Supplier Love Blog Series - Part One - Signature Flowers
Part One- Signature Flowers
Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Florist
A blog series introducing you to some of my favourite suppliers in the wedding industry. They will be telling you a little bit about themselves and offering some pearls of wisdom for planning your wedding day.
Emma has to be one of the loveliest people I’ve met in the wedding industry. She is also exceptionally talented and passionate. So it is only fitting that she would be part one of this series.
Over to you Emma…..
Introduce yourself
and tell us more about what makes you you!
Hey everyone, I'm Emma, owner of Signature Flowers; florist, wife, daughter and longing to be King Charles Spaniel owner! First off I'm not great at this kind of thing ... selling myself or talking about what I do, I'm just good (bloody good) at flowers ... so that's a start! I'm actually quite shy until you get me around the flowers, then I come alive! Put a flower in my hand and you won't stop me talking!
I own a gorgeous high street flower shop in Bicester that specialises in gorgeous weddings! But we create flowers for every occasion. I'm most in my zone when creating flowers for funerals as I truly believe families choose us for our skill, craftsmanship and our empathy, being able to read the situation someone needs flowers for as they walk through my shop door is my superpower.
I have an awesome horticultural background from growing up on my parents plant nursery which is where my passion for all things floral, colourful and textured come from! I'm still often found pricking out plants or on the end of a hose pipe in my 'spare time'!
You won't find me selling hard anywhere but you will find me on the Instagram grid - it's my favourite Social Media platform ... but it's a muddle ... because we don't do the same thing day in day out and that's one of the things I love most about what we do. Every design is different. Sometimes it's colourful, sometime's it's blush it depends on our client.
Experience In The Wedding Industry
Wow ... this question really made me think ... we do on average 40 weddings a year now we have the shop as I will only take one a day but before the shop weddings were all I did and I did a lot! I can confidently say I've had the pleasure of providing wedding florals for around 400 weddings now. Some weddings are huge, others just a bridal bouquet and a buttonhole - but they all get the same level of service from me and my team.
My business began properly around 10 years ago - I've dipped in and out of it as I've worked part time for other people and done further training.
Top Tip
Fall in love with your suppliers - if going for a meeting with your suppliers doesn't excite you then find someone else. The market is vast and there is a supplier out there in each field who will get you and that is key on your wedding day. Someone who you want to be alongside you on probably the biggest day of your life.
Where did you get married?
James and I got married in Quainton village church and then celebrated with 120 guests at Buckinghamshire Railway Centre - we fell in love with the venue as we were packing away a wedding fayre one Friday evening. The sunset was perfect and we knew it was our venue especially as both our families are from Quainton, it meant it was stumbling distance home for most guests!
We had a Spring wedding - with a very classic green and ivory theme ... it would have been red otherwise as that's James's team colour - and I didn't feel that worked for a March wedding!
I wore lace having said all along I was wearing satin - it's every brides prerogative to have a set idea on her dress and wear the polar opposite! I certainly did! The boys wore traditional morning suits.
We ate afternoon tea - on an enormous scale - the raspberry and chocolate brownies and pimms jellies being favourites for all! Then in the evening we were joined by ahem nearly another 80 guests and we had the most incredible live band Who's Got the Dog? who kept the dance floor full all night!
Most of our suppliers were supplier friends who I am still in touch with now - we are so grateful to them all for being part of our special day!
Top Tip
Send us all the names for the buttonholes and corsages, that way we can label them all up so there is no confusion at church we don't want Great Auntie Gladys pinching Mum's corsage now do we!
When did you know you definitely wanted to be a florist?
I didn't ... this is a career as a teenager I wouldn't entertain!! Until I had to make a choice of working or going to college as sixth form didn't want me back! I wasn't a bad student - I just wasn't a high achiever in exams and upper sixth in a Grammar school wasn't for me!
So my parents gave me the choice; get a job or go to college. At the time I was very (very) involved in Young Farmers and all my friends were off to Agricultural college and floristry was the most appealing thing there! So here we are today, many more years of floral education since, in a job I love and wouldn't change for the world!
But I think when I first started college we went to what was then The Spring Florist Event and I cam first in my first floristry competition - that was the moment I knew I was sticking with it! And I'm still in touch with that tutor to this day! It's all about who you learn from and who inspires you and I was blessed with amazing tutors at my first college who instilled my passion and work ethic into me!
Top Tip
Work out where you can use flowers twice ... spend a bit extra on one more intricate or elaborate design e.g. your ceremony flowers which can then become your top table flowers or at least part of.
What part of your work makes you all toastie inside?
Handing over the bridal bouquet/s on the morning of a wedding!
There is nothing like it - I still get nervous butterflies ... will she love it, have I got the colour shades perfect, is the size okay - so many factors go into a wedding bouquet!
It is such a special moment and often we've had to interrupt the hair and make up team (sorry - just for five minutes) and handing it over to show her how to best hold it is my favourite part of my job.
That and the moment a few weeks later when a thank you card lands on our door mat - I'm proper old school I try and always handwrite thank yous so love it when our couples take the time too! Seeing a picture of you on your special day with some lovely words about your flowers too is always a lovely surprise!
What is your favourite wedding theme?
I love a couple who aren't afraid of colour - for me the brighter the better... so often couples are lead by trends which mean we end up doing 7 or 8 weddings with a very similar colour theme throughout a wedding season, but for me a couple who choose colourful get the best of whatever season they get married in! In Spring, it's all about the ranunculus, tulips and hyacinths, Summer brings all the cottage garden goodies; lupins, peonies, delphinium and sunflower. In the Autumn I will always turn to dahlias and hydrangea - particularly if I want impact! For a winter wedding amaryllis, thistles, hellebores, berried ivy, and cones and preferably a little sparkle!
I love a more woodland led theme - moss, twisted hazel and lots of textures makes me a very happy florist!
Top Tip
If you are having 6 bridesmaids (hello 2020's lucky number!) utilise their bouquets, as a florist there is nothing that upsets me more than once the wedding breakfast starts people just put their bouquets down somewhere there is space. Find some gorgeous vases, line the top table with them, decorate windowsills, the bar but please, please make sure those flowers are in water!
That way your maids can take them home and enjoy them for days to come!
Do You Have A Favourite Wedding Venue?
Tricky one ... depends on the couple, depends on the season, depends on the budget! We are blessed to be preferred suppliers at lots of local venues - and we love them all! But everyone of them caters for their own market and that's what makes them special and unique.
But ... I'm a sucker for water and for that reason The Dairy at Waddesdon with its stunning lakeside pavilions and rustling weeping willow trees is my favourite. There is nothing quite so lovely on a wedding morning than setting up in such a tranquil surrounding. Waddesdon also projected me when I was a young business and gave me wonderful collaborative opportunities which has helped me get to where I am today so I am forever grateful!
Where would you love to work one day?
I've got a few places on my wishlist... but top of it is
Aynhoe Park ... I mean who doesn't want to work here - it's a phenomenal venue, so quirky, so unique and literally ten minutes from the shop. The floral opportunities are insane - so many ideas ... and I don't even know the couple yet!
Top Tip
Comfy shoes ... make sure you know you can wear those shoes all day, or failing that have a pair of favourites for the dancing!!
