Stuck for a Valentine or Mother’s Day present? Our floristry workshops make great gifts. Learn a new skill and also take home some beautiful blooms! For full details of our Spring 2016 workshops please see our website http://swantonmh.wpengine.com/workshops/
Gift certificates also available.
At Swanton Morley House we love flowers and foliage and are delighted that the use of greenery is a key wedding theme for 2016. Foliage plays such an important part in wedding floristry and used with imagination can enhance designs with texture, scent and value for money!
We are also loving the use of beautiful floral table runners to dress tables ready for the wedding breakfast. Together with our in-house florist Penny we recently created an Italian inspired design using lots of eucalyptus and rosemary and the scent was amazing. Elegant cream spray roses and lisianthus were dotted through the design and we think this would beautifully complement rustic platters of breads and antipasti for Italian dining – delicious!
If you fancy learning how to create your own garlands and more about the latest trends for dressing wedding breakfast tables please have a look at our latest flower workshops and the course running on 23 April 2016.
We love a bit of sparkle and glamour at Swanton Morley House so we were delighted when fine jeweller Emily Richardson chose our venue to shoot her new jewellery collections last September.
Taking inspiration from Salvador Dali and the love of his paintings Emily wanted to create a romantic and theatrical story to showcase her stunning jewellery and chose Swanton Morley House for its unique “garden rooms” which we have within our beautiful grounds.
Emily’s creative team for the shoot included Tori Hancock the photographer (who is also a highly recommended wedding photographer), Elinor Skrupski the model with glowing red hair and Dominika Kroczak for make-up and hair styling.
The first part of the shoot was near our glasshouse and hot borders which were still bursting with late summer colour, other images were shot in our meadow with Elinor chasing butterflies. The stumpery at the edge of our woodland was used to create some dramatic imagery and tall ladders were also used beside our Mediterranean courtyard to literally reach into the clouds! Each of these areas perfectly complimented Emily’s new Rose, Butterfly, Clock and Cloud collections which include necklaces, bracelets, rings and earrings.
We think these elegant pieces of jewellery would be perfect for brides on their wedding day, perhaps as a special gift from the groom! Emily also designs engagement and wedding rings and with a bespoke design service her clients are able to create one-of-a kind pieces of jewellery that are truly personal.
We love the final results and for more information and for a closer look at Emily’s work please visit Emily Richardson Jewellery.
Whilst the weather remains very mild this December, our gardens are now in winter mode with all the leaves now gone from our deciduous trees and shrubs. Our planters have been filled with cyclamen and violas and under planted with spring bulbs to provide a continuing floral display. The silhouette of the trees, the colourful stems of the dogwoods and willows together with all the festive red berries which can be found on our contoneasters and hollies mean there is still plenty of interest in our gardens in winter even without any frost or snow!
Winter weddings are becoming increasingly popular and weddings close to Christmas can be extra special. This month and together with our in-house florist Penny of Crown House Flowers, we decorated for a festive winter wedding using lots of foliage from our gardens and woodland. Using pine, cedar and silver birch branches, Penny created a stunning door garland and door wreath to decorate the entrance to our courtyard marquee.
Our large slate welcome board was decorated with ivy and white flowering viburnum and the look was complimented with potted Christmas trees, lanterns and candles which have given our gardens a warm and welcoming festive feel. Beautiful in daylight but even more magical as the sun sets.
The festive foliage theme was continued in our ceremony room and large urns were filled with pine, cedar, white viburnum and silver birch branches together with some white chrysanthemums and roses. With white lanterns, candles and stars this elegant look would be perfect for a winter wedding even if it doesn’t snow!
The new edition of the Norfolk & Suffolk Bride magazine is now available and we are delighted that Gavin and Hannah’s wedding, our first wedding which we hosted in August 2015, has been included as a beautiful three page feature. The magazine is packed full of wedding day inspiration, tips and local supplier information and can be purchased from local retailers or ordered online.
This November has started with lovely mild weather and our gardens have continued to bloom with lots of colourful flowers. Our deciduous trees have continued to put on a wonderful show of autumnal colour and our woodland has become carpeted with leaves of all shapes and sizes. Mild days have been followed by some glorious sunsets and our lime tree drive looked stunning with all the yellow leaves falling like snow at the start of November.
We have lots of wildlife in our gardens and woods but were particularly delighted to have a swan visit our wildlife pond this month – we hope it finds a mate and makes Swanton Morley House it’s home too!
November always brings to mind bonfires and fireworks so this month we decided to use our fire pit area and, together with our in house florist Penny, created some wonderful bright and fiery floral displays.
Using pink, orange and red chrysanthemums and dahlias, Penny created a large vase arrangement which was also packed with red dogwood stems, orange crocosima seed heads, copper beech leaves and red berries. These flowers and foliage which were grown in our gardens, were also used to create smaller arrangements in textured metallic vases. The warm look was completed with hanging garlands of flower heads and leaves, beautiful rich coloured rugs and cushions and even a hot chocolate pot.
Singing, toasting marshmallows or just chatting with friends over a glass of something sparkly, our fire pit area at the edge of our woodland, is a lovely chilled area and a great space for evening entertainment as part of any wedding reception.
Bookings are now being taken for our Christmas workshops on 4th and 5th December 2015. Full details can be found on our workshops page and please do contact us if you fancy joining in with these fun and festive workshops!
We have had some lovely sunny days this October with lots of our trees and shrubs now showing their brilliant autumnal colours as their leaves start to turn wonderful shades of yellows, oranges and reds. Warm days mean that even the fruit on our olive trees have ripened and our woodland floor is full of mushrooms in all shapes and sizes. Autumn is indeed here!
With beautiful sunrises and sunsets, October is a wonderful and colourful month and certainly a lovely month for a wedding. Think rich and opulent colours contrasted with earthy tones of soft greens and browns with mellow candlelight and luxurious fruits for a bountiful feel – gorgeous.
Our hydrangeas have been stunning this month and have slowly been turning the most wonderful shades of blue and green with an antique feel. This month, our in-house florist Penny of Crown House Flowers made an elegant garland using these wonderful flowers. Garlands at weddings can be used in many different ways to decorate door arches, marquee poles and even as a runner to decorate tables ready for a wedding breakfast.
Penny also used viburnum with it’s glossy black berries, silver eucalyptus and purple verbena to create this garland. Similar flowers and foliage were also used to create a gorgeous hand-tied bridal bouquet.
This September has brought misty mornings, warm days and the first hints of autumn as the leaves on the trees start to change into their glorious autumnal colours. Our borders are still full of colourful displays provided by echinacea, rudbeckia and heleniums to name just a few of the beautiful plants which provide late summer colour in our gardens. The blue agapanthus, which we have planted in many terracotta pots, have also put on a fantastic show this month and these striking flowers really add to the Mediterranean feel of our gravel garden and terrace.
Our fruit trees have also been bursting with apples and pears again adding to the mellow early autumn feel that our gardens have now taken on. With warm sunny days being followed by some beautiful sunsets, September in the garden really has been a fantastic place to be!
Our dahlias have stolen the show this month and have been flowering non-stop in many beautiful colours from whites, creams and pale pinks to bright magentas, oranges and dark reds. This intricate flower has had a bit of a rival recently and as it is available in so many colours, shapes and sizes is perfect as cut flower for weddings and can be used in bridal bouquets, centrepieces and boutonnières.
This month our in-house florist, Penny from Crown House Flowers used dahlias to create two stunning arrangements for our sofa room. The first arrangement included a beautifully blousy rich cream dahlia (Cafe au Lait) and cream roses and was finished with sage green and variegated foliage. The second arrangement included a sumptuous dark red cactus dahlia (Rip City) and the tassel-like green and red amaranthus, ferns, fuchsia and echinacea for a rich opulent feel.
All the flowers and foliage used in these arrangements were grown in our gardens and we think that they make wonderful arrangements for weddings in September.
A huge thank you to everyone who came along and supported our open garden at the weekend for St John Ambulance. The sun was shining and the St John’s team did a fantastic job organising the event and serving lots of tea and cake. Many thanks to Norfolk China Hire for supplying the tables and chairs and to everyone who made and donated cakes with a special mention for Hampton’s at The Barn for their delicious red velvet cake. Our thanks to Penny from Crown House Flowers for the beautiful floral displays and of course special thanks to our wonderful head gardener Dan for working so hard to ensure all the gardens looked so wonderful!
St John’s were delighted to raise £1,800 for their charity so once again many thanks!