Styling Flowers for Luxury Events

Neill Strain Floral Couture is renowned for its lavish floral installations and elegant styling for luxury homes and events. In this blogpost, Neill explains how he designs his flowers to create that signature “wow factor,” where he finds inspiration, choosing colour schemes, styles and all the secrets that have led to his success.

Behind almost every design I create there is a story. Styling the flowers for a fabulous hotel launch in Leicester earlier this year was no exception.

As its name indicates, Leicester is an old Roman town, infact one of Great Britain’s oldest, and it is no surprise that when major building work is undertaken in Leicester Roman ruins are often discovered. This was the case with my clients who recently built the new Novotel in Leicester. Located in the Great Central Square development, near museums and the luxury waterfront area in the city centre, the hotel excavations unearthed part of the city’s 2,000 year heritage including an exceptional Roman mosaic floor, found in what is believed to be a principal reception room of a large Roman town house. Named the “Stibbe mosaic” the hotel developers, Charles Street Buildings owned by the Murphy family, had it carefully lifted and conserved and put on display for the public to admire.

This is the beginning of the story that sparked many design elements in the construction of the hotel, and led to the floral designs we created for the hotel launch in March 2020.

The Roman mosaic proved to be one of the finest mosaics ever found in Leicester showing astounding craftmanship with a complex decoration of geometric patterns. These patterns were the inspiration for a bespoke-design carpet that runs throughout many of the communal and reception areas of the hotel and an inspiration for my own floral installations.

The mosaic was also used in the logo of the hotel restaurant, NineB, which is named after the area of the Roman city known archaeologically as ‘IXb’.

The luxury design of the hotel includes many stunning features in addition to the carpet, and all these components make another chapter in the story. One-off pieces include a spectacular spiral staircase made from steel with a bespoke 'brandy snap' bannister and incredible light fittings which emphasise the design. The colours and curvy shapes of this masterpiece were highly influential on our designs as was the grandeur and height of the space.

Lighting is so important in design, and many alluring light fittings around the hotel helped set the tone for our floral creations as we repeated the modern, linear style and forms in our arrangements.

The overall colour scheme is seemingly gold, white and several shades of grey while splashes of colour and rich textures also play a role in the balance and harmony of the design. Leather sofas and velvet chairs in brown, orange leather pouffs and dark orange velvet cushions, green chairs and blue fluffy cushions. These colours are all reflected in our arrangements.

We also play with different textures in our floral designs with the selection of flowers. A wide range of textures adds interest and depth to a floral arrangement. Smooth and leathery Cymbidium and Vanda Orchids, soft, delicate Phalaenopsis, feathery Foxtail Ferns, spiky Leucospermum, glossy Monstera leaves, silky Calla Lilies, rubbery Heliconia, not to mention the shiny, elegant gold vases and the rough bark of the Birch branches…

For the opening reception party, we decorated the hotel lobby with our three metre tall designs carefully positioned in front of the massive grey and gold columns as well as at the foot of the staircase. Small gold and mirror tables were decorated with petite arrangements encircled with beautiful Vanda Orchid flowers with their speckled patterns.

As guests walked up the magnificent staircase, they discover two bar areas before entering the dining hall. The first bar…

The second bar has a striking modern design.

The ballroom was prepared to seat more than 200 people for the launch party. The same style and colours continue throughout the reception rooms as did our theme. In addition to the signature tall displays, we created some beautiful table arrangements in a spring, twiggy nest effect, with the addition of Roses, Renunculi, Skimmia, Hypericum and Gloriosa lilies to the colourful tropical blooms. Variegated Fatsia leaves lined the glass bowls to enhance the lush, fresh look of spring.

All our flowers for weddings and events, as well as those at the Belgravia boutique and at Harrods, are selected and picked especially for us by our extraordinary growers. I think these images show how exceptional they are and how their unsurpassed beauty, quality and freshness add that extra “wow factor.”

Neill x