Marks & Spencer in war of the wedding roses: Retailer takes on high street florists with budget bridal bouquet service

I was forwarded an article today from MailOnline about Marks & Spencers new concept of providing a budget bridal bouquet service.

The Daily Mail reports that M&S have said that their new service will save couples over £200 on a normal budget of £560, including one bridal bouquet, two bridesmaids bouquets, four buttonholes, table arrangements and thank you bouquets.

The flowers are described in faceless quantities - 12 white roses, 12 white freesia, 12 hard ruscus leaves etc etc.  Don't get me wrong, we do understand that the budget is vitally important and we respect this.  However to be able to sit down with the bride and more often than not these days, the groom as well and have a chat over a cup of coffee or two;  get to know them, understand what they like, the look they're trying to create on their day - small or large budget - to be able to create something unique to them is a privilege in our minds.

If you are to order your bridal package from M&S and collect them on the morning of your wedding, knowing exactly what they're going to look like, which actually as a design concept holds as much va va voom as a Fiat Multipla, takes away all of the pleasure that most brides experience awaiting that important delivery from their florist on the morning of their wedding.

A number of times we have delivered the bridal flowers and reduced the bride to tears when she sees her long awaited bouquets - thankfully not a sign of distress, but a sudden emotion takes hold that her big day has arrived and her flowers reflect the romance and style that she will encapsulate, not just today but through long lasting memories.

To order your wedding flowers through Marks & Spencers in this manner will be a little like turning up at a party and realising that someone else is wearing the same dress as you.  Find a good florist that you click with, be honest about your budget, have realistic expectations and await the big day when you meet your bouquet for the first time.

Spring Wedding

Hey!  With all of this dull dreary weather, we wanted to brighten your day with a touch of spring.

By the time it gets to January, us florists start getting a little excited when we see the tulips appearing at the wholesalers and along with these an array of bright and colourful blooms that remind us that Spring really isn't that far away.

We have put together a bridal bouquet and a choice of buttonholes with sweet scented Lilac, Christmas Rose, and fragrant Muscari.  A simple mix, but a very elegant one - don't you think!

Welcome to 2014

Happy New Year to you all!  A new year and a new start...which means be better at blogging, keep our nails looking nice despite our trade and eat less chocolate whilst working!

We have some exciting things to look forward to in 2014 - many lovely brides and grooms to work our magic for throughout the year and we are also pleased to say that we shall be exhibiting at the Creative Brides Vintage Village at the Bluewater Wedding Fair, beginning of Feb.  A must for budding brides......

A newbie in town!

Each month on Facebook, we do a Pick of the Bunch design using only seasonal flowers for that particular month.  November is not an easy month to do, as the availability of seasonal flowers is scarce and to be honest a little drab.

However, when we went to the wholesalers yesterday, we were introduced to a relatively new cut flower on the market.  The cut Cyclamen.  It's gorgeous!  It is slightly bolder but very similar to the sweet pea and it lasts for two to three weeks.  Unfortunately, it doesn't have a scent like sweet pea but the fact that you are able to get your hands on a beautiful flower such as this during the dreary winter months is a bonus!    So this November, our pick of the bunch was not so difficult after all. 

The cut Cyclamen would make a wonderful wedding flower, even if only used on its own; available from October through to February.  

We teamed the freshness of the Cyclamen with the bold leaves of Senecio New Look and a few tips of Clematis Freckles.  Clean, fresh and a flash of pure white on the dark long days of winter.  

Our first blog post!

Wow!  Frida and I had always talked about having a blog and here we are, our first post!  

If I'm honest with you, I'd hoped to have read up a little on writing a blog but it hasn't happened to any great degree.  I had a brief look online at a blogger blogging about bloggers that blog, but other than the importance of content I decided the best thing was to just crack on.

Frida and I have been working together for three years running a small but busy freelance florist company.  We had managed, at the time of starting up our business, with a great deal of difficulty, to put together our own website with a large DIY website provider.  It wasn't easy and we passed the job between us like it was a hot potato!  It did its job at the time but as the business grew, our own homemade website really wasn't hitting the spot, so we decided this year to take the plunge and invest in a professional website - hooray!

So......drum roll please........the new website www.fridaandsophia.co.uk is now up and running.  It's been six months in the making, as it took us that long to find a web designer, come up with an idea of what we were trying to achieve, get together with the lovely Rebecca Douglas for a photoshoot, choose our content and then tweak, tweak and tweak!

Our favourite part of putting together the content for the website was most definitely a warm, sunny day in Tenterden at our workshop, conveniently situated in my parents' garden!  Rebecca arrived late afternoon which meant we had the lovely warm light of the slow sinking sun and with her wonderful calming aura made us both feel at ease, even whilst we were having our mug shots taken!  For those of you who do not know us personally and just to set the record straight, I'm the blonde and Frida is the brunette.

We thought we'd share with you some of behind the scene shots that Rebecca took.  

It doesn't take a lot for us to get the giggles

This was one of the last ones Rebecca took,
so tired I could hardly keep my eyes open!

As I'm typing this I'm beginning to wish I'd read the blogger blogging about bloggers that blog so I knew how to finish a post!  But I didn't....so please take a look at our new website and feel free to comment we hope you enjoyed our first blog post, we're looking forward to many more.  F&S