Thursday 28 March 2013

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.




Monday 25 March 2013

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!



In my experience, some bloggers will happily pop your lovely shoot straight onto their blog within a matter of days and be jolly nice about it; some are fantastic, uber professional and fab and give you the date your post will go up well in advance and stick to it.  Then there are others .... they'll be very friendly, insist on exclusivity and then might keep you waiting, keep promising, ignore you for a while and then keep you waiting some more! Ultimately, they usually do post your shoot, but the wait can be agonising, and I have heard of cases where bloggers have kept people hanging on and then changed their mind and didn't take the feature.

Putting together a shoot can be a bit of an emotional roller-coaster. Styled shoot are very, very time consuming. You put all your best creative ideas together, work incredibly hard organising everything, possibly spend hard earned pennies, agonise for hours over which initial shots to send, write all the copy, only, in some cases, to be totally ignored. Let's be clear, not everyone works in this way and as I said, many bloggers are fantastic, but forewarned is forearmed!

But, and as Bart Simpson says ... it's a big butt (!) ....

You can come out of a shoot with something you and your industry friends are incredibly proud of, a fabulous source of inspiration for your brides, gorgeous pics to use on your website, form new alliances in the shape of the lovely people you worked with and get to know a really friendly editor or blogger!  As a natural born optimist, I prefer to think this is always going to be the scenario following a shoot, which is why I've not given up on them!

Here are a just a few of our shoots which happily have featured on lots of blogs and magazines ...

BEST OF BRITISH





Friday 22 March 2013

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

Sunday 17 March 2013

And the winner of our Competition is .....

Gemma Hick!

Well done Gemma! We had some really fantastic answers to our competition, but we just loved your comment and especially love that you are choosing flowers which will create special memories of your day.  We also thought that including flowers which were favourites of loved ones who are no longer with you, was particularly lovely and really poignant.

Congratulations! If you'd like to get in touch by email, to claim your prize, the details are on our website

We're really looking forward to designing your special, seasonal, Bridal bouquet in our Campbell's 'just picked' natural style.

A HUGE, thank you to everyone who did take part in our little competition, it was really tricky to decide on a winner, so if you'd like to see more of our wedding flowers or would like to arrange a consultation then do get in touch.

Tracey x




Photocredit:  Jess Petrie Photography



For more of our work, visit our


Friday 15 March 2013

A Shower of Pretty - British Grown Natural Confetti

Hello all

Today I'm delighted to bring you one of our latest industry collaborations and to tell you all about gorgeous, natural, British grown petals which are the prettiest, most delicate confetti I've seen in a long time.  Nowadays venues and churches tend to have quite strict policies about confetti, with many asking that friends and family only use natural, biodegradable pretties to throw when celebrating the end of your ceremony. I've also had lots of you Brides ask me to include it with your wedding flowers,  as it seems to just tag on nicely with our very natural, 'just picked', style.  Happily, I recently found Bespoke Confetti and have established a fab working relationship with the lovely Rosie.

The confetti is dried larkspur petals and is available in a gorgeous rich, velvety purple, a mid to pale pink, a soft creamy-white or you can have a mixture of all the lovely colourways in together.





Fill paper cones, organza bags or simply fill a large basketful so your guests can grab a handful!

Saturday 9 March 2013

Katie & Adam - Red Lippy and Winter Berries!

Hello lovelies!

Today I bring you one of our lovely real weddings from last year featuring the fabulous Katie & Adam, who were married here, in Sheffield, in mid November.

Katie and I hit it off the first time we met - she's the wedding co-ordinator at one of the top hotels in Sheffield and we got chatting at my first ever wedding fair, at her place of work! I was so excited when she mentioned she was getting married, I'm afraid I was a bit over-enthusiastic (something she reminds me of when I see her!!).  Luckily though, Katie really loved my designs and so we got together for a consultation and just completely hit it off.

She adores gorgeous red, velvety roses and so I suggested using red Naomi, a deliciously scented, absolutely stunning, big, beautiful rose. We teamed these with her favourite purple tulips, some hypericum berries for texture all offset everything with pretty lilac and magenta roses, creating a fabulous rich and sumptuous bouquet. To make sure the bouquet worked with her 50's styled gown, we kept the bouquet quite compact and a strong 'ball' shape.




Wednesday 6 March 2013

Women! Don't Know Your Limits! - International Women's Day 2013

Hello all

Some of you might know that this Friday is International Women's Day and I'm so excited to bring you news of how Campbell's Flowers are getting involved. I was absolutely delighted when The Sheffield Enterprise Programme contacted me recently and asked if I would speak with two other local businesswomen at an event to celebrate women in business, by talking to an audience of around 60 about our entrepreneurial journeys so far!

This special event showcases stories from a new start up business, a growing business (ours!) and an established business - all run by women and combines presentations with a Q&A session, giving audience members the chance to quiz the presenters about their journeys' so far.  Following this session, everyone will be given the chance to network with some of the leading female figures in Sheffield business, over a fabulous lunch of international cuisine - reflecting the diversity of the expected audience. How exciting!

Sitting down and starting to write, got me thinking about my role model, Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop.  She somehow managed to combine being a human rights activist and environmental campaigner with a fantastically successful businesswomen, creating a multi-million pound business based on ethical consumerism.  The Body Shop was one of the first in the cosmetics industry to rule out the use of ingredients tested on animals and to me, she proved that you could be immensely successful but still have a social conscience.

Friday 1 March 2013

Wonderful Workshops - An Afternoon's Private Tutition

Hello all,

Today I bring you news of my latest floral design workshop, an afternoon's private tuition, here in the workroom at Campbell's HQ.



I was contacted a little while ago by Bestz who is a Thai MA Business student, studying at Sheffield Uni.  She was looking for someone to teach her floristry basics as a bit of light relief from her very academic studies.  We chatted through email before arranging an afternoon of quite intensive learning - not knowing Bestz abilities I chose a range of designs which would easily lend themselves to extension tasks if needed.  Lucky I'd thought this through and had a contingency plan, as she's an absolute natural and took to the designs really easily!