FLOWERS are one of the most beautiful elements of any wedding big or small and throughout the centuries they have become a way of expressing our feelings.

'Thank you', 'I love you' and 'best friends' are just some of the messages that can be relayed through flowers and a young woman in South Cumbria has developed a passion for creating new ways for people to express themselves through bespoke blooms.

Businesswoman, Lauren Hart, 24, of Dane Avenue, Barrow, is hoping to bring a sprig of originality and creative flair to the South Lakes with her high-end approach to bouquets and flower arranging.

Miss Hart opened her bespoke florist Bluebell and Ivy on Tuesday May 31.

Tucked away just off the top of Ulverston's Market Place, the quirky, sweet-scented shop is situated at number four White Hart Yard, Daltongate.

Miss Hart, who will be running the shop and arranging all the flowers, certainly has something special about her creations.

Having begun work as a florist 10 years ago as a Saturday job she has since been to study textiles at Loughborough University and has worked under accomplished designer Margot Selby - for whom she spent a period working in Kent. 

Miss Hart said: "Even when I was 14 and I started work at Deborah's The Florist in Barrow, I knew that I wanted to work with flowers. It was my dream to be able to open my own shop one day and although it is nerve-wracking starting your own business, I think that when something is your passion you always make it work."

Miss Hart has already had requests for bouquets and arrangements for Lake District weddings and hope that in the future she may be able to build contracts with local hotels.

After training with internationally renowned London-based florist Jane Packer, whose average celebratory bouquet costs around £70, Miss Hart has now qualified as a specialist wedding florist. She has also tapped in to the recent demand for fresh flowers to adorn wedding cakes. 

At the recent vintage wedding fair at Chequers Hotel in Dalton, Miss Hart displayed her own handiwork on a tiered Victoria sponge that she created from scratch.

Miss Hart hopes that her fresh take on new trends and her knack for creating something extraordinary will endear her to all people of all ages in the South Lakes.

She said: "Having worked in textiles I know how to keep up with the ever-changing trends and current markets.

"I am really interested in more alternative types of flower and all the suppliers I have chosen are very innovative with the flowers they produce. They are always creating new colour-ways and different shapes for flowers such as roses. I have some stunning David Austin roses in stock at the moment."

Miss Hart is also very adept at producing breath-taking corsages and fresh-flower head pieces which really appeal to the younger market. She said: "I think the festival vibe is so big for summer and a headband made from fresh flowers will really take and occasion outfit to another level. Also it's not just proms that people want a corsage for now. I would say nine out of 10 wedding guests ask me to make them a corsage. Both men and women like to wear fresh flowers to weddings now."

A corsage is the bracelet made from fresh flowers and attached to a sparkly wrist band and Miss Hart always found they were one of her favourite things to make as she could get really inventive.

As for her summer bouquet advice, she said: "Peonies have just come in to season and they are so classy and beautiful, you can't go wrong with them for an occasion bouquet. I love anemones too and we have some really unusual ananas comosus, which look like little pink pineapples, if you're looking for a way to make your bouquet stand out."

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