He was the man behind the incredible floral masterpieces at Princess Eugenie's wedding and has often been picked by the Queen to decorate some of the historic royal palaces. And while royal florist Simon Lycett has created some of the most fabulous decorations, things haven't always been smooth-sailing - particularly when it came to providing the arrangements at Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall's wedding in Windsor on 9 April 2005. The wedding date had been set for 8 April 2005 but had to be postponed by a day, so that the Charles could represent Her Majesty at the funeral of Pope John Paul II.
© Photo: Getty ImagesPrince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall married in 2005
Speaking exclusively to HELLO!, Simon revealed: "The most dramatic incident we had was when we created the flowers for the Prince of Wales wedding to the Duchess of Cornwall at Windsor Castle. We were creating the reception flowers and his holiness the Pope died so the Prince of Wales delayed the wedding by a day." Elaborating further, he added: "We always try to have our flowers be on point for the actual day and time of the event. There was a bit of a white-knuckle ride to try and make sure that everybody was keeping everything fresh and perfect."
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In order for the floral decorations to look their best, there is a great deal of sensitivity over the time. "The flowers all had to last another day," explained Simon. "But I don't think we were as strained as the police who were checking us all in and out." When he comes to planning such big installations, Simon revealed: "Lots and lots of planning goes into all the events but on the actual day we have a very short window of time to install it."
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Although time is limited, preparation for such grand masterpieces take months of planning. Opening up about Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank's wedding, the British designer explained: "We had a meeting several months in advance and we met with Princess Eugenie a month before the wedding took place. Everything we do takes quite a lot of planning so there’s always a decent gestation period throughout as we approach the day of the event."
Some of the floral creations by Simon
"She wanted everything to be very seasonal," he added. "She was very keen on using an abundance of garden foliage so we were able to use lots - we were very fortunate that her idea was to use foliage cut from the gardens of Windsor Castle and from Windsor Great Park. It was a very beautiful understated seasonal look with all that gorgeous autumn colour." When asked about the feedback from the royal family, Simon revealed: "Well we were very fortunate that The Duke of York gave a lovely tweet to thank us all and to name us all so that was very exciting. We also got a wonderful letter from the Master of the royal household thanking us very much and saying how gorgeous it was and how delighted everyone was."
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