Wedding Planning – 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

How to style a wedding the perfectly imperfect way

There is a school of thought which argues that Western ideals of beauty are based in symmetry and perfection, whilst in the East, aesthetic value can be found in the damaged or imperfect. For this particular wedding day, we were asked to create florals for our perfectly named couple Emily and Emile, who wanted beauty conveyed in an utterly imperfect way!

Not only did our clients eschew typically ‘perfect’ flowers, they were also into the aesthetic of broken things. To clarify, Emily and Emile are great admirers of the ancient and very beautiful Japanese art of Kintsugi.

The inspiration:

Kintsugi, which literally means ‘golden joinery’, is the art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer which has been mixed with powdered gold, silver or platinum. Dating back to the 15^th Century, it has evolved into an art form by which utterly unique and beautiful objects are created from once broken pieces.

In promoting repair as an intrinsic part of an object’s history, Kintsugi has become a metaphor and philosophy for life: for some it demonstrates human resilience and how we as people develop from negative experiences, taking the best from them and owning them, which in turn makes each of us who we are.

The brief:

And with this in mind, our challenge; should we choose to accept it, was to piece together a very relaxed look, with simple, unassuming flowers but in a very careful, impeccable way. We would need to incorporate wild, rambling natural foliage into very formal and historic London buildings: St John’s Church in Notting Hill and Merchant Taylors Hall in the City. Our clients wanted us to make everything look effortless and unaffected, whilst at the same time paying every attention to detail.

No problem, we accept!

We briefed the team that the look was to be disordered, but that we need to be meticulous about how we created it! We agreed to avoid using typical ‘flower-shop’ flowers –so no dahlia, tightly spiralled roses or trendy succulents – and turned our eye to using branches, foliage and simple, elegant flowers that could hold their own without shouting ‘everyone look at me!”. Through the usage of symbolic thistles and olive, our floral designs were to look very natural and gratifying.

The details:

September is the perfect time of year for wild looking late summer flowers. Using a floral palette of white, along with touches of red and blue to complement the venue interiors, we incorporated masses of stunning eucalyptus with lots, and lots, of candlelight.

We worked with wedding planner extraordinaire Knot and Pop to create a beautiful look for the bridal party, ceremony and reception. A loose and flowing bouquet for the bride was made from eucalyptus, dill, the most heavenly mix of garden roses and white scabiosa and astrantia, together with thistle, wild blackberries and twigs. The simple, delicate and timeless button holes for the gentlemen were made from the roses and thistle for Emile. With the cool tones of blue found in the thistle highlighting the stunning bridesmaids’ dresses and the tiles of the St John’s Church, the look for the ceremony was one of pure elegance.

The venue:

For Merchant Taylors’ Hall we created a feature entrance design to look as if it were growing around the formal grand stair-case. Simple white delphinium, hydrangeas, grass-like red sanguisorba, garden roses, blackberries, eucalyptus, olive and ruscus all combined to compliment this stunning historical hall.

The Parlour, with its 18^th Century original Chinese wallpaper, was simply dressed with a rambling, but not over-the-top, mantel design of matching flowers which perfectly complimented the collection of elegant furniture.

The courtyard, a hidden gem within the City of London, was beautifully set with white dressed drinks tables tied with swags of foliage and dressed with a smattering of key flowers. Later in the evening the courtyard became alive with the dancing, flickering flames and shadows from candles which combined to create an atmospheric and befittingly romantic space.

Rambling eucalyptus and olive garlands were laid along the stunning guest tables in the Great Hall, interspersed with blown roses, blue thistle and deep red juicy blackberries. The nodding seed-like heads of sanguisorba and scabiosa were entwined amongst lots and lots of candlesticks and perfectly set tapered candles.

No detail was missed from the perfectly positioned tables, the stunning dining chairs and exquisite place settings which were styled by Susie at Knot and Pop. And as for that reference to the beautiful art of Kintsugi? Well, everything that Susie touched that day, definitely received a dusting of gold!

All stunning images courtesy of M&J Photography

“Make those flowers clash!” … our vibrant celebrity wedding as featured in Hello!

Our first ever meeting with Ade Apepitan MBE’s future wife, Elle Exxe, was at Hybrid HQ in Vauxhall. The incredibly inspiring, self-styled music artist arrived with her wedding planner, the wonderful George Watts AKA “The Wedding Fairy” and proceeded to give us the most exciting floral brief: use any flowers you like, but they must clash!

Elle and Ade wanted to mix their Scottish, English and Nigerian backgrounds. They didn’t want their wedding flowers to be ‘flowery or pretty’, they wanted them to be bold and they wanted them to be beautiful. Best of all, we could use any flowers we wanted to create that look!

Elle had already decided to use Hybrid even before meeting us (soooo love it when that happens!) and she knew exactly the kind of atmosphere she wanted to create. She had been planning her wedding for two years with her TV presenter and Paralympian basket-ball player fiancé; it was to be the most exciting, vibrant and full-on happy day.

Their wedding ceremony venue was no less than the High Altar at St Paul’s Cathedral, not everyone can marry in this part of the Cathedral and it was only permitted as Ade is a MBE. As an approved florist for St Paul’s we always feel that tingly sense of excitement whenever a client asks us to work there and the fact that the wedding party would then travel to another of our most adored wedding venues, The Queen’s House, Greenwich via a boat we have had the pleasure of decorating many times, the Dixie Queen was the icing on the (wedding) cake! 170 family and friends from all over the world were invited, including top sports people and personalities from the entertainment business. It was going to be the most exciting day for us at Hybrid and we weren’t even the ones getting married!

A couple of weeks before the big day George informed us that the wedding was to be covered by Hello! Magazine. And (as you can imagine) our immediate thoughts on this snippet of information were as follows:

Hmmm, this is no biggie, the flowers are certainly going to look A-MAZING, but…. we must make sure Ade’s button hole looks perfect. We cannot abide magazine pictures of wonky button holes!

The morning of a wedding is always a very special and memorable time for any florist (let alone bride or groom!). The day you have working towards has arrived and you finally get to present the first part of your many creations to your clients.

Ade and Elle, stayed at the same City based hotel with a view of St Paul’s. Whilst their hotel rooms were next to each other, the atmosphere in each couldn’t have felt more different. Elle’s was a hive of activity, full of hair and makeup artists with friends and bridesmaids all excitedly rushing to and fro. Edinburgh, London and Nigerian accents could be heard whilst I presented the bride and the bridesmaids with their vibrant statement bouquets.

Next door was a different story, Ade was looking relaxed with his sister and looking out over the view in anticipation of the day ahead. I could tell how excited he was from his chatting: asking how the set-up at St Paul’s Cathedral was going and telling me about the grand-finale firework display over Greenwich Park. All the while I was attaching the most impeccable buttonhole of red roses, thistle, ginger petals and palm fronds to the coolest blue suit with embellished crystals I had ever seen. My overriding thought was:

this button hole is not going to move all day!

The whole wedding day was a delight; we caught glimpses of the couple and their guests as we travelled between venues and stood-by, with silly grins on our faces, as their day unfolded.

And the flowers! Oh the flowers….

The bridal party carried a mix of tropical gingers, gloriosa lily and roses along with asclepia, orchids and dahlia. We wanted each bouquet to be as vivid as the handmade African-print lined dresses and each pedestal design and pew end in the cathedral to be as colourful as the beautiful stained-glass windows.

The Ceremony

The Journey

The Reception

For the wedding breakfast in the Great Hall of the Queen’s House each table displayed a simple gold vase bursting with unique combinations of the most vivid blooms and foliage from all over the world. Tropical gingers, heliconia and gloriosa. Orchids, protea, anthuriums and asclepia. Croton, kentia, dracaenas, and ferns. Dahlia, hydrangea, delphinium, and thistle. Each table centre was different from the next and each place setting decorated with a tropical monstera leaf and the cutest menu cards we ever did see.

When we look back, it is not only the bright vivid flowers that we remember (did we mention that we could use any flowers we liked, as long as they clashed?) but the wonderful personalities that we worked with on the day. From chatting with two of the coolest female vergers at St Paul’s Cathedral (who gave their seal of approval for the flowers) to being an added tourist attraction to the inquisitive visitors looking round St Paul’s. The incredible caterers, Party Ingredients and the wonderful events team at Queen’s House were as usual, the perfect pros. And as for our stars of the day? Well they were the kindest, happiest and genuinely loveliest couple who truly deserved their very special day.

Two weeks later we received our copy of Hello! and were delighted with the coverage and are pleased to say that the button hole stayed put perfectly!

With thanks to the wonderful and highly talented reportage wedding photographer that is Allister Freeman for images.

How to be the coolest bride

How can you not be thought of as the coolest bride when your response to being asked if you have a preferred colour theme is:

Anything at all as long as it goes with my shoes.

In fact, how can you not be the coolest bride when you own an entire olive grove in Greece and yet you arrange to marry the love of your life in the coolest place in the borough of Southwark, South London.

In our humble opinion, Kate will always be one of our coolest brides for two very important reasons:

She wanted to have an informal and relaxed wedding where people felt comfortable, did not have far to travel and, most importantly of all, had fun.
She and her husband George chose to host their wedding in ‘our manor’ of Peckham, London. The place where dreams are made (no seriously, they really are….)

After all, SE15 is where both Alan and I each bought our first flats. This gritty, vibrant, varied and culturally mixed London district is the place we know so well. Well before the sun was up, we would drive through it’s (virtually) silent streets on our way to the flower market. On rare days off as we would relax on the glorious Rye and on many a night we would sit in one of it’s local pubs (the Only Fools and Horses kind we hasten to add) and discuss all of our dreams (and nightmares!) as we found our place within the wonderful world of floral design.

For Alan and I, for Kate and George, and for thousands of other people ‘in the know’, Peckham is in all likelihood THE coolest place on earth.

Kate and George decided to hold their ceremony at the stunning Asylum, Caroline Gardens Chapel because they had grown up in South East London and had heard good things about the chapel from their friends.

Asylum was also ideal because it was within walking distance of their reception venue; The Ivy House, London’s first co-operatively owned pub. In the end, in keeping with their care-free, cheerful and cool-as-cats ceremony, Kate and George decided to keep their guests company in between locations as they all caught the good old P12 bus!

When it came to designing the overall look and feel of the wedding, Kate didn’t want to be too prescriptive. Instead, we were simply asked to work with the stunning interior of the chapel, to channel that beautiful blue shoe colour and to give a nod to their Greek olive grove. This proved to be an inspirational brief – especially when we were allowed to run riot with the glorious array of flowers available in the month of July. A combination of delphinium, sweet peas, peonies, hydrangeas and plenty of candles were just begging to be used.

For Kate’s bouquet, a loose style of roses, olive foliage, sweet peas, delphinium, nigella and lavender were combined to compliment her French designed Rime Arodaky dress. This stunningly cute, short dress was the perfect choice for her wedding day.

As I didn’t want a long dress it was incredibly hard to find anything in this country. When I saw this designer and found their ‘Civil Collection’ I was blown away, I had to buy it online…. a bit of a gamble but I was so glad when it arrived… it just about fitted after a couple of extra classes in the gym!

As for those beautiful shoes? Kate found them in Office and their dream dusty pale blue hue served as the ideal inspiration from which to design her bridal bouquet. Kate searched in vain for this perfect pair of heels and told us how;

I looked everywhere from Jimmy Choo to New Look but didn’t feel the glittery glamorous typical bridal heels were very ‘me’.

The end result was a stunning bride, a beautiful venue and a wonderful day that the happy couple was able to share with their family and friends.

So what is the secret to being a cool, calm and collected bride? We decided to just come out and ask her.

Would you consider yourself a relaxed bride?

Not beforehand! However the day passed by seamlessly and I was able to spend quality time with friends and family even though I was nervous leading up to it.

What would you advise other brides about keeping your cool?

Don’t get swept away in it all, it is one day and you get immense pressure from family members and friends for it to be ‘perfect’ but just stay calm, don’t let it take over.

I wish I had asked for more help from people and never feel shy to ask brides that have recently done it. I am already helping two close friends who are planning their weddings for next year. If you don’t know anyone that is recently married ask a friend of a friend as it’s really helpful to speak to someone who has just done it.

If you were offering any advice to a bride when planning wedding flowers what would it be?

Make sure you feel comfortable with your florist. Planning wedding flowers wasn’t our strongest point. You were able to identify what we wanted by talking to us and understanding our likes and dislikes. This was done in a couple of informal meetings a few months beforehand, which made it really easy. Being able to speak with people so knowledgeable inspired us in to choosing what we wanted.

What stands out for you when you look back on the day?

I am not just saying this because it’s your company, I think the flowers were the best bit! When I got to the chapel and saw them light up the room, it really blew me away. Everyone I see is still commenting on how incredible they were.

(did we mention she was cool?!)

All images by the wonderful Andrea Dutton Photography