Flower trends for 2011 and Vida's top tips!

We're loving that a lot of our 2011 brides are trusting us to guide them into having something more natural and informal. The last couple of years have definitely seen brides stepping away from wired shower bouquets and giant martini glasses, which can look dated and stiff in the wrong setting. We've been busy designing sumptuous, textured bouquets in muted shades using fresh herbs and seasonal flowers, tied with vintage velvet ribbon, and lovely herb gardens instead of thank you bouquets.

Key varieties of roses for us at Vida Flora are the dreamy lavender grey Amnesia and porcelain coloured Majolika spray rose. For those girls who are all about pink, we're mixing gorgeous blousy pink peonies with Keano roses and green hydrangea florets. Favourites amongst the grooms for buttonholes are an eryngium thistle or green cymbidium orchid bloom for a more masculine look.


Vida's top 3 tips for choosing your wedding florist:

Ask them how many other weddings they're doing on that day, or even that weekend - it'll give you an indication of how much time and effort they'll be putting into your flowers, and the attention to detail you'll be receiving.....or not!

Choose somebody that understands your personal style and the style of your chosen venue, and comes up with plenty of original ideas. The most fabulous flowers can still look wrong if they don't suit the couple or are out of context with the surroundings.

Don't feel bad about getting back to a florist if their initial quote is too high for your budget, but you feel you'd like to work with them. It's difficult to pitch prices accurately when most couples don't say how much they are willing to spend, or just don't actually know. Wedding magazines are great for ideas but they rarely tell consumers how much the arrangements would cost. So come back to the florist and see what they can do - most will welcome the chance to work with you and will be able to come up with numerous ways to bring it back within your budget.

It's wedding fayre season!!

This week we're busy getting creative and designing a fabulous display for our next couple of wedding fayres. So many beautiful flowers and gorgeous bits and bobs in the shop at this time of year, it's hard to choose!!

First of all we'll be exhibiting at Swansea's Brangwyn Hall for the Tiara/Ladies First Wedding Fayre this Sunday, 17th Octo October. Then, the following Sunday, 24th October we'll be at the Grand Pavilion in Porthcawl. Also showing off his fabulous wedding photography and exquisite albums, will be our very own in-house professional photographer, Martin Phillips, MPA, BIPPA. And for those brides and grooms who love all the little details but need a helping hand pulling it all together, we'd recommend our lovely wedding planner Lauren, of Florence Blue. With a million gorgeous ideas and the patience and creativity to pull it off, she's the girl to make your wedding stand out from the crowd, whilst bringing it all in under budget and without the stress. Sounds good to me.....!!!

www.vidaflora.com
www.martinphillipsweddings.com
www.florenceblue.co.uk

Goodbye summer, hello Autumn!

After a very exciting and busy first wedding season where we had so much fun with our lovely Vida brides and grooms, it's time to start looking ahead to (dare I say it!?) Christmas!!

We've been out and about scouring the country this month for fabulous new suppliers, and every week more deliveries are arriving with new stock. With some irresistible new jewellery lines, scrummy toiletries (for men too!), and lots of bits to beautify your home, Vida is bursting at the seams with goodies!! So keep an eye out on our Facebook site for piccies of all the new stuff and some great gift ideas, all available to pre-order, and of course with optional gift wrapping, Vida-style!

We're attending plenty of wedding fayres this Autumn too, and will be welcoming lovely wedding planner Lauren from Florence Blue to come along with us. The Vida wedding service is growing by the day, we're now able to offer a complete wedding planning service, as well as bespoke flowers, stunning photography, bridesmaids gifts, albums and stationery such as guest books, wedding journals etc. With engaged couples finding themselves shorter on time and resources than ever before, there's no wonder we're already getting so many bookings for 2011!

So pop along and say hello at the Eternity With Love Wedding Fayre at The Bear Hotel in Cowbridge on Sunday 26th September. See you there lovelies!! xxx

Vida's buddying up!

Well, it's been a very exciting month for Vida!!

As well as lots of lovely weddings that we've doing with Martin Phillips' Photography, we're also very excited about a budding ('scuse the pun!)new relationship with fabulous wedding planner Florence Blue! As you'll see from Lauren's lovely website, her style is right up our street, and we're looking forward to helping her as she creates some truly scrumptious wedding designs in the upcoming year.

www.florenceblue.com

Also, as we sit here with our coffee and banana loaf, writing this, we've just taken delivery of lots of beautiful "Flutterbugs". Corrine makes these exquisite pieces of art with amazing attention to detail and endless patience, and it's fair to say they're one of our favourite things in the shop! Pop in to see our fab selection or order commissioned pieces through her website, quoting Vida Flora as a reference.

www.flutterbugs.co.uk

And finally, thanks so much to our favourite Vida wedding couple Michelle and Mike for their sweet comments in this card they sent following their lovely wedding in May:

"Mike and I just wanted to send a quick note to say a BIG thank you for everything you did for us with our flowers - everything was perfect. Us girls loved our bouquets, mine was absolutely perfect, and the guys looked great with their buttonholes! We were truly blown away - the table centrepieces were out of this world. Everyone commented on how gorgeous the flowers were and after the big day, they lasted for so long! Thank you, everything was so much more than we wanted; absolutely amazing. Love Mike and Michelle."

Getting cards like that through the post are what makes all the hard work, the thorns in my hands and tired feet worth every second - thanks so much guys for taking the time to write!!

Wedding testimonial - Nicola and Dominic

Thank you so much to the sweetest couple ever - Nic and Dom, for this lovely, lovely message they took the time to send me in a card after their wedding. It was a total pleasure from beginning to end to work with such a fab couple, and we want to congratulate the new Mr and Mrs Evans on their marriage!!! Lots of love to you both xxx

"Dear Jessica"

"Well what can we say, other than "Wow!". Dom and myself were absolutely overwhelmed on our wedding day by your flowers. We were blown away with every detail from first thing in the morning when we received the buttonholes and the stunning bouquets, to the wedding breakfast when we walked in the room and could not believe our eyes. The flowers were above and beyond anything we could ever have wished for. We want to thank you so much."

"All out love and best wishes, Dominic and Nicola."

It's wedding season!!

Love is most definitely in the air at Vida this month, with the first May wedding coming up this Friday - the lovely Michelle and Mike at Margam Orangery. Swiftly followed by several more weddings this month, Vida's going to be a busy little bee!! We've just booked our 22nd wedding since opening just a year ago - which is very exciting, especially since doing wedding flowers is so much fun (even with the 4am starts and sore hands!!).

There's lots of new goodies in store, and plenty of gift ideas for all your upcoming birthdays, special events and weddings - from beautiful handmade photo albums in the most sumptuous hand-etched leather and cotton paper, to the stunning new Tutti & Co jewellery, and even champagne gift boxes.

The new recipe books are flying off the shelves - there's one for every stage in life, from "Feel Good Foods For Pregnancy", to "The Newlywed's Cookbook" and "Cooking Italian With Kids". Another major hit, that we can't keep on the shelves long enough to pick our favourite one, is our range of custom-made Flutterbugs, available in any colour. See www. flutterbugs.co.uk for pictures and details.

Well Spring has almost sprung and there definitely seems to be a sense of wedding fever, as the bookings come in thick and fast. From a snowboarding wedding in Austria to a beautiful mountain wedding in Andalucia, and an octegenarian couple trying the knot in Porthcawl, it's so exciting to be playing a part in so many lovely people's special days.

Meanwhile the shop is bursting with fabulous new stock, from gorgeous home accessories to sumptuous soaps and divine candles, and a new range of pretty handbags for thse girls who just can't resist! Our stylish customers are going mad for the new range of stunning handmade headbands from Sido by Sido - the perfect accessory for all those summer weddings. Vida is basing all her outfits around various designs! And what's really great is that you won't find them anywhere else in Wales, so you won't risk running into someone wearing the same thing!

So next time you're in town, drop in for a chat and spend a little time browsing in the beautiful world of Vida...

www.vidaflora.com