Growing flowers for a wedding Guests could all bring themed dishes to the wedding feast, but few brides want to spend the countdown to their special day in the kitchen, and few caterers manage to reflect the fresh seasonality of home-produced food. Nicci Gurr used to make pastry with Albert Roux; now, she and her husband, Julian, grow fruit, flowers and vegetables, and raise Gloucester old spot pigs and Southdown lambs on their smallholding. "He grows it and I cook it," says Nicci. Her wedding menus are tasty, beautiful to look at and chosen together with the marrying couple to enhance the day. She might provide an informal buffet picnic with tasty savouries and puddings on cake stands decorated with edible flowers. Nicci uses nasturtiums in savoury pastries, violas (especially "Frosted Chocolate") in salads, on scones and canapés, sunflower petals and lavender on cakes and borage flowers in ice cubes. She suggests keeping picked flowers between layers of tissue in the fridge. Stationery Buy basic stationery from viking-direct.co.uk and decorate with pressed flowers. Any tiny flower can be popped between sheets of blotting paper then placed under a mattress Confetti Collect rose petals for deliciously scented biodegradable confetti. I just dry mine spread on paper towels, then leave them in a basket. Freeze-dried petals are available from pollenpetals.co.uk. Borage flowers, marigold, sunflower and daisy petals make colourful confetti. Table Decorations Go to car-boot sales and collect tiny bottles or pretty glasses and group them in the centre of each table. Individual sweet peas, roses, lavender or any favourite flower from yours and friends" gardens will do and won't leave you bereft of blooms. Cocktail Mix a little gin with your home-made elderflower cordial to create a delicious wedding breakfast cocktail, add pared lemon and ice and a few flowers to decorate. In her book The Scented Kitchen, Frances Bissell suggests making a lavender julep by crushing a lavender flower with sugar, adding water, crushed ice and gin, then decorating with fresh lavender sprigs. Pick flowers two days before the wedding, early in the morning or last thing at night Strip off any greenery below water level Place in a deep bucket of fresh, clean water Keep in a cool, dark garage away from fruit (the ethylene makes flowers droop) Posies can be made up and kept in water until the last minute, then dried well. Jen Stuart-Smith at Blooming Green (01622 745917; bloominggreenflowers.co.uk); Common Farm Flowers (08458 946770; commonfarmflowers.com); Anna's Country Flowers (01227 731987; annascountryflowers.co.uk); and Nicci Gurr at Home Gurr'own (0774 781 6541; homegurrown.com). 100g butter, 5g baking powder, 200g self-raising flour, pinch salt and pepper, a few sprigs of chopped fennel foliage, 95ml warm milk, egg yolk for basting, 50g butter, 250g smoked salmon, mix of whole nasturtiums, chopped nasturtium petals, fennel strands to garnish. Preparation time: 30 minutes Rub together half the butter, baking powder, self-raising flour, salt and pepper to a sandy texture. Add a few sprigs of chopped fennel foliage, then the warm milk to make a soft dough. Roll out 2cm thick and cut into 5cm rounds. Pack closely on a baking tray and brush with egg yolk. Bake at 150C/300F/Gas 2 for 10 to 15 minutes. Top with the remaining butter, creamed with the smoked salmon and chopped nasturtium petals. Decorate with whole nasturtium flowers and a few fennel strands. Pretty perfect.