I’ve seen tropical flowers and themes making a resurgence over the last few years on everything from parties to stationery (you can’t beat the classic holey cheese plant leaf, can you?). The colours they bring are so vivid and they come in such unusual shapes.
If you’ve not been to Pergola before, I’d highly recommend it! On top of a grey, multi-storey car park in Kensington Olympia is this oasis of green, with a vista for miles over South West London. The concept is a huge shared eating area with lots of tiny pop up eateries dotted about for you to choose from, supporting community and small businesses – perfect!
Using tropical flowers is a real treat, the bright colours and the deep, shiny greens allow me to push my creative boundaries. After looking at the venue online, we decided that a tropical leaf cloud would work perfectly with the venue. Using tropical palm leaves, fresh cheese plant (monstera) leaves as well as ferns, aspidistra and ruscus – I created this beautiful cloud, suspended over the reception table. The explosion of green worked beautifully against the dark woods and colourful printed wallpaper at the venue, full of texture and creating a dramatic look overall.
For the table florals, I wanted to create something a little different. I took 3 real pineapples and hollowed them out to create vases. I’m actually slightly allergic to pineapples and don’t enjoy eating them – so I’ve never cut one before. I definitely underestimated how difficult they were to hollow out but at 11pm the night before with a kitchen covered in pineapple juice, I finally had 3 vaguely empty pineapples! It turned out to be worth the struggle as they looked awesome among the pinks, oranges and greens and really bought the tropical theme to life (although I don’t really want to see another one for quite a while…)
The bridal bouquet was very unique. Tropical flowers are usually very thick stemmed and with heavy heads so they can’t be arranged like a traditional hand-tied bridal bouquet. After some time experimenting with the flowers to work out how they sat best, I created a sheaf style bouquet. These are long and straight bouquets, which are balanced on the brides arm. This type of bouquet can be made with all flowers and makes a strong style statement. Within the bouquet, I used orchids, gingers, heliconias and kangaroo paw flowers in the design which created a beautiful contrast of brights against the brides white gown. House of Macrame provided the unique bouquet wrap as an alternative to traditional ribbon binding which bought the whole thing together.
If you’re a cake/dessert person, the lovely Ester from @sugarlily_cakery created some gorgeous tropical themed treats and cakes.
This shoot was published by not one but two blogs (You & Your Wedding and Bridal Musings) and a Magazine, so if you love the tropical vibe, head over to your favourite one to see more gorgeous images and inspiration.
The team who made it happen:
Floral design irisandco.com
Photography & planning katantoslewisphotography.com
Venue pergolalondon.com
Stationery socalligraphy.co.uk
Invitations mamaincstudio.com
Cake, desserts & planning @sugarlily_cakery
Bouquet ties House of Macrame
Macramé backdrop twome.co.uk
Decorations idyllicdays.com
Dresses shikobabride.com, thecotswoldfrockshop.co.uk
Veil sashandveil.co.uk
Jewellery honeyblossomuk.com
Hair accessories & sandals theluckysixpence.co.uk
Groom’s outfit zebel.co.uk
Flower girl dress & hair accessory prettygorgeousweddings.co.uk
Rings moltenweddingringcompany.com
Hair & make-up rosieblush.com
Stationery socalligraphy.co.uk
Invitations mamaincstudio.com
Cake, desserts & planning @sugarlily_cakery
Bouquet ties House of Macrame
Macramé backdrop twome.co.uk
Decorations idyllicdays.com
Dresses shikobabride.com, thecotswoldfrockshop.co.uk
Veil sashandveil.co.uk
Jewellery honeyblossomuk.com
Hair accessories & sandals theluckysixpence.co.uk
Groom’s outfit zebel.co.uk
Flower girl dress & hair accessory prettygorgeousweddings.co.uk
Rings moltenweddingringcompany.com
Hair & make-up rosieblush.com