Latest Homes Sussex magazine

On your wedding day, the flowers you choose play a central role and speak volumes. Whether it’s traditional roses or a mixed arrangement, discover your style with our floral guide. By Zara Friend

Flowers are traditionally associated with weddings. They express love (roses) and become a strong decorative feature for your big day. Flowers will play a central role, most predominantly in the bride’s bouquet. Button-holes, the end of church pews, table centre pieces and adorning the wedding cake are other places you will see floral arrangements. Rose petals can also be used as confetti and look stunning scattered around the crisp white tablecloth the wedding cake sits on.

There are no rules saying the flowers you choose need to match, but a continuing theme adds a touch of elegance to the day. The groom, father of the bride and best man, for example, may choose a single flower for their button hole that is also featured in the bride’s bouquet. A single rose or carnation may be in keeping with the rest of the wedding. The bridesmaid, too, may have a smaller version of the bride’s bouquet, but again this is not essential.

When you visit a florist, pick out flowers you like and ask to see their portfolio of bouquets and centrepieces. They will offer advice on different flowers and arrangements. Think about the time of year you are getting married – are the flowers you like available at that time of year? Seasonal flowers will be looking and smelling their best, and while your chosen flowers can be imported from a different country, this can impact on the price you pay.

Traditional roses remain a popular choice for weddings. They connote romance, love and passion and look absolutely stunning in a hand-held bouquet or button-hole. For winter weddings, red roses appear vibrant and warm. A modern take on traditional roses is to have diamantés set in the centre to add extra glam and sparkle.

For spring and summer, cream or yellow roses are an easy way to achieve understated elegance. Hyacinths, daffodils and freesias are a great alternative choice for a spring wedding as they look and smell gorgeous.

It’s important to take into account allergies as this could end up a nightmare situation if the bride has low tolerance to the scent of the bouquet she is holding! Pollen should also be considered as the last thing you want is a stained white dress in your wedding photos.

The colours of the wedding should reflect who you are as a couple. Red is traditional and romantic, but a summer wedding sets the scene for exotic arrangements in vibrant colours. Sunflowers are not typically associated with weddings, but they are quirky, bright and warm. A large single sunflower is a great option for the bridesmaid while the bride could hold a small arrangement of sunflowers.

Anything goes but it’s important to think about the statement you want the flowers to make. Hand-held bunches and scattered rose petals in the reception are the current trend, which give a simplistic, minimal fuss approach. Alternatively, a cascading floral shower held over the arm and arranged table centrepieces in bowls of water with tea lights suggest class and romanticism.

Decide your colour theme first, then think about flowers you would like for your big day. The trip to the florist will put things in perspective, helping you realise what flowers will look best at certain times of year. Above all, don’t be afraid to be different. If you want extravagant adornments or flowers, incorporate it into your big day. If you want it kept simple and neat, then go down that route. You really can’t lose.

Flowers for the seasons

Spring – daffodils, iris, tulips, peonies
Summer – roses, sunflowers, carnations
Autumn – orchid, hydrangea, chrysanthemums, gerbera daisiess
Winter – snowdrops, amaryllis, jasmine

You snooze, you lose? Wrong! Good sleep is the key to a great lifestyle and a top quality bed will help you along

Bed linen and accessories from the ‘Star’ range by Julien MacDonald for Debenhams, from £25
www.debenhams.com

Small, uncomfortable beds can cause back problems and insomnia, making our waking lives a misery. We spend over a third of our lives asleep, so a good bed is a long-term investment. This month, Latest Interiors takes 40 winks in the season’s softest beds…

Supersize me

Outsize furniture is a strong theme for winter 07. Think Alice In Wonderland meets seasonal yearning for cosiness and cocooning. To make this trend work, maximise use of sleek storage and pare bedrooms down, keeping all of the detail and clutter on the bed itself. Super-king and Emperor-size beds are fast gaining in popularity, and at 7’ x 7’, an Emperor bed really does give you room to stretch out and relax.

Design Studio at 58 Western Road, Hove, 01273 206123 and 125 South Road, Haywards Heath
01444 443777

Beds are perfect candidates for super-sizing. Low-level Oriental and other simple, masculine styles remain popular, but for a statement piece choose a modern four poster. This season, big is beautiful.

Linea’s ‘Donatella’ bed linen and accessories from £12,
House Of Fraser, www.houseoffraser.co.uk

Sleep smart…

On the other hand, if room is tight then clever beds can save space and double the storage capacity of your bedroom.

There are several different options for bed storage: cabin beds – where one single bed folds underneath the other when not in use – are perfect for smaller rooms where you don’t need a double all of the time. Bunk beds are great if you have kids to sleep over. Alternatively, you can invest in a bunk-bed-cumoffice- unit, where the lower bunk is replaced by a desk. If you’re on a budget, then simple underbed storage boxes can be very effective.

The style headline, though, is folding beds. Incorporated into fitted bedroom units, these clever beds combine sleek storage with clean, minimal design. No longer stuck in the 70s, a fold-out bed will help your bedroom to multitask as office, playroom or entertainment space.

Design Studio at 58 Western Road, Hove, 01273 206123 and 125 South Road, Haywards Heath, 01444 443777

And so to bed

Of course, no bed is complete (or inviting) without beautiful, fresh bed linen and sumptuous accessories. Good quality Egyptian cotton and pure Irish linen in white or cream are always in style. For the more adventurous,natural and organic fabrics still predominate, but the palette for winter is dark and altogether richer. Throws and cushions in silk or cotton velvets, animal prints (use sparingly: more Kate Moss than Pat Butcher, please), nubby linen and wool in shades of midnight blue, chocolate, black and scarlet. Made your bed? It must be time to lie in it…

Andrew Kay on how being made redundant gave him a dog’s life

Having grown up with dogs, my London years were for the most part a canine wilderness. I did live in lodgings with a posh girl who had a cocker spaniel for a while but on the whole the metropolis was a dog free era. And probably rightly too. I had neither the time nor the space for a dog in my life back then.

I didn’t have time once I moved to Sussex either, commuting each day as I did to Victoria with hoards of other liars. Oh yes, all commuters from Sussex to London are liars. Ask them what it’s like and they will tell you it’s fine, it takes less than an hour. Liar, liar pants on fire. On a good day the train part alone will take 55 minutes. Add to that embarkation etc and onward journeys and getting to the station and buying a coffee and a paper… All commuters are liars.

‘‘All commuters from Sussex to London are liars. Ask them what it’s like, they will tell you it’s fine’’

Once I gave it up, I was made redundant, I discovered that there was life beyond commuting. Before long I had carved a new, if slightly less stable one than my life in hardback books, and I got a dog.

My first was Buster, a big old brindle boxer which I found through a charity called Boxer Rescue. What a great organisation, efficient and kind. Buster came everywhere with me, and was universally loved. He died at the ripe old age of 13 and I cried for days.

When I moved out of the city centre I decided it was time to get another dog. Smaller this time but definitely a rescue dog. I went to Raystede Animal Welfare. It was an amazing experience. Forms to fill in, home to be checked and compatibility to be measured. I could not browse for a pet, they would pre-select a few for me to look at. It was a great idea and in the end, after a week of checks, I left with Holly, she simply insisted.

Holly now goes everywhere with me and is loved by everyone who meets her. She is quite distinctive, a cross of collie and whippet I reckon but she looks very refined. So much so that I soon became tired of describing her as a mongrel. I subsequently told people that she was a Belgian mackerel hound. I still do and you’d be surprised at how many people ‘know’ the breed or have a friend who also has one.

I know that it’s wicked, and a terrible lie, but then I am after all a reformed commuter.

Raystede Animal Welfare, Ringmer, East Sussex, BN8 5AJ
01825 840252
www.raystede.org

The Landlady

I have just returned from a weekend in Denmark with The Boyfriend. Unfortunately, the day before we left, I went down with a stinking cold,which was really quite annoying as I hadn’t had one for four years. The Boyfriend, of course, in true man-flu fashion chose to have his cold last May on our trip to Greece, where he spent a great deal of time in bed, only managing to get up in order to watch an Arsenal/Chelsea match. Although I was determined not to let my cold ruin our trip, I thought my eardrums were going to explode as we came in to land. The Boyfriend suffers from extreme ear pressure when landing on airplanes, regardless of whether he has a cold or not, so we were both stone deaf when we arrived at Kastrup, which didn’t help with the confusing ticket-buying procedure that we had to negotiate in order to get into the city centre.

Things improved dramatically on arrival at our apartment, which looked just like an Ikea room-set and had everything one could wish for in a holiday let. The Boyfriend was delighted to find ample cooking facilities and I have never seen a man so overjoyed to discover a full set of cooking pots and a brand new frying pan, which still bore a price tag confirming its virgin status. Determined to christen the new frying pan, The Boyfriend immediately set off to the nearest Netto to stock up on provisions. By the time I’d unpacked my very small bag, the fridge was already stocked up and His Lordship was busy making salami and cheese toasties.

“By the time I’d unpacked my very small bag, the fridge was already stocked up and His Lordship was busy making salami and cheese toasties”

By our second day, we still hadn’t eaten out and, although we were determined to do so that very night, we got terribly waylaid by huge amounts of Tuborg lager (a blast from the past, for those of us who remember the 1970s) and ended up not eating anything at all. Much the worse for wear – Tuborg and Night Nurse are a cathartic, but not ideal combination – we went to bed at some ungodly hour and just managed to wake up in time to go back to the pub and watch the Arsenal/Man U game with a load of Danish blokes. Not my idea of the perfect holiday activity, I can tell you. Especially not when the Tuborg was £5 per pint and then they do that terrible thing of not filling it right to the top of the glass and leaving a huge frothy head on it. Because we were a little the worse for wear, we decided not to eat out that night either and The Boyfriend paid another visit to Netto and knocked up some chicken breasts in peppercorn sauce with sauté potatoes and green vegetables.

The following morning – our last day – I felt much better and decided to go for a jog in the nearby park. It was a clear, frosty day and no one was around because it was 8am on a Sunday morning. I was just admiring the autumnal colours of the trees, when a stern-looking young lady stepped out in front of me and said something firmly in Danish. I thought she’d said that running was forbidden, but told her I was English and didn’t understand. She then repeated in English that running was forbidden in the park, but I was allowed to walk. Kind of negates the whole point of going for a run, and I found it very strange, and told her so. It reminded me of a time when, out running on a beach in Essaouira, Morocco, I was chased by a furious policeman on a camel. Don’t you just love foreign regulations?