10 Steps to Wow Factor Wedding Flowers with Amie Bone

Cost, seasonality and scale are all important considerations when it comes to your wedding flowers and Emma Deeley, owner of Tythe, a beautiful working farm wedding venue in Oxfordshire, has hosted hundreds of weddings where couples have got it just right. She asked friend of Tythe and luxury event florist, Amie Bone, for her top ten, can’t-go-wrong ways to ace your wedding florals.

‘After the venue, catering and the dress, the flowers can take up a significant portion of the wedding budget for many couples,’ says Emma Deeley, the owner of Tythe, in Oxfordshire. ‘But most couples come to planning their weddings without any real knowledge of flowers – what they cost, what is in season when and even the names of different flowers (beyond the obvious ones) become a bit of a minefield. Then suddenly they’re expected to have a view and an opinion on what flowers they would like to decorate all the different elements of their wedding day – from the bridal bouquet to the ceremony flowers, photo backdrops and the buttonholes.

‘As a venue we have the enormous advantage of having plenty of planting and florals already here for your wedding weekend. Like our stunning wisteria archway or the flowerbeds that border the farmhouse and the structural London Plane trees outside the barn. We also have a huge archive of wedding imagery which is a great starting point of inspiration for many couples. They can use it as a resource, via our Instagram account and website, to see what ideas other couples have used to inspire them. We can also offer lots of advice from years of experience on how to maximise your budget – whatever that may be – to get the most impactful flowers in the places around Tythe where they will be noticed and remembered the most.

‘We have been lucky enough to work with some incredible florists over the years and we were recently visited by Amie Bone, not long after she created her incredible floral installations for the Chelsea in Bloom Platinum Jubilee celebrations in London. She shared with us her top ten steps to guaranteeing wow factor wedding flowers at Tythe – and every venue, whatever your budget.’

Don’t compromise on the dream

‘For me, saying no is never an option. If you say to me, Amie make this, then yes, I’ll make it! It’s never, ever no. Aim for the wow factor. This day should be memorable. The hairs on the back of your neck should stand up. When you step into the barn, all of the elements should come together; the colours, the textures, the linen, the cutlery, the glassware, it all makes a massive difference in the grand scheme of things.

‘I am obsessed with tablecloths because they add an extra luxurious dimension to the room, don’t overlook them. Ultimately it is my job to ensure that you are super impressed when you walk into that room by what they see. I want to make you cry. I always try to be there for the big reveal because that moment is better than any payment I have received. That is the pinnacle moment for me. It’s the best feeling in the world. I wish I could bottle it.’

Be clever – and transparent – with your budget

‘Not everyone has a ginormous budget for flowers. I would suggest spending your money on the things that people will notice, rather than lots of smaller arrangements that can be easily missed. For what you might spend on quite average table centres, you could divert that budget into something like an amazing backdrop for pictures of the wedding party that everyone will want to photograph. I try to get a budget early in the process. My job is to exceed your expectations and there’s no point in you coming to see me if you’ve got £1,000 to spend on flowers and you want a million-pound wedding, obviously it’s not going to happen. People don’t always understand the cost implications when they are looking at a beautiful image on Pinterest.’

Aim high!

‘I would always dress the ceiling. If cost is an issue it doesn’t even have to be flowers, use foliage that trails downwards towards your guests, with elements that actually touch them on the shoulder while they’re eating dinner, so it feels very immersive. I use lots of foliage to help create a very whimsical vibe which is what we’re famous for rather than a neat structured dome of hydrangeas. I’m not your kind of florist if that’s what you’re looking for.’

Light up!

‘If you’re allowed to have real candles, use them, they’re so beautiful in a barn setting regardless of the time year, to create a really romantic ambience. Place them at different heights on the tables and around the space.’

Stick to the season

‘How you decorate doesn’t need to be dictated by the amount of natural light in there. Seasonality is much more important. You get so much more for your money when you use flowers that are more readily available, much more than if you are trying to use peonies in January for example. Stick to what’s in season and the chances are those flowers will come in an array of colours anyway so you can have whatever look you’d like.’

Do it your own way

‘Just because you are marrying in a barn, the florals don’t have to be rustic, it’s all about what you want to create in that space. Barns are great because they are the ultimate blank canvas and you can do whatever you want to do in there. It doesn’t need to be a copy and paste wedding. It comes down to clever design. If I was styling a wedding at Tythe I would want to stand in the barn and feel the dimensions of the space and that’s when the ideas would start to come. I wouldn’t restrict myself in any way.’

Sweet peas will never be wrong

‘They would be my first choice for the ultimate bridal bouquet for their scent and colour. I love how delicate and pretty they are. I also love a peony in a bridal bouquet and Nigella which is such an understated flower.’

Embrace your sense of smell

‘Scent is really important too, it’s part of the vital mix of different elements that will mean your day stays with people long after they’ve left. Years down the line, if scent has been a clever consideration of your wedding florist, then people will smell the same notes and immediately remember your wedding.’

Understand the process

‘You need to have a rapport with your florist because you’re going on a journey together. Ours starts with sending our clients our wedding flowers guide which also breaks down exactly how we work. Next there will be a Zoom consultation, where we get a good feel for how we’re going to work with each other. It’s at this stage that we’ll discuss your initial ideas, your venue, the budget. Then I send over an initial wish list based on those conversations which will cover everything we’ve spoken about, right down to the flowers you would like placed in the ladies’ loos, the staffing and the logistics. Once you’re happy we take a deposit and then we start the really creative journey together. I’ll put together a mood board, we may plan another site visit, drawings will be done to illustrate all the installations. Your wedding will be uniquely designed for you. Our mood boards are very detailed. We are working on a wedding in Scotland now where its 78 pages long because the wedding is that big. It took a long time to put together but it’s a fantastic brief. We’ve been working on it for 18 months. It’s our job to think about every eventuality and be as organised as we possibly can be.’

Trust your florist to be creative.

‘I personally love to give brides ideas. When I’m shown an image from Pinterest and asked if I can recreate it, I will always want to evolve it, to use it as a starting point to do something more creative, more fabulous. I don’t want to make something that someone else has made. What we do is all bespoke because each client is different, and each venue is different. Clients are happy with this because they want something different too. Why would you want your wedding to look like one you were a guest at last month?’