Guest Blogger – Flower Trends 2010/2011 By Fiona at Firenza Flowers

A Big Thank you to Fiona from Firenza Flowers for tacking the time out of her busy day to put together this article for me.

Firenza Floral Design is a young and dynamic floral design business offering trend setting and beautiful floral designs across Yorkshire, Cheshire and Lancashire (and further afield if required!).
Fiona Pickles owns and runs the business, which was created in 2005. Fiona initially worked with a wedding florist and then trained in London. She came back to Yorkshire in 2005 and set the business up, with no customers and no shop no-one even knew Firenza Floral Design even existed. Fiona’s reputation gradually grew and her work now speaks for itself – Firenza Floral Design is now one of the most highly regarded wedding and event florists across the north of England. Fiona has a team that work with her on the large projects that the business now attracts.
Fiona won a Wedding Industry Award in 2008, beating off stiff competition from florists across Yorkshire, Cheshire and Lancashire. Fiona also demonstrated at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show in 2009

Flower Trends 2010/2011

A massive look for wedding flowers this season is to use a single flower en masse. This creates great dramatic impact; it looks very opulent and also allows very traditional and pretty flowers to be used in a modern setting. Even just a mass of foliage gives a lovely effect – imagine large stone urns filled purely with eucalyptus or candelabra dressed only with ivy.

One way of keeping with this trend, yet still incorporating a selection of flowers is to have different flowers in each table centre. We recently designed a wedding where the bride loved spring flowers and wanted to introduce scent as much as possible, yet wanted to keep the overall look contemporary. We used a different vase for each table and filled each vase with different flowers, including sweet peas, stocks, hydrangea, lilac and ranunculus to name a few.

Another look that has been popular for some time yet still seems to be gaining popularity is the vintage look. Soft and romantic flowers and herbs in muted pastel shades – even better if they are scented. This look is just so romantic it is perfect for weddings and I totally understand why brides continue to choose this look – I absolutely adore it (it allows us to use some of the most beautiful flowers too)!!

You can go the “whole hog” and use birdcages, jugs and cut glass vases to keep it nostalgic or you can make it more contemporary by using sleek glass vases, coloured stones, wire and hanging crystals. Either way the main focus is the beauty of the flowers themselves. Ideal flowers to use for the vintage look include tuberose, hydrangea, large headed roses, peonies (very short season sadly) and any herbs.

If you want to achieve a nostalgic and “aged” look, creams work better than whites and avoid using anything that is too brightly coloured. Alternatively to make it more contemporary you can still opt for cottage garden flowers but use them in bright and unusual colour combinations eg pink, yellow and blue and add wire and lights.

A huge thanks to Fiona for this article, if you would like any more information about her services please go to:
www.firenzafloraldesign.co.uk
[email protected]
01422 835540 / 07921 589234