Marrakech: A Love Letter to Bougainvillea
Last November, when we were just about dipping our toes into the winter months, we had the opportunity to leave the Christmas prep behind us and take a whistle stop trip to Marrakech, Morocco, to work on a project that promised, colour, warmth, and creativity in abundance.
We joined forces with LAMP LDN as the styling team for a two-day Divine Day workshop at Les Deux Tours hotel, hosted by Sandra von Riekhoff from Divine Day Photography. We were there to style the wedding ceremony and wedding breakfast table for the photographers to shoot, with the aim of bringing the colour and craft of Morocco to their lenses.
Working with local florist, The Bloom Room, we only used locally-sourced bougainvillea. On the morning of the shoot, armfuls and armfuls of fresh bougainvillea in delicious shades of coral, orange, lilac, fuchsia and lemon (and a fair few vicious thorns), were delivered to us by two local men who had carefully cut the branches from the side of the road just a few hours before.
On the morning of the shoot, armfuls and armfuls of fresh bougainvillea in delicious shades of coral, orange, lilac, fuchsia and lemon (and a fair few vicious thorns), were delivered to us by two local men who had carefully cut the branches from the side of the road just a few hours before.
Choosing what was readily available to us resulted in this frothy, vibrant cloud of bougainvillea which spoke more of the country than anything we could have done using imported flowers.
By using local flowers rather than those that would have travelled extensively by air and road to get to us, we significantly reduced our carbon footprint and brought the romance of the local landscape to our arrangements.
We created the ceremony flowers in completely foam-free arrangements using chicken wire and tubes, layering ad-hoc stems of the bougainvillea in beautiful terracotta amphora in different sizes. Any leftover petals were placed in local baskets and used as confetti.
Tying in with the colour palette of the flowers, Lamp London had created seat pads for the guests’ rattan chairs in Colours of Arley bespoke stripey fabric, setting the scene for a modern wedding in a traditional Marrakech garden.
The wedding breakfast tables were dressed with an Ottoline tablecloth and linen in the Madame Ziggle print, and we ventured to the bustling souks inside the medina, to source an eclectic collection of different ceramic vases, sculpture, and candlesticks.
We wanted an authentic, local feel, and achieved this through using the best of what Marrakech could offer, for what became a fabulous, seasonal, and colourful feast for the eyes.
Thank you, Marrakech for your natural beauty.