Love is Blind florals revealed!
Even if you haven’t watched it (we admit we did get a bit hooked) you’ll want to know who did the flowers for Love is Blind, a reality TV show where couples meet behind screens and aim to fall in love and marry sight unseen.
Because whilst all the marriages may not have worked (no spoilers here!) the flowers were fab and it was all down to the team led by Vicky Laffey who runs Floral Quarter Weddings in Newcastle Upon Tyne as well as offering both the Wedding Florist Mentor service and hosting a Facebook group called The Worldwide Florist Community.
But how did Vicky get the gig and what went on behind the scenes to produce six weddings in six days and all under budget?
“In terms of being found I firmly believe a lot of it was down to my website. It’s something I tell my followers – you must have an amazing and effective website - not just to get found on Google, but to help people decide to pick you.”
But even though they found her, Vicky admits she nearly didn’t reply to the email CPL Productions sent back in 2023! “To be honest it all sounded so secretive – I had to sign an NDA before they would even talk to me – so I nearly didn’t reply. But I took a chance and over the following months, I was introduced to the wonderful world of TV!
Led by the amazing Art Director Luke Fuller, he created the initial concepts with each of the couples in mind, and then we worked together to bring those to life, using my own creativity, experience and knowledge. If I say it myself the results were magical!”
In terms of logistic it all happened over a six-day filming session when Vicky and her team - Nicola Menzies, Lesley Rutter and Maria Baranowska - headed to Wynyard Hall in Teesside. With 5am starts and 7pm finishes, given each wedding was completely different it was a mammoth task but by Vicky’s own admission they all absolutely loved it.
Flower wise there were over 8,000 stems of flowers and 5 boxes of Smilax foliage (Smilax played a huge part in the LIB weddings!), and whilst it wasn’t totally foam free, the team did try to minimise its use – they got through just two boxes of foam, one box of Fibre Floral and around 15 Oasis Florettes.
“Obviously we wanted to be as foam free as possible so for 8,000 stems that was pretty good going whilst still ensuring the flowers could cope with the heat from the lighting and we repurposed the foam and arrangements where we could.”
But whilst it was Vicky and the team doing the work she gives a huge shout out to both the wholesalers who supplied the flowers – van Vliet and Florismartdirect - and the system that kept it all under budget.
Because Vicky used the software programme Everystem, a software programme for building floral recipes which also allows for writing instructions for staff. “Personally, I think Everystem is amazing and affordable, and it really helped me keep under budget as well as make the process of passing across design information and instructions to my team so much easier.”
Perhaps the hardest part was keeping the whole thing secret. Whilst filming took place in September '23, the show didn’t air until August ‘24 so she had to keep schtum for months! But it was worth it she explained.
“If you'd have told me from 13 years ago, when I was leaving my job at Northern Rock bank and starting up my little Florist business, that I’d see my flowers on screen, in a number 1 hit show on major channel, Netflix, I wouldn't have believed you!
Those who know me, know that I have had a terrible couple of years health wise, with cancer treatments, surgeries and broken bones, but despite that, I have skyrocketed the business, won Wedding Florist of the Year Yorkshire & North East, and been featured on a hit TV show. This makes me extremely proud and one very happy Florist indeed.”
You can watch the whole series on Netflix … if you just want to see the flowers skip to Episodes 10 and 11.
