Matthew Dickinson's Wedding Flowers

Wedding Flowers: Kate Smallwood meets florist Matthew Dickinson to discuss the latest floral trends

Well I’m joined by Matthew Dickinson. I’m surrounded, I feel like I’m on my own and secret garden here. Wonderful flowers Matthew Dickinson, lovely to see you. Matthew: Hello Kate. Kate: Hello. Now these are all amazing. I just don’t know which ones to turn. Just tell me first of all what’s the current trend, what are you really looking at? Matthew: The current trend at the moment is really sort of much smaller bouquets rather than sort of lay under whoosh. They’re going much smaller with flexi, bridal dresses that we’re having at the moment. Kate: Ok, so we’re looking, the dresses that we’ve seen today are all quite slinky and very slim so we don’t want that big, overpowering bouquet to kind of take away from the dress. Matthew: No, sort of attention to detail, lots of little things like little bits of diamonds or small delicate flowers to mix with the bouquet. Kate: So really pretty. Now you just mentioned detail. Got some really pretty little diamond, and in fact quite big. There’s nothing little about this. Matthew: Yes. Class dissolved. Kate: So what’s kind of “in” thing when it comes to detail, putting a little here. Matthew: Little diamonds here, this is a lovely rose bud faith which, with a little bit of feather, softens it up. We used to get sort of domes of roses. These days if you put some piece of feather and little diamonds in between, it breaks it up, makes it slightly softer not so heavy. Kate: So lovely little detail and breaking up with any kind of, I mean we love rip burn and we love all these pretty little jewels, I don’t think we’re not putting enough flowers at the moment. Matthew: The feather look has really sort of gone out the window really. Kate: Gone with feathers. Matthew: I think so. Kate: So our feathers are out as our big huge, big blousy, meringue. Matthew: Bling is in. Kate: Bling is in, I love that. We love a bit of bling. So this is great as well isn’t it? You’ve got some bling kind of on your dress, little bit of diamonds and detail somewhere. Matthew: It takes up as well, and maybe bling as a broach or a choker of novelties. I do that as well. Kate: Happiness. So we can have a lovely simple dress and then these really wow. Now color, lovely creams, you got some really deep purples over here. Matthew: And a beautiful sort of pink over this side. Strong colors are really good, adventurous. You know, go for strong colors. Just be a little bit wary that in winter time they become very difficult to photograph. Kate: That’s a really good point actually. We were just testing early. If you have a really dark color bouquet, especially if you’re going to have photos with guests. Matthew: Exactly. Kate: It looks like black. Matthew: It can look like a black hole but it’s really, go light on your bridal flowers and possibly go a bit stronger in your reception flowers. Kate: Good point and our bridal flowers and our reception flowers don’t’ need to be the same, do they? It’s a myth. Matthew: No. It is a myth. Kate: It’s confusing us; we can have completely different things. Matthew: You can. I think both quite as well, if you’re getting married outside, that you can have whites and soft pinks. And then when you go to the reception, you can go for oranges and purples and plums, some really nice, strong colors. Kate: So you’re really making this harmony quite serene and serviced as it is, which is why we’re there after all. And then for the reception we can go all out party, really go for it. Matthew: Exactly, exactly. I just like to show you this one last bouquet which is what we call a snow flake bouquet, which is lots and lots of little flowers put together. If you’re going for a country wedding, it’s so delicate and beautiful. Kate: So pretty. That’s amazing. It doesn’t look like you’ve just gone and grabbed a bunch of flowers. It’s sort of structured for this, but it still manages to stay... Matthew: Like a ball, and straight. Yes, and again into the detail, the ribbons to finish it off. Kate: So what are the ribbons, I noticed on your stem it’s sort of very long. We really have them trailing with you. We wanted to see the ribbon, not this little stubby piece of. Matthew: I think so. Exactly. And also as in the purple one here, nice bigger broach of bling. Kate: We’ve really got to go for it. Now what about scent? What about, I mean the flowers are gorgeous and we’ve got the color and we’ve got the nice petite shape with that slinky number, what about we want them to smell lovely too. Matthew: Absolutely, scent is so important. You’re going to ask your florist, what’s in season, what smells nice? Things like the orchids we have in front of us, which are amazing, the colors, the fading on them, beautiful but no smell. But you can add in a few stems of lily of the valley to give that scent. So that you can smell something. Kate: They’re amazing actually aren’t they with that. So I guess it’s all about finding a combination of things that look good, smell good. You know, and photograph well. Matthew: And photograph well. Kate: Yes, really good florist, don’t you? Top tip for today is to come talk to you. Matthew: Exactly. Kate: And don’t knock me around, don’t want to knock the flowers where we stand. Thank you very much. And I just think, I don’t know what I’d choose. That’s the dilemma with the brides today, it’s not what’s available, there’s too many. Matthew: Too much always. Kate: And so many beautiful things to choose. Thank you very much. See you again. Matthew: Yes.