I handled the decorating and flowers for my daughter’s wedding. Jotting down just a few notes on resource and how-to books for anyone who wants to tackle this important task.

Two of the most helpful books for creating wedding flower arrangements I would like to recommend ( and I researched numerous ones -along with all the Bridal magazines) are Malcolm Hilliers “Book of Fresh Flowers“, and Wedding Flowers Made Simpleby Steven Roberts. These two books were especially elegant, artfully illustrated, and replete with all the basic instructions an amateur like me needed. I had worked with silk and dried, but had not worked with trying to make a professional result in fresh floral arrangements. These books gave me confidence, they gave me ideas, and they gave me lots of pictures!

The Kitchen Garden, A Practical Guide to Planning & Planting

This book from the Wayside Gardens Collection belongs on the shelves of those who decide they must have a Kitchen Garden as part of their landscape. While some books of this type (such as ‘Herbs‘ by Emelie Tolley and Chris Mead) hybrid recipes and food related chapters with garden information, Andi Clevely’s ‘The Kitchen Garden‘ is one book that actually sticks to the gardening aspect of growing food for the kitchen. Kitchen gardens are a bit different from the usual veggie patch and Clevely’s book well illustrates that fact. In fact, the illustrations are a real asset of owning this book!