Wouldn’t it be the dream to work surrounded by beautiful flowers all day? Victoria Whitelaw of Victoria Whitelaw Beautiful Flowers has been living that dream for over three decades now, and is passionate about creating weddings with style, elegance and individuality. Victoria and her team work to make their clients’ visions a reality and have styled thousands of weddings of all sizes and in all kinds of venues. From grand and lavish in a luxury hotel or event space, to a more rustic or garden marquee setting, they’ve got you covered. Today we chat with Victoria about why she loves floral styling and working with bridal couples and where she finds inspiration. She also gives us some tips on the best flowers to use in summer and winter!

How long has Victoria Whitelaw Beautiful Flowers been around?
Victoria Whitelaw Beautiful Flowers has been operating for 13 years.

Can you tell us about all the services you offer?
We specialise in creating beautiful weddings and events, and we also host hens party celebrations at out lavish flower school.

Although weddings and events are our first love, we also have a physical retail store and online store and deliver flowers, plants and hampers to lucky recipients all over Melbourne, as well as providing corporate arrangements and floral styling to businesses and luxury hotels throughout the city.

Where are you based?
Our flagship store is open seven days and located in the beautiful Melbourne suburb of South Yarra at 131 Toorak Road. Our flower school and production house are located in the neighbouring suburb of Richmond at 25 Wangaratta Street and accessible by appointment only.

Although we are based in Melbourne, we do travel for weddings and events, whether that be to a rural Victorian location, inter-state or overseas.

Images: Bianca Virtue

Tell us about your studio…
Our main studio is located within our luxurious South Yarra store where you will find flower tables brimming with all the season’s freshest and loveliest blooms. It truly is a delight to the senses!

Our secondary studio and where most of our events and weddings are produced, is at our production house in Richmond. This space is always buzzing and action-packed, with wonderful arrangements being created and flower delivery vans coming and going to various events.

What do you love most about creating wedding florals?
When our couples simply provide us with the opportunity of creating their floral styling for the most special day of their lives it is an absolute honour! To work with them throughout their wedding journey, feeling their excitement, and making their dreams a reality brings me such joy. On the occasion when we can witness the reaction of our couples as they enter their fully styled venue or lay eyes on their bouquet for the first time it is truly exhilarating.

What are you favourite flowers to work with?
For weddings I adore working with sweetly scented gardenia blooms, either topping mixed bouquets with them or creating an elegant fully wired gardenia bouquet. Scent evokes emotion and the delicious fragrance of gardenia will forever remind the bride of her wedding day.

Images: Laura Manariti

Tell us about some of the best bouquets you’ve put together lately…
There is a current trend for large and loosely styled bouquets, so we have styled plenty of these in the current wedding season with large and open blooms combined with lots of foliage. Brides are still loving simpler rose or peony bouquets but prefer a more unstructured style with hand-peeled roses which are labour intensive but look stunning.

What are your bridal clients like? Do they bring ideas to you or do they allow you free reign?
With the rise of Pinterest, Instagram and other online platforms in recent years, our clients tend to come to our consultations armed with a collection of images that they draw inspiration from and let us take the reins from there, designing floral styling in keeping with their design direction. Occasionally we have clients who are unsure of what they want and let us take complete control which is really exciting!

Where do you find inspiration?
I draw inspiration from the ever-changing Melbourne seasons. We are truly lucky in Victoria that we get to experience all four seasons and the beautiful blooms that come along with them.

Image: Eric Ronald

Where do you source your flowers?
I source my flowers from local growers wherever possible. I hand-select flowers from the Melbourne Flower Market multiple mornings of the week and collect flowers directly from our local flower farms. If specific flowers aren’t available locally, I will source them from inter-state and overseas if necessary.

What trends are you noticing in wedding florals right now?
Our clients are loving loose and natural styling with lots of greenery as opposed to structured designs. Brides are carrying larger bouquets than previous years, and a favourite ceremony backdrop is the open arbour which can best be described as two floral totem style arrangements.

What are your top flower picks for summer bouquets?
I adore gardenias, hydrangea, garden roses and bouvardia in the summertime.

Images: Laura Manariti, Sarah Godenzi, Love Katie + Sarah, This Day Forward

How about winter?
In winter I love daphne, anemones, sweet pea and double tulips.

What would you say is your signature?
My style is elegant, sophisticated and timeless, and I tend to do my own thing rather than taking much notice of trends or what my peers are creating.

What’s the best thing about your job?
I love being surrounded by beautiful flowers every day and bringing our clients’ vision to life is truly rewarding.

Images: Julia Archibald

And what’s the most challenging aspect of creating wedding blooms?
Sometimes mother nature doesn’t play along! Flowers may not be seasonably available when they should be but there are always equally beautiful alternatives on offer. Wedding venues can have very tight turnarounds for bump in but I’m lucky to have a large team to call on who all muck in and get the job done quickly and effectively.

What kinds of bridal bouquets would you like to create in 2020?
It doesn’t matter what kind of bouquet it is or what’s in it. I love to create bouquets that my brides adore, whose eyes light up when they first lay eyes on it because their vision has been brought to life. I’d be so grateful to continue to create many more of these bouquets in 2020!

A huge thank you to Victoria for sharing her story with us! Your bouquets and creations are absolute works of art that no doubt make your clients extremely happy and thankful to have you on their wedding vendor dream team! To find out more about Victoria Whitelaw Beautiful Flowers, head to their website or check them out on the Polka Dot Directory.

Headshot by Brent Lukey