Today I have another lovely treat from one of our recommended wedding suppliers.  This guest post has been put together by Angela who runs Petal and Twig, a Lancashire based floral designer with an emphasis on seasonality, locally grown flowers and ethical sourcing. 

Over to Angela to tell us all about these wedding bouquets she’s created, each one inspired by a vintage bouquet…

The majority of wedding bouquets we do these days are hand-tied and I have always loved the informality of this style compared to the rather stiff, wired bouquets that dominated weddings from the 60s to the late 80s. I remember staying up late with my mum almost every Friday night in my teens, wiring flowers within an inch of their lives. Looking back, it seems utterly mad to deconstruct and then reconstruct flowers but I never questioned it at the time.

In recent years the availability of “antique” shades in roses have inspired beautifully subtle colour schemes  for weddings and we have rediscovered the potential of garden plant material and more natural styles.  The peach, gold and soft pinks of an antique jug are brought out in the “Faith” roses and garden plant material of this simple hand tied posy. It certainly looks very vintage, although I don’t think my grandmother would have thought much of this as a wedding bouquet – she would have put it straight in the vase.

Like every other bride right up through the 40s my grandmother carried a huge bouquet.  These  were  constructed on a frame of Asparagus fern, usually with only one type of flower – sweet peas, lilies, carnations or even chrysanth blooms. They would perhaps have been home grown , certainly seasonal and I’m not sure how much choice any bride would have had. Photographs of bouquets from the 20s often show lots of hanging ribbons with tiny bunches of heather, forerunners of the lucky horseshoe I think.

I’ve always loved these old fashioned bouquets and last summer I had a lot of fun putting together a collection of bouquets  inspired by vintage dresses and family photos, and what was growing in the cutting garden. The sweet pea bouquet is pure 20s, the mass of sweet peas and fern complementing the delicate lace wrap dress and a silk embroidered shawl. It was a fantastic year for sweet peas, but I wouldn’t want to promise them to any bride before June.

The next bouquet is a cascade of roses, garden flowers and herbs in soft lilac and grey shades, shown against my grandmother’s 1940 silver embroidered, bias-cut dress.  Her bouquet was a mass of fern and trumpet lilies, but for this bouquet lilac “Memory Lane” roses are combined with trailing fern, scabious, cotton lavender and mint.  Another version for a wedding this summer featured English Bridal Gladioli from Flowers by Clowance, Nigella, Astrantia and Jasmine.

Whilst I can’t make any claims to authenticity for these bouquets, it’s been lovely to see brides taking an interest in vintage wedding bouquet styles, and designing bouquets that match the sophistication of their dresses without resorting to exotic blooms. More examples of vintage style bouquets are featured on our Facebook page.

Petal and Twig is a recommended supplier of The Natural Wedding Company. Based in Lancashire, they are creative floral designers covering weddings and celebrations in Lancashire and Cumbria. They emphasise seasonality, locally grown flowers and ethical sourcing. They incorporate foliage and herbs from their own mature gardens and a selection of field-grown flowers. Visit www.petalandtwig.co.uk for more details or contact Angela at info@petalandtwig.co.uk.