Limewood Flowers

What do you offer?

Romantic floral designs inspired by cottage gardens and the beauty of the countryside for weddings across the UK. I use unusual floral ingredients, sometimes blending fresh with dried flowers, and scour our flower growers for that ‘something’ which perfectly completes your nature-inspired English wedding vision. The result is artful and even feminine in style, yet entirely extraordinary in impact.

As a natural introvert, Fran brings a sense of calm to – what can often be – a hectic day and a stressful planning process. I am here to answer questions as you think of them and work collaboratively with you. My goal is to ensure that at all stages in your wedding planning, you feel inspired and joyful.

Why do you want to work with the LGBTQ+ community?

Why wouldn't I want to work with the LGBTQ+ community? I believe every couple should be able to have the most incredible wedding day. A day that is uniquely them, that feels entirely joyful. No one should have to worry about prejudice on their day or in the lead up to it. Part of my service to every couple is to ensure they feel looked after throughout their planning. It is personal, designed around every person, what they need and their vision for their day.

Allyship

Such a good question. Being an active ally is important to me personally, I strongly believe in equality, together with my sustainability principles and bring this into my business. I am always looking for ways to increase my understanding, to be a better ally and take more and better actions.

At the moment, I always ask for pronouns and any other terms couples feel represent them. My website and social media are always under review, together with my own documents to ensure I am not continuing the heteronormative trend of the wedding industry. I only use the terms 'bride' or 'groom' when referring to a specific person who openly identifies as such.

More widely for privacy, I generally only use the initials of my couples on social media, and I have many couples who prefer their faces and/or weddings are not shown publicly, and I respect that.

I speak out weekly on my Instagram stories about equality (in all forms) and/or sustainability as these are key parts of my principles-based business. Recently, I have found the courage and words to begin challenging the words and behaviours of some of my family and friends, and will continue to do so. I remain open to challenge on my words, behaviours and assumptions for anyone who feels they would like to do so, and will continue to learn more.

My portfolio absolutely needs to be more diverse, and I am actively seeking photoshoots to help with this and ensure that LGBTQ+ couples can be confident that the words on my website and social media are genuine. I speak up weekly on Instagram stories and seek more opportunities to connect with LGBTQ+ wedding suppliers (without wanting to take space from an LGBTQ+ florist) so that these businesses can also be confident working with me. It may be a small thing, but when I am working publicly at photoshoots or wedding fairs, I wear an LGBTQ+ support pin badge. I also see this directory as part of this, it is a trusted directory and makes it clear to everyone where I stand and proudly so.