Last week we stepped into Autumn, with armfuls of flowers closing the season. Despite rain and storms, the resilience of some of our plants never fails to astonish me. This week i’ve been cutting stems, thoughtfully clearing space for next years blooms. I truly love this turn of the season, which marks a slower time of year. For hunkering down, making plans and enjoying time with the family.
Wedding Floral Design - 2024 DIARY OPEN.
The Wedding Floral Design 2024 Diary is open for enquiries, with dates beginning to fill up. We are genuinely so grateful to hear from such warm, genuine couples who appreciate the work we create at Honour Farm. And from March - October we offer bespoke floral design for these incredible couples, predominately across the North of England. There is plenty of information and floral inspiration across our website.
We’re a down to earth, open minded, hard working team who make up Honour Farm Flowers and I really look forward to designing more floral scenes across the country for you all in the new year.
*Please note we only accept 2 to 3 full scale install bookings a month to fit around our growing schedule and other commitments. If you are planning on getting in-touch now really is a great time to start up a conversation to ensure we have your important date saved.
Email Hattie: hello@honourfarmflowers.co.uk
Autumn Harvesting.
This week we experienced some high winds and rain up in Laycock village which resulted in plenty of flattened plants, signalling the end of a very productive first season in the walled garden.
But between the storms and clouds there have been some spectacular Autumnal days filled with sunshine and birdsong. Just enough time to get out and cut whats left to dry, ready for sustainable floral design meadow scenes next year.
Behind The Scenes - Nick & Emma, The Hovels at the Harewood Estate.
Last week I had the upmost pleasure creating a bespoke ceremony scene as part of a full wedding install for Nick & Emma at The Hovels, Harewood Food & Drink Project. A beautiful location that sits within the vast Harewood estate in Harrogate.
This was possibly the hottest weather i’ve ever installed in, but the flowers thankfully held up well despite the heat!
Moments captured here by Kyla Fowler.
Emily & Nik: 'Perfectly Bespoke' wedding installation at The Underbank Chapel School Room.
When I received back this gallery from bride Emily last month, shot by Helena Dolby, I truly didn’t know where to begin. Each image being more beautifully captured than the last. So it was near impossible not to share them all, but here are a chosen few…
Dress Andrea Hawkes
Emily and Nik, you were a pleasure to design for. Thank you for the open brief and trust you put into my vision as a florist. When couples but their faith into the work of a floral designer, that’s when the best work is created. I think that was evident in this memorable install.
August - Moments In Life.
A few glimpses of family time, between the juggle of event season. x
Behind The Scenes - Louise & Michael, Rudding Park, Harrogate.
I thoroughly enjoyed designing these playful bowls of summer for a small and intimate wedding ceremony and reception at Rudding Park, Harrogate. Louise & Michael collected their arrangements the evening prior to their big day for ease of instal. A relaxed, hassle free event floral design experience. All the British flowers I cut from our walled garden, so there was plenty of apricots, pinks, lemons and whites. My favourite. And as always 100% sustainable and foam free flowers.
Congratulations to you both! x
Behind The Scenes - Rachel & Silas, The Whitworth Gallery, Manchester.
I recently had the pleasure of returning to The Whitworth Gallery in Manchester for another bespoke wedding installation. This time to fulfil the vision of Rachel & Silas, successfully achieved with this paired back palette of late summer meadow abundance.
I’ll soon be sharing the official gallery, but these are just a few I caught myself before completing the brief.
Sophie & Darren: A Peach Perfect Day.
We’re often handed briefs of greens and whites, because who doesn’t love an ethereal bride. But when Sophie came to me with a vision of peach, apricot, pinks or as she described ‘Sunset shades’, I got instantly excited of curating a palette with flowers in my some of my favourite tones. With lots, and lots, of mid-summer striking dahlias.
The ceremony scene was created using our transitional meadow troughs and like all of our designs made here at Honour Farm Flowers they are sustainably made, 100% floral foam free. The transitional troughs have been a popular choice this year, from ceremony and aisle, to registrar table, signage dressing, top table, DIY booth styling & more. They will stretch your budget the furthest and are our proven wedding work horse, which is high on impact.
Sophie designed the table scape, where our bud vase bottles finished off a thoughtfully styled scene for their guests. As demonstrated above, the transitional meadows in their second position of the day, dressing the table plan following their ceremony showcase.
The star of the wedding breakfast, aside from the bride & groom, was Sarah’s bespoke made cakes. Designed specifically with Sophie’s peach perfect vision in mind and take my word, they taste as good as they look.
You can enquire/order with Sarah and Cake here.
The day was beautifully captured by photographer, India Hobson.
I’ll never tire of opportunities like these, to design for genuine, thoughtful, creative couples. Thank you both x
A special thank you to the team at Wyresdale Park for their support on the day.
Rachel & Scott: Falcon Manor, North Yorkshire Wedding.
A lovely photo sent from Rachel & Scott, of their wedding day at Falcon Manor, Settle. Rachel is a vision, holding her hand-tied bouquet. Thank you for sharing x
Mid August Dahlia Abundance.
August has arrived since I last updated and the garden has truly come to life, full of dahlia abundance. After weeks of rain, the sun has arrived and pollinators are working hard everywhere I turn.
Biodiversity surrounds us, there is nothing more grounding than immersing yourself in all that activity. Cutting only what I need and allowing the dahlias to go over, opening from picture perfect pom-poms to pollen full resting points for the bees. The succession of foxgloves I planted continue to open and offer more vital opportunities for pollen extraction.
The first bed of dahlias is constantly busting out more blooms, i’ve probably cut 100+ stems in the past fortnight and after a busy weekend I return again to a sea of floating flower heads waiting to be enjoyed.
My sweetpeas have really put on some growth with all that rain and after a slow start in June, have really become quite prolific. I lost my first batch of sweetpeas in late winter to the frosts but that has certainly not spoiled our harvest this year.
The feverfew is lush, buds open, fluffy and full. Already has it been cut for a few weddings this past fortnight and still plenty to go, in my opinion, the perfect filler I couldn’t be without.
The best is yet to come and we still have over 4 beds of dahlias yet to come into flower, what a triumphant way to end the growing season.
As the garden continues to inspire me i’ve started working on a programme of workshops for 2024, from an introduction to successful seed sowing to honing in your sustainable floristry techniques. I’ll keep you posted here on where and how you can book your place and I so can’t wait to see you there! x
Billie & Tom's Country Wedding.
Beautiful moments captured by Becki Dakin Photography in June of their wedding in Austwick, organised by wedding planner Sian Chaplin. Nothing better than seeing a bride wearing her bouquet with such pride on her special day.
Late July in the walled garden.
Well, after a pretty miserable couple of weeks of constant rain, Dahlia season has finally begun. The intermittent glows of sunshine this week has tempted buds away from their drenched doom and into their full glory. Long may it continue, although I’m not holding my breath with the forecasts for the week ahead.
The beautiful Lychnis chalcedonica, 'Carnea' I sowed a year ago have come into flower and the pollinators have been loving their delicate spray of of tiny flowers. Grown here for ornamental value in the garden, but have multiple purposes as they can also be grown for cut and would make for a whimsical addition to a bouquet.
Gratefully i’ve been in Antirrhinum abundance for a number of weeks whilst perhaps little else has been thriving due to the ‘great’ Pennine weather. They are tremendously pest resident and resilient to a beating of rain, bouncing back whenever the given chance. The annual Phlox too have been showing with much vigor and determination despite non-ideal conditions.
The Verbena hastata 'White Spires' was slow to start and it’d certainly consider this plant as a high summer flowering perennial, as it now just begins to bush up and offer enough flowers to be cut. 50 plugs were planted over winter and year on year we’ll see a greater reward from these plants as they establish a permanent root system.
A great triumph this year has been the continual flowering of the Verbascum ‘Southern Charm’. I’ve sown and grown from my own stock for the past 3 years or so, but this year they have been tall, spraying multiple full flowering stems, gracefully amongst the roses. I’ve not cut from any of the plants, again as they establish, in return of plenty reseeding around the garden as they bring so much pleasure wherever they pop up.
Tomorrow we drive back up to Stockport to return two of our Indian Runner ducks, who unfortunately turned out to be drakes. Whilst i’ve become quite attached to them both, (even with Cherry, the head honcho chasing me around the garden, nipping my ankles and asserting his authority), Kiwi our only female is getting rather too much attention so to speak. Therefore they’re heading back to the farm. We’ll be making our way to Skipton to collect two female Welsh Harlequins on Sunday morning to become Kiwi’s adopted sisters. Have a wonderful weekend everyone. x
A Colourful End to July.
It’s a bright and joyful end of the month here at Honour Farm Flowers, arranging this summer prairie inspired wedding for Liam and Mauricio.
More often than not i’m requested to create wedding flowers in whites and blush, which is my certainly my sweet spot. But when this warm couple contacted me with their bright and cheerful brief I was more than happy to create with a spicier colour palette.
For DIY weddings and events our bud vase bottle vessels are a perfect option and we offer 50-100 bottles filled with the finest seasonal blooms. Available for collection or local delivery, this is definitely a straight forward, hassle free option for a seamless venue set up day which packs plenty of punch.
If you’d like to find our more please email Hattie: hello@honourfarmflowers.co.uk
If I was a flower...
… I would only hope to be as beautiful as our sunflowers.
'Perfectly Bespoke' Wedding Installation at Underbank Chapel School Room - Emily & Nik.
At the start of July we headed to Underbank Chapel School Room - South Yorkshire, to install a ‘Perfectly Bespoke’ wedding for our wonderful clients Emily & Nik. For our bespoke couples I always find it really useful to sketch out final drafts before the install to help set the floral narrative in stone for our clients, which really helps to imagine what the floralscape will look like on the day. I’ve also had past couples make prints of the artwork, which has made for a sweet memento of their special day.
Emily and Nik’s brief was clear and as with many of the bespoke couples I work with, they have a great sense of personal style which really helps to inform the design process. Emily supplied me with images of the table linens and was really sure of a palette which I guided into a colour story, with her trusting in my expertise to interpret and execute their vision for the day. I used plenty of ethereal, seasonal stems as always with peonies some early season dahlia’s for punctuation and stunning foxtail lilies for gestural movement.
A selection of 50 bud vase bottles were filled using annual phlox, scabious, grasses, calendula cut fresh the day prior to travelling to South Yorkshire. These informal bud vase bottles are a great way of creating impact on tablescapes and can be easily moved and distributed around food, cutlery and glassware.
I designed a series of aisle meadows in our cement troughs that could be moved after the ceremony and be lined up in front of the top table. These clever additions really can be very transformative, especially in smaller location venues such as this beautiful village hall. The designs were created to bring a sense of seasonal abundance, like a summer hedgerow you’d see in a cottage garden in the British countryside.
Nik’s groomsmen buttonholes were hand formed using grasses, achillea, scabious and tweedia. Finished with gingham ribbon. Carrying on the colour story and bringing the designs together from their outfits to room styling.
The meadow scenes are each created by hand with my diligent event assistant Ruby handing me each stem as I work through installations. I create each scene using only sustainable techniques i’ve engineered and trialed in-house and on site over the past 5 years. We never use traditional floral foam and where possible we re-use as much as we can from each install - with clients returning vessels on a 14 day hire contract. I am practically doing double the work, with twice the effort, but first and foremost comes our concerns for environmental change within the floral industry and that will remain the way far into the future. An installation of this measure takes around 25 hours in studio (phone/email consultations, sketching, curating designs, flower conditioning and prep work) and 7-8 hours on site. 4 hours the day prior to event and 3 hours on the day for final finishing.
I take great pride in the level of detail and organisation that goes into bringing these visions to life for our clients and couples, always aiming to go above and beyond. Adapting well to new venues and additional assets needed throughout the event process.
A huge thank you to Emily and Nik for inviting us to work on this wedding brief, and to event assistant Ruby for being my logistical dream maker as always.
Our books are currently open for 2024/2025 and I recommend contacting early to secure your date. You can email me at hello@honourfarmflowers.co.uk - where it’d be more than happy to discuss flowers with you for your special day or event.
You can read our reviews and testimonals over on Bridebook, where we are currently rated #1 on the search for Wedding Florists in the West Yorkshire.
Hattie x
Duck Joy in the walled garden.
Just endless joy from our feathered friends.
And free pest control, win win.
Father's Day.
Don’t let the ducks steal the show, because the real star here is J. What a wonderful daddy you are to our sweet urchin.
Evenings of June.
The evenings are the perfect time during these warm June days to take stock of what’s coming into flower and noting the endless tasks that a garden demands as high season approaches.
A floral affair.
It is truly incomprehensible the sheer joy it brings me to create arrangements with only produce grown from our garden. The hours, days, weeks, months, years, labouring over a multitude of tasks just to bring each flower to fruition. It may seem daft to some, the unwavering commitment I have to my flowers. But having such a great connection with nature is for me what living life to it’s fullest is all about.
An aching back, the sign of a productive day or the rush of joy and excitement when handing over a bridal bouquet or finishing up an installation. It’s not just a job, it’s a passion, an obsession.
If I can promise you one thing it’s this, you will never receive an arrangement that hasn’t been tenderly cared for if it passes my hands.