Zita Elze ~ Unique and Enchanting Wedding Flowers…

*  Love My Dress readers who book the services of Zita Elze by no later than 31st January 2013, will be entitled to a 10% discount on their wedding flowers **

 

I never imagined, once I’d entered the world of weddings, that I
would meet so many utterly fascinating suppliers and designers –
innovators in their field, people who succeed in pushing the boundaries
of creativity, in the most beautiful and breathtaking of ways.

If I could pick one designer who epitomises the essence of what I’m trying to touch on here, in the most extraordinary and ethereal of ways, it would be Zita Elze

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright {c} 2011, Julian Winslow for Zita Elze

Zita Elze real flower dress, London Florist

Real flower wedding dress

Zita Elze is a Brazilian-born floral designer
with an eclectic background, spanning from artistic bookbinding to interior and
garden design.  She runs ‘Zita Elze Flowers‘ (a flower shop, wedding, prop hire and
event business) and the Zita Elze Design Academy (a flower school).

After studying artistic bookbinding in Paris, Zita took a course in Interior Design at the KLC School of Design followed by Garden Design at the Inchbald School of Design, where she graduated with a distinction. She won the prestigious Design and Decoration Award ‘Graduate Garden Designer of the Year 2003’, and in 2009, she won a silver-gilt medal for her first major exhibit at the Chelsea Flower Show.

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I’ve blogged about Zita and her incredible living embroidery collection before, but I need to shout about how brilliant this lady is.  I
was lucky enough to meet Zita recently, at the Perfect Wedding Magazine
Awards
(did you know, Love My Dress won the ‘Reader Recognition Awards –
woooot!)…

“My passion is working with brides – I love to turn a bride’s
dream into reality;  I know I have
succeeded when she first sees the flowers and starts crying out of pure
joy.  I also enjoy the intense
moments of inspiration and creativity while teaching students at the Academy and
watching them grow and develop. This is very satisfying.”

Zita Elze real flower dress, London Florist

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Zita Elze real flower dress, London Florist

“I
opened the flower shop in Sandycombe Road, in June 2004.  I had just completed studies in
everything bar floral design!  The
shop began with a focus on garden design but the floral designs quickly took
centre stage, particularly after winning a Silver-gilt medal at the 2009 RHS
Chelsea Flower Show.  I opened the
Design Academy in 2010.

I now have three premises which  are located a few doors apart in Sandycombe
Road, Kew, just five minutes away from Kew Underground station and the Victoria
Gate entry to Kew Gardens. We do business in London and the UK, as well as
beyond.”

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What inspires you when it comes to your work? Are there
any artists/designers you particularly admire?

“My greatest source of
inspiration is emotions. This is the essence of my approach to design.

I teach
a course called ‘Concept and Design’, where I share with students my highly personal technique – which I use myself in my
work – and it always produces astounding results.   I appreciate many artists but I particularly like the
work of Tage Anderson.
 

 I like to think of my work as
very natural and simple in the sense of not being overly sophisticated just for
the sake of it;  at the same time,
it can be romantic, ethereal, fairytale
and peaceful  with a lot of
intricate work and attention to detail.
My Floral Embroidery on various objects and my Living Embroidery Bridal
Collection (wedding gowns and accessories) are particularly known as my
signature style.”

 

 

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Zita Elze real flower dress, London Florist

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Zita Elze real flower dress, London Florist

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Can you explain a little about how you go about creating
a couple’s wedding flowers?

“I usually start with a
consultancy appointment to get to know the bride – it’s really important for me to
know what she is about, to understand her likes and dislikes. I push this
conversation until I grasp onto something very personal, and at that point, the design process can
start in my mind.

After this first meeting, I then put a rough draft proposal together.
If the wedding doesn’t require much of my design expertise, all can be resolved
at that stage. However, if I need to specifically design the wedding flowers
and visit venues I charge a consultancy fee that will later be deducted from
the final amount.

In this design package, I create a mood board and a sample
board with mock-ups if necessary.  A
very important part of my design process is for the bride to come to the shop a
few days before the wedding date to make her final choice with real flowers
rather than based on pictures. Very often, this leads to important last minute
changes which makes my service rather special, because the bride knows exactly
what she is going to get. No surprises here!”

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“At the Zita Elze Design Academy,
we offer bespoke Hen Days for those wishing to learn how to make floral designs
for the home, or even a corsage for the wedding; this
includes a champagne lunch. For the hands-on bride, we also run a week-long
Wedding Design course.”

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Zita Elze real flower dress, London Florist

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Zita Elze real flower dress, London Florist


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“For a wedding, we try to work
with any budget, within reason.  My floral dresses start at
around £2,500, and accessories start
at £200.  A bride’s bouquet starts at
£85.”

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Zita Elze real flower dress, London Florist

To find out more information about Zita’s wedding flower services, or her Zita Elze Design Academy, please visit the Zita Elze websiteemail Zita at Zita Elze, or telephone 020 8940 0040.   Zita Elze is located at 287 Sandycombe Road in Kew, TW9 3LU.

Would
any of you be brave enough to consider wearing real flowers on your
wedding day?

Watch out soon for details of a reader competition coming up, where one of you lovely peep will be able to win a place on the Zita Elze Design Academy.

Much love all,

Annabel

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via [email protected].  We look forward to hearing from you.  Annabel, Franky and the Love My Dress team.

 

Annabel

Annabel View all Annabel's articles

Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Editor. Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and star gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she's not working on Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip in the running of the family's sustainable flower farm and floral design business, Moonwind Flowers. In 2013, she became a published author.

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