Sonning Flowers blooming chuffed after scooping national award

Things are all rosy in the garden of a Kingsclere florist after it scooped a prestigious national award.

Heather Reilly – owner of Sonning Flowers, which operates across Berkshire and Hampshire – said she was still pinching herself after the company secured National Wedding Florist of the Year for 2022 at the National Wedding Industry Awards.

The award is given based on votes from a florist’s clients over the previous year, and Sonning Flowers beat off competition from all across the country with a score of 69 out of 70.

Feedback from voters applauded Sonning Flowers’ flexibility, creativity, “faultless communication”, “expert knowledge” and “exemplary customer service”.

Ms Reilly, who first started at the company in 2011 before taking over as owner in 2018, said the feedback from all the clients had made her and the team cry.

She said: “We are absolutely delighted and just can't believe it – we’re still on cloud nine.

“We’ve had some lovely testimonials. It made us cry, reading all the wonderful feedback.

“The last two years for any business has been incredibly hard and we’ve sort of had two wedding seasons merged into one last year because of all the postponements from Covid, so it was really lovely.

“We put our heart and soul into the wedding plans we create and I never thought, having come away with the regional awards in January, that less than a month later we’d win the national award.

“A huge thank you to all our wonderful wedding couples who voted for us – it's been a whirlwind for our whole industry, and the support we have received has been truly amazing.”

The award ceremony took place on February 23 at the Underglobe in London – which sits beneath the iconic Globe theatre on Bankside.

It capped off an incredibly successful 12 months for the company.

In July last year, Sonning Flowers scooped the Best Florist in Berkshire at the Muddy Stilettos Awards, before taking home Wedding Florist of the Year for the South Central of England in the regional heats at the end of January.

Ms Reilly, 26, continued: “It’s going to hopefully push us on to many more exciting things that we’ve got in the pipeline.

“We’ve already had to take on more staff because our wedding books are getting busier and busier for this year.

“We’ve got an apprentice and two new members of staff who started in the last week so it’s already looking like a good year for Sonning Flowers.”