Back in February of this year, I was contacted by a bride to be in the States who was getting married in Mayfair. Sibyl and I shared many emails before we actually managed to speak but we were able, by the power of the great wedding vibe, to understand each other and gather together a pretty powerful look for her wedding in June at Dartmouth House
This beautiful mansion in the heart of Mayfair is home to the English Speaking Union but also plays host to many weddings and parties throughout the year. If the weather is fine, it is possible to take advantage of the lovely secluded courtyard but otherwise there are several wonderful, character-filled rooms in which to entertain guests
The dark wood panelled Churchill Room is a fantastic space for the ceremony from which the party can move downstairs to the red-walled Revelstoke Room for drinks before alighting on the delicate features of the two interconnecting first floor Drawing Rooms
These rooms can be used together or separately, decorated in the same pale blue tones, they welcome almost any colour theme – except yellow perhaps. But then I have a problem with yellow in most places!
Following on from the pure white Hydrangea and Peony in the ceremony room, Sibyl wanted a dark red theme to the wedding flowers at the reception and we decided to set the flowers off with a dark red organza runner down the length of the long table
The silver vases worked really well with the gleaming cutlery and the tall silver candelabra were the perfect finishing touch
I’ve just seen the photos from Josephine and Rupert’s wedding back in July and they are really lovely!
The photographer, Nick at Wild Weddings, really managed to capture the essence of the day – relaxed, a sense of the country in the middle of town and a very happy couple!
Josephine’s beautifully simple and elegant 1930’s style satin drop back dress was designed and made by Jacqueline Byrne
Josie wanted to continue the country style with long tables so everyone could sit together – we had masses of vases, tall short and round, all along the centre of each table. We had great fun at the flower market
choosing Peonies, Roses, Gladioli, Freesia, Dill and lots of other beautiful fragrant stems to use in all the table vases and the balls of flowers on top of the iron candlesticks used for the altar
With crisp white chair covers and organza sashes from the lovely Blanca at Host with Style, the Gladstone Library at One Whitehall Place looked wonderful and very different with the long trestle style tables
We reused the tall candlesticks from the altar on the top table – I do like maximising a budget, and was generally very pleased with the whole look of the day!
It does get a little ‘skin of the teeth’ when you have
a Monday wedding followed by a Friday wedding! But everything went perfectly in both cases and the weather held too. After Monday’s wedding in deep countryside at up Brocket Hall, we were today in the heart of Mayfair at the wonderful Grade II listed Dartmouth House. See photographer Yvonne Blume’s blog on the wedding here with better photos than I can take!
We used a white palette for the reception flowers, which were perfect against the soft blue decor in the main Drawing Room
Rich purple Delphinium and Lisianthus mixed with pure white fragrant Stock, Roses and Gladioli set the scene at St Oswalds in Norbury (photos to follow) and we used creamy white Amaryllis in both tall and low displays at Dartmouth House.
Bride Julie was able to have her favourite glorious white Peony -
practically the last of the season, they just about held on for the day and I even managed to sneak a few into the top table display! Her bridesmaids carried a purple and white mix of Freesia, Lisianthus, Agapanthus and spray Roses
Today’s wedding was being co-ordinated by the lovely Helen at Helen Carter Weddings
Helen has a very innovative take on wedding planning and is happy to get involved right from the get go, straight after he pops the question or just help with last minute organisation and on the day. Have a look at her website – it may give you something to think about . . .
Well, it seems the wedding season has started with a vengence.
We installed some beautiful flowers for a wedding yesterday at St James’ Clerkenwell which was, luckily, fantastically cool as the Peonies we were using were very hot, in both colour and temperature! We then went on to The Larder restaurant in St John Street with some vibrant purple and hot pink seasonal flowers – Stock, Roses, Dahlia, Freesia mixed in with some scented herbs set in mirrored silver pots (photos to follow soon).
Today we had two events so our wedding teams went off in different directions – one to the city and St Helen’s on Bishopsgate (photos to follow) and the other to One Whitehall Place.
This wedding was joining a Greek bride with an Italian groom so we had Olive branches, Eucalyptus, pale pink Sposina roses (it apparently means ‘little bride’), Maroussia roses as they were named for Louisa’s grandmother and a bouquet including
Lily of the Valley from my garden because the Mother of the bride had some in her wedding bouquet – it was a real family affair!
The dark wood panelled Churchill Room is a fantastic space for the ceremony from which the party can move downstairs to the red-walled Revelstoke Room for drinks before alighting on the delicate features of the two interconnecting first floor Drawing Rooms 
Following on from the pure white Hydrangea and Peony in the ceremony room, Sibyl wanted a dark red theme to the wedding flowers at the reception and we decided to set the flowers off with a dark red organza runner down the length of the long table
