busy, busy...

It's been busy, busy here at brave botanics. How about you?This feels like the first clear 5 minutes for a while now, so a chance to add some more photos.

The Wedding Fair at The Brassey Hotel came and went, and I finished off the day with a drink in the gorgeous, green courtyard area listening to some live jazz, which they host every Sunday arvo there from about 4pm onwards. So nice to sit and soak up the atmosphere of the old place and reflect on the day ...

It is a funny old hotel, formal but also quite homely...that does sound like a contradiction, but maybe I just got comfortable really quickly! I'm thinking G&T in the plush tub chairs, overlooking the manicured gardens and edges...

So, the Wedding Fair. Lots of lovely brides, and plenty of grooms, bridesmaids, sisters, mothers and various other types of hangers on - which we love! Everyone has an opinion, but happily no bridezillas on the day! This is how I set up my little stand - I wanted it to look like a bit of a spring fair - plenty of pink and fragrance.I had David Austin roses, Flannel Flowers, Orchids, Lilies, Peonies, Freesias etc.

A funny thing happened though. 

The hotel provides table flower arrangements as part of their packages for wedding receptions and they use a local purveyor of fine flowers, no names. So he is all booked in and confirmed to deliver - this is the bi-annual showcase for the hotel of what they provide and their chance to show off - all polished, i's dotted and t's crossed...and he doesn't turn up. 

15 minutes til opening. 

They call him - he forgot. They ask if he can whip something up - he says no, sorry.

(*$@###!!!!%$**

So I got the gig of rushing out into the old fashioned gardens, clippers waving madly and having pick of the plants. The selection of vases (I use the term loosely!!!) scavenged from all corners of the hotel  was quite funny, but I was very happy to be snipping massive open rose blooms, and lavender, rosemary and leaves and especially happy to be helping out the Brassey team, one of whom I know reasonably well from my other job at the gallery. 

But really, I cant believe that a supplier who already had a commitment in the form of a guaranteed, standing order would be so unreliable and blase. It sounds like blowing my own trumpet, but I can tell you I would never say that to a client, and if I had forgotten or run out or whatever, I would be hot-footing it into the closest farmer's market, or woolies or wherever...in order to deliver on the promise. 

Anyways, I have posted this all topsy-turvey, with the ending at the beginning and visa-versa, but you get the idea. Great venue, great brides, great day.

XNarelle

proper pics from a recent wedding

Hey, remember that lovely country wedding I did a few weeks ago, with the poppies?

Here are some proper, professional images taken by one of the most inspired wedding photographers I've come across - Amanda Brierley. 

You can hop on and check out them all, if you feel like a nice injection of warmth, whimsy and that golden, hazy nostalgic feeling of a late afternoon ramble in the last rays of sunlight. So pretty!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Amanda-Brierley-Photography/145177768830290

Here's a preview - 

 photos all by Amanda Brierley, 2011.

 

Pink and Green stuff

hey,
I've been loving the spring change and my little daily tours of the garden to check on what's come up, what's about to open and what is nearly finished. It's made me want to get creative, here's the inspiration - 

 Rhododendron (snipped from a friends' garden)

 Ti Tree - double petaled

 Ti tree - single, I think I prefer it.

 Echevera, with stunning spires of bell-shaped flowers

 Euphorbia

Seaside Daisy...for when I wish I was by the seaside

 I love pink and green, and I love sewing (in straight lines only please), and I love Liberty prints and vintage fabrics. So I spent the other afternoon making these bunting flags which seem to be plentiful and trendy at the moment in mags, blogs and some stores. The idea was I would use them to decorate a little promotional table I am having at a Wedding Fair in a few weeks at The Brassey, a nice little 1920's boutique hotel.

 http://www.brassey.net.au/content.php/folder/id/10/title/history

But I love, love, love them - I want to make some for outside and some for the front door, and the boys rooms' and for gifts...

 

 If my Lilac bush was flowering (as it should be right now), then I think I would have been tempted to go for a pink and purple colour combo, which would have made me smile and taken me right back to being 6 years old when "pink'n'parple" was my standard response if asked my favourite colour. 

Do you ever wish to be a child again?

 

roses and portugese tarts

Sometimes the best laid plans don't quite come off for weddings, and I always experience a weird feeling of foreboding mixed with impatience, when I am waiting for a flower delivery...until it's arrived and unpacked I am never quite confident that everything will be there, in the correct quantities and colours. Sometimes I over order - on purpose, in order to have spares and extras and options to be able to make the bouquets just so on the day. This is something which I suspect not many people realise and which contributes to the price of wedding flowers, not just your average walk-in bunch of flowers.


This week my heart sank when not one, or two, but three trusted suppliers were unable to fill an order for a specific variety of rose, requested by the bride for sentimental reasons (which is sorta what weddings are all about!). When I was ready to call the bride with the bad news, the fourth on my list confirmed that they could provide the said rose...beautiful aren't they?

 $165.00 this lot cost me...

Sometimes I over hear people complaining that wedding providers (florists, photographers, cake makers etc) take advantage of brides and overcharge just because its a wedding. For the record, I think this is a bit mean and unjustified. The extra cost is to cover situations like this one - additional flowers (to pick through and get the best ones), back up flowers (in the brides second choice), additional suppliers, phone call orders, reminder phone calls, confirmation phone calls...and the stress! Just so I can deliver what I promised!

Anyways, deliver I did and I think the bouquets turned out beautifully! They also included David Austin roses, Ranunculas, Freesias, Waxflower, Pieris and twists of vine.

The bride stayed at a really lovely guesthouse, Redbrow Gardens out of Hall. 

http://www.canberraguesthouse.com.au/

I snuck some pictures while I was wandering around - trees, plantings and some of the rustic farm gear dotted all over the place.

 

And never one to miss the opportunity of a decent coffee, I stopped in to Poachers Pantry  http://www.poacherspantry.com.au/smokehouse-cafe which is a reasonably close neighbour. This portugese tart was the best I have EVER tasted, hands down. A great end to this particular wedding adventure.

 So...the moral of the story is...

Feed me a portugese tart at the end of the day and I will happily fork out $165 for a few bunches of roses.

XNP

Poppies

Last weekend I had a lovely wedding job out of town, with a relaxed country theme for the bridal flowers and table arrangements. The buzz words for the day were poppies...herbs...fragrance and that just picked from the garden look - which of course takes one florist and one trusty friend all morning to pull off!

In addition to getting the Iceland Poppies which the bride was desperate for, I was able to get Lily of the Valley - one of the sweetest, fragrant and tiniest bloomed flowers going. So that kept me happy!

 

leftover Lily of the Valley with trusty prop - moss bunny

 the table arrangements were carefully planned by the bride to incorporate a variety of found glass jars and specimen vases, on vintage doilies and filled with fragrant stuff. The cake table and sweets table (a wafting smorgasboard of delicious homemade sweets, lollies, chocolates etc which drove us mad whilst setting up) had matching arrangements.

   Below are a few in the same specimen jar style from Martha Stewart Weddings...these are so interesting, relaxed and uncontrived but can sometimes present a headache for caterers and guests alike due to the "fidli-ness" of so many components on the table. If there's not plenty of room for all the flatware, silverware and glassware (not to mention bomboniere and gesticulating hands of happy guests) then there may be bumps and spills. To retain the casual look without sacrificing practicality, my tip would be to contain grouped vessels on a vintage silver or cut-glass tray, or even rustic wooden breakfast trays or tin drinks trays. Otherwise to restrict most of the vases to low and wide based shapes. Obviously Martha need not follow my tips...

And finally a little flourish outside on the guests chairs, and HUGE thanks to my friend Jackie for doing all the running round and being great company on the day! X

Much busy-ness, and only a little art and flowers...

There has been much busy-ness lately, with things on the work and home front going crazy and completely overwhelming me, so I feel like there have not been many moments for stopping to smell the roses so to speak.

A couple of weeks a go I did get to visit a friend in Sydney and check out an exhibition of awesome-ness which married some of my favourite things - sculptures, old buildings and the great outdoors. This was the Willoughby Sculpture Prize, at the Incinerator Art Space, a Walter Burley Griffin designed building. Yay for WBG.

 Unfortunately for you the exhibition is over and only the memories remain...see below! There were some artists I knew in here too, which just makes it even better!

Geoff Farquhar-Still, Temporary Monument IV

Soozie Coumbe, Natures Toilette Brushes Series 1-3

 Anita Larkin, At a Loose End

 Janet Tavener, Out of the Mould.

Emily McIntosh and Marcus Dillon, Rethink and Reclaim

Maryann Mussared, Blue Buoys

 Bronwyn Berman, Banksia Woman

Marguerite Derricourt Paper Moths

Because of the sheer brilliance of my host, we did get close to smelling the roses - we window shopped the annual David Jones Spring window displays in the city...some interesting installations but awful photographs by me, sorry.

 Louise, intrepid landscape designer and partner in crime

 roses, tulips and a whole lotta baroque stuff...and Emu eggs...

seed pods and Cymbidium orchids

 more orchids

 And speaking of marrying things (see second paragraph!!!) its full steam ahead wedding season here at brave botanics...

XNarelle