City Chic at this Cool and Contemporary Roof-Top Wedding

The Great John Street Hotel has one of the coolest roof-top bars in Manchester with stunning views across the city.

And, one blisteringly hot day in March, the lovely Sarah and Adam chose this gorgeous location to tie the knot.

The first time I met Sarah and Adam, the bride and groom, was a year before, when we sat down to have their first wedding flower consultation. What became very clear, very soon was that Sarah and Adam had a great eye for detail and colour. As we chatted and I found out that Sarah is a buyer for BooHoo and Adam works for Hendricks, so I started to understand why they had such good taste and flair for excellent design. Sarah and Adam brought lots of mood boards with them so I could understand the style they liked, the size of the arrangements and the colours. And then, much to my and every wedding florists delight, they let me choose the exact flowers I would use, allowing me to work with seasonal flowers to get the right combination of shape, size and texture. This ensured the couple got the best flowers in the best condition from the best suppliers.

The colours we chose were coral, peach, lilac and raspberry with plenty of green and silver foliage. These colours are interesting and modern, they complemented the berry coloured bridesmaid dresses and worked very well against the urban, neutral tones of the Great John Street Hotel.

The style of the bouquet was large, textured and flowing. It was bursting with Coral Charm peonies, frilly and velvety ranunculus which looked fabulous against the bright raspberry hydrangea (a last-minute addition as I felt the bouquet needed an extra pop of colour), vivid coral poppies and deep wine coloured ranunculus. I cooled the palette down with pastel shades of wonderfully scented stocks and lilacs. All of these gorgeous blooms were enhanced by an abundance of ethereal foliage from the amazing Irish Green Guys.

The bridesmaids had smaller versions of the same bouquet, while Sarah’s Flower Girl had a beautiful floral crown using key flowers from Sarah’s bouquet. Sarah had the great idea of doubling up the bouquets to become table centres for the top table, enhanced by an Irish Green Guy eucalyptus garland. This is a great way to make your flowers work harder for you at your wedding and gives guests a chance to admire your bouquets a little longer.

For the buttonholes we decided to focus on the wine coloured ranunculus with a mixture of foliage. The dark colour looked amazing next to the light, linen suits of the groomsmen.

For the rest of the tables we used tall gold stands with an abundant and tumbling design inspired by the flowers used in the bouquet and gold lanterns and foliage at the base. To bring the whole look together, Sarah and Adam asked for some complimentary sugar blooms to be added to the beautifully designed cake and I decorated the table with posies of flowers in Hendrick’s bottles, a nod to the groom's job.

I just adored working on this wedding and I think the results speak for themselves in these stunning pictures from Nicola Thompson Photography. One of my favourite bits of the day was styling the change-over of the room from ceremony to wedding breakfast and getting the chance to speak to Sarah and Adam. They were thrilled with the flowers, the design and the overall look of the room – although Adam seemed even more pleased with his Reebok Classics. They really suited his style!

To close, we asked the bride to pass on some top tips for all you brides-to-be planning your own wedding;

“My main piece of advice to couples planning their wedding is to go with their gut, and this goes for every decision, not just the wedding flowers. If you don’t, you’ll find yourself changing your mind a million times and still being unhappy with the result”

And with the flowers specifically?

“When it comes to wedding flowers, go to your meeting prepared and willing to compromise. Make a mood board, know your budget and list everything you want. The florist will then take your vision, and your budget, and come up with a compromise that gives you the effect you want, at the price you want”

Any final words of wisdom?

“Hire The Flower Lounge, they’re simply amazing!”