A chic and stylish NYE wedding for Coronation Street Star, Tina O Brien

It is so fantastic to finally be able to share this wonderful wedding with you all, after being sworn to secrecy since last May!

So, on New Years Eve 2018, Coronation Street star Tina O’Brien, married the lovely Adam Crofts in a chic and stylish hotel wedding at the uber-luxurious King Street Townhouse. And The Flower Lounge was lucky enough to be asked to do the flowers!

I’ve known Tina for a while; a few years ago Adam treated Tina to my ‘flowers for a year’ (an amazing gift, where the recipient receives a seasonal bouquet every month for a year) and after that, Tina started popping into the shop to buy plants and bouquets on a regular basis.

Tina got in touch around May to ask if I was available to do the flowers for her wedding, and shortly after, I met with Tina and her wedding stylist, Corrie, from the amazing Soiree Stylist.       

It soon became obvious that Tina was drawn to delicate flowers and foliage with a lot of texture. At first, we looked at a lot of bright colours, more of a spring/summer palette. However, as we started talking about the décor planned for the room, the stunning invitations created by Knock Knock Penny, flowers that are in season in winter, and colours that would create a grown-up, stylish city wedding that would really pop on the cover of OK Magazine, Tina decided to go down a slightly different route.

The designs included a gorgeous deep berry ranunculus, pale pink spray roses, delicate pink genista, soft red skimmia, navy steel berry, deep red asparagus fern, intense pink wax flower, a cerise lissianthus and a lavish abundance of beautiful Irish grown eucalyptus from Irish Green Guys.

The bouquet was heavily textured and used flowers and foliage of various sizes and shapes to add interest and reflect the season. I absolutely love the unusual and beautiful dark, wintery colours lightened by those stunning pale pink genista.

The button holes took inspiration from the bouquet, using the same palette of colours, but with a single dark red ranunculus, and a larger amount of the more masculine navy steel berry and foliage.

Tina also wanted to some bold, floral installations – totally on trend for 2019, as I predicted in my last blog, and perfect to make the impact needed for the pages of OK Magazine. Rather than a flower wall, Tina went for a flower arch that would frame her and Adam as they exchanged vows, complete with suspended flowers that hung delicately for real wow – no wonder it made the front cover!

Next, I created a dramatic, magical tumbling garland across the King Street Townhouse staircase. I used the same flowers, foliage and colour palette from the bouquet but added some hardier, larger blooms to add texture and structure including hydrangeas. The effect was simply stunning.

We created a similar design for the final installation, behind the top table. This was to frame the top table and to give an impressive backdrop for the speeches. It also looked amazing lit up by the incredible light up letters courtesy of The Word is Love.

The aisle was lined with beautifully textured foliage, and gold lanterns containing twinkling candles that looked amazing as Tina walked down it.

This soft and romantic style continued for the tables. We knew it would be dark early on and that the space would look simply magical with plenty of candle light and gold accents. We also introduced lanterns and candle holders for a luxurious look. The flowers complemented the bouquets with plenty of foliage to soften and give off an incredible aroma. And the colours we used looked fabulously striking against the navy blue table cloths.

The gorgeous, three tier, nearly naked cake by Marie Antoinette Cakes, was a contemporary masterpiece. The white, navy and gold colour scheme was a dramatic contrast to the dark, berry and pink palette of flowers which adorned the layers.

I thought Tina’s choice of flowers was fabulous. New Year’s Eve is traditionally one of the hardest days of the year to secure a fresh flower delivery, and I was so pleased Tina trusted me to choose the best flowers available. The palette was bold and contemporary, it complemented her venue perfectly and because Tina was brave enough to go with a selection of flowers that are completely in season in winter, her flowers looked their absolute best.

This was a huge effort for The Flower Lounge team, who pulled out all the stops; a full day setting up the venue the day before, an additional six hours making sure everything looked beautiful on the day of the wedding and then, on New Year’s Day, dismantling all the designs and clearing up.

Tina was a joy to work with and incredibly generous. Seeing her and Adam after the ceremony, so happy and so in love, telling me how pleased they were with the flowers was amazing. Tina said when she first saw the room, it took her breath away, the designs were so stunning. They invited the whole team to the evening do of the wedding (which we would have loved to go to but, as you can probably imagine, we were all in bed by 9pm, absolutely exhausted from our efforts on the day), and then treated us all to the most incredible King Street Townhouse breakfast the next day as we were taking down the installations and clearing up – a thoroughly welcome treat!

But the biggest compliment we received was a picture Tina sent of her bouquet in her honeymoon suite during her mini-moon in the Lake District. She loved it so much, she couldn’t bear to leave it at home. It nearly brought a tear to my eye!

Finally, I want to say a huge thank you to the very talented Cassandra Lane Photography for coming along to take pictures of the flowers for us on the day. This is one of those weddings I will never forget!

 

A chic and stylish NYE wedding for Coronation Street Star, Tina O Brien