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Charlie

Caroline and Gareth’s spring wedding on their farm with a rustic barn reception and pretty homemade details (part one)

Charlie

Spring farm wedding (part one)

I have a super special real wedding to share with you today. For regular readers or those who’ve been following last year’s TNWC Real Brides you probably remember the lovely Caroline who was planning her wedding with a real focus on homemade details and supporting local businesses.

Back in May last year she tied the knot with her Mr-to-be Gareth, on their farm in Nottinghamshire, and today I have the delight of sharing all their official photographs from their beautiful day. Caroline has also shared so much of what went into their day and how it went, I’m sure that many brides-to-be out there will find not only creative inspiration but reassurance ahead of their wedding day.

>> View Caroline and Gareth’s spring farm wedding (part two) here <<

Before I hand over, I want to start with this wonderful quote from Caroline, that I think is so beautifully worded about what your wedding day is really all about:

“At times it was hard work and with the weather not on our side we were really tested (big puddles all over the barn floor after a torrential downpour 2 days before the wedding worried us a little!) but on the day, none of it really matters. You’ll always have the best day ever, surrounded by all the people you love the most and at the end of it all you’ll be Mr and Mrs, and at the beginning of an amazing adventure through life together – and that’s really what its all about.”

Over to Caroline to tell you all about her wedding day…

“We knew what we definitely didn’t want was a traditional, formal, wedding day feel to the day and the style was most definitely a handmade, relaxed, informal country wedding and just a jolly good knees up really! We were both bought up in the country, for our second date Gareth bought me a pair of wellies and we took his dogs for a long walk around the farm which I think was pretty much the moment I knew he was ‘the one’, so it seemed quite fitting to have a wedding that gave us a chance to get our wellies on!”

Charlie

This Valentine’s Day buy seasonal blooms grown in Britain with love and say no to the imported red rose

Charlie

Just 5 days until Valentine’s Day! My plan today is to convince you to buy or ask for a bunch of beautiful, British grown flowers for Valentine’s Day this year. I had wanted to dedicate more time and promotion to this wonderful campaign that is happening, but a sweet baby is consuming oodles of my attention and time.

The main objective of my message is simple: Buy British flowers. There are so many wonderful flower farmers growing stunning, seasonal British flowers (yes, even in damp dark February!), and lots of florists who buy British grown blooms. Let’s support these fab small growers and businesses, push aside that bouquet of imported and rather stiff looking red roses, and celebrate this year with a bunch of something seasonal and grown with a whole lot of love.

Still not convinced that there are pretty seasonal blooms to be bought from Britain this Valentine’s? Well now I’m going to bombard you with a whole stream of pretty pictures of what these skilled flower farmers are growing right now. They include tulips, anemones, narcissi, snowdrops, iris, pussy willow and more!

(I’ve included links below each picture to the flower farmer/grower/florist who’s flowers they are, where they’re based – in case you’re local – and do visit their website as many of them delivery nationwide)

The Flower Mill Cornwall :: Cornwall

Cherfold Cottage Flowers :: Surrey/West Sussex

Charlie

Elegant English country garden party inspired handmade wedding stationery from Lucy Says I Do

Charlie

For all of you embarking on the hunt for you wedding stationery, today’s post is bound to inspire you. We are joined again by the lovely Lucy from Lucy Says I Do, who has been sharing a number of guest blog posts all about the handmade elements of her own wedding (read all about her bridesmaids dresses, homegrown flowers, and antique wedding dress).

Lucy runs her own business (and one of our recommended suppliers) Lucy Says I Do, creating all kinds of beautiful wedding invitations, paper goods and gifts, so it’s pretty cool to hear about how she designed her own wedding stationery.

Over to Lucy to tell us all about it…

As with all of the inputs to our wedding, the invitations were a real labour of love! We wanted all our guests to be given a taster of what our day was about, what was important to us, and hopefully generate a little bit of anticipation for the big day!

Charlie

Modern vintage inspired bouquets for brides who want more than a hand-tied from Petal and Twig

Charlie

Today I have another lovely treat from one of our recommended wedding suppliers. This guest post has been put together by Angela who runs Petal and Twig, a Lancashire based floral designer with an emphasis on seasonality, locally grown flowers and ethical sourcing.

Over to Angela to tell us all about these wedding bouquets she’s created, each one inspired by a vintage bouquet…

The majority of wedding bouquets we do these days are hand-tied and I have always loved the informality of this style compared to the rather stiff, wired bouquets that dominated weddings from the 60s to the late 80s. I remember staying up late with my mum almost every Friday night in my teens, wiring flowers within an inch of their lives. Looking back, it seems utterly mad to deconstruct and then reconstruct flowers but I never questioned it at the time.

In recent years the availability of “antique” shades in roses have inspired beautifully subtle colour schemes for weddings and we have rediscovered the potential of garden plant material and more natural styles. The peach, gold and soft pinks of an antique jug are brought out in the “Faith” roses and garden plant material of this simple hand tied posy. It certainly looks very vintage, although I don’t think my grandmother would have thought much of this as a wedding bouquet – she would have put it straight in the vase.

Charlie

Desperately seeking… Would you like to work with me at The Natural Wedding Company writing blog features?

Charlie

For regular readers of the blog you’ll probably know that I recently threw my life into chaos with the arrival of my first baby at the end of last summer – albeit delightful chaos! Having spent the past 5 months adjusting, I’m now looking forward to 2014 and what my lovely business needs…

It needs you!

If you love writing, and fancy getting some experience by writing for my blog then I’d love you to read on – perhaps you’re just the person I’m looking for.

I am on the hunt for an intern/colleague/enthusiastic individual who has about 5 hours a week that they’d like to spend writing blog features for The Natural Wedding Company.

On The Natural Wedding Company directory we have over 300 lovely wedding businesses that we work with. We do our best to share and showcase what they do here on the blog, so I’m looking for a dedicated person to create those blog features and liaise with our recommended suppliers.

I’m looking for someone to work with me, not for me.

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides Married! Nik’s back to tell us all about her relaxed coastal farm wedding

Charlie

This lovely TNWC Real Bride has become someone I consider as a friend, so it’s been a real treat to hear all about her wedding day (and I’ve been buried in all her ‘official’ wedding photos recently which will soon be gracing these blog pages). Nik and Chris had, what I think was a very chilled out and down-to-earth wedding (two in fact!) back in July, with champagne on the beach and lots of animal appearances on the farm where they live in Wales.

Over to Nik…

Six Months On

Recently we celebrated our six month wedding anniversary (ok, I know, not technically an anniversary, but nice to acknowledge it all the same). By a happy coincidence, it turned out our wedding caterer, Trehale Farm, were hosting their annual wassail on the same night, so it seemed quite fitting for us to go along to toast the apple trees, drink cider, eat great food and commemorate our first wedded milestone.

Charlie

Jo and Dom’s natural and relaxed Scottish wedding with a ceremony in a ruined chapel, picnic on the beach, and foraged flowers

Charlie

Relaxed Scottish wedding with a beach picnic

A real wedding feature has been long overdue, and what nicer way to kick off 2014 than with the exquisite wedding of Jo and Dom. They got married last July in Scotland with a ceremony in a ruin chapel amongst the dunes, a beach picnic for all their guests, swimming in the sea, foraged and wild flowers for the bouquets and table arrangements, and a beautifully decorated tent – phew!

I could go on and on and on about everything that I love about this wedding, but it’s better than I just let you immerse yourself. Go get lost in Jo and Dom’s wonderful day…

“We wanted our wedding to be as natural and relaxed as possible. We wanted to be able to enjoy it, and for everyone else to have a good time too! We had a humanist wedding in a tiny ruined chapel on the east coast of Scotland, just down the coast from Edinburgh followed by a picnic on the beach.”

“I grew up there and every Christmas my family walk down the beach to the ruin with some friends and hold an informal Christmas ceremony where we sing carols and have readings and generally acknowledge that its Christmas.”

“Dom proposed on boxing day 2012 on a rock just beside the chapel and there was never any question that we would marry anywhere else. It’s a very important place to me. Our wedding guests had to walk over the dunes for half an hour to reach the chapel so the weather was definitely a concern! But no, we didn’t have a wet weather plan!”

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides Married! Sarah’s back to tell us all about her homemade child-friendly wedding

Charlie

The fifth of our six TNWC Real Brides is here today to tell us about her lovely summer wedding. Sarah married Lee back in August with a very homemade wedding full of child-friendly touches. After the seasonal wedding flowers all grown by Sarah’s mum, my favourite part is the duck race!

Over to Sarah…

Married at last! Our wedding was back in August. The chaos began on the eve of the wedding…

In the morning me and my now husband went to my mum’s house, where, along with my mum and dad, my brother, his wife and my mum’s best friend were all ready and raring to go with the wedding day prep. All of the flowers we used were homegrown by my mum so we set to work on bouquets, buttonholes and vase arrangements for the tables. After a spot of lunch we loaded my dad’s van with all our wedding day goodies and headed to venue to set up.

Izzy

A Day in the Life … For The Love Of Vintage: styling an English Summer Fete wedding in the Lake District

Izzy

Today we have a lovely guest post from Sharon who runs a vintage crockery company For The Love Of Vintage. For our ‘A Day in the Life’ feature Sharon is taking us along to find out what it’s like to be involved with one particular summer Lake District wedding.

Over to Sharon…

Apart from my life long obsession with crockery and getting to play tea parties every day, the two things I love most about my job are the variety (as no two vintage weddings are ever the same) and the people I meet.

I have styled weddings in all sorts of venues but was especially excited when Kimberly and Tim contacted me to discuss their big day. We met over a year before the wedding, eating cake, drinking tea and talking about the wonderfully creative ideas they had and our mutual love of Cocker Spaniels!

One of the things I loved most about the ideas for the day was Kimberley and Tim’s determination to use artisan crafts people, local suppliers and really bring their treasured Lake District as a theme into the whole day. I just knew from the start this was going to be a very special wedding.

After a year of planning and preparation July 6th was almost upon us. It’s hard to squeeze an event like this into just one day but here is my story of a perfect wedding day!

Charlie

Pen and ink style mini calendar save the date cards that you can print and customise yourself

Charlie

When I spotted this mini calendar style save the date, I loved it’s simplicity and thought that the pen and ink style would be popular with my blog readers as my own save the dates have been so popular.

So you can imagine how delighted I was when I discovered that this is in fact a free printable save the date, created by Bells & Whistles for The Pretty Blog – so you can actually go and download the design, print it off on your choice of recycled card, and add your own names and date.

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