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A day before my birthday, I got the chance to visit the Strawberry Hill House Flower Festival with my dear friend Vaani of Sugarplum Bakes (I featured one of her scrumptious cakes in this post). If you know me, you know my obsession with flowers from a young age, so this was the perfect pre-birthday treat!
The Strawberry Hill House Flower Festival features British-grown flowers and the work of some of the best florists in the UK using sustainable methods. As someone who’s in the wedding industry, I’m aware of the waste that comes from wedding flowers. So, it’s refreshing seeing how these talented florists and farmer florists create floral designs that focus not just on aesthetics but more importantly, on sustainability.
The highlight of my visit was meeting the curators Janne Ford and Leigh Chappell, both very talented creatives and some of the people I look up to in the creative industry. Janne and Leigh created this colourful autumnal design welcoming visitors as they enter Strawberry Hill House and called it Little Parlour Doorway. Filled with coral, peach, and orange pompon dahlias (one of my favourite flowers), it’s a wonderful celebration of the Autumn Equinox. They sourced the dahlias from Just Dahlias and the foliage from Spindle Flowers.
Every floral designer who participated in the festival used traditional methods with no floral foam or single-use plastics (both bad for the environment!). Everything from the festival can also be reused, or safely recycled on-site at the Strawberry Hill House after the 3-day event. How cool is that? I really wish all weddings can be like this and hopefully, more couples who are getting married can think about how to manage the waste after their wedding.
Not flowers but still one of my favourites is the huge central installation on the main staircase. Apart from the magnificent structure, the little details were also equally impressive. Can you see the cute little squirrel? Fiona Haser of Electric Daisy Flower Farm (Somerset) created this fun installation. Stairway to Heaven is inspired by stories of Horace Walpole feeding his squirrel at the table. I think it looks so fun!
Another one from Leigh Chappell is this grand display of golden dried achillea and pale purple Limonium in the Blue Breakfast Room. Reading the festival guide as we went through the displays in each room was quite helpful. I learned that the dried flowers Leigh used for this floral installation were specifically chosen to complement the room’s velvet ceiling. Also, this room can only have dried flowers because of the humidity levels. Flowers were provided by Hare Bell and Bee, Just Dahlias, and Leigh Chapell Flowers
Fancy seeing more from the festival? Here are the rest of my favourite photos from my visit.
The Flower Festival was held from 23-25 September 2022 and included tours, workshops/ masterclasses, and demonstrations. Missed it this year? Head to their website to get the latest updates on the next one.
