To be more accurate this post should really be titled growing my own wedding flowers. But as I’m also building my business via this blog I decided the title I’ve used would attract more readers. And to be perfectly honest, with just one full time day a week to give to my flower farm, the responsibility of a wedding other than my own would be a step too far this year I think. This way I know that I have all summer to practice making bouquets (so if you are ordering cut flower bunches from me you could be in for a real treat as I can’t have every one of them in the house!) as well as no specific ‘must have’ colour scheme to stick to – that might go spectacularly pear shaped by the time of the day itself. I’ll also have many photo opportunities to hand to build up my portfolio so that when I do launch myself as a full time farmer/florist I will have tangible options to offer my prospective customers (and an awareness of where the problems might lie).

That said, I have to admit that I’m taking every advantage of my dahlia and seed ordering this year – in order to grow what I hope will give me the best choice of flowers to choose from come the day .

As I’m getting married in September I have the best of late Summer flowers to choose from. Top of my list will be roses because I do want some perfume, and these I may have to buy in from another #britishflowers grower if the roses in my garden don’t deliver (if I’d only known about this three years earlier I’d have filled the garden with roses!). But roses aside everything else I can and will grow on my flower field. My list includes the following:

Dahlias, Sweet Peas, Scabious, Orlaya, Antirrhinum, Alchemilla (if careful cutting back hard earlier can generate a second flush of flowers) Dill, Mint, Nigella, Grasses.

Then I’ll also look to use whatever local foliage/fruits/berries I can harvest locally at the time to add a touch of seasonality to things.

Finally I shall be adding a hand-dyed silk ribbon from Mill Pond Flower Farm . If you haven’t looked at this website you really should – the the dyes used are made from the plants and flowers Paula grows.

Meanwhile I’m reading Vic Brotherson’s and Georgie Newbery’s books for inspiration and following the brilliantly instructive DVD supplied with Fresh from the Field Wedding Flowers by Lynn Byczynski and Erin Benzakein.

I thought that starting my flower field last year was exciting but so far 2015 is surpassing all expectations!