Chiara and Mark
As a Doctor completing her Masters in the run up to their wedding day, bride Chiara had an extremely busy schedule! We didn’t actually meet until I delivered her bouquet to her on the morning of the wedding – we’d spent the last few months on the phone, emailing and exchanging images via Pinterest. Chiara and Mark were both based in London too, so organising from afar.
Their event was to take place in a Papakata sperry tent on the lawns of Firle Place in the mid summer heat. A sperry tent provides a fantastic blank canvas for couples and suppliers, though this can be a challenge in itself! The space inside one of these tents is open and quite vast. There’s enough space to have all seating, bar and food areas set up for the entire day, without any moving around, which saves a lot of time on the day. We chose to decorate the long trestle tables with scented herbs strewn along the length of the tables, interspersed with tiny glass vases holding single open flowers. These ‘Margaret Merrill’ Roses were particularly special and sourced from the fantastic Real Flower Company.
A wonderful scent was provided by one of my favourite leaves, that of scented Geranium. The colour and shape of the leaf is incredible, but the scent is a powerful Turkish delight aroma – really unusual and it makes me feel peckish every time I work with it!
Chiara wanted a lovely mix of creams, vintage blush, with a smattering of plum. I loved this palette, as dark and light always work so beautifully together, and seemed a fitting tribute to the late summer/early autumn changing of the seasons.
Inside the tent I decorated two hanging boards with loose, flowing foliage. There was an initial problem with these, as the weight caused the board to collapse during set up. This was a “think on your feet” moment, and I redesigned the mechanics as I went, causing as little change to the overall look and design Chiara, Mark and I had agreed upon during the planning stages.
There was also space for a tower of crates, the top one filled with beautiful scented English-grown flowers, and a beautiful vintage brass urn, also filled with seasonal blooms and set upon the bar.
Once decorated, the tent looked incredibly special, and I can only imagine how beautiful this looked as the sun set at the end of such an incredible day.
Firle Place is situated just to the east of Lewes, so not far from Brighton. It’s set on the edge of Firle village which is the epitome of quaint Old England – with a great pub to boot!
