"Seasonal flowers are at the heart of all of my designs. Being a flower grower I always want to reflect what is happening in the field.
Autumn has to be one of my favourite seasons, the last hurrah before the bite of winter sets in. The garden puts on its final display, with cooler days and mornings giving a warm richness to the field.
We went traveling for a year in 2013, after being together for seven years. I think we both knew at that point we wanted to get married, and when New Zealand passed the marriage bill it consolidated that! I proposed to Liv on the Amalfi Coast, we were staying in a little apartment overlooking the water and because it was only a one-bedroom place I made her take a bath while I prepared a surprise (or not so surprise) dinner... Four hours later she came out wrinkled as a prune, I proposed, she said yes. Then about eight weeks later when we were in Paros in Greece, we took our scooter to a secluded beach, climbed up a mountain and Liv asked me to marry her.
Our advice to couples getting married - don't be pregnant, completely gut and renovate a house and plan a wedding at the same time! Make the day is about what you love, and invite who you want to invite not who you think you should invite. People will always understand. Make sure you have good food and good entertainment. It makes the night! Don't worry about the little things. People won't notice. But they will notice if you’re not relaxed and enjoying the day. Steal some time away at the end of the night. We went and sat amongst the grapevines and looked at the stars and watched our guests dance from afar - a moment we’ll never forget.
I have been growing zinnias in the garden this year, with the intention of using them as pretty details in my bridal bouquets. But once they were in full bloom, thriving and showing off in the garden I had an extremely hard time cutting them, which resulted in me still ordering bunches as I loved my garden too much. A slight fail in some ways but a huge success in the satisfaction department.
We wanted to have a wedding day unique to us and one that encompassed places and spaces we knew well. We decided to say our vows in a little park across the street from our apartment on Douglas Street in Ponsonby, Auckland, then the after-party at Good One cafe just up the road. We didn’t think you could get much better than getting ready together at home, walking across the road to get married and then walking a bit further to party.
If you know of me and my business, you’d know that I’m obsessed with Autumn. I think it’s because it’s a season we florists don’t get to utilise that much. Blame it on the weather.
You opened your atelier in 2001, what led you to this?
I’ve had a life-long love affair for creating beautiful designs for myself and others to enjoy, so when the chance arose to have my own atelier - above a florist’s boutique no less - it was the perfect opportunity.
I wanted to create a simple bouquet only using a few flowers. Limonium is such an underrated flower, and a great modern substitute for gypsophila. It’s inexpensive, looks great en masse and can work with pastel colours well.
Japanese artisan shoemaker Keitaro Takano of Clematis visited New Zealand last week, being hosted at Crane Brothers' High Street store where an exhibition of Clematis shoes was held and a workroom set up for shoemaking and shoe shining demonstrations. Guests to the trunk show were treated to divine catering from Ebisu and other beautiful and refined Japanese touches.
When we were first approached to be involved with Kai and Lisanne’s wedding we fell in love with their adventurous spirit and wanted to create something which reflected this.
"Seasonal flowers are at the heart of all of my designs. Being a flower grower I always want to reflect what is happening in the field.
Autumn has to be one of my favourite seasons, the last hurrah before the bite of winter sets in. The garden puts on its final display, with cooler days and mornings giving a warm richness to the field.
