I was lucky enough to have a chat with Laura Gutle who is the creative floral designer behind Grace and Violet.

Laura specialises in bespoke wedding floral designs from buttonholes to floral dressings for your venue.

I did admit to Laura that I know very little about floristry, so my 1^st question to her was how she got into floristry and the conversation flowed from there.

Laura stated that she wanted to do something that was creative and that worked around her 2 children.  After completing a floristry course with the Tallulah Rose Floristry School and gaining some work experience with a local florist Grace & Violet was created.

From initial consultation through to the actual couples wedding day, Laura likes to provide a personalised level of service this includes getting to the venue early to ensure that her flower arrangements are displayed the way that the couple have requested and that they show off the flowers at their best.

As Laura is also on hand during the preparation of the venue, she also likes to be on hand to attach the buttonholes and make any last-minute adjustments.

I asked her if she’d noticed any changes in what couples were looking for in their wedding flowers and she said that there was a big move towards British flowers and that they should be grown more sustainably which could also be the reason for more couples asking for dried flowers and pampas grass which give the bouquets a boho feel to them.

Moving on from this I asked Laura what she prefers working with and she stated that the sustainability of the products used which is why she would choose British flower as it reduces the air miles and reduces the cost.  She also mentioned that a lot of British florists grow their own, which is something that she would love to do given the space and time.

She also stated that she really loves to add a lot of foliage into her bouquets as this adds different textures and colour tones which enhances the overall look of the flowers.

Supply of the flowers was the subject of my next question; Laura tends to get her flowers from Flowervision wholesaler near Heathrow and occasionally the New Covent Garden flower market.  She is also lucky that there is a local wholesaler called Sarratt which is near to where she lives so she has plenty of choice.

She’ll pick the flowers 4 or 5 days prior to the wedding day, this enables her to build the designs but also to allow the flowers to bloom so that they look beautiful on the day.

It was at this point that we talked about where flowers are imported from and I thought they all came via The Netherlands and while this is the case, the markets there also receive imports from places such as Columbia and Kenya.  These countries import roses when they are out of season in the UK.

The flowers Laura created in the images were for a small Covid safe wedding held at St Andrew’s Church in Chorley Wood and included bridal, bridesmaid bouquet, buttonholes and a larger arrangement that would be displayed on a plinth in the church.

Laura has created floral displays and wedding flowers for weddings at Coltsfoot Country Retreat, Stoke Place, Chenies Manor and Kings Chapel Old Amersham but would love to design floral displays for weddings at Chichley Hall, Headsor House,  Clivedon House.

Northill Farm specialise in Tipi Weddings and Laura would love to create unique boho inspired floral displays and flowers for weddings at this venue.

Whilst I was chatting to Laura I was also watching her build the bouquets I was taken at the attention to detail and her checking in the mirror how the flowers would look when they came down the aisle with the bride or bridesmaids.  Little tweaks here, adding more here and all the time knowing that she is helping her clients have the amazing and beautiful wedding day they have been planning.

The bouquets were made up of the following flowers:- white Avalanche and Dolomiti roses, white & blue Delphiniums, white Ranunculas, Ammi and Phlox.  Pittosporum was the foliage that was interwoven among the flowers.

There are so many elements that bring together a wedding day and the flowers are right at the centre of that.  I’d like to thank Laura for taking the time to talk to me and provide a little bit of insight into creating the beautiful floral displays that we see at weddings throughout the world.