After a hugely successful 2018 Spring Racing season for Victoria Whitelaw Beautiful Flowers, we were expecting another busy racing season in 2019, designing and creating botanical styling for numerous suites at Flemington Racecourse. The stunning floral work the team created for this year’s event far surpassed what was created in previous years in terms of quantity, and additional staff were flown in from inter-state to assist with the enormous task of styling more than twenty-five spaces for the Carnival.
As a new decade fast approaches, we invite you to reminisce Melbourne Cup Carnival with us, which was without doubt, our highlight of 2019.
Tabcorp
Along with the team from Event Planet, we have styled the Tabcorp birdcage suite at Flemington Racecourse for multiple years, and once again we were honoured to be assigned as Tabcorp’s preferred floral supplier for 2019. The exterior of the huge suite was finished with giant hand-painted hydrangea blooms and we used this theme as inspiration for the floral styling throughout the space. Indoors we created a series of oversized and luscious arched flower walls featuring hydrangea and dyed chrysanthemum disbuds, and outdoors we designed a cascading photo moment backdrop styled from the same blooms nestled amongst layers of fresh foliages. The result was breath-taking!
Obtaining hydrangea blooms in very particular shades of blue and purple and so early in the season wasn’t an easy task and couldn’t be left to mother nature. We organised with one of our local hydrangea growers to personally oversee the growth of thousands of hydrangea plants in a hothouse where additional heating and watering was required to ensure the flowers bloomed in time of Carnival and matched the colour tones required by the client.
Kennedy
After working on many successful events with Kennedy in 2019, we were excited to work with Bastion EBA in creating the florals for the luxury brand’s birdcage suite. Kennedy’s theme this year was to emulate the style of a luxe horse stable with dark masculine tones, timber and bronze finishes and a horseshoe shaped bar.
We chose neutral-toned botanicals to match including luxurious waterfall phalaenopsis orchids, cymbidium orchids and artichokes with masses of textured foliages styled in lavish and abundant arrangements throughout the suite which absolutely brought the space to life!
Herald Sun
We worked on the styling of Herald Sun House for News Corp Australia with the fabulous team at The Big Group. The suite was designed to reflect a modern sports bar with a mid-century Mad Men-esque styled interior. The space was fitted out with contrasting materials such as timber, velvet, leather, rattan and brass and was adorned with sporting memorabilia.
Our florals referenced the eclectic nature of the space with botanicals displayed in a selection of trophy style vessels and footed crystal vases. Florals included smoke bush, snapdragons, peonies, cornflowers and roses in contrasting hues and textures in a colour palette of burnt orange, pale apricots, deep burgundy, blush and dusty blue with pops of green.
Private VIP Client
Some very special return clients had the Victoria Whitelaw team style two spectacular spaces for them for this year’s Carnival. The first being their suite at Flemington Racecourse which was elegantly designed featuring pink wall panelling and floor to ceiling floral prints. We created gorgeously feminine botanicals such as phalaenopsis orchids, peonies, roses and cascading fragrant jasmine presented in brushed gold vessels against sensational magnolia branch wall installations.
The second space for this couple was a Met Gala inspired party at a private city venue. The florals were a riot of colour featuring bright and bold hues, feathers, sequins and flamingos! The styling for this event had to be seen to be believed!
Victoria Racing Club
We were approached by Victoria Racing Club to botanically style a number of suites for their VIP clients this year each with contrasting floral styles. There was a suite featuring luscious tropical foliages and stark white orchids; and a French Provincial style suite with blue and white florals in stunning ornamental vessels. There were sumptuous flower walls and innovative botanical installations to act as photo back drops, lavish overhead ceiling installations, and just absolutely beautiful flowers in all corners of Flemington Racecourse!
What an incredible racing season! We can’t wait to see what the next Melbourne Cup Carnival brings us!
