As a floral designer who is based out of the Blue Mountains, I often draw inspiration from the local area. The world famous Blue Mountains National Park in NSW is home to an incredible breadth of unique flora and fauna and breathtaking vistas. Six months on from the catastrophic bushfire season, which saw up to 80% of the Blue Mountains World Heritage area affected, regeneration has brought green life, birdsong and visitors back to our favourite lookouts, waterfalls and walking tracks. This incredible scenery along with the historical charm of local towns, also make the Blue Mountains increasingly popular for proposals, elopements and weddings.
Florals for these unique events should be a reflection of you, your surroundings and the type of event you are having. Here is how a great florist approaches the process.
THE BESPOKE APPROACH
Every couple brings a wonderful combination of cultures, beliefs and traditions to celebrations. A beautiful way to carry your loved ones with you on your day is to include elements of their proposal stories and weddings in your bouquet and/or overall floral design. Perhaps there are photos available? Did Grandma have white calla lilies in her bridal bouquet? Do you love the shape of your mother’s bouquet? Or maybe it’s just the colour palette you’d like to honour with your day.
Your florist is often able to construct wedding pieces in various shapes and designs, using a variety of flowers, subject to seasonality. They can also incorporate heirlooms like brooches, lockets, blue elements, ribbons and silverware into centrepiece styling and handheld floral designs to assist in making yours a truly beautiful, bespoke and memorable day.
Image: Vanessa Echeverria Photography
CONSIDERATION OF LOCATION AND SETTING
Pairing these personal elements with the location/venue for your event is another way your florist can help tailor your event florals to suit the scene (and your relationship) perfectly.
Some ways you can assist is by letting them know if there are any emotionally significant or historic elements to the space you’ve chosen. Was it also where your parents/grandparents were married? Or the location of your first kiss?
For instance, is there a particular tree or nook of the Everglades Gardens you’d like to see featured? Garlands and cascade pieces sit perfectly on big shady tree branches and sandstone fences, while finer floral and Ivy pieces work beautifully on swings and gates.
Perhaps you feel the St Bonaventures church in Leura has a spectacular entrance or stonework we can use to create an arbour as a beautiful statement floral piece, similar to see Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi’s beautiful floral arch.
Venues with gorgeous views and striking natural wonders such as The iconic Fairmont, Allview Escape or Logan Brae Orchards in Mt Blackheath provide a huge presence on the day and need to be considered when designing florals for the event. Your florist will most likely want to accent and frame the view rather than create something that will obscure it. Ceremony floral design styles to consider for your settings with show-stopping views include floor floral installations, column installations, large vase arrangements on pillars and arbours.
Image: The Wheatleys
GET IN THE MOOD
It might not always be clear what mood you’re wanting to evoke with your event, however your venue, number of guests and your colour palette play a huge part in determining the mood of the day. Your florist will work with these elements to further solidify the mood and feel you want to create for your day.
A ceremony in a historic chapel, bridal party wearing ivory, white, golden hues and burgundy, evokes a mood of a warm, romantic and more traditional-leaning event. Your florist would be more likely to suggest traditional style floral arrangements, garden rose bouquets in ivory, white and yellow gold hues, perhaps a splash of burgundy and deep green foliage. In this scenario, a selection of tropical florals or an overly modern piece may not complement the rest of the scene as well.
Likewise, I would say garden style rose bouquets may seem out of place in a bohemian beachside wedding in North Queensland (they may also struggle to shine all day with the high humidity and temperatures!), whereas phalaenoposis orchids, succulents or air plants may reflect the feel and surrounds perfectly.
BRING YOUR INSPIRATION
Florists will encourage you to sit down with your beloved, go through Pinterest boards, Instagram, blogs and reference images to find what elements reflect you both. Once you have a clearer idea of what you’d like to see on your day, schedule some time with a florist whose work best conveys these ideas and show them your reference images. I usually recommend a 45 minute to one hour consultation with my clients so we can go through these images and boards, along with any colour swatches and fabric samples.
A LITTLE TOUCH OF PERSONALITY
From here your florist will able to incorporate your personality and vision into their design aesthetic. Are you a bold and big personality? If so, perhaps a an asymmetrical or crescent shaped design would suit you? Are you a 1950s vintage queen? Elements of hobbies or interests can also be used to help bring in little more of yourself into your floral designs. Avid gardeners may have a favourite seasonal flower, grasses or berries used. Embellishments such as music notes or film reel or negatives could be incorporated to feature your passion for music, film or photography? Pages of a book, a quill or a fountain pen for authors and poets.
All florists work differently to communicate their floral design ideas with their clients. Whether it be examples of previous work, sketches, collaging and/or mood boards. With Bloom Mountains Designs, I sketch out my designs using a digital sketch program as I find it allows me to communicate new floral ideas best and is a great way for my couples to visualise the look and feel of their special day.
One client was interested in a storybook/Disney romance. We wanted to evoke a strong sense of romantic and whimsical love while “framing” the beautiful grey-blue of the Wentworth Falls Lake location, (the scene of the couple’s first kiss!) while capturing the winter setting and using lots of red to evoke a sense of passion.
Images: Vanessa Echeverria Photography
To help set the scene we worked with wonderful Blue Mountains-based Cookier, Nisa Stone of Mud & Sugar to create these beautiful Alice in Wonderland-themed proposal cookies, alongside Amanda McNamara of Blue Mountains Eco Confetti, styled by the wonderful Trish Scully Designs and captured by Springwood-based Vanessa Echeverria Photography.
About Cass Scully of Bloom Mountains Designs: In 2016, the natural beauty and warmth of the community in the Blue Mountains drew floral designer Cass Scully and her husband Tom, to purchase their home. Shortly after, Cass started Bloom Mountains Designs surrounded by some of the region’s best artists, designers and small business owners, Bloom Mountains design’s goal is to celebrate the vast spectrum of colour, texture and contrasts of this gorgeous landscape using my floral designs. Cass believes any event feels more personal and harmonious when a couple includes elements of their personalities, while considering their surroundings.
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