Wedding Flowers

Tara and Declan were married in Bofeenaun in June 2014. Here are some of their gorgeous wedding flowers which included pale blue, soft pink and ivory.

Wedding Flowers

Caroline and Connor were married in Lacken Church in April. Their wedding flowers consisted of cream roses with delicate white filler flowers to add that extra touch. The church was decorated with a variety of flowers in cream, white and green which complimented the church perfectly.

Wedding Flowers

Claire and Declan were married in the Our Lady of the Assumption church in Ardagh. Claire chose pink and white Peonies with natural twine bound around the stems. The bride carried a bouquet of fluffy pink peonies while her bridesmaids were given all white peony bouquets. The summery scent from our work room while working on these wonderful flowers was such an enchanting aroma.

Wedding Flowers

Michelle and Steve's Wedding - Bofeenaun

These beautiful designs were created with an autumnal theme in mind. The dark orange callas mixed with snowberries, viburnum and mini cymbidium orchids give an elegant and classy look.

The theme was continued at the ceremony location. Dark orange Gerberas mixed with autumn greens.

A huge Thank You to Michelle and Steve for choosing Connacht Wedding Flowers to be part of their special day. 

Traditions Of The Wedding: Brides Bouquet

The tradition of carrying flowers on your wedding day is centuries old and the exact origin of this tradition is unclear. They range from practical reasons to superstitious reasons but whatever the origin, the wedding bouquet is a beautiful accessory and marks a very special occasion.

It is believed that in Medieval times most brides would carry bouquets of fragrant herbs to enhance their aroma on their wedding day and to ward off evil spirits while welcoming goodness and happiness into their life. The bouquet also signified that the bride was in bloom.

As time passed by and we came to Victorian times the flowers had even more significance as couples would send each other flowers. Each flower had its own particular meaning and it is this association that is still adopted to this day by many brides. The groom generally wears a flower that can be seen in the bridal bouquet. This dates back to medieval times and the tradition of a Knight wearing his brides colours to declare his love and respect for her.

We will be continuing the Traditions Of The Wedding series and we will cover everything from the veil to cutting the cake so pop back here in the near future to check it out. 

As always if you have found our blog to be helpful or interesting please feel free to show us some support and like our Facebook Fan Page. We appreciate your continued support. Thanks for visiting folks!

Free Giveaways and Draws

We are giving away a €50 Bouquet to someone on our Facebook fan page list of likes. If you already liked our fan page you will be entered into our draw. If not you can like it now to be entered into all our draws folks! You will then also be entered into any other future giveaways that we have! Like our fan page to enter the draw.

We will be celebrating our second anniversary of our shop in Erris St, Crossmolina. To celebrate we are giving away a gorgeous €50 Bouquet to one of our Facebook friends and another lovely €50 bouquet to one of our local shop customers. To be in with a chance to win simply like our fan page or spend 20e instore. Winner of the Facebook draw will be picked by random from our fan page only you must go direct to the page to like it folks !! Once you are on the list of likes for our fan page you will then be entered into all free giveaway draws in the future!! 

Click the link here to be re-directed to our fan page where you can like it !!http://www.facebook.com/ConnachtWeddingFlowers . 

The other winner will be drawn by random in store on June 7th !! Good Luck everyone!!

Bouquet Inspiration

Here is a blog post about bridal bouquets that may give upcoming brides some inspiration or help them decide what bouquet would be perfect. This post consists of some amazing photographs by Mark Capilitan who we have had the pleasure of bumping into at quite a few weddings now. Click the link below and have a look guys.

Bouquet Inspiration with photographer Mark Capilitan.

                                     

Wedding of Elaine and Martin, Achill Sound, Co.Mayo

Elaine wanted to keep it fairly traditional with plain greens and whites/creams. For her bridal bouquet she brought in a picture from a magazine of the bouquet she wanted us to re-create for her wedding. Her Bridal Gown was an oyster colour dress with very little embellishments except for some lace around the neck line so this meant Elaine had more options when picking her Bridal Bouquet. Her bouquet consisted of Akito Roses, Avalanche Roses, Lisianthus, White Veronica, Babys Breath, Spray Roses, Hard Ruscus, Diamantes and Silk Ribbon.

Bridal Bouquet

   

Bridal Bouquet

Elaine maintained this cream traditional theme throughout all her flowers. Her bridesmaids wore a peachy colour dress. The cream really worked well against the peachy colour and it was also a far safer bet than trying to match colour schemes with the bridesmaids dress as the dress they wore was quite an unusual colour. Also to throw another colour into the mix the entire back wall of the church was painted blue. Elaine and I both agreed that the cream colour scheme was the best way forward for her wedding theme.

Bridesmaids Bouquets

Bridesmaids Bouquets

On the morning of the wedding I had to deliver the bridal party flowers to Elaines house in Achill and also set up the church, but first I had to deliver buttonholes to the grooms house. I rang Eugene, one of the grooms men before I arrived in Achill. He gave me a rough idea of where the house was and he said "you can't miss it, it's decorated outside with balloons and flags". The only thing the grooms men didn't know was that every single house for miles would be decorated with flags and balloons. I couldn't believe it. I stopped at every house for miles before I actually found the grooms home. It was amazing. There were flags, bunting and balloons at almost every house and gate in Achill. Even the fencing on the sides of the main road was decorated. I never seen so many well wishers before. When I finally arrived at the grooms home I described the decoration to the grooms men and they got a good laugh from it. They hadn't been outside the house that morning to see any of the effort that family, neighbours and friends had gone to. It seems this is a bit of a tradition in Achill. It was an amazing sight. There was no mistaking the fact that there was a big wedding in Achill that day. 

Mother of the Bride Corsage

Mother of the Bride Corsage

Buttonholes

Three Flower Girl Wands

Above are some examples of the bridal party flowers. Here we see some buttonholes, corsages and flower girl wands again matching the cream theme.

The church is a lovely bright building with a simple layout. Its perfect for a wedding, in terms of decoration it's a very easy church to make look classy because it's already bright and tidy. Elaine and Martin had church music provided by Brenda Grealis who I had the pleasure to listen to while setting up the church. She really set the atmosphere. Elaine had videography with John Murphy from Avalon Video. John agreed the church was a lovely setting for any wedding also.

Rose Trees at entrance

Wicker Hearts with Roses and Silk Ribbon

We decorated the pew ends with a wicker heart and cream roses. The wicker hearts are draped with a cream silk ribbon.

Church Pedestal Arrangement

Elaine had two pedestal arrangements either side of the altar.  Again in keeping with the cream theme for her flowers.

Window Arrangements

We decorated each window with a small floral arrangement. All cream/white again.

Unity Altar Arrangement

Unity Altar Arrangement

Three Memorial Wreaths

Pedestal Arrangement and Lecturn Arrangement

Church Decor

                                                                                           

In the pictures below we can see the blue colour which Elaine and I discussed in relation to her colour scheme. This may have thrown her professional photography if she had the peach colour bridesmaids with this blue colour in the background and then a different colour for her flowers. It was on these grounds that we both agreed that the cream theme would work best.

Altar Arrangement and Floor Lanterns

Church Decor

Church Decor

Wedding of Marie and Brendan Clonabreany House, Co.Meath.

Video Courtesy of www.diga.ie 

Marie and Brendan opted for something different. They went predominantly black with the flower choice and it really worked. They were married in Kilskrye church Co.Meath with the reception at the very classy and private Clonabreany House. It was an amazing setting for a wedding. We provided all the flowers but also the decor for the church keeping it black matching Marie's theme without looking  too mournful or heavy. We also provided decor for the reception. Marie wanted a wishing tree to hang the place settings on so I created a bespoke design for her and she really loved it. More detailed information and pictures on this wedding will be uploaded soon.

Wedding Flowers

This is a purple themed wedding we did some while back. It was the wedding of Orla and Paul in Lahardane, Co. Mayo. Orlas bridesmaid's wore a purple dress and Orla wanted her overall theme to be very much in keeping with this purple and also to incorporate some hot pinks. She opted for a wild look as opposed to a neat and constructed design to her flowers throughout the church including the bridal party flowers.

Purple Hydrangeas in Vintage Pales

Purple Hydrangea in vintage pales

Orlas mother came to me a few weeks before the wedding and asked me if it was too late to order more flowers for the church. She stated that it was going to be a surprise for Orla and that she wasn't supposed to know about it at all until she would walk up the aisle. She continued to tell me how much they would love Purple Hydrangeas incorporated into the church decor and asked was it possible and how would we bring them into her arrangements. I suggested we use them on the pew ends and she agreed with the idea. She said that's exactly whats needed and Orla will absolutely love it.  So I ordered in the Purple Hydrangeas and arranged them in vintage style pales with purple tulle and white straw, tied with a white tulle as shown in the pictures above.

Podium Arrangements with Candles.

The podium arrangements when lit create a lovely atmosphere in any church but especially a dark church. Lahardane is a lovely church but it can be quite dark inside so these podium arrangements were ideal to add to the atmosphere. Flowers used matching Orlas overall theme.

Arrangement Underneath Altar

Both Underneath Altar and Altar Unity Arrangements

Altar Unity Arrangement

The altar unity arrangement and underneath altar arrangement was made up of Green Trick Carnation, Liatris, Purple Lisianthus, Pink Carnation, Pink Spray Carnation, Picasso Calla lily, Hong Kong Iris, Pink Gerbera, Purple Trachelium, Large Aspidistra, Small Aspidistra, Phoenix Palm, Pink Alstromeria and Allium Gladiator. Orla wanted a wild theme throughout.

Memorial Wreath

Memorial Wreath with Candle Podiums in background

Memorial Wreath

The Memorial Wreath comprised of Pink Gerbera, Babys Breath, Purple Lisianthus, Green Trick Carnation, Leather Leaf Fern, Pink Chrysants, Pink Carnations, Pink Spray Carnations , Purple Veronica and Lilac Freesia. Behind the memorial wreath we can see our Candle Podiums.

The Bridal Bouquet

The Bridal Bouquet

Orla's bouquet was mix of Picasso Calla Lily, Purple Trachelium, Purple Lisianthus, Lilac Freesia, Purple Veronica, Hong Kong Iris and Allium Gladiator. It was a hand-tied dome with silk ribbon, secured with pearls. 

Mother of Bride Wrist Corsage

Orla wanted the mothers to wear wrist corsages and wanted them to be in keeping with the theme. Above you can see a picture of the wrist corsages created using pearl bracelets, Lilac Freesia, Cadbury's Purple silk ribbon, Lilac Purple silk ribbon, Leather Leaf Fern and Hard Ruscus for greenery with wired pearls for embellishments.

Grooms Buttonhole

The grooms buttonhole should always be a little bit special, afterall it is his special day too. We opted for quite a large headed Avalanche Rose with some Lilac Freesia and Hard Ruscus with no embellishments.

Grooms man buttonhole

Orla wanted the bridesmaids purple colour to show through on the grooms men buttonholes so we used an Avalanche Rose with some Purple Lisianthus to tie in the purple and Hard Ruscus to back it with. Again no embellishments.

Bridesmaids Bouquet

Bridesmaids Bouquet

The bridesmaids bouquet was also predominantly purple but with these we used green flowers to add to the wild look. Flowers used in these bouquets were Purple Trachelium, Purple Veronica, Lilac Freesia, Allium Gladiator, Hong Kong Iris, Green Hypericum Berries, and Green Tricks (the almost green grass like flower). The bouquets were tied with silk ribbon and secured with pearls using no embellishments.

Flower girl Wand

Flower girl Wand

Orla had three flower girls and opted for the wands. We used Avalanche Roses, Lilac Freesia, Purple feathers and Lilac silk ribbon. A wand is always enjoyed by the flower girls, they get to spend the day casting spells and pretending to be a fairy god mother.

The Bouquets ready to go