Care home residents took a trip down a florally lined memory lane ahead of the Royal Wedding.

As Meghan Markle prepares to dazzle crowds with a bouquet made up of white roses, foxgloves and peonies, the residents of the Spinney Care Home in Chingford reminisced about the blooms they held on their big days on May 9.

A student from Capel Manor College’s school of floristry, Charlotte Jefferson, was on hand to recreate the bouquets.

She was helped by 16 children from Norman Hurst school and some of the carers' children, including two year old Sidney Vinning - a great favourite with the home’s residents.

Jacky Fitzpatrick, home manager, said: “The upcoming Royal Wedding is creating great excitement in the home and many of our residents who married in the war or just after have been reminiscing about their own weddings.

"Choices for bouquets were very limited in those days, as during the war and in the post war years of rationing, flowers were hard to come by as people had supplanted the flowers in their gardens with fruit and vegetables. The public parks were given over to fruit and veg too.”

Some of the residents who have had their bouquets recreated and for whom the project has stirred happy memories of their own weddings included Norma Worby, who married her husband Bob when she was 24 at All Saints Church in Woodford.

She recalled her flowers were orange and she had a wedding cake made by her mother. Her friends and family pooled their ration coupons to provide the ingredients.

Another was Doris Franceschi, who tied the knot with Stan at 22 on July 20, 1946.

Her bouquet was made of blue lavender and they married in St Andrew’s Church in Ilford.

Moira Inch remembered how her veil blow off down the street and her future brother in law chased it and caught it.

Joan Green married Alec who was in the RAF, in April 1947.

She had white lilies for her bouquet and orange blossom in her hair.