Interview with a Florist – Hybrid Flowers

Five things that will make a wedding even more beautiful after a pandemic

I was chatting with someone recently about how Covid19 has become a defining point in time, separating that innocent naïve time BC – Before Covid – from this more anxious and bewildering AC – After Covid. At the moment of course, we’re still in the bit in between, the Lockdown Limbo bit, but its heartening to see that slowly, people are beginning to plan for AC, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the beautiful bustling business of wedding planning!

So whilst ‘Lockdown Limbo’ has certainly had a significant impact on everyone’s psyche, turning things on their heads as we are forced to reassess our priorities, the prospect of going back to the blind manic sprint through life, without taking the time to at least stop and wash our hands, is hard to imagine.

We may even look back with nostalgia at the BC era and ask ourselves do we really want to return to it? (erm… YES we hear you scream, I want my life back!) but ask yourself this… weren’t there some things in the BC era that we just put up with because we didn’t have the time, or the headspace, to address them? And maybe, just maybe, this Lockdown Limbo will result in many of us accepting, relishing even, the simpler things in life.

So anyway…. weddings….

But I digress! So! Weddings. If you are planning your wedding for the AC era then we at Hybrid would love to know: have your plans changed? Are you still planning the same style of wedding as BC? Have you spent lockdown on Pinterest creating amazing boards full of things you never knew existed? Have you reassessed the vibe and feel of your fantasy wedding? Does it still include hundreds of guests and traditional ideas of pomp and ceremony?

We are willing to bet that whilst some are planning the biggest matrimonial party the world has ever seen, many couples have shifted their ideas and are focusing on alternative ‘fresher’ values. All those guests you would have invited before BC (work colleagues, school friends you haven’t seen in 10 years, your mum’s neighbour from when she was 6) may not seem so VIP anymore. It may seem more important to celebrate in the real world, with the people you really care for.

During lockdown, we have been meeting (via Zoom) with couples who are planning their weddings in the future and we have learnt many things (not least that Zoom wedding consultations are awesome! Why on earth did we not do these before?) and just for you, we have listed our findings below.

The five things we have learnt about love (and wedding planning) in the time of Covid….

1. Keeping a sense of flow and airiness

It would appear that “socially distancing” is here to stay, for the foreseeable future anyway, and so providing guests with a sense space is something they will appreciate. This feeling of airiness appears too in the popularity of ethereal style wedding dresses and informal wedding attire, not to mention eclectic wedding styling, relaxed wedding breakfast menus and of course, wild and rambling florals. This sense of ‘flow’ suits outdoor weddings perfectly, or larger venues which can space people further apart, and will generate a more relaxed atmosphere in which guests can experience different zones or areas.

All images above by Two by Two Photography

2. Keep it small… but go big on detail

We have discovered that couples are choosing to invite fewer guests than BC. Currently UK weddings are limited to gatherings of 30 guests and what we have noticed is that by keeping the wedding party smaller, people can spend more on memorable experiences.

Couples are wanting to give guests a unique experience made up of memorable moments that celebrate their lives and each other. More than one photographer is being used to ensure all the precious, candid moments are captured, the food served is more bespoke, entertainment is more interactive to maximise the fun, mixologists are creating cocktails personal to the happy couple. Oh, and of course, florists are creating the most amazing floral installations to impress, inspire and provide the perfect photo and video opportunities. (No pressure there then!)

3. Keep it Hybrid (no, not us!… the other type)

Virtual events are now – like it or not – a ‘thing,’ but the future is ‘hybrid’ – a mixture of virtual and real (we knew calling ourselves Hybrid was a good move!).
A hybrid event is something which works well for weddings with the ‘Go Big on Detail’ part from number 2 above, really coming into play. For example, beautiful floral displays look amazing on the screen, just take a look at Instagram if you don’t believe us, and the personalized cocktail and menu recipes can be used by people watching virtually so they feel included and part of the celebration. This way, family and friends from all around the world can say they were there.

4. Keep it personal

Weddings are, and always should be, about the couple getting married. This might be the only one time when a couple focuses on sharing with others what is important to them. If a couple has had to reschedule their wedding, then even more reason to make that day, when it eventually comes, personal to them.

Whilst in ‘Lockdown Limbo’ there has been more time to remember what is important to us. As florists, we have been asked to include flowers that represent a couple’s background and interests. One groom, who has recently taken up pottery, has made beautiful glazed pots which we will include in the table-scape design and which will be given away to guests as a keepsake for the day. Origami and paper craft is also popular as a personalised gift, or sent to guests attending the wedding “virtually.”

5. Keeping it local and seasonal

Do you remember the daffodils and magnolia of March, the tulips and bluebells and stunning blossom of April? The iris and peonies of May and roses and foxgloves of June? And what about those stunning hydrangeas and sweet peas of July, closely followed by the sunflowers and dahlia?

As you can imagine, we have seen and admired literally thousands flowers throughout our career; attending markets every day for 16 years, you get to see a lot! But we have never, ever, quite appreciated, or dare we admit, noticed, the beauty of each season’s flowers as we have done, during lockdown.

We’ve found this renewed appreciation of nature echoed in the fact couples are opting for a more natural garden style look at their wedding, rather than extravagant tropical designs. We have been encouraging followers on Instagram to peek into other’s gardens for wedding inspiration. And with so much to choose from at each stage in the year, the beauty of nature transcends even the dreadfulness of lockdown limbo.

There are some amazing independent retailers out there who’ve kept us going throughout this time, stocking locally grown flowers so that any wedding held between the months of February to October could be filled with British grown, seasonal flowers and foliage to really celebrate the time of year.

At the very beginning of this year, Evolve Events asked us to share our thoughts on floral trends for 2020. Kind of bittersweet to read it back now. We wrote:

“2020 is our time! Ever since we formed Hybrid Flowers back in 2004 we have been mad on mixing and blending different flowers, colours, foliages to create floral designs… We are celebrating and admiring flowers for their individual beauty (not their old-fashioned connotations) and treating them all equally for what they can bring to an amazing floral design. We are also cherishing flowers and greenery which is grown on our doorstep and as, for our clients, the provenance of floral elements is equally as important as the wow factor. This year therefore isn’t about one particular colour scheme nor is it about mixing up every colour under the sun; it is about the ‘impact’ our designs make in both sense of the word!”

Safe to say that 2020 didn’t quite turn out as expected! But we were right in our predictions for what will be important in floral designs. And our wedding clients seem to agree that future weddings won’t be about tradition and expectations so much as quietly celebrating a more cautious, humble way of life.

Featured Image and images where stated are by the supremely talented Two by Two Photography

16 slightly random questions to ask a florist

When a friend of mine asked me if I would answer some questions about myself for an article she was writing I thought “erm… might I introduce you to my business partner, Alan…?!” for you see I am not terribly keen on talking about myself.
However, she persevered and threatened to infect my precious garden roses with aphids if I didn’t comply, so under duress, I agreed.

And I have to say I got a lot out of answering the questions! In fact, they gave me space to think about some really big questions, like: “How did I end up as a florist?” and “What is it all about anyway?” I also couldn’t help but wonder: “Would she really be so mean as to ruin my beautiful roses?”

You see, even when you love your job like I do, and have worked hard to ensure the team you work with are happy and engaged, and even when you are surrounded by beautiful flowers in sumptuous settings, you can still feel, sometimes, that things are passing by too quickly and you may want to stop and take stock. I can think of two significant occasions when I’ve really needed to do this: once when I realised that I’d been a florist for over half of my life, and the second when I turned 40 earlier this year.

The “interview” is below, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed taking part!

1. Where did you grow up?

Surrey, but I guess I really grew up when I went to live in South East London at age 19.

2. What’s the earliest thing you can remember?

As all good mums did with their babies in the 1970’s, my mum would often plonk me in my pram and leave me in the garden whilst she got on with yoga, or making a pineapple upside down cake… okay, I can’t really remember that bit but I can vividly remember looking up at cherry blossom. Our road in Ewell was lined with the most glorious cherry trees which were full of stunning puffy, pink petals that, a few weeks later would cover the street in beautiful pink snow-like confetti.
I have a tendency now to place my children under random cherry blossom trees every April just to ensure they have similar memories!

3. How much do you think your childhood influences your work:

As a child, I would always draw and paint flowers and I look for ways to show the patterns and shapes in flowers and leaves now, as then. I will always have a soft spot for begonia and cyclamen leaves.

My grandmother loved sweet peas and would display her home grown flowers in her house every summer. The organic mix of so many colours and varied heights always fascinated me. This memory has taught me that flowers, like the sea, cannot, and should, not be controlled too much.

4. What’s the weirdest place you’ve sought inspiration from:

Well! I am often travelling on the train and as a result, I been known to find a lot of inspiration from the verges on railway tracks. Also, as a car passenger travelling on the most boring of motorways I can let my mind wonder and come up with quite a few creative ideas.

5. What formal education do you have?

I have a Ist class BA hons in Communications and Animation from Goldsmiths however, the past 20 years working in the industry has been my biggest lesson!

6. What’s the wisest thing anyone has ever told you?

You’ve got to give yourself a chance to get lucky.

7. As they grow older, what do you think your children will ask you to tell stories about?

I think they’ll ask me about the time I arranged flowers for the Queen’s lunch table. It was very long and very grand! And I expect they’ll ask me about all the different weird and wonderful places Hybrid have been to in London.

Even now, I play a game with my daughter where we look at a sketch map of London that hangs on our toilet wall, and she points to a random location and I have to tell her an interesting fact or story to do with that area.

8. When did something start out badly for you but in the end, it was great?

That’s easy, it was for the first ever hand-tied bouquet I ever made for the first florist I worked for. I had only made a few beforehand and as I was making it I thought ‘Oh my this is going horribly wrong they are going to see straight through me and my lack of experience will be uncovered!’. But for some reason I kept going and realised that perseverance can take you quite a long way and actually I was alright at this flowery stuff!…

9. Which flower will always be in fashion, no matter how much time passes?

Roses: the whole world has spent thousands of years growing them. Just don’t let my friend near them.

10. Which is the most unusual brief you’ve ever been asked to fill?

Flowers to be given on stage at The Royal Albert Hall to a whole host of amazing female celebrities who took part in The Vagina Monologues in the early noughties. The flowers had to be very themed, descriptive and very striking! I was wincing when I was making them.

11. What are you interested in that most people aren’t?

Vans and trucks.

12. What’s the most expensive thing you’ve broken?

Our first van.

13. What do you think you are much better at than you actually are?

Axe Throwing (ask the rest of our team, this was the first part of our Christmas party last year and I was THE worst).

14. Do you think that aliens exist?

Not in the slightest.

15. What movie, picture, or video always makes you laugh no matter how often you watch it?

Am afraid it has to be the bar scene from Only Fools and Horses and the sick caterpillar scene in CBeebie’s ‘Hey Duggee’.

16. What’s the funniest joke you know by heart?

What do you get hanging from trees?…

Sore arms.

The people behind British Flowers Week

It seems like only yesterday that the wonderful people behind British Flowers Week, New Covent Garden Flower Market (known simply as ‘The Market’ to those of us in the biz), asked a select few of their top florist clients to choose a key British flower and create 3 distinct designs around it.

It was a genuine honour and privilege to be one of the chosen florists of 2014, and we haven’t stopped harping on about it since! You see, The Market asked just five of their finest and gave us a whole host of amazing British flowers to choose from.

Their aim?

To showcase great British flowers through great British floristry.

Our choice of British flower came easily: the Sweet William. I agree it’s not the most obvious choice, but we like to be a little different at Hybrid, and the Sweet William is a flower for which our Alan has real soft spot. In fact, the amazing Sweet William is used regularly by Hybrid in all three areas of our work: events, weekly corporate designs and weddings. Click here to see what we did with the designs.

Now in its sixth year, for floral designers, growers, florists, flower arrangers and customers alike, British Flowers Week is becoming the highlight of the floral year (yes indeed… move over Chelsea….).

So we decided to take a look at how much this amazing floral calendar event has developed over the last few years and asked the brilliant Claire Levi, Communications Executive for New Covent Garden Market Authority to tell us how it all came about.

How was British Flowers Week born?

Here at the Flower Market at New Covent Garden Market, we’ve traded in British grown flowers and foliage for centuries. Up until the 1970s, the only flowers you saw came from flower farmers in Britain. Today, most of the flowers we see used in the floristry industry or for sale in your high street flower shop will have been grown by large scale commercial growers and routed through the Dutch auctions.

We wanted to promote and give visibility to these British flowers, their sellers, growers, and the independent florists championing locally-grown. Although beautiful British flowers are available all year round, we wanted to take one week to focus all our attentions on promoting them, generating interest and press coverage to boost the British flower industry.

Was it solely a Flower Market idea?

The initial idea was solely a Flower Market idea, but the campaign would never have been possible without the support of the entire floral industry.

How has it changed over the last 5 years?

What started as a relatively small project has grown from strength to strength – I think we never really expected how big the campaign would become! – Although our aims have stayed the same.

Over the year’s 25 florists (including yourselves) have created stunning designs using British flowers and foliage that we shared with the press, on our website and across social media as the cornerstone of the campaign. This year, we’ve changed things up a bit, with six florists creating all British floral installations that will be on display at the Garden Museum throughout the week for people to visit.

Social media use has increased so much over the last five years too, that the hashtag #BritishFlowersWeek has grown and grown, with more people getting behind the campaign online. In 2015, I created the website www.britishflowersweek.com too, to act as an online hub for the week.

More florists and growers are holding events up and down the country to celebrate the week too, particularly members of the Flowers from the Farm network who do amazing work in promoting locally grown flowers.

What is the aim for British Flowers week?

We aim to:

Showcase great British flowers through great British floristry
Raise awareness of which British flowers are in season when
Encourage the public to buy more British flowers

Any key people involved in British Flowers week that you couldn’t do without?

There’s so many people who’ve made British Flowers Week what it is today! As I mentioned, Flowers from the Farm are hugely important in promoting British Flowers Week through their network across the UK. The British Florist Association are also great partners in sharing the campaign with their members. They’ve also created some great free posters for florists to use, and the lovely team at The Paper Studio have been providing free posters and gift tags to florists for years.

The whole team at the market, and friends of the market like Rona Wheeldon of Flowerona provide invaluable support too and Liz Anderson was vital in helping with PR in the early years of the campaign.

Ultimately though, British Flowers Week wouldn’t be such a success without florists, like yourselves, who’ve given up their time and effort to support the campaign and continue to advocate for British flowers, wholesalers and growers. We’re hugely grateful to everyone who makes time to support the campaign.

Many thanks to Flowerona, Julian Winslow and New Covent Garden Flower Market for images

Three things all Zero to Hero events entrepreneurs have in common

When Clare McAndrew, Marketing Director of Story, invited us to speak on an expert panel at the London Summer Event Show, we thought to ourselves:

Well, we always love a chat, especially with other event industry creatives… but are we really that fascinating?…. and would our collective experiences be enough to inspire and advise a new generation of startups?

Clare reassured us:

Our audience would LOVE to hear your stories, especially as all of you brilliant suppliers started from nothing and went on to create something great… ! I guarantee that people would find what you have to say inspiring….. Oh and by the way the seminar is already fully booked!

It turns out, Clare was right! Alongside our Alan (Simpson Co-Owner of Hybrid) was Peter Gibbons, the dynamic owner of Lux Technical; Susannah Mountfort, the innovative Founder & Director of Gingerline & Flavourology and Taran O’Doherty the super cool Founder & Sales Director of Yahire. Despite each of these companies contributing to the events industry in very different ways we all had so much to say and all shared remarkably similar backgrounds and experiences.

And here are just three of them:

Having that Eureka moment!

Take Alan. Alan kind of fell into floristry, and I mean that quite literally! As a teenager, rehearsing for the local am-dram production in the Church Hall, he somehow managed to topple over one of two identical floral arrangements put there for a funeral due to take place that afternoon. Embarrassed and shocked, he did his best to reassemble the arrangement and amazingly, and somewhat to his surprise, he succeeded! No one could notice the difference between the original and the one he’d recreated! That was his calling! He enrolled himself on to a YTS and started his floristry training and the rest as they say, is ‘Zero to Hero’ history.

It would appear that we weren’t alone in local theatre acting as a catalyst for success. Peter Gibbons started his journey as a teenager volunteering for a local theatre where he developed his passion for lighting and sound. This led eventually to him buying the assets of a company whose owner was about to retire and Lux Technical was born. He now employs 10 full time staff and creates events for the most amazing clients including Google and War Child.

Susannah Mountfort’s unique idea was to fuse together art, performance, food, drink and design. On The Gingerline, guests are sent to a secret location for an evening of extraordinary performance, narrative, set design and amazing food. She has since created Flavourology and Chambers of Flavour, both offering multi-dimensional dining experiences. She even wrote her own piece of software which monitors dining guests moving through the interactive events space, this was later adapted for Starbucks.

After working for an event furniture hire company for a bit, Taran O’Doherty decided to set up his own business with his best friend from school. One night they both got drunk, pulled out a notepad did some rubbish drawings (his words not ours) and hey presto! Yahire was born. With no business plan or experience, very little money and no way of knowing how to would gain customers Taran and Ben bought 300 folding chairs and 30 trestle tables which they stored in Ben’s mum’s home. Yahire now employs 80 people and is the stand-out name in the industry.

Not giving a monkey’s

So! Sounds simple? Have an idea and hey presto, you’re an entrepreneur. But stop press… all is not as it seems! When asked about challenges along the way we all agreed on these:

#1: Getting people to take you seriously

Youth can be on your side, but if you’re starting up your own business, sometimes it can prevent people from believing in you. Peter came to London in his early 20s and agrees that ‘coming to London when not one of us were over the age of 25, was a challenge. You need people to know that you and your company were utterly capable and able to deliver no matter what.’

Susannah took it as a challenge when working with other non-event industries as some did not take her seriously. She wanted people to recognise an ambitious plan and believe in her idea. Fortunately, ‘the desire to prove anyone who said we couldn’t do it wrong was hugely motivating’.

#2: Being motivated

Having self-control and keeping focussed can be extremely challenging. As Taran explains: ‘As a leader, remembering your goals, and not get distracted is very challenging. After a couple of years, your new company becomes a job, and it can be tough to keep focussed and move in the right direction’.

#3: Loneliness

Setting up your own business can be lonely, even when there are two of you setting out to conquer the world.

Peter advises to ‘Build yourself a support structure: my family, friends and business mentors have been key as it is a very lonely place at the top, and it feels as if you are the only person feeling it’.

At Hybrid we’ve found that as our business has grown, our clients, suppliers and staff all become as precious as our own families, so before you know it you’ve created your clan of like-minded people!

“Do. Or do not. There is no try.” Yoda, Jedi Master

When Clare asked the panel what it is you need to set up your own business within the events industry: for Alan the answer was simple:

‘Passion. So many people come to us and say:

Oh I would have loved to have done that!

I say either go and do it, or stop talking about it!’

Taran agreed: ‘So many people deliberate or say they are going to do something and find excuses not to, but you have to believe you are capable of doing anything.’

Peter adds ‘Surround yourself with people who challenge you, if you are always hands on, you are never going to be able to scale it up, so bring people in who are better than you. The key to our success has been people, there is no two ways about it.’

So if you have an idea that you think rocks, go for it! What’s the worst that can happen?

With great thanks to Splento for all images

The Pearl and Pear interview

Every time we are given a brief to design the flowers for an event the geeky part in us will start to rub their hands together. At Hybrid, all of us love a bit of research and preparation. Whether it be looking into the style and personality of the client, a company’s brand values, the history of a venue or a unique events theme. But when we were asked by the inspirational, creative events experts, Pearl and Pear for an interview and we realised that we had to talk about OURSELVES and our OWN WORK we thought, in true control-freak fashion:

hmm… how can we prepare for THIS? There’s got to be something we can research?

Slowly we realised that there wasn’t much preparation we could do for this particular project and that we were just going to have to wing it. ‘Go with the flow’ as they say. But first, in a last ditch effort to feel just a little bit efficient, we decided to look up the word ‘work’.

Work: an activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a result.

Okay… we do quite a lot of this thing they call ‘work’. We can easily talk about that. In fact we have spent the last fourteen years researching for this very conversation.

And so we did the interview. It was great fun and we heartily recommend winging it…. well sometimes!…

You both started this successful floristry company together – what made you take the first leap?

Each other! Alan and I were both very young, we didn’t have any responsibilities and few expenditures. Living in London in the late nineties and early noughties, our priorities were being happy and doing things our way. We weren’t afraid of living on next to nothing. And carrying flowers on the tube!

At the beginning we found ourselves working for three separate florists completely by coincidence. It wasn’t long before we became great friends. We have exactly the same sense of humour. But we are also very different. I (Caroline) am the quiet one who looks out for opportunities whilst Alan is the fearless one who will say- “Why not? Let’s do it!” Our blend of caution, courage and of course creativity ended up being a great combination. We worked harder than either of us ever thought possible and the company grew along with us.

Are you both really as flower obsessed as we think you are?

We have probably thought about flowers every single day for the past twenty years! We are so brainwashed by flowers! As a result we can spot them a mile off. Before our brains even have a chance to register anything else. Just when we think we may be getting slightly complacent, the seasons will change. Always bringing us something new and exciting.

Does Hybrid have any favourite event themes?

Summer with a twist is always fun. It gives us a chance to design all manner of beautiful florals. Using lovely bold shapes and colours. As well as some striking one-off focal pieces. Summer events offer us a golden opportunity to create some gorgeous high impact installations on themes such as Summer Festival Season, English Countryside and Midsummer Night’s Dream. The possibilities are endless!

We understand that as flowers are living and breathing tools to work with therefore they must have their complications – what has been your most challenging event?

Any event on a hot weather day!

Before we moved to our lovely cool and spacious work studio, storing delicate flowers in the summer heat was a nightmare. With many flowers to organise, especially delicate peonies, planning was essential. Most of our peonies are sourced from Holland so we had to work out exactly when to place our order so that our peonies would work their magic and open just in time for each event.

However, when there is a heat wave all that planning can go out the window as peonies can simply burst open and drop their petals as soon as you look at them. Back in the day, we were so lucky that our suppliers allowed us to store our flowers in the market so that they could slowly open. Unfortunately, even with this lifeline, exposure to sudden heat just travelling from A to B can cause peonies to explode in a puff of petals and there is no putting them back together.

Alan still laughs to this day at the memory of me driving back and forth from the flower market with buckets full of hundreds of peonies not sure whether to leave them in the market, take them to our workshop or just get them to the hotel early! In fact, one of our wonderful suppliers gave me buckets of peonies just to calm me down!

What would be your top tip(s) to create maximum impact when using floristry at an event?

Think of just three simple key words to give to your florist which will describe the feel of the floral arrangements that you want for your event. If you endeavour not to deviate from these key words then you can remain focused on creating the right atmosphere and also give your florist space and inspiration to offer your some amazing unique designs. For example:

Pink, Mediterranean, sunshine
Sparkle, delicate, soiree
Rambling, woodland, ambers

At Hybrid, we always recommend pooling your budget so that you can create a few key pieces for an event. Otherwise, you run the risk of spreading your budget too thinly across a large number of items that won’t have the same dramatic impact on the day of your event.

Last but by no means least, always have a ‘star flower’ at the core of your designs. By doing so, your guests will marvel, comment on and admire this ‘star flower’ and they will forever associate it with you and your event.

Flower arranging is no way as easy as it looks, do you have any insider knowledge or trade secrets to reveal to create the perfect display at home?

Container, container, container!

If you have a choice always buy vases with a narrow neck. Even if you only have a few stems of flowers or branches of gorgeous foliage, a vase with a narrow neck will ensure they always stay in place.

As a rule it is easier to work with smaller vases. Look for matching sets of little vases and use a few flower heads to create an eye-catching display.

For larger striking designs, it is often better to buy multiples of one particular flower rather than trying to experiment with a whole host of different varieties. Bundles of daffodils or a mass of dahlia will look amazing on their own or softened with some lovely foliage.

Finally, as florists, working with gorgeous flowers everyday – are you as obsessed at home?

We do have our favourite flowers at home, ones which we know will best complement our own personal styles. However, on the rare occasions we are given flowers, or when we take random left overs home, we do get rather excited and think “Wow, this time I am the client, how do I want to arrange them?”.

All photography by the super talented Holly Clark

With thanks to the amazing Pearl and Pear