‘Boho’ is a word that’s used in the wedding industry a lot. This means that it is often used to describe a style which isn’t quite the same, merging into vintage or contemporary. Boho is also a lifestyle more than a fashion statement, taken from the free-spirities hippies of the 1960’s, embodying freedom and creativity. Urban boho is an update of this, featuring original elements, with a more modern styling – and not a chintzy teacup in sight!

This shoot was dreamed up by Sama at Utterly Wow Weddings, a planner and stylist and shared with me to see if I was interested. I get asked to contribute to a lot of shoots now, which is an awesome place to be. At the start of my journey, I used to reply to anyone and everyone searching for a Florist – whether or not they were my style – but I’ve now graduated to being able to choose which shoots I take part in. After seeing all the beautiful poppies, bright colours and gorgeous furniture elements, I knew I wanted to be on board with this one.

The first challenge I had with this shoot was the poppies. They were a big part of the theme and had started to come into bloom in the meadows and fields (or in London, in random pavement cracks and growing out of walls) but that doesn’t always translate to flowers being available in the Market. As a lot of our flowers are grown aboard, the growing cycle doesn’t always match the British one and our often inconsistent weather. I was very worried as to whether I would get any and a few days before the shoot, I headed to the flower market where I managed to find 2 bunches of Icelandic poppies. If you’ve never seen one, they’re very strange flowers and look like little aliens at first. Big green hairy pods which eventually open into gorgeous frilly poppies in the brightest of colours. My favourite shade is the peachy-salmony colour so I was hoping for lots of those. When we buy these poppies, they are closed and so we can’t see the colours – it’s a real risk buying them! As they slowly began to open at home I realised every single one (around 50 stems) was almost exactly the same shade of orange! I definitely wanted more variety as these were such a key flower but sometimes nature has other ideas and we work with what she gives us.
For the bridal bouquet, I created a natural, rounded but softened style filled with poppies, anemones, roses, ranunculus and snapdragons, all in colours that reflect those late, hot summer days we spend our winters longing for.

The ceremony area was already decked with gorgeous walnut brown, mismatched chairs and a whole host of Persian rugs for our barefoot bride to walk down. I created tall, fluffy pampas grass ceremony designs to flank the end of the aisle. The contrast between the heavily patterned, dark red of the rugs and the stark white of the modern venue was softened by the grasses for a romantic a modern-bohemian feel.

For the table design, the wall hangings bough the poppy shape to the forefront and really made them stand out. Using concrete block vases to cement the urban theme I hand wired each flower individually to give them the dancing, wild and unstructured look. I also used some old brown glass bottles which I added seagrass and bunny tail grasses too for a fluffy and interesting texture to break up the white background. Finished with the napkins in the perfect shade of mustard, I adored this table setup.

Rachel at Hire Love specialises in creating gorgeous lounge areas for weddings, where your guests can sit and chill inside or out, or even watch TV with our old home movies on rotation. She set up this beautiful one with a huge old armchair and everyone’s favourite house plant.

This photoshoot was featured by the amazing blog, Love My Dress. If you love this look, head over to the blog for more pictures and stories behind the shoot.

The creative team behind the look:
- Photographer – VOYTECK PHOTOGRAPHY
- Concept, Planning & Design – UTTERLY WOW
- Venue – THE WINDING HOUSE
- Flowers – IRIS & CO
- Hair and Makeup – BE YOU WEDDINGS
- Dresses- Anna Campbell and Rish Bridal via BLACKBURN BRIDAL
- Cake – CAKE ME BY SURPRISE
- Furniture & Props – HIRE LOVE
- Stationery & Calligraphy – MATHILDA LUNDIN
- Grazing Food – GRAZING SOCIAL
- Groomswear – SLATERS
- Tableware – PLACE SETTINGS