It’s coming up roses for florist ranked among UK’s best for weddings
A DERBY florist has been hailed as one of the best in the country for wedding flowers.
Boutique Florists in Castleward Boulevard in Derby city centre provides flowers for weddings across the country and was listed as one of the top 50 wedding florists in the UK, according to wedding experts Go Hen. They say it is “a sensational place to kickstart the planning”.
“If you’re looking for rustic and wild or simple and stylish, there’s something for every occasion. These guys are experts with over 50 years of experience under their belts and they get it right. Every. Single. Time. A beautiful boutique with beautiful designs.”
The Derby Telegraph spoke to store manager Matthew Slater, who said that it was a surprise to make the list. The 20-year-old said: “I only came across it because we had been tagged in a post on Instagram.
“For some awards, you have to enter and then you have to pay to get the certificate but to not actually enter something and be recognised for it is quite nice.
“It shows that people are actually looking at what you do and acknowledging the work that you do so it is nice when it is like that.”
Matthew added: “We’ve been on this road for four years and we used to be on London Road over the road from the old hospital. We do all occasions – we do weddings, funerals and general gifts. We are a small team but we do a bit of everything really.
“My parents owned the shop originally and so I have always grown up around flowers and have always been involved in it really.
“I just fell into it. I can remember when I was really small, I used to play with the Oasis green floral foam and would carve shapes out of it. When you are surrounded by something like that, you just fall into it naturally.
“I started helping out with Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Christmas and wedding seasons and it was just accidental, I suppose.”
According to Matthew, during the wedding season (spring and summer), the business can expect to be providing flowers for two weddings a week. He said they had six weddings in seven days over Easter.
Matthew said: “Because so many weddings were suspended with Covid, there is so much pressure for this year.”
Matthew shed some light on what a day in the life of a florist is like: “It is long hours. I get here at 6am every day and do the market run before and then with it being wedding season, we are doing consultations at half six at night so I didn’t get back until 9.20pm last night, but that is just the job, isn’t it, really?
“In normal retail, you can buy something and sell it but in floristry, you have to make something to sell it. All of the flowers, we have to order them and then condition them before we even make a bouquet so it is quite a lot of work behind the scenes that goes into making the final product.”
As well as providing floristry services, Boutique Florists also has a wide range of house plants and succulents as well as a variety of plant pots.