Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of a day trip to visit Shropshire Petals, wander their fields cutting flowers, playing with confetti, and learning about the process of how they transform these beautiful blooms into the petal confetti that will shower you on your wedding day.

I met up with fellow TNWC wedding photographer Sarah from The Little Caravan Photography, and together with our little girls we were treated to the most wonderful tour from Ashley at Shropshire Petals. Sarah captured these awesome images from our day and I’m delighted to share them and our experience with you all today.

Confetti giveaway and discount

To celebrate our visit to Shropshire Petals, we have teamed up to giveaway a pack of 10 Petal Pouches that come filled with your choice of confetti. For more details and to enter head over to our Instagram where we’ll be holding the giveaway.

For anyone getting married or looking for confetti for a wedding, Shropshire Petals have an exclusive 10% discount off orders over £50 for our visitors, full details here.

Shortly after arriving at Shropshire Petals farm HQ, Ashley packed up the car with wooden crates and a big bag of petal confetti and we headed out to their flower field. As we left the farm, a big tractor was pulling stacked with crates full of flowers coming in from the field.

I think both myself and photographer Sarah had been keenly looking out to try and glimpse the flower field, sure we would spot it with its blanket of colours against the otherwise green landscape. It turns out the flower field this year was well hidden, but as we pulled in we were greeted to such a beautiful sight. I’m pretty sure it’s most girls’ dream, to get to wander in a field full of the most exquisite flowers (and delphiniums really are exquisite) – we were spoilt!

This years flower field is gently rolling, and perched on the brow of one rolling swathe of flowers was a trailer laden with crates of just-picked flowers and a team of hard-working pickers. The pickers are super talented working with just a knife to cut the flower stems and going to swiftly along the rows, knowing just what to pick and what to leave for another day.

An unexpected treat was when Ashley handed out scissors and encouraged us all to cut as many flowers as we liked – as you can imagine, we didn’t need any further encouragement!

After we had fun snipping amongst the larkspur (my little girl could be heard saying “this one…and this one…and this one…”) we wandered into the cornflower section of the field.

Ashley explained the different colours of the cornflowers to us – Blue Bird, Black Tie and a new one Burgundy Berry – and once again let us loose with our scissors. If you have a love of flowers and have had the pleasure of running around a field of flowers cutting what you wish, then you will understand our delight. Should you get the opportunity to do something like this, jump at it, many of our flower farmers hold Pick Your Own days where you can cut a bouquet of flowers for a set price – do it!

The majority of the field was taken up with delphiniums and cornflowers, but over another roll in field was a little spot of sunshine – two vibrant rows of calendula called Honey’b and Ginger Snap. They provide the gorgeous shades of yellow and orange to Shropshire Petals collections.

Our final stop of the field was amongst the white delphiniums, known as Icing Sugar, and it’s a truly magnificent sight and an even more magnificent place to go and stand amongst. Ashley from Shropshire Petals brought out a huge bag of Raspberry Fool delphinium petal confetti, and allowed our little girls to take huge handfuls of it, which they threw into the air.

A few minutes of true magic happened amongst those rows of Icing Sugar for two little girls – if you don’t follow us on Instagram be sure to check out my little slo-mo film of this magical moment.

Back at the Shropshire Petals HQ we were shown the shed where a team where stripping the petals from the flowers. Much like the pickers, they worked so expertly and quickly, sometimes using their hands to remove the petals, and at others all they need do was give the stems a good shake. Once the petals are removed, they go for drying in a separate barn.

The final part of our visit to Shropshire Petals was a tour of their confetti shed, another little slice of heaven where large containers full of petals in every shade, some just of one colour, others containing Shropshire Petals bespoke mixes.

Katie invited our two girls to make up their own confetti mix (which you can do on the Shrophire Petals Pick and Mix option) to create a ‘Shropshire Box’ of confetti cones.

Shropshire Petals have all kinds of options for displaying and packaging your confetti, from pretty pails and flower girl baskets, to confetti pops, paper cones and even a reusable hessian bag. Whilst we were visiting we watched all the samples being packaged up ready to be posted out, so many little boxes winging their way out around the country.

If you’d like to see what these beautiful petal mixes are like, or if you’re unsure on what colours you’d like for your wedding, Shropshire Petals offer a free sample service where you can request up to four samples.

In one part of the confetti shed a talented lady named Dawn was putting together the wheat sheaves, which we were told are a popular item for alternative bridal bouquets.

Finally, our two little girls were allowed to fill up a confetti pop to take home – if I had been asked to choose which petal confetti I wanted, it would have taken me ages to choose, however the two little girls were surprisingly decisive about which mixture they wanted. My Tilly chose a cheery mix called Sunshine Kisses, a beautiful combination of yellow marigold petals and white ‘Icing Sugar’ delphinium petals.

Having been looking at the flowers that produced these petals only an hour before, our confetti had so much more meaning, a great reminder of why I think it’s so lovely to source from wedding suppliers with a story. Take the time to get to know your wedding suppliers and it will bring so much more meaning to your wedding day.

A huge thank you to Ashley and the team at Shropshire Petals for hosting our visit and for inspiring two little girls, and to Sarah at The Little Caravan Photography for capturing the day so beautifully (be sure to check out her website if you’re looking for a wedding photographer).

I’ve also created a new tag to gather together all my TNWC Daytrips if you’re interested in seeing where else I visit, and there’s also this tag TNWC Roadtrip for the longer trip I did a few years ago – loads of great wedding suppliers for you to get to know.

Shropshire Petals are a recommended supplier of The Natural Wedding Company. Shropshire Petals grow 100% natural, biodegradable petal confetti on their Shropshire farm. To create the perfect petals all flowers are grown and handpicked with careful love and attention. Choose from Delphinium, Rose, Hydrangea and Cornflower petals in a wide variety of colours.

Images: The Little Caravan Photography for The Natural Wedding Company