I recently had the absolute pleasure of preserving the wedding flowers of Claire and Thomas, aka Dr & Mrs Ranaboldo who were married in June 2021.
Their wedding ceremony was at Batemans Barn in Suffolk, with the reception at Grove Farm holiday cottages.
Claire was kind enough to share some details with me about their special day.
“We had a Covid wedding for 30 people. It was amazing but would’ve been nice to have everyone there. The best moment was announcing our pregnancy to all of our family and friends which was captured on a group photo after the ceremony. We had a brilliant party, you wouldn’t have known there were only 30 people.”
Claire & Thomas went for a jewel colour theme to match their emerald bridesmaid outfits. All of the bouquets were tied with pink silk or velvet ribbon which Claire loved.
The flowers on the day were from the Southwold Flower Company, who did the bouquets and buttonaires and then provided buckets of flowers which Claire’s mother in law arranged for the reception. Claire chose this florist due to the flexibility of them providing some of the flower arrangements but not all.
When I received the flowers, many were wilted and slightly dried, but that is absolutely fine. Many people say “I wish I knew about you when I got married!”, but the flowers do not have to be fresh. I have worked with flowers in all different states, even a 10 year old dried bouquet that had been kept up in a loft.
I love working on a collection or set of pieces from the same flowers. They really come together as a whole when they are finished. Most of these flowers peeled back out of the clay in one piece after being impressed, so I could reuse them on some of the other pieces.
Claire’s friend Lucy received some of my ceramics as a gift and posted a picture on Instagram, which is how Claire came to know about my flower preservation service. She had planned to create resin paperweights with her flowers and had all the equipment ready, but then their son was born prematurely at 28 weeks and Claire didn’t have time.
The larger vase is for Claire to keep. She had the small vases made for their mums and grandma for Christmas. The trinket dishes are for some friends that helped with the wedding catering.
The photographer on the day was Sophie Cass. Just look at how well she has captured the delicious looking buffet!
When I asked Claire if she would recommend Charlotte Hupfield Ceramics to a friend…
“Absolutely. Your creations are a really great product and a pleasant change from all the resin options for preservation. Brilliant service, much faster than I expected. I would look to buy vouchers as a wedding gift for friends in the future.”
Thank you Claire!
