weddings - Ferris Heart Sloane

What to look out for when sourcing faux flowers for events

In recent years, faux flowers have gained popularity as a versatile and long-lasting alternative to fresh blooms. With advancements in manufacturing techniques, it’s now possible to find incredibly realistic artificial versions of your favourite blooms. However, not all faux flowers are created equal. The increasing ubiquity of artificial florals has brought a market that’s flooded with flowers that vary dramatically in quality.

It’s therefore essential to be on the lookout for all the hallmarks of a high-quality product when sourcing your florals, so let’s take a look at two aspects to look out for when sourcing artificial florals for events.

Attention to detail

It might sound obvious, but attention to detail is what really separates the best from the rest when it comes to fake flowers. At first glance, the best faux stems have the ability to fool all but the most discerning of plant lovers. Cheaper products, however, often leave a lot to be desired.

Above: two tell-tale signs of low quality florals. Ivy leaf made from a single piece of molded plastic (left), and a potted plant with muted block colours (right).

Whether you’re buying or hiring for your event, it pays to scrutinise product shots for details like complex patterning and colour gradients that mimic the real deal. Cheaper products often have very basic designs featuring uniform colouring or a lack of texture – a far cry from the intricate patterns that real plants exhibit.

Better quality faux plants are also generally made up of multiple separate parts – a plastic stem, petals made from nylon fabric, green plastic leaves. Cheaper plants (greenery in particular) are often made from a single piece of moulded plastic with no fabric components.

For an example of how true-to-life faux petals can look, check out our hellebore stems.

UV-resistance

One of the main benefits of choosing faux flowers over real is their longevity. When taken care of properly, the best stems have the potential to last for many years.

While real-life flowers thrive in sunlight, the same can’t always be said for faux florals. With most artificial florals being made from plastics, UV rays have the potential to disrupt bonding in the hydrocarbon molecules that make up your stems, leaving them colour faded or even structurally damaged and prone to breakage.

These days, high quality florals rated for outdoor use are produced with special ‘stabiliser’ chemicals that ensure that even prolonged direct sunlight won’t leave your bright colours looking washed out after some time in the sun. This is something to look out for particularly if your flowers will be out in the sun for anything more than a day. If the company you’re buying or hiring from doesn’t list this information on their website, it doesn’t hurt to get in touch with them – any reputable faux floral experts will have a good understanding of whether their stock is UV-protected.

Looking to hire faux florals? Check out some of our latest installations on Instagram and get in touch to talk to us about your next event. We also sell high quality artificial stems on our Amazon and Etsy pages.

A Champagne Supernova

Even though flower walls still take centre stage when it comes to dressing a space, what better way to toast this omnipresent trend then with some champagne. And talking of champagne, hands up if you’ve actually seen a real wall full of champagne?

Designed to enable champagne flutes and glasses to sit within a wall, champagne walls have special shelves which can be constructed to fit in to botanical walls made from luxe greenery, or full flower walls crafted with different colour blooms. So, not only do you get a beautiful flower arrangement, you also get bubbles too – how great is that?

So very perfect for weddings and special occasions where a toast might be required, our champagne walls not only offer something fabulous to look at, they can also be custom made to suit your requirements. For example, if you have a pink colour scheme for say a wedding perhaps, we can create a pink peony flower wall, install champagne shelves within the wall and pour pink Veuve Clicquot Rose or champagne in the flutes so everything’s coordinated. But that’s not all…

Here are a few ideas on how you can style your champagne wall:

1. You could go down the personalisation route and add lettering to your champagne wall.

2. Why not section your champagne wall off to create a separate area people can enjoy it and use it for photos?

3. With the lettering, you could create your very own champagne bar and make a theme of it. Everyone loves an immersive experience.

4.If you really want to go that extra mile, you can create a champagne wall corridor made from greenery and featuring shelves full of champagne. Now that’s what we call an entrance.

5. Last but not least (and probably our favourite) you could use a champagne wall as a seating chart for a wedding. Yep, fill a champagne flute for each guest, put a nametag on it and place the wall by the entrance so people are not only greeted with their own flute of (personalised) champagne, but they know where they’re sitting too.

There are many, many other ways in which you can create your champagne wall and style it and we’re on board for the ride, especially when champers is involved.

If you would like to discuss your champagne wall needs, please contact us by email hello@ferrisheartsloane.com for more information. But, in the meantime here’s a few we made earlier….

Flower Walls For All

Whether you’re seeking extraordinary flower walls for events, commercial commissions, weddings or editorial projects, our unique walls can be made based on your creative requirements. With experience creating flower walls for the likes of YouTube, Google, Bare Minerals and more, our team of floral experts can make whatever you are looking for.

Check out some of our corporate Flower Wall commissions here.

Did you know our walls can be made from faux and fresh flowers? It’s true. Historically, Ferris Heart Sloane has been No1 for using faux flowers in all our creations, but now we’ve introduced fresh flowers to the mix making our offering even more amazing. Our team can talk you through how this is done.

From botanical flower walls which bring the outdoors in, to glitter flower walls perfect for evening galas and other special events, our portfolio of signature flower walls will give you the inspiration you need to create a look you love.

We also offer corporate Flower Walls and greenery for large scale companies and events. We can create interior faux floral walls, with or without signage, for corporate offices and companies looking to add a botanical and mindful feel to their corporate workspace.

Sold?

If you’re not sure a flower wall is for you, you can speak to a member of our floral design team and they can talk you through the ins and outs of the process, set-up, delivery etc… we will be with you every step of the way. .

Corsages And Buttonholes Perfect For Proms And Weddings

Image credit – Lindsay Brook Photography.

Corsages and Buttonholes Perfect for Proms and Weddings

A corsage is a small bouquet of flowers usually worn on a woman’s wrist, or pinned to her dress, for a prom, wedding or other formal occasion. Today, corsages are a common occurrence and something of a keepsake to remember a special occasion, which is where our faux flower corsages and matching buttonholes come in…

Made to Match Corsages for Proms
With the end of the school year emerging, we set our sights to the school prom. Mainly popular in American school culture with us regularly seeing proms in movies and TV shows, the corsage has been embedded into our culture now too and is an occasion must have. So, whether you’re attending a prom yourself, or your son and daughter is, a corsage (and matching buttonhole) is something you will need to think about. Our range of faux flower corsages come ready made, bespoke and made-to-order, so whether you have the dress and are looking for something to match, or you want something completely different, we can create it.

Bespoke Buttonholes and Corsages for Weddings
A corsage for a wedding doesn’t have to be used instead of a bouquet, but as well as. Why not pin a beautiful corsage to your second wedding dress (if changing for the evening), or wear it on your wrist to add a little something special to your overall look?
Now let’s not forget about the groom! We also create beautiful buttonholes made to match the bride’s corsage! So, if you want the perfect finishing touch to each of your looks, please contact us for more information here.

All That Glitters – Same-Sex Wedding Shoot!

We have an amazing, glitter inspired styled shoot to share with you, and we can’t wait! We were lucky enough to take part in a styled shoot in collaboration with Festival Brides, put together by the fabulous ladies of Cambridge Glitter Bar. They wanted to create the perfect same sex wedding shoot featuring their cool and quirky glitter bar and some amazing local festival wedding suppliers. The shoot was located at the stunning Horsley Hale Farm who have spent years proving they are the perfect fit for an outdoor festival wedding.

Here’s some more inspiration about the shoot, direct from Ali and Kerry from the Cambridge Glitter Bar!

“Our fabulous festival wedding suppliers lovingly styled out this amazing venue with great pops of colour with a real laid back festival vibe. We envisaged the perfect same sex wedding which invoked all the colours of the rainbow from our cake, flowers, table décor down to or unique face glitters. We wanted to include all the farm animals, as it is their home along with the beautiful calming lake. Vanessa from Rocks and Frocks wedding and event designs kicked off the bright morning dressing out the tipi’s with flamingos and rich rustic rocking chairs for our brides to relax on. The table was set within the enchanting orchard on solid oak, dressed with rich blues, mustard yellows, pinks greens and vibrant reds, along with lovingly designed table stationary provided by Dorothy’s Workshop, and stunning glass wear supplied by Gemma at The White Emporium.

Kirsty from Oh My Cakery baked a fresh rainbow wedding cake, celebrating all the Gay Pride flag colours, along with a colourful glitter doughnut wall which stood just perfectly within the stables at Horsley Hale Farm, and complimented the beautiful flower wall which we at Ferris Heart Sloane provided, did you know we offer these gorgeous backdrops in an array of colours for different wedding an devents?

Gin Cocktails, Glitter And Car Races
More fun was to be had around the stables when Andy in the Gin Van arrived from Banquet Innserving delicious gin cocktails, which had the farm animals gather to see the fun!.

Once Ali and Kerry from Cambridge Glitter Bar had finished applying all the sparkly biodegradable body glitters and jewels, the girls head down to the farm entrance where they met with a stunning series 2 Land Rover, supplied by Elliot at Cambridge Wedding Cars to have a race around the estate.

Fun And Frolicks On The Lake!
The lake Jetty was dressed with a floral moon gate by Becky from Feather and Ferns, and gnarly hay bales to create the perfect backdrop for photos by the lake, whilst the couple splashed their feet in the water. Photographer Damien from Damien Vickers Photography, along with talented videographer Rachel from Veiled Productions, raced to the edge of the lake to get into one of the pedalos which the couple had started peddling around the lake, to capture all the fun and action!

So, all in all, it was a spectacular day and shoot and the images we created really evoke the fun and energetic vendors we worked alongside, all of whom will feature in our own Ferris Heart Sloane directory.

« Older Entries