The Complete Book of Wedding Flowers: Stunning Flower Arranging Inspiration for Everyone & Every Location

by Shirley Monckton

Book Overview

"Attractively designed...offers generous, full-page color photographs illustrating a variety of floral arrangements, while step-by-step drawings accompany descriptions of materials, tools, and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0304345652
• ISBN13: 9780304345656
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Cassell Illustrated
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 8.6" x 10.8"

Customer Reviews

Tradition

I loved this book for it's absolute tradition. This will show people tradition is still very much alive and kicking. Very handy tip's easy to use and doing the arrangements looks easy and won't put you off.

Great book with lots of ideas

This is a cute book with lots of ideas. Doesn't have a lot of "how-to's", but does have some. Great pictures. I use this as a book for "brides-to-be". Someone always chooses something from this book.

It's the little details

I enjoyed this book because of the ideas it presented for the little details ... suggestions for floral arrangements that were dramatic, beautiful, and unique. It gave examples of floral arrangements for everything from baptismal fonts to tents. I was inspired to think beyond the standard altar pieces and table decorations.While many of the actual examples were a little heavy for my taste, I found them to really demonstrate how powerful flowers and greenery - beyond the white roses and baby's breath - can be, and how carefully chosen floral arrangements can compliment any decor and create ambiance. I recommend that anyone needing to choose flowers for a wedding - or really, any occasion - at least take a look at this book for inspiration, even if one isn't going to actually arrange one's own flowers.

Great source of experienced advice and aesthetic inspiration

I am thoroughly enjoying Shirley Monckton's book, which I happily discovered on returning from an "early honeymoon" in England, in which my fiance and I explored wonderful Gothic cathedrals and appealing parish churches. Yes, Ms. Monckton is writing for an English audience and her lovely decorations are suited more for the churches and manor houses in her country, but she has a great sense of design and lots of detailed advice for the rest of us, too. Being "florally-challenged," I greatly appreciate Ms. Monckton's experienced guidance on things I would never have considered, such as determining what the rules are in decorating a particular church or hall and who enforces them, how to keep a vertical arrangement from looking like a Christmas tree, how to prevent plastic in a basket arrangement from reflecting sunlight or camera flashes in your wedding pictures, and how long to condition flowers before arranging them (two hours to overnight . . . not the two minutes I would've allowed). Shirley emphasizes planning ahead and informs the reader which things can and cannot be completed until the Big Day. She kindly nudges the bride to delegate the last-minute work to the florist or talented friends/family members. Of the three wedding flower books I've read in recent weeks, Shirley Monckton's is definitely the best.

Beautiful elaborate do-it-yourself arrangments

This book, although beautiful, wasn't quite what I expected. I was looking for a variety of decor and bouquet arrangements, but a in more traditional format, such as table centerpieces. Instead, I found a variety of different ideas for decorating doorways, church entrance gates and creating topiary-style flower trees. The instructions are very detailed, although quite elaborate. I'm not sure how many of these ideas I will be able to use, but it's a good starting point. I think it would be quite expensive to use some of these ideas, unless you are growing your own flowers (which the author suggests!). Also, I found some of the author's comments to be quite condenscending. She is assuming everyone who has a wedding is 21, living at home and has a host of relatives around to help. (Of course, she's from a small English village, so her perspective is different than mine). Many of her suggestions just aren't possible for modern, urban weddings. (Or at least, when relatives are from out-of-town). However, overall, she provides some very beautiful and unique flower ideas. Many of her arrangements use a lot of greenery and berries, and provide lovely alternatives for fall and winter weddings. It's a great book if you're looking for out-of-the-ordinary ideas.