Fabulous Flappers - A Gatsby Inspired Shoot

It's a busy day in the workroom today, getting ready and designing flowers in the brightest, sunniest colours ever to grace Campbell's HQ.  Sheffield may be grey today, but I'm working with what can only be described as a cacophony of colour! Bliss!

Ahead of me posting pics of Rachel's flowers, I thought I'd share with you a few preview pics in the shape of a sneaky peek of our latest shoot.  A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to be called by the totally fabulous Hayley who owns Glory Days Vintage in York - a gorgeous boutique crammed full of the most beautiful vintage goodies, including vintage original bridal gowns.

Last year we worked together on my shoot Women of Steel which was featured on various blogs, including the wonderful Under the Vintage Veil and found it's way into lots of lovely magazines. Hayley asked if I'd be interested in getting involved with her and the amazingly talented Alison Barrett of Vintage Bridal Millinery to put together a 1920's inspired shoot ahead of the release of the eagerly awaited The Great Gatsby.  I jumped at the chance and dragged my lovely friend Jenn Edwards along as hair and make artist extraordinaire!

The shoot took place in the aptly named, Tiffany Room, of 1331 in York complete with original Art Deco features, which can be hired for rather special wedding ceremonies.  Here are a few of the early shots by Andy Gaines - which speak for themselves!  I'm beyond excited by what I've seen so far and, despite the mixed reviews, will definitely get to see the movie (in between weddings, of course!).

Hope you love the shots as much as I do ...

As I said ... so exciting!

If you're thinking 1920's flapper for your wedding, I hope this has given you a little more inspiration - there's lots, lots more to come.  Also, I've heaps of news and announcements coming soon on the blog, but 'til then - mix me a cocktail someone!

T x

Photo credit: Andy Gaines Photography

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Floral Trends - That Personal Touch

Hello lovelies

It's been a crazy old week, jam packed with weddings, consultations and, on a more personal note, birthdays! In between meeting new brides, designing prettiness and indulging in some rather fabulous dinners (and a spot of prosecco here and there!), I've been thinking about how so many of you are adding personal touches and details to your flowers.  This new way of thinking can range from mismatched china, glass or found objects to personally decorated jars, tins and so much more.

As those of you who work with me will know, I'm a stickler for detail. Because of this, I don't just finish off your flowers with any old generic white ribbon which everyone gets, which many of the slightly more anonymous High Street florists might do.  I like to treat every Bride and her bouquet differently and never making the same design twice means matching-in the way I finish off the designs taking into account ideas for your wedding, your gown, your bridesmaid's dresses, the groomsmen's suits etc.

The lovely result of all this attention to detail is that many of you are now being inspired to add your own  sometimes quirky, sometimes sentimental, but always personal ideas, to your bouquet - which I absolutely love!

Here are some of the most recent ideas our lovely innovative, creative Campbell's Brides have come up with ...

Rachael's and I decided to finish off her bouquet with an antique brooch, to match in with her gorgeous Claire Pettibone gown

Becky chose to attach photos of loved ones

Whilst we attached Jenny's late Grandma's lapel pins onto ribbon as a special tribute in her bouquet

Kerry asked me if I could use the lace from the bottom of her gown, which was left over following alteration, to finish her bouquet. She also co-ordinated a brooch which she'd had made to match her jewellery and pick up the detail on her wedding dress

Laura, being a bit of a crafting queen, knitted all her buttonholes and, as wool was a real feature of her wedding, I bound her bouquet with it and finished with a pretty ceramic button she'd used throughout her designs.

Helen's bouquet was finished with garden twine, she provided for a lovely rustic finish and then prettied up with trails of narrow lilac satin ribbon

Whilst Emma gave me a torn vintage veil and some pretty co-ordinating fabric along with two cameos to attach to her bouquet.

I hope this has provided you all with some lovely ideas and inspiration.  As you all know, I love working with like-minded industry peeps and a couple of months ago now, all this creativity sparked a germ of an idea, which happily has recently come to fruition.  Look out for the launch in the next few weeks of a really exciting partnership with a fabulously talented lady who I'm really pleased to say has become a firm friend which will, hopefully, give you even more scope for ideas!

Right, I must away, and ready myself for a day of interviewing for my new intern - eep!

Tracey x

Photo credit: Shakespeare Photography

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Rachael & Wayne - A Host of Golden Daffodils

Hello all, well the wedding season has really kicked off here at Campbell's Flowers and HQ has been awash with flowery gorgeousness ever since Rachael & Wayne's Spring wedding at the beginning of March.

Rachael originally got in touch after a visit to the lovely Chloe at The White Room where she bought the most fabulous Claire Pettibone gown which features gorgeous dark lavender-grey detailing and a wonderful silk floral corsage at the back.  During our consultation, Rachael told me that the whole colour theme of the wedding would be a fabulous Spring-like yellow and that daffodils were an absolute must!  She also wanted to feature colours such as slate grey and the lavender-grey colour from her dress.

Sometimes, working seasonal blooms into colour schemes can be a bit tricky, but not this time.  I suggested we use bright yellow open daffodils in the bridal and bridesmaids bouquets and combine this with softer creams of sweet scented narcissus.  To balance the colour between the soft creams and bright yellows, I recommended some pretty lemon ranunculus. Then we could bring in detail colour from her gown, by using scented dried lavender, seasonal lilac for texture and more scent and finally, an absolute favourite of mine, dark moody helebores! Just gorgeous!

The bridesmaids, we decided, would carry the same bouquet as Rachael, just a little smaller and the buttonholes would be a really simple, stylish, vintage-inspired lemon ranunculus with a little lavender.  As any of you who have worked with me will know, I'm a stickler for detail.  So, I suggested a gorgeous dark lavender satin ribbon for Rachael's bouquet teamed with a very simple, vintage brooch.  The bridesmaids' bouquets featured lemon organza ribbon and the buttonholes were finished with a tie of the same, to complement the cravats the groomsmen were wearing.

Tables were to be kept gloriously simple but incredibly striking by using the sunniest, Springtime open daffodils packed into slate grey pewter jugs (which caused some headaches of their own, trying to get them to open perfectly for the day!). As Rachael and Wayne's ceremony and reception were both at Whitley Hall we decided upon a statement design in a pewter chalice, using all the flowers from the theme, which would double as a ceremony and top table arrangement.

Here are the final designs, which I just absolutely loved creating ...

Rachael's bouquet close up

The bridesmaid's bouquet's finished with lemon organza ribbon

More of the bouquets

A close up of the ribbon detail from Rachel's bouquet

The men's buttonholes

 Ladies buttonholes

The gloriously opulent ceremony/top table design ...

... and a close-up of the gorgeous flowers we used

British grown beautiful daffodils

As you can see the daffs opened perfectly for the day - but they certainly needed quite a bit of persuading! 

I'm just so happy that everything worked out just how we wanted it to, buy working with amazing seasonal flowers and I even managed to get some lovely British grown blooms into the designs too!

Rachael also sent me some shots by her wedding photographer Shakespeare Photography - here are just a few ...

A HUGE thank you to Rachael for sending these through to me - congratulations to you both.

Tx


Photo credit: Shakespeare Photography

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Spring Cleaning - Our New Look Blog

Hello lovelies

We've been spending a bit of time re-vamping our Campbell's Flowers blog, tidying it up and adding new features to make finding your way around much simpler and quicker, we still need to do a little tweaking (at the time of writing the banner is looking a bit skeewiff!) but we plan to iron out the glitches over the next few days - after all there is the small matter of designing flowers to get on with!

Generally though, we've kept the same look and feel, having popped a few handy categories at the top of the blog to make finding particular posts easier - you can, of course, still just scroll through the main blog to catch up on any of the general posts you might have missed.  Here are those tabs in a bit more detail:


Wedding Portfolio:

A quick and easy way to find pretty pics and lots of ideas for bouquets, buttonholes and table decorations, just to whet your appetite.  If you're looking for even more wedding gorgeousness, then pop over to Wedding Flowers  on our website and if it's specific wedding designs you're looking for, then choose from Blushing Brides, Pretty Maids, Gorgeous Grooms and Fabulous Venues.

Real Weddings:

We're really excited to bring you this new feature which showcases all our lovely Campbell's couples in one handy, easy to find place.  Check out all those lovely little details, such as colours, the blooms they've chosen, and why.

Photo Shoots

We're really proud to have worked with some incredibly creative and fabulous industry experts on some wonderfully inspirational photo shoots. Not only that, but it seems that magazines, and bloggers love them too, as we've been lucky enough to have them published in lots and lots of very fabulous features.  Pop over to see what all the fuss is about - we think you might just love them as much as we do!  Or, for the low down on the pro's and cons of putting shoots together, nip across to our recent popular post 'Photo Shoots - Pleasure or Pain?'.

Seasonal Blooms

Wondering which florals are in season on your special day? We bring you ideas for each of the four seasons, with lots of images to illustrate just what you could be working with and designing. Now that's got to make your flower choice a bit easier!

 DIY Tutorials

We just love to share our flowery knowledge and put together tutorials for all you DIYers out there - just perfect for those of you who are watching their budget or, as a fab pressie for a lucky couple.  We cover all kinds of designs and give you a difficulty level too, so you know exactly what you're getting yourself into, before you even start - just like our most recent pretty little vintage-inspired wrist corsage!

We hope you like the improvements we've made and find it easier, quicker and more convenient to get around the blog and find what you're looking for.  As you might have noticed, we've been really lucky enough to work with some wonderful photographers recently and we just love how this new layout shows our pics off to their best advantage!

Let us know how you've found it and if you've any suggestions of how we can make it even better, do leave us your comments - we love to hear from you!

Tracey x

Photo credit: Jess Petrie Photography

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Floral Trends - Our pick of the colours you're choosing for 2013

I'm writing this post in February as, looking at my lovely wall planner, I can see at a glance how busy this year's wedding season is going to be.  Actual weddings don't start until the very beginning of March (yes, that's you Rachael!), but once they do, they're pretty full on 'til October!  I have to admit that, what with spending time meeting all you lovely people, typing up quotations and emails, I'm not quite sure just how I would have coped with lots of early weddings!

Anyway, on taking an overview on this year's weddings, I had some thoughts about the colours you've been choosing for your bouquets.  I do find that bridesmaids dresses can really influence the colour choice for flowers and some of the key trends seem to be:-

Blushes

Many of you are choosing soft, feminine pastels such as, powder blue, champagne, and minks as colours for your bridesmaids dresses which quite often translates in terms of the flowers to really soft whites, creams and greens.  These colours work really well with the quintessentially British garden party, many of you are choosing.

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Photo Shoots - Pleasure or Pain?

Hello lovelies

As most of you probably know, I love a photo shoot.  I think it can be a fab way to showcase talent, put out ideas that have been bubbling away in creative brains and just generally help form bonds with like-minded souls.

Maybe because of this, I've had quite a few fellow industry peeps get in touch and ask for advice on either a) how to put together a shoot and b) what to do with it when it's done.

Before I was a florist, I worked in the crazy world of advertising and marketing - initially as a 'suit', and later as a 'creative'.  As such I attended/art directed quite a number of shoots with my clients, so I've had a bit of a head start in putting shoots together in my Campbell's guise.  There are a few key factors you need to bear in mind, initially:-

- Don't rush into putting together a shoot. Think about why you are doing it. What do you want at the end of it?

- If it's pretty pictures for your website, do you need a range of shots?  If so, you'll need to plan like mad!

- If it's publicity or PR for everyone involved, where would you ideally like to see it featured?

- Does your shoot have an idea/theme/concept?  If so, is it a good 'fit' with your preferred blog or magazine? Do some research - read your magazine from cover to cover or look at similar 'inspiration' posts on the blogs you love.

- Have you worked out lead times or copy deadlines?  If your shoot is seasonal, have you timed it right?  Magazines usually have very set deadlines which can sometimes work in your favour.  Blogs are a little more flexible with their lead times but, depending on who you're dealing with, can be a bit arbitrary!

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Mosaic Brides - Good Things Come ...

... To Those Who Wait!

Hello lovelies

I hope the return of the snow hasn't scuppered your plans for the weekend. It's wall-to-wall consultations with us, so I'm hoping that everyone will be able to get here safely and without too much disruption. Just before I pop out with a lunchtime delivery, I thought I'd share a very quick blog post with you today - something I'm soooo delighted with ...

When I'd only been in business a month or so, I very briefly met Rachel Parry, Features Editor of Mosaic Brides at The White Room, whilst she was dropping off the latest issue of her rather fab and stylish magazine aimed at gorgeous Yorkshire Brides.  On pouring through the pages, I just knew it was something I really aspired to being featured in!

Fast forward six months or so, and I plucked up courage to send off a couple of my shoots to Rachel, only to receive the loveliest reply.  We booked up an appointment for an interview, here at Campbell's HQ, and absolutely hit it off - we just talked and talked and talked! 

I'm really proud to say that today I received copies of a not one ... not two ... but three page feature which is not only beautifully written, but is also incredibly complimentary.  I have to say I'm over-the-moon and it's completely made my day.

Here are a few (too many ?!) snaps I took of our pages - am totally proud!!!

Spring 2013 Cover

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