Our Amazing Creations Feature in an Award Winning Blog

Tolly’s amazing wedding flowers recently featured in the award-winning blog ‘Love My Dress’, which is read by thousands of people across the globe.

Our beautiful wedding flower arrangements captured the imagination of the ‘Love My Dress’ blog after we decorated a church and marquee for a military wedding in the heart of the East Anglian countryside.

The Tolly’s Flowers design team are known for creating magnificent and enchanting floral displays that provide the perfect backdrop to a dream wedding.

Our brief was to create simple, elegant white and green arrangements to enhance the beauty of the country-based reception venue and the 14^th-century village church, where the nuptials were held.

We decorated the Grade II listed St Andrew’s Church in Helions Bumpstead, on the Suffolk/Cambridgeshire border, with dramatic pedestal and font arrangements. After exchanging rings and vows the happy couple, Sophie and Todd, exited through the church’s ancient gateway which was adorned with flowers. 

At the reception, we hung a gorgeous flower ball that defied gravity from the centre of the marquee to create a spectacular focal point; each of the dining tables, including the head table, were fashioned with pretty runners of green foliage interspersed with large white flowers. 

Our decorations followed the brief to the letter and were the perfect blend of modern and traditional.

At Tolly’s Flowers we pride ourselves on attention to detail and even the shiny, polished open top military truck, which transported the bridesmaids to and from the church, was decked out with garlands of white flowers to create a wonderful canopy.

The romantic occasion was captured in its full glory by photographer Nick Tucker, who is known for his documentary editorial style. His journalistic photos, which included pictures of our stunning wedding flowers, appeared on Love My Dress’ Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google + and Pinterest pages, and these each have a following of between 2,500 to 621,000 readers.

For the couple’s special day, in June this year, Sophie wore a gorgeous white off the shoulder Amanda Wakeley dress, featuring a chic architectural neckline, and carried a classic green and white bouquet, while Todd wore military uniform. The bridesmaids had flowing dresses with individual necklines and paired their champagne coloured gowns with simple flat sandals and modern, minimalist white bouquets.

The cake was decorated with green foliage, which the couple cut with the groom’s ceremonial sword, much to the delight of the guests.

Sophie and Todd had enlisted the services of wedding planner Claire Clarke Weddings, to ensure the entire day went smoothly from start to finish; it was a fantastic occasion and even the weather was perfect for the special day. Big congratulations to Sophie and Todd from all of us at Tolly’s Flowers!

Tolly’s Flowers – Follow the link to see more of our amazing wedding flowers, including ceremony, bouquet and reception flowers. 

Church Ceremony Flowers

At Tolly's Flowers we create stunning ceremony flowers for couples in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire, for all types of venue, from registry offices to country hotels and, of course, parish churches.

Getting married in church has had a resurgence in popularity in recent years helped, it is believed, by Prince William and Kate's lavish nuptials in 2011. The Church of England reported a 6.2% increase in wedding services in 2012 and the trend stayed strong right through to 2016.

Of course, East Anglia is particularly blessed in terms of the number of charming parish churches to be found in towns and villages throughout the region. These historic buildings – many of which are hundreds of years old – make delightful settings for a traditional family wedding.

There are many ways of decorating a church for a wedding, both inside and out, to help create an atmosphere of romance and celebration. Here we showcase just a few examples of the ceremony flowers that Tolly's Flowers have created especially for churches.

Gates and Doorways

Church gates and doorways are places where your friends and family will gather before the wedding, so decorating them with flowers is a lovely way to welcome your guests. They are also very often the backdrop against which many of the formal wedding photographs will be taken.

At this church gateway we have enhanced the wonderful wrought iron archway with profuse spray arrangements, combining traditional white roses and English wild flowers such as larkspur, setting a celebratory tone for the ceremony to come.

For this ancient church doorway we have worked sympathetically with the stonework and the iron grille above the door, using a mixture of large and small blooms to create a delightful effect.

Interiors

Inside a church, there are a multitude of opportunities to place ceremony flowers, using the architecture and furnishings of the church itself, including fonts, pew ends, rood screens and pulpits, as well as the altar.

Here we have made use of the stone font as a giant vase to create a fountain of flowers and foliage, symbolising joy and abundance.

Alternatively, freestanding arrangements can be easily placed anywhere – such as this stunning globe of cream roses and hydrangeas with candles, on a tall brass stand. Freestanding displays have the additional advantage that they can be easily removed and taken to the reception venue where they can continue to be enjoyed by your wedding party. Removable displays are also useful if there are time constraints around access to the church prior to or after the ceremony.

As you can see from these examples, at Tolly's Flowers we not only put together beautiful flower displays, but we also have the creativity and practical know-how to work with your venue's features, in order to achieve a stunning result for your special day.

Ceremony Flowers Norfolk – Please take a look at more examples of our wedding flowers for ceremonies and receptions.

Just One of Our Happy Clients

Below is a recent letter from one of our customers, showing just what a positive impact our services can have on a wedding. The flowers for their special day are pictured above and below.

Dear Tolly,

I just wanted to drop you a note to say THANK YOU SO MUCH for the absolutely incredible flowers for our wedding. Every single guest there commented on how amazing they looked. I don't think they could quite get over them! The bouquets were utterly perfect and the marquee looked stunning. The ones in the church were phenomenal and we were so thrilled with all of them! Also, you were so completely reassuring throughout the process. I had got terribly stressed out about the flowers until we found you!...I cannot thank you enough!

Also a huge thank you to all of your team, they were all fantastic. I wish we could do it all again!

(Customer name withheld for privacy reasons)

We were delighted to hear how happy our customers were, as this is how we aim to make all our couples feel on their special day.

Wedding Florists Essex – View more of our creations here.

Beautiful Flowers by Tolly's Professional Wedding Florists

Experienced wedding florists, Tolly's Flowers of Newmarket, have been creating beautiful and memorable wedding flowers for couples across Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire for more than 20 years. But there's one important element of our service which is often overlooked – and that is our ability to help make the big day run smoothly.

There are a lot of elements to be thought about and arranged in the lead up to the big day – the dress, the cake, bridesmaids and page outfits, venue booking, guest invitations, catering, the ceremony, photography – as well as the wedding flowers of course. All these elements have to come together on one day, and it all has to be right first time – no second chances. So, how can you make sure everything runs perfectly?

One answer is to hire professionals that you can trust – and at Tolly's Flowers that is exactly what you get. We not only have the creative talent to design stunning displays, but the professionalism and experience to deliver on the big day. We regularly produce flower arrangements for large, public corporate events – and we've even created flower displays for royalty – so we know how to make sure everything is exactly as it should be on the big day.

Here are a few of the weddings we have designed for, demonstrating our ability to create impressive displays for wedding ceremonies and receptions, however small or large, or however challenging the venue.

The art of the possible – Professional wedding florists can, quite simply, achieve effects that the less experienced would not even attempt. To take just one example, the above is a huge gravity defying display we created for a local wedding reception.

Attention to detail – Part of being a professional wedding florist is the ability to make sure that everything is just so, as in this black and cream themed reception above. To match the dark grey chiffon chair tie-backs, we used matching black glass in the tall table centrepieces and the smaller top-table displays, to create a unified look for the whole room.

Making it work – Part of being a professional florist is the ability to think beyond the basics and work imaginatively with the venue to create something original. In this outdoor wedding we made a feature of the support poles by entwining foliage and flowers to striking effect.

Less is more – In the table displays above, the flowers have been carefully arranged and pre-tied in order to achieve an effect which looks completely effortless, creating the informal and relaxed atmosphere the couple were looking for.

Wedding Florists Essex - Click to find out more about our range of flower arrangements for your ceremony and reception.

Outdoor Wedding Flowers

Most traditional wedding flower arrangements are designed to be displayed indoors – for instance, on tables, pedestals and perhaps pew ends. However, there may be occasions where a couple wish to have outdoor floral displays, either at the ceremony location or at the reception venue. In such cases, using vases and floor stands is not practical or even possible, but requires imagination and a different set of skills.

Outdoor wedding ceremonies are becoming increasingly popular with couples as a way of making their ceremony unique. This is partly because it has become easier to achieve in the past few years, as the rules around granting venues licences to hold civil wedding ceremonies have become more relaxed. Many traditional wedding venues – such as hotels or country clubs – now offer the possibility of an outdoor ceremony (with the useful option of retreating inside should the British weather not be obliging on the day), often providing pavilions or gazebos overlooking gardens, lakes or other attractive, natural scenes. Such structures lend themselves perfectly to being adorned with ceremony flowers.

At Tolly's Flowers we have been meeting this challenge for many years and have developed the expertise to create attractive displays almost anywhere, including outdoor locations across Norfolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire and Suffolk. Here we show just some of the innovative outdoor wedding flowers we have designed, to help inspire you when thinking about your own forthcoming celebrations.

Outdoor Ceremonies

In the charming gazebo above, Tolly's Flowers has designed sumptuous wedding flowers to hang either side of the ceremonial area, as well as a traditional altar table decoration to match, creating the perfect stage for the ceremony to come.

Church Gates and Doorways

Flowers can be a beautiful way to mark a lychgate or church doorway as being a "threshold" into a new stage of life. But they are also very often the place where the main wedding photographs are taken – so your doorway decorations are likely to be part of your memories of the day for many years to come.

Depending on the design of the doorway and your preferences, you can choose between overhead displays or column displays, as pictured above.

Reception Venues

However, you don't have to have a church wedding to make use of doorway displays, either at the ceremony or reception venue. A threshold display can be used in any building, ancient or modern, whether it is a country hotel or a local village hall, to add a real sense of occasion and create a warm welcome for your guests – such as this arched display shown above.

Reception Grounds

Whether you are holding your reception in a marquee or a hotel, a summer wedding offers guests the chance for romantic walks around the grounds. So why not add some outdoor floral decorations to help create an extra special atmosphere for the event?

In the example above we decorated both ends of a large "walk through" pergola with a profuse display of summer flowers, providing an enchanting way to access the marquee area. The pergola was also fitted with a net of fairy lights, which helped to illuminate the flowers after nightfall, as well as provide visibility for night strollers.

So, however unusual your ceremony or reception venue, Tolly’s Flowers can devise decorations which will be both stunning and practical. If we've inspired you to think about using outdoor wedding flowers for your Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire or Norfolk wedding, please do get in touch.

Wedding Flowers Suffolk – Click here to view more of our arrangements for wedding receptions, both indoors and out.

Make Your Wedding Special with Unique Wedding Flowers

When couples come to us for their wedding flowers they may have very different ideas about colours, themes and styles, but they all, without exception, have one thing in common. They want their wedding to feel special and unique to them – and they want their flower arrangements to be highly distinctive and original.

At Tolly's Flowers, this is exactly what we provide for our customers – a highly personalised service to create something completely different for your special day. Pictured here are examples of the unique and beautiful wedding flowers we have designed for some of our clients.

Unique Wedding Bouquets

To us, the bride's bouquet is one of the most important aspects of wedding flowers, since it is carried by the bride both before and after the ceremony, making it a very personal item. As well as being stunning in its own right, a bouquet has to work as an accessory to the bride's outfit. In addition, we also bear in mind that it will appear in most, if not all, the wedding photos.

There are many ways to achieve a distinctive look, while still keeping to the basic ‘posy’ design, including colour combination, innovative use of foliage and use of unusual flower species.

In the example above, our designers created a stunning mixed bouquet in pastel colours. We used a mix of English country flowers enhanced with greenery and tied together very simply, to avoid detracting from the colour scheme. The beautiful arrangement and the sheer profusion of flowers makes this an eye-catching and unforgettable bouquet.

You don't have to choose unusual colours or species to achieve a stunning bouquet.

In the picture above, the bride wanted a very simple white bouquet to go with a classic cut wedding dress. We chose jasmine flowers, using a mixture of pale green buds and full white blooms to create a striking effect. Adding large splayed leaves around the base was the final creative touch needed to turn this classic bouquet into something exceptional.

Unique Wedding Table Arrangements

Designing table centrepieces that will be both visually impressive and small enough to occupy a table, is virtually an art form in itself. But it's an art form that our designers particularly enjoy.

As well as the choice of flowers, we have access to a huge variety of vases and accessories to create interesting effects, depending on the overall atmosphere the couple is looking for.

In the above arrangement, a clear round vase on a mirrored base is filled with cream and orange roses, and takes up very little space on the table top. By using relatively few flowers, but a lot of creativity, including the use of metal wiring and seashells, we were able to achieve a highly original display.

Want something more modern? Here we have combined the simplest of flowers – cream roses – with sculptural flower holders, to create an effect which wouldn't look out of place in a modern art gallery.

We hope we've inspired you with the sheer variety of designs that we are capable of creating. So, if you have been wondering how to achieve wedding flowers which are both beautiful and unique, please give us a call – we'll be happy to help turn your dreams into reality.

Unique Wedding Flowers East Anglia – Click here to find out more about what we can offer.

Pink Themed Weddings

Choosing pink as the key colour for a wedding is as popular now as it's ever been, and at Tolly's we have designed spectacular pink wedding flowers for a host of nuptials in Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire. And yet, each wedding is different, depending on the shades of pink, the types of flower, the matching colours within the scheme and, above all, the creativity and flair of our designers.
Here we take a look at some of the ways that pink can be used to achieve very different effects.

Accents
Here, pink is combined in a very subtle way with cream or white, to achieve a very classic effect, but without being completely monochromatic. It can be a beautiful way to use pink while avoiding it being overwhelming. For instance, in the image above, white and green are the dominant colours in this bouquet, but a few pale pink roses give a softer, more romantic effect.

Contemporary
Here we have used ice pink and white, with peonies instead of roses. The shape of the peonies combined with the crisp colours gives a modern twist on the traditional cream and pink rose bouquet. Our designers can also create eye-catching contemporary designs using traditional flowers but with alternative trimmings and accessories – such as the glass domes and mirrors in the image above.

Multi-shades
If you simply can't decide on a single shade of pink, why not use several? Using multiple shades of pink creates a highly energetic and exuberant affect, perfect for a summer wedding, but which still feels very coherent and stylish.

Traditional / Vintage
Nearly as popular as the colour pink, is the vintage look for weddings – and combining the two works perfectly. In this table decoration we have recreated the elegance of times gone by using silverware with white roses and foliage accents.

Wedding Flowers Suffolk – Click here to view more of our stunning designs in pink.

Beautiful Buttonholes

When you are thinking about wedding flowers for your Essex, Suffolk or Norfolk nuptials it's all too easy to focus on the bride's bouquet and the table arrangements. But just as important to the overall theme for your wedding are buttonholes for the groom and important gentleman guests including best man, fathers, page boys and ushers.

Buttonholes for gentlemen are far more than simply decorative, however – they are also highly symbolic. In medieval times, a gentleman would wear his lady's "colours" (often adopted from her family's coat of arms) over his heart on the left side of his chest, as a sign of his loyalty and affection. And it is believed that this may be why buttonholes are worn on the left lapel nowadays.

Just as a bride's bouquet has its origins in the carrying of symbolic plants (such as wheat or barley for fertility, herbs to ward off evil spirits, and so on) a groom's buttonhole is believed to have served a similar function, and is perhaps why wedding buttonholes have several elements to them, usually involving some non-floral elements such as foliage, rather than consisting of a single bloom.

With all this tradition and meaning behind them it's worth putting some significant thought into the design of your buttonholes. At Tolly's we are known for our attention to every last detail, so you'd expect us to put just as much care into the design of a buttonhole as to the bride's bouquet. In fact, we design bouquet, buttonholes and corsages together, to ensure that they all work harmoniously to achieve a unified theme.

To illustrate, we have hand-picked a selection of beautiful buttonholes and corsages that we have previously designed for couples in East Anglia, to give you just a taste of what's possible and to inspire you.

Pink

These elegant pink rose buttonholes and corsage look stunning with a pink and white themed wedding flowers display, and turn heads when attached to the lapel of a grey or black tux or suit. In this set, you see the use of some gypsophila which was used in the bride's bouquet and which helps to add something special. The design also features a bow of navy blue ribbon, to tie in with the colours used elsewhere in the wedding design, as well as creating a more masculine feel. Meanwhile, the corsage (bottom right) features some smaller and paler pink blooms, for a more feminine effect, while still maintaining a strong overall colour scheme.

Red

Red roses symbolise romance, as well as a being a popular choice for modern weddings. Teamed with cream or white, as in this example, it can also convey patriotic overtones, appropriate for a traditional English wedding.

Here, the red is used as a stunning contrast to the cream used for bridesmaids posies – but unity is maintained by using a similar shape and size of roses throughout. 

Orange and Yellow

Orange and yellow are exuberant colours – perfect for a celebration such as a wedding. These buttonholes and matching bouquet look stunning at a spring or autumn event and add a touch of brightness to your wedding attire. Here we have used a mid-green foliage which really makes those yellows and oranges pop for extra impact. 

Traditional White and Cream

If you’re looking for something more traditional and modest for your corsages and buttonholes, white or cream roses are ideal for the occasion. The challenge here is to achieve a look which is understated but not bland. Our designers have dressed these simple cream roses – a single, large rose for the groom and a cluster of smaller roses for the corsage – with deep green ivy for some dramatic contrast. These buttonholes look fabulous for any traditional, simple or countryside wedding.

Designed to match the theme of your wedding, buttonholes and corsages can be crafted from a huge selection of flowers and can be made to any specification. Alternatively, tell us the colour scheme you have in mind, and the overall atmosphere you are hoping to achieve, and let us propose a design for you.

Wedding Flowers Essex – click here to see some other examples of our work.

Add a Floral Wow Factor to Your Springtime Day with Spectacular Wedding Flowers

Wedding flowers add charm, beauty and a sense of occasion to ceremony and reception venues, Tolly’s create an extra wow factor that will contribute to making your springtime Wedding or reception an event that you and your guests will remember for years to come.

Here at Tolly's our expertise is in tuning in to exactly what each couple are looking for, whether that’s contemporary or vintage, understated or bold. For those couples looking to make a real statement, we've selected some of our favourite spectacular displays to inspire your big day, specially selected for spring.

Stunning Wedding Flowers

Here we have created a wonderful, vintage rural display. This enchanting arrangement captured the imagination of wedding guests and enhanced the beauty of the venue. Springtime colours make wedding venues feel fresh, bright and positively stunning.

 

Setting the Scene

At Tolly's we look at a whole space, and come up with creative ways to integrate your wedding flowers. Making use of furniture, pillars, pews and other architectural features to create a truly outstanding display is one of our specialities.

In this example, the colours are light and the blooms are traditional roses – but we've used the height of the columns to achieve maximum visual impact.

Stand Tall

In this table display we have combined height and shape, as well as a splash of pink and purple, to create a striking, memorable arrangement that stands tall above the rest. 

Making an Entrance

We are often asked to dress church doorways and lychgates with lush displays of wedding flowers, to help create a romantic space for the bride and groom as they arrive and leave.

Regardless of venue, Tolly's can help you to recreate the idea of making an entrance at your wedding or reception.

These beautiful archway pieces give a spectacular view for guests and newlyweds alike, and are a beautiful floral reminder of the joy ahead of you when entering or leaving a venue.

If you have a forthcoming wedding and are looking for ways to add an extra wow factor to your ceremony or reception venue, call us for a friendly chat.

Based in Newmarket, we are ideally situated for weddings and events in Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and parts of Essex.

Wedding Flowers Suffolk – for more examples of our work.

Valentine’s Day Weddings

February is one of the most romantic months of the year, with the 14^th being a popular date for marriages. Here at Tolly’s, Cambridgeshire, our design team has been busy creating beautiful wedding flowers and romantic bouquets for partners and loved ones. If you are thinking of organising nuptials for February 2017, feel inspired by some of our favourite winter wedding displays.

Warm Oranges

Orange is a fantastic alternative to red for a Valentine’s Day wedding, as the colour exudes warmth, energy and happiness. At Tolly’s we believe in attention to detail and we loved adding all the creative finishing touches: interspersing the table arrangements with colourful leaves, Physalis, and placing a single rose at each setting.

Although this was an autumn celebration, we feel similar table arrangements could work just as well for a February wedding too.

Vibrant Reds

This Cala Lilly bouquet is a charming contemporary take on traditonal red roses for a Valentine’s Day wedding. Mixed with white, it makes a stunning combination. Cala lillies make fantastic buttonholes too and are a popular year-round request.

Winter Whites

White wedding flowers are magical at this time of year. Our dreamy end pew arrangements of roses, hydrangeas and gypsophila looked gorgeous, and, combined with the soft glow from the candle lanterns, it set the scene for a memorable occasion.

Click here to see more ideas for wedding flowers Cambridgeshire