I wouldn’t say I’m big into the back-scratching world of recommending suppliers to my wedding clients. I don’t have a page on my site that recommends particular florists / bands / hair & makeup artists etc.
However, I’ve been in this game for a while now and have met some really interesting individuals and businesses in this field along the way. I keep a list of bands & solo musicians that have blown me away, makeup artists that even I can tell are amazing; chocolate fountain companies run by really nice people and so forth. When people ask, I let them know who I think rock the local wedding world.
Along the way I’ve seen all sorts of interesting wedding flora, but I can wholeheartedly say that the best and most creative floral concoctions I’ve seen and snapped are created by Fiona & Lesley of Firenza Floral Design.
Our paths have crossed loads of times, and it seems we attract similar clients. Creatives seeking something high quality but a bit unusual (at least I hope that’s what people think of our work!). We work a lot at the Woodlands hotel (and at our respective wedding fairs they pimp my table with beautiful flowers!)
So over the years I’ve got to know Fiona (& her equally ace business partner Lesley) really well. I took the above (somewhat reluctant!) snap of Fiona when she delivered to the flowers on the morning of Michelle & Martin’s wedding this summer (blog here).
She’s become a bit of a self-taught social media guru and her facebook page (here) & Twitter account (here) are both worth following.
Once wedding images are finished and processed I’m always happy to send wedding suppliers images for their self promotion. I’ve often sent Firenza images I’ve shot of their weddings. Fiona always takes pics of her flowers before delivery for her portfolio book and recently dropped me a line to see if I’d give her a bit of training how to take better pictures with her own camera.
So on Monday I bobbed over to her lovely cottage in Sowerby Bridge, near Halifax, and we spent a few hours talking her through her Panasonic prosumer camera & shooting some pics of the flowers she had left-over from a recent fair.
I also got to meet Oscar, Fiona’s super sweet rescue dog, who has minor emotional issues (such as he doesn’t like bags & prefers men to be sat down!)
It was drizzling a bit, but we found some interesting places for Fiona to pose her bouquets outside, and had a play indoors too.
Once Fiona was comfortable shooting on her own camera, I shot a few with my camera too (with the luxury of a bit of off-camera flash!)
This decorative table piece is very Firenza, with the vintagey vibe they specialise in.
I liked this one too. Reminded me a bit of the jars of facehuggers in Alien. But don’t tell Fi that!
I showed her how really there’s no ‘best way’ or formula to photographing bouquets, but I often look for a clean background (so as not to draw attention away from the subject) and then position the flowers and work a whole bunch of angles.
This calla lilly bouquette was placed on the same stairs as the last, as is the next one.
I love the Firenza creativity that runs through all their work! Check out the gallery on her site (here) for more of her work.
Hopefully Fiona’s lesson was helpful and she’ll now be more confident photographing her stunning flower arrangements!