If you were in any doubt about the rising cool factor of flower arranging, look no further than Meghan Markle’s recent baby shower. The Duchess of Sussex treated her A-list guests, including actresses Blake Lively and Abigail Spencer, tennis star Serena Williams and human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, to a host of fun activities at the upmarket The Mark Hotel in New York.
One of these was a flower-arranging workshop with NYC-based floral designer Lewis Miller. The flower guru is known as ‘The Banksy of Floral Design’ because of his penchant for leaving random flower arrangements in trashcans and other unlikely places around the city. Dubbed ‘Flower Flashes’, these gorgeous floral pop-ups have delighted passers-by and been documented in their thousands on Instagram.
At the baby shower, guests were shown how to recreate Miller’s jaw-dropping arrangements with a large selection of blooms that were delivered to the hotel. After the event, the arrangements were donated to local hospitals, nursing homes, treatment centres, homeless shelters and hospices. CBS news anchor Gayle King, who was one of the guests, described the gesture as indicative of Meghan’s kind nature: “It just speaks to who she is”.
The Duchess is known for having her finger on the pulse when it comes to trends and the decision to include flower arranging in the activities programme is further evidence of the growing popularity of this pastime. Celebrity florists such as Jane Packer, McQueens and Flora Starkey have helped to put flower arranging firmly on the map for the cool crowd who want to deck out their homes with floral extravaganzas for parties, intimate gatherings or ‘just because’. There is no doubt that flowers help to create an elegant ambience that sets the mood for events of any size, be it an intimate dinner for two or a cocktail evening for 50.
In recent years, we have also seen the launch of companies that deliver flowers directly to your door, such as London-based Freddie’s Flowers, who include arrangement suggestions in each box. Another innovative company is Flowerbx, which was set up by the impeccably stylish Whitney Bromberg Hawkings and prides itself on bringing a fresh approach to the world of luxury floristry. A former PA to fashion designer Tom Ford, Bromberg Hawkings, told Vogue.co.uk: “Flowers can completely transform the mood of a party by conveying lushness, modernity, romanticism, starkness, femininity etc. For me, when entertaining, a room or table is unfinished without the adornment of flowers.”
If you want to learn how to put together Instagrammable bouquets to decorate your home or to bring as gifts, our brand new The Art of Hosting course is perfect for you. We will show you how to create a vision board for your event and design stunning table settings with floral displays and other decorations and teach you to write invitations and thank you cards in beautiful calligraphy.
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