Bold and beautiful is the look at all the best Borders weddings for 2024 – and that applies to the cake as much as the flowers, discovers Amy Shearer
There’s a good reason children’s toys are usually colourful – those eye-catching hues and bright buttons are designed to attract wee ones and delight their senses. This same ‘magpie’ theory can be applied to adults too (or at least to me) – if something is bright and beautiful, I want to know all about it.
When you think of wedding cakes and flowers, you might instantly conjure up a traditional picture of smooth white fondant and playing-it-safe petals. But I’m delighted to announce that times are changing, and that going big and bold is increasingly the way in the Scottish Borders.
“Break rules and traditions”
“I’m starting to see couples being a bit more adventurous in terms of colour and flavours,” says Nicola Moffat at Tweedbank-based Ruby & Pearl Cake Art. “I feel they’re beginning to turn away from the more standard wedding cakes. If there is one piece of advice I would give my clients, it’s to break all the rules and traditions when it comes to their cake and just go for it – and this particularly applies to colour.”
Trendy tall and slender cakes
Linda Henderson, owner of Heavenly Cakes in Melrose, is in agreement: “There is definitely more of a focus on bringing something bespoke to the table. I work with couples to create the vision they have in mind – whether that’s something colourful, or more natural with fresh flowers. Nobody follows anyone else – everyone opts for something different, which I love.”
Both bakers also reckon that a particular shape of cake will be big in 2024: “I’m definitely getting more requests for tall, slender cakes,” says Linda, while Nicola tells us that “far more tall, slim cakes, playing with proportions” are making their way into her order books.
Wedding flowers in the Borders
The same trend towards colour is happening in flowers too. Borders-based florist Wildflower & Willow, for one, is “leaving trad and stuffy designs in the dust” and instead working with couples to create “breathtaking, bespoke and elegant styles with a touch of whimsical wonder”. Owner Kelly Vaughan-Clinkscale says she isn’t your average florist and offers no ‘cookie-cutter’ weddings, price lists or packages; instead, her service is 100% unique to each couple, even including an arranged visit to your venue to visualise the florals in it. If that’s not someone committed to ensuring your blooms make a statement, we don’t know what is…
