Selkirk florist's shop named best of bunch for weddings

Flower Expressions picked up the title of southern Scotland’s best florist at the sixth annual Scottish Wedding Awards, edging out three other Borders florists.

The West Port shop, owned by Sandra and Stephen Shafto for almost a decade, came out on top against Lily of the Valley in Hawick, Flowers of Melrose and Edelweiss in Galashiels.

The Clovenfords couple run the shop together, alongside part-time florist Ashley Wheelans, with Sandra in charge of flowers and Stephen running a complementary photography business.

Sandra said: “This is the first time we’ve entered, and we were up against quite a few other local florists.

“We offer a good, fair price, so we do a substantial amount of weddings and are kept steady with that kind of work.

“Every year, we average out about 38, and we get a lot of business through word of mouth.

“It’s good to be recommended, so it must mean my work is quite good too.

“The finalists are decided by the amount of recommendations you get from your customers, so it’s nice that it all comes down to public opinion and votes.”

Organised by events and marketing firm Creative Oceanic, the awards search Scotland for the best photographers, florists, venues, cake-makers, beauticians and hairdressers, as voted for by their customers in 25 different awards.

Irfan Younis, chief executive of Creative Oceanic, said: “It’s really great to see the innovative new ideas the talent within the industry comes up with.

“We would like to congratulate all our nominees and winners and we are looking forward to welcoming you all again to the Scottish Wedding Awards 2019.”

Other Borders finalists included Hawick’s Hunter’s Bakers for cake designer of the year, Kelso’s Hector Innes for photographer of the year, Melrose’s Anna Millington for make-up specialist of the year and Kelso’s Noon Entertainments and Hawick’s Sitting Pretty for supplier of the Year.

Hawick’s Branxholm Park House and Mansfield House Hotel and Galashiels’ Kingsknowes Hotel and Old Gala House were all finalists in the wedding venue of the year category.

The awards evening, held in Glasgow, also helped to raise £2,745 for its official charity partner, the city’s Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice.