Sometimes Life Feels Like A Dream!

Working amongst the most beautiful florals from The Flower Story in the picturesque setting you could be a million miles away from the reality of our everyday lives. Shrouded in the most beautiful spring floral sent, time stood still amongst the grand walls of a stunning English Country Manor. As our model entered the room, we held our breaths and fully absorbed the moment, the beauty, the flickering of candles and the silence that can only be obtained in a moment of pure wonderous beauty.

When Lizzy asked me to come and style her wedding editorial shoot I couldn’t say no, despite having a 3 month old baby in tow. This was my idea of heaven the mixing of my 2 passions, weddings and creating stunning visuals under my TWE Curated Umbrella.

The setting couldn’t be any more stunning, Cornwell Manor is described as Fantasy Fulfilled. A privately owned English Country Manor estate set amongst the stunning backdrop of The Cotswolds. The ballroom features high walls and windows which pour in light and beautiful antique mirrors just screaming to be celebrated. Cornwell Manor itself dates back to the Jacobean times before having a Georgian makeover and finally the house and hamlet had a facelift from renowned architect Clough Williams-Ellis just before World War 2. Still privately owned it offers exclusive use hire throughout summer months and offers couples a luxurious, exquisite space to share their love story.

The aim of the shoot was to showcase Lizzy’s floral talent and expertise through the creation of wow floral installations that would produce images that would inspire and captivate for years to come, that I believe we did and more so. A truly inspiring and energetic team to work with.

My main area to focus on was the ballroom, often as a stylist my job is not to take centre stage but to support and highlight the work of a florist. Let the flowers do the talking and my touches act as a subtle side kick to give it that extra oomph. The fireplace was surrounds by a beautiful floral display featuring a modern mix of pastel colours, a non kitsch liquorice all sorts mix of colours that together produce a delicate but dramatic in size backdrop. Glass cylinder filled with a mix of pillar and floating candles provided a subtle dappling of light because no wedding is complete without candlelight in my eyes.

The tablescape featured layered stoneware linen table cloths over delicate ivory silks. Flower filled urns and glass bud vases spilled down the middle of the table and were accompanied by gold candlesticks and ribbed glass tealights, both available to hire from the TWE hire collection, Ester and Erik candles in an assortment of pastels were the perfect colour addition.

Place settings featured layered stoneware plates, frayed edge stone blue linen napkins and delicate hand calligraphy torn edge place names. Gold was a subtle tone throughout the styling with gold rim glassware and cutlery. Subtle colour additions can make all the difference so blue water glasses accompanied each place setting and I am now obsessed with adding coloured glassware into every wedding, it just works!

To complete the look of the table we added Cane Back Chairs from Wedhead because life is to short to not have beautiful chairs in such a beautiful setting,

Outside Lizzy created a breath-taking floral arch that was a real show piece, I strongly recommend if the budget allows spending money on a wow piece such as this arch in a position that would see a high traffic movement of guests such as outside a marque entrance. The final styling touches were subtle but helped create depth to the image and helped build on the story of the shoot. These included a stack of vintage books tied with a hand dyed ribbon and careful positioning of a gold lantern and subtle use of a delicate champagne glass.

This editorial was created to inspire and captivate and I feel it does just that, high fashion, the most beautiful English Country Manor setting, luxury florals and a wealth of talent combine to create moments of pure magic.