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The Re-Enactment of the
Great Banquet
Steve Schmidt and John Hosak were
invited by Wendy
Andrade to assist
in putting together the floral designs
and arrangements for a re-enactment of
the Great Banquet in the historical
Smithfields Market in the heart of
London.
The original banquet was to
commemorate the opening of the market in
November 1868. Smithfields is the largest
meat market in the UK and a vast majority
of the meat consumed in London passes
through this market. Wendy was heading up
the floral team and as part of the remit
had to keep the floral arrangements as
close to the original banquet as
possible.
Having reviewed some of the
original pictures and with some good
ideas in mind Steve, John and Wendy
headed over to the flower market in
Amsterdam to order the
flowers.
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The Banquet
Poster
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The event itself was
scheduled for Friday November 28th and with
only 2 days to get all of the arrangements done
(in excess of 150 arrangements) was going to be
a challenge, especially as the market was going
to continue to operate throughout the whole
setup. Being a meat market, the floral team
were given some space in the poultry freezer to
do the actual work. With the flowers arriving
on Wednesday it soon began to resemble a
florists!
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As this was a charity event and
some of the charities were local schools
and colleges, some extra pairs of hands
were supplied in the shape of 20 floral
students. These plus a few good friends
would form the whole team.
Early Thursday morning we all
got to work. With Wendy organizing and
talking over the initial arrangements
with Steve and John, the rest of us got
to work soaking the oasis and taping them
to the bases. John and Steve started
greening out and soon had the initial
arrangements set up for the top
table.
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The Production
Line
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The lilies
and gladioli were to prove a challenge as
they were not open. So off to an office
they went to see if the warmth would help
them open to add some color to the
arrangements. Color was also to be added
by the use of apples, grapes and oranges
- if we could resist eating them
beforehand! Then it was all hands to the
pump as we started to get into gear
producing the arrangements for the tables
in 4 stages. After greening out, some of
the flowers were added and any filling in
done. Next the fruit was added to balance
out the color ready for the lilies and
final flowers when they were ready. By
the end of Thursday a substantial amount
of work had been done, but one look at
all the unused product shows just how
much is left to
do.
With the banquet location
actually in the middle of the road that runs
through the center of the market, not a lot of
set up was possible on Thursday. Some of the
lighting was set up but the road would not be
closed until late Friday morning. The plan was
to have the tables set up by 2pm Friday
afternoon – that wasn’t likely to happen!
Back with the floral team Friday was another
early start, with Steve and John focused on the
large stand displays the rest of us got to work
with the lilies (which had started to open
nicely) and putting the finishing touches to
the table displays before moving them to the
banquet location. By midday everything was
going to plan with the flowers and
arrangements. Not so with the floor and table
set up in the banquet location. They were
running 3 hours behind – and with the event
starting at 7pm it wasn’t looking
good.
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By 2pm we had relocated most of
the arrangements (over 160 in total) and
were eager to get started on table setup.
Catering had started to put the tables up
so once the table linens were down and
places set the arrangements were
positioned on the tables. By 4.30 the
floor was complete so the rest of the
tables went in. Unfortunately some of the
tables had been incorrectly positioned so
frantic rearrangement and repositioning
was necessary. By 6pm the tables were
finally complete, not a moment too soon!!
Well with over 600 people attending there
were bound to be a few problems and
challenges.
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Table Set Up
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We were fortunate enough to get
tickets to the actual event so it was
time to get back to the hotel, shower and
change then get back for the start of the
event. Overall it went off smoothly,
everyone loved the flowers and the
banquet was a resounding success. It’s
amazing how much time, effort and
organization goes into an event of this
size, and a few hours later it’s all over
and time for cleanup. 
For pictures of
the event from a floral perspective
click
here
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