A DUTCH groom-to-be has turned his back on the tulips of Amsterdam in favour of blooms by Brummies for his big day.

Joost Viannen, who sells flowers in Britain, picked Joy Gill and her partner Steve Hallard, who own the Flower Centre, in Northfield, to create the bouquets for his wedding.

Joy, who has run her award-winning shop for 25 years, said: “We have been customers of Vianen’s for five years and have always had wonderful flowers and excellent service from them, so the chance to reciprocate by creating Joost and his fiancée Carin’s flowers for their big day was an opportunity we just couldn’t refuse.”

Joy and Steve, who are both aged 52, created arrangements using green roses, green carnations, green amaranthus and orange and purple orchids.

Flowers trailed from the altar of the church in Rijnsburg and Steve also put together two 14ft towers of flowers for the reception.

“They were just really pleased,” said Joy.

“They’d got to create an impression at their wedding and the flowers really were the most important thing to them.”