTLY the right colours. This was hard given it was the middle of winter, snowing in most places. We ended up finding a supplier who specialised in my most favourite variety of important roses & although many talks of low supply, managed to get us pricey the right colours. We also decided on foliage in burgundy, grey & deep green which against the luxe fabric Kate had sourced worked flawlessly.
In the end every table was coated in lashings of blush fabric, wild foliages, brass candlesticks with dove grey tapered candles, luxe navy napkins & THE most stunning burgundy place cards & menus, intricately noted with gold calligraphy. All of this sourced & painstakingly made by the bride herself. Did I mention the brides eye for detail. THE eye for detail. Period.
The bridal table was in a league of its own though. With a medieval candelabra the size of any Sydney siders lounge room completely coated in blooms & foliage hovering above the 3m long centred BT, a rose laden spectacle of a rambling centrepiece SO dense you didn’t know where one rose finished & the other begun & layered brass candlesticks with grey tapered candles for DAYS. It was an absolute masterpiece where the saying ‘less is more’ was absolutely rioted against.
The best part though was seeing my dearest of friends envelope themselves in one another, clear as day, in the tiniest of chapels, with a backdrop that would make the most cold hearted crumble into a heap. Kate was as elegant as ever, stoic & calm. Barry was his soft centered self, allowing his closest people to peer into his heart, wearing his vulnerability & love on his sleeve. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house & I cursed putting my eyeliner on at all.
