This book is so many things to me… It’s about love, friendship and turning your life around. It’s also about weddings and flowers.
It’s a subject close to my heart because, for years, I was a wedding florist. And like Frankie in the book, it wasn’t a career I’d planned. I kind of fell in love with it, learned the skills I needed and worked it out from there.
I’ve always loved flowers – particularly the wild ones bestowed by nature, the kind that appear in fields and blossom surprisingly in hedgerows. I’ve always loved growing them, too, as well as watching a garden change as the seasons pass.
As a florist, I liked to work with the seasons – flowering bulbs and twigs in winter, the abundance of vibrant spring flowers; summer’s heady roses with herbs and honeysuckle; autumn’s palette of reds and golds – just a few examples.
For many people, flowers are an integral part of a big event. They create atmosphere, bring colour and scent. They say something about you – everyone’s style is different. And sometimes, there’s an alchemy to them. Breathe in the fragrance of a Margaret Merrill rose – its appearance is humbly delicate, yet the scent from a single bloom can fill a room; or mix white freesia with freshly picked mint – the combination of scents is out of this world. Fragrance is wonderfully evocative, too. It will forever take you back to that magical day.
Over the years I’ve met so many lovely brides and decorated many stunning venues including country houses, marquees, castles, barns. Packing my old Series 2 Land Rover with flowers, I’d start at the crack of dawn and work behind the scenes, spreading a touch of floral magic before the wedding started.
It was glorious, creative, challenging, rewarding. But all this joy and beauty come with a flipside. Stress – because when it comes to weddings, there are no second chances! Things have to be perfect, or as near as, on the day. I used to wake up at 2am in a cold sweat, after a nightmare about flowers I should have ordered or mythical weddings I’d forgotten about. Maybe there was a plus side to the stress, though – in the drive it gave me to make sure absolutely everything went as it was meant to.
Being part of so many incredible days was an amazing privilege. Drawing on those years made the writing of this book a real joy. I really hope you enjoy reading it.