‘A Winter’s End Romance’ - Wedding Editorial at Chalk Barn, Wiltshire

A Winter wedding editorial with a sustainable focus

Its always nice to be approached to work with other wedding professionals to create beautiful flowers for a styled shoot. When Jess from Jessica Turner Designs contacted me to ask if I’d consider being the florist on her next styled shoot, to create romantic winter wedding flowers with a focus on sustainability it didn’t take me long to say yes! Being as sustainable as possible in my floristry work is really important to me, using British wherever possible, in this case foliage due to the season, and never using floral foam whilst limiting the use of other single use plastics.

Jess creates the most beautiful wedding dresses with a focus on ‘slow fashion’ and using eco-conscious materials. The shoot was styled by the enormously talented Hollie Freeland and it was such a pleasure to work with someone who had thought of every last detail. The photos were taken by Rachel from Rachel Jane Photography, she has such a romantic and airy style that suited this shoot perfectly.

The mood board was a romantic winter theme with dusky peach tones which are just beautiful and the setting was the wonderful Chalk Barn which is an organic venue nestled in the beautiful Wiltshire countryside.

Getting ready

The bridal make-up and gorgeous hair was done by Marie Kelly it really allowed the model Natasha’s natural beauty to shine through and showed off the gorgeous hair accessories by Clare Lloyd to perfection (with a little bit of added waxflower donated by myself!).

The dress

The dress that Jess designed is called ‘Royal’ and is part of her Honeybee collection from S/S 2020. It is exclusively stocked at Willoughby and Wolf bridal boutique. It has a simple elegance and looked just stunning on our model Natasha Ionna. It was paired with shoes from Charlotte Mills to complete the outfit.

the personal flowers

In keeping with the theme, I chose the most beautiful mid-tone roses and paired them with gorgeous peach lisianthus, some beautiful panda anemones, frilly ranunculus and hellebores. As the shoot took place in November it was outside the British growing season I sourced my flowers from Holland through a wholesaler. However, I do try to include as much British and locally grown as I can in my work so was able to source all of the beautiful foliage from my local grower.

By keeping the choice of flower varieties quite small I was able to create a bouquet that felt romantic whilst still feeling contemporary to match the style of both the dress and the venue. I try to keep lots of space and air within my bouquets so that they feel natural and retain some movement which again gives that romantic feel, along with the use of foliage and the ‘twiddly bits’ which inject a bouquet with personality. The bouquet was finished with beautiful hand-dyed ribbon made by Botanical Being.

The grooms buttonhole was made with a peach lisianthus and a beautiful majolika spray rose and finished with beautiful winter foliage and a piece of peach silk ribbon. Although they are little, I believe as much care and attention should go into making them as the bridal bouquet and they should represent a snapshot of the best bits of the floral scheme. The Groom’s suit was provided by Devlin Bridal Couture.

The ceremony

For the backdrop, I arranged flowers onto a stand using floristry techniques that negated the need to use floral foam (which I don’t use in any of my work). I also created a small ‘meadow’ type arrangement that we were able to use in different places during the shoot. I always try to advise couples on pieces that we can move or re-use during the day to get the most out of the flower budget. Both pieces were used later in the day to frame the cake (made by the amazingly talented Jelly Cake) and also the table plan.

the wedding breakfast

For the table we wanted to keep the romantic feeling of the rest of the shoot but also including a modern edge. I choose fairly neutral clean vases for the table flowers to go into and gave them a natural feel using the foliage to create a modern asymmetric shape. The beautiful hand illustrated table stationary was created by Wild Flower Illustration, it was so simply breathtaking. Hollie styled the remainder of the table (including ceramics by Febbie Day) and had thought through each detail so perfectly to bring everything together.

If you’ve loved this shoot as much as I did the head over to Green Union to see more featured on their blog.

And if you’d like me to create some romantic winter floral magic then please do get in touch with me. I’d be delighted to hear from you!