Edge fanzine no.3

Weddings by EMC designers

Seen through traditions and local customs

In this edition of the EDGE fanzine, we are proudly presenting EMC designers from all over the world and their work with wedding flowers. Moreover, we feature the designers from our educational EMC core team with inspirational techniques and bridal work presented with the insight into EMC Elements and Principles of Design analysis. There are stories of love and celebration all through the pages of this fanzine and we hope that you will find inspiration to keep your creativity in motion. 

"KW Weddings & Flowers is a Melbourne-based wedding planning and wedding floristry company. Led by professional wedding planner/ award winning florist Karen Wang, we are an experienced but youthful team. We offer full wedding management, wedding coordination, wedding floristry, wedding styling, wedding and party theme design, and wedding venue decoration services. We have assisted with thousands of beautiful couples to create the perfect day of their life. Our mission is to honour the experience and create a meaningful and memorable wedding for our clients and their loved ones." Karen Wang, EMC designer from Australia.

"As a wedding florist I have served weddings in different styles and they have all been different because each bride is the hostess of her own ball and wants to fulfil her own dreams. I try to bring a fresh scent to each decor I create. This mostly reflects on the bridal bouquets. In Lithuania, it is completely unpopular to create bridal bouquets using frames or adding decorative elements, except for the ribbons, of course. However, I think the bridal bouquet is the most important floral attribute of the wedding, which has to be bold emphasis of the image the bride has chosen. Creating a structure and decorations for a bridal bouquet I can choose out of various organic and non-organic materials. Of course, the most important thing is that the bouquet would fit the image of the bride and meet her expectations." Kristina Rimiene, EMC designer in Lithuania.

"Few things change a room & influence an atmosphere, like the adding of fresh flowers. Whilst we have many local flower farms, imported flowers such as peonies, garden roses, hydrangea, various orchids and other tropical varieties are still requested if they are popular on social media. Luckily our local flower farmers are responding and starting to grow many previously unavailable varieties, reducing the carbon footprint of the botanicals available locally. I try hard to source as locally as possible and to offer local alternatives, but still find couples want what they want and do request imported flowers. I also grow unusual and hard to find botanicals in my own garden, to add something unique to my wedding offerings." Coral Short, EMC designer in South Africa

"I have deliberately made the choice to do the smaller size weddings, as I love to work closely with my clients, creating the floral designs for them personally. I get to know them much more than if I worked in a high street flower shop. I see my clients as I walk around the village, I know them outside the context of the wedding and to me it is an honour to create something for my fellow villagers. I like the fact that local people know who I am and that they trust and know me enough to feel able to ask me anything about the flowers for their wedding, or flowers in general. Don’t get me wrong – I have done large scale weddings but for me it somehow loses its appeal. Yes, there may be a bigger budget and the likelihood of a bigger profit margin but, with that comes more stress, more people involved in completing the designs, more locations to travel to, and all that extra worry, without it feeling personal. It just isn’t what I want to do now." Barbara Astbury, EMC designer in United Kingdom

"In Italy, the majority of styles are the Gothic, the Baroque, and the Renaissance. This often requires greater attention to the choice of colours, materials to be used and shapes to avoid conflicting with the architecture of the church. Otherwise, it is the location that may be the most important to consider, such as elegant locations, farmhouses in the countryside or venues by the sea. I never carry out a project using the flowers that I prefer, I choose the flowers that, by colour or shape, lead me to give harmony to the project I have in mind. I love all the flowers and all the greens so I switch from one style to another without difficulty. Sometimes, I also have to please the brides even on solutions which I do not feel are right in my opinion, but the customer must always be happy and satisfied. Even if I have given my advice but the bride does not wish to make a change, I always try to carry out the project with professionalism and grace." Angelica Lacarbonara, EMC designer in Italy. 

"In a semi-traditional Hawaiian wedding, the wedding leis may be exchanged like rings, with the bride presenting the groom with a lei that is closed up until it is placed around his neck. This one is known as a Pikake and the bride’s is known as a Maile. The bride is usually dressed in white, which may be the traditional Hawaiian mumu or a more western style; and the groom may be wearing a colourful Hawaiian button-down shirt and shorts. In a true, traditional Hawaiian wedding there is also a custom where the bride and groom will stand with their heads together, inhaling and exhaling together, so that they are actually exchanging their breath with each other." Sue Tabbal Yamaguchi, EMC designer in Hawaii.

"I take great pleasure from being part of the whole wedding and seeing the joy that my designs bring to those attending. The tables and venue can be decorated beautifully by the wedding planner, but it doesn’t come truly alive and breathtakingly beautiful until the flowers are put in place. Sadly,Turkey is going through difficult times, and I do feel this may impact on some of the weddings but at the present time, the culture of ensuring that our children have the best start to married life is still paramount, and hopefully this will carry on into the future. Each wedding is special in some way for me and I remember dearly all designs I have creatively been involved with." Tuba Oskan, EMC designer in Turkey.

"The region of Maramures where I live in Romania and also have my business is very unique in the country. It's the one are of the country where people are still very anchored in the folklore. On important holidays, especially in the villages around, one can still see a lot of women and men walking around in traditional costumes, with vibrant colours and hand made embroideries. People are very proud of their cultural heritage and as I said, a lot of those traditions still find their place in the wedding ceremonies as well. Most of the weddings in Maramures are celebrated religiously in the Orthodox Church. The sacred part of the wedding enfolds in the church and for most weddings, this part is considered the most important one. Therefore, decorating churches and making sure that all the guests who attend the religious ceremony are wearing some sort of floral accessory is very important. It's always a big thing in our region to create boutonnières and corsages for the entire extended family of the bride and groom, for the close friends and all children involved as well." Ella Fodor, EMC designer in Romania.

“The culture of the subcontinent differs a lot from western culture. Wedding events here usually cater to guests above 500 so weddings are always organized on a large scale here. When we got appointed to do this particular wedding, we knew that no one other than Tomas De Bruyne would be able to create a spectacular floral design. Over 300k flower stems were used for the event on top of hundreds and thousands of fresh flowers which were color coded. Due to the shortage of most of the shades of pink in Pakistan, the flowers were dyed specially to match the color palette. Tomas and his team supervised the labor throughout and made sure the job was done properly. Even though there was a language barrier, that didn’t seem to cause much of a problem for anyone because everyone was so dedicated to their work. It was a great team effort by Tomas and his team of exceptional talent who made the event look straight out of a Mughal dream through their design.” Jalal Salahuddin, CEO of JS Events, Pakistan - event designed by Tomas De Bruyne, lead instructor at EMC.

The complete EDGE fanzine, the WEDDINGS edition can be found here. 

The EDGE Fanzine aims to reach the dynamic floral designers of the world who wish to enrich their inspirational sources and grow creatively in a conscious manner. Each issue of the EDGE focuses on a topic of interest and tries to exploit it to the maximum, by providing useful information, intriguing visuals and comprehensive insight.