An Effortlessly Elegant Wedding at Gaynes Park, Essex

7/8/2024
Written by Lisa Cotte

As a floral designer, it doesn’t get much better than working with a bride who adores flowers; and that’s exactly what I got when working with G&M on their effortlessly elegant summer wedding at Gaynes Park. A contemporary countryside venue just outside of London, Gaynes Park has three spaces which are licensed for weddings, allowing couples to create a day which is uniquely theirs.

One of the most joyful parts of designing, planning and creating wedding flowers is getting to know a couple and expressing their unique personality through floral design. I already know G personally, which made the process extra special, and we spent lots of time fine-tuning the colours, style and details of their wedding flowers. G&M’s aesthetic was a timeless elegance, combined with a modern luxurious edge; an aesthetic which informed our choice to keep the floral palette minimal, and most notably without any foliage to distract from the ivory and pale blush colour palette.

Gaynes Park offers multiple spaces in which to hold the different aspects of your day, allowing each section of your wedding to have it’s own feel. G&M chose the light and airy Orangery for their ceremony (complimented perfectly by the bridal party in their all-white attire), after which the beautiful June day allowed for lots of stunning outdoor photos. After the all important confetti shots, the wedding breakfast took place in The Mill Barn, a gorgeous listed building with exposed brickwork, high ceilings and mezzanine floor allowing for extra guests and space to relax.

As this space has such a scope for height, we wanted to enhance this by using tall floral centrepieces to draw the eye upwards. Sitting atop modern, gold plinths these arrangements had been repurposed from the ceremony - a top tip if you want to make your budget stretch further and get the most use out of your floral arrangements. For that effortless romance that G&M wanted to convey, we used Ester & Erik tapered candles in varying heights and tones of neutral dotted around the arrangements and along the top table. Here we also repurposed the meadows which had been placed around the welcome sign and aisle to sit on top of the top table; adorning the couple with flowers and crucially not blocking the view of them for the guests.

The bridal flowers followed the aesthetic of effortless romance by keeping the flower choices minimal. Predominately comprising of roses, lisianthus and peonies along with some bouncy filler flowers for movement, G’s bouquet was relaxed, yet classic and elegant; much like the bride herself. Accessorised with trailing, hand-dyed, silk ribbons, G’s bouquet and those of her bridesmaids sat beautifully against the all-white bridesmaid dresses - a look I love and a foolproof way to guarantee a clean, modern aesthetic.