bridesmaids Archives - The Natural Wedding Company

Blog: bridesmaids

Charlie

Favourite Natural Wedding Styles: wedding dresses, hair styles, grooms style, bridesmaids and accessories

Charlie

It’s the first in our new Real Wedding Favourites mini series, which will be featuring some of our favourite picks from the Real Weddings we’ve featured over the years. It’s been such a challenge to choose our ‘favourites’, but as we mentioned in our introductory post, these are really just some of our favourites.

Our picks are chosen from the very first Real Wedding we featured up until spring of this year.

Natural Wedding Styles

Today it’s all about Natural Wedding Styles. This includes our favourite wedding dresses, our favourite bride’s wedding hair style, our favourite groom style, our favourite bridesmaids style, and our favourite wedding accessories.

Our Favourite Wedding Dresses

An Asymmetric Layered Wedding Dress

I got a bit stuck on this category because every bride chooses a wedding dress that suits them, and is right for their wedding. The dilemma was, how should I choose? Should I pick the one I’d most like to wear? In the end I was tied between two (this was the other), but Nik’s wedding dress won out for me.

For her Welsh coastal farm wedding, Nik unexpectedly fell in love with this wedding dress from Coast on a shopping trip for bridesmaids dresses. She even told us: “I actually tried it on for a laugh – it looked hideous on the rail and I was going to leave it behind.” I love the asymmetric hem line and layered skirt of this wedding dress, which Nik wore with a thin leather belt.

Looking through their wedding day I just felt that the dress not only looked great on Nik, but it fitted in with their day. Worn with silver flip flops it blended perfectly into their down-to-earth (and very hot!) outdoor ceremony. Later on for their champagne picnic and walk on the beach it worked wonderfully with bare feet. And for the evening party on the farm with a pair of vintage cowboy boots.

My favourite wedding dress comes from Nik and Chris’ chilled out rustic coastal farm wedding. Wedding dress by Coast. Photography by Pete Cranston Photography.

Charlie

Charli and Sam’s sunny laid back village wedding with outdoor ceremony, locally grown flowers and tea cup wedding favours

Charlie

It certainly feels as though Spring has sprung, and what better way to celebrate but with a gloriously sunny, cheerful and laid back village wedding.

Charli and Sam’s special day has an authentically wholesome vibe to it. Just looking at these beautiful photographs by Freckle Photography you get the sense that their day was true to them. While their ‘official’ nuptials took place in the edifying surrounds of historical Bath, their outdoor ceremony and marquee celebrations were set in the village Charli grew up in.

The couple’s decisions typify the quintessential natural English wedding: hay bales, locally sourced wildflowers and homemade bunting, and it really is lovely. Emma of Freckle Photography, one of our recommended suppliers, has captured the happiness of their day perfectly. Let’s chat to bride Charli to find out more…

Charlie

Laura and Jamie’s autumn village hall wedding with statement flower crown, emerald green bridesmaid dresses and a squirrel cake topper

Charlie

In nature, autumn is a blaze of vibrant colours and this week’s Real Wedding is all about those quintessential autumnal colours. Emerald green bridesmaid dresses, rusty orange leaves, plump purple blackberries, soft brown fur and deep red dahlias. This autumn village hall wedding is a feast for the senses too; the textures are intense with pheasant feathers, ears of wheat and berries adorning the dahlia bouquets, buttonholes and hair clips.

Captured by TNWC recommended photographer, Amy Taylor Imaging, Laura and Jamie’s autumn village hall wedding is the product of a whole community coming together and pitching in. The ceremony took place in her parent’s tiny local church and the celebrations unfolded in the village hall in which her youth clubs were hosted when she was a teenager.

We chat to bride Laura to find out more about the their special day…

Autumn village hall wedding

Samantha

Ciara and Matt’s relaxed outdoor wedding with vibrant red accents, handpicked florals and an amazing eclectic reception

Samantha

Relaxed outdoor wedding

Well our first real wedding of 2015 is an absolute scorcher, just like the beautiful weather that shone for the gorgeous outdoor wedding of Ciara and Matt, who had the first and only garden wedding at the beautiful Anglesey Abbey Gardens. The setting could not have been more perfect for their vibrant, relaxed day on 31st August. Taking inspiration from wedding blogs (including our very own pages) and Pinterest they created the ‘natural, summery, vintage, outdoorsy, chilled and informal’ wedding they dreamt of.

The day was beautifully captured in the most stunning wedding film by TNWC recommended suppliers Bright Star Films, and as Ciara explained choosing a videographer was a priority for them,

‘For us the video took precedence, and with the help of Sinead and Kieran at Bright Star Films, we are the proud owners of what we consider to be the best wedding video of all time! (we’re biased….of course!) Their video will forever be treasured by us both, and all of our family and friends!’

Wow! Now if that hasn’t bought a tear to your eye!

Read on to hear from bride Ciara about all the lovely details wrapped up in that gorgeous video with great images captured by some talented friends as well as stills from their wedding film by Bright Star Films.

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: Lisa’s pretty floral bridesmaid gifts and edible Welsh cake wedding favours

Charlie

We’re back with 2014 TNWC Real Bride Lisa with her final pre-wedding post on the gifts she made for her bridesmaid and their yummy edible wedding favours.

Over to Lisa to tell you more…

Bridesmaids gifts

This idea was unashamedly stolen from another lovely wedding blog called Lucy Says I Do – handmade floral dressing gowns. This looked so perfect that I really wanted it for myself and so set about copying it.

I felt this was the perfect bridesmaid gift and so choose each fabric to suite each of the bridesmaid’s personalities. With the help of my mother we spent one Sunday at our sewing machines stitching the dress gowns up.

Lauren

Beautiful handmade floaty dresses for little maids inspired by an English apple orchard from Damselfly Flower Girls

Lauren

We’ve got something pretty lovely to share with you all today. Whether you’re dreaming of a flock of petal-scattering mini maids (a la Kate Moss), have an extra special little lady in your life who will be waltzing down the aisle by your side, or you simply need cheering up, then you’ve come to the right place.

TNWC business Damselfly Flower Girls is run by creative mother/daughter team Faith and Naomi, who create gorgeous eco-chic flower girl dresses designed to complement your bridal gown.

As well as some beautiful pictures from their recent photoshoot, they’ve kindly sent us a super cute video – a sneak peak behind the scenes – that might just make your day, and bring to life how pretty these dresses are.

But first, over to Faith to tell you about how the gorgeous shoot location helped to inspire the design of the dresses…

An inspirational setting

The venue for the shoot was Walcott Hall in Shropshire, a truly special place that fits perfectly with the Damselfly aesthetic. The owners are talented curators of gorgeous things and have created an elegant but homely atmosphere that is grand but not over done.

We loved the faded chintz sofas, the ancient silk carpet hanging on the wall with its pattern worn by centuries of dancing feet, and the open fires that we lit to keep our models warm. We had the early 19th century ballroom to ourselves for the day and were in our element.

Charlie

A guide to making pretty floral dressing gowns as for gifts for your bridesmaids from Lucy Says I Do

Charlie

Can you imagine making your bridesmaids a beautiful floral dressing gown as a wedding gift to them? Personally my sewing skills don’t stretch that far, but if yours do then read on to find out how Lucy from Lucy Says I Do created them for her wedding in today’s guest post.

If you’re inspired by Lucy’s handmade wedding, then check out her other guest blog posts for us on her bridesmaids dresses, growing your own wedding flowers, her Edwardian wedding dress, and personalised wedding stationery.

Over to Lucy…

When we got married I wanted to give my bridesmaids something special, something they could keep, something personal to say thank you. Together with my mum’s help we made each of them their own dressing gown/robe that I gave them the evening before the wedding. It was a great surprise and they absolutely loved them!

First we bought a simple dressing gown pattern online (from here). Then when we knew how much fabric we needed for each dressing gown, we bought the fabric. I decided to make each one different, as a way of showing each bridesmaid’s different personality, so I spent a long time choosing the different fabrics. I bought the fabric from a variety of places: Shepherds Bush Market and the fabric shops on Goldhawk Road, Etsy, ebay and Liberty.

Charlie

Designing and creating bespoke bridesmaids dresses with an English Country Garden theme from Lucy Says I Do

Charlie

I’m delighted that the incredibly creative Lucy from Lucy Says I Do, a recommended TNWC supplier who designs beautiful wedding stationery, will be joining us for a series of guest blog posts whilst I’m off on maternity leave. Lucy had a stunning wedding that was featured on Love My Dress and she booked wedding photographer Mark Tattersall after seeing his photos of our wedding.

Lucy created so many lovely things for her wedding, that I’m really excited to share some of them here with you – I just know you’re going to be inspired. Love Charlie x

Over to Lucy…

I knew I wanted to make dresses that suited the wedding, so my thoughts were: English Country Garden, summery, fun, and natural. In addition to this I wanted the girls to feel really special when wearing them, so they needed to be high quality, feminine, soft and elegant.

My sister (one of my lovely bridesmaids) and I designed the bridesmaids’ dresses together. We decided to design the print as an English country garden story. When developing the design I created an ‘English Country Garden’ inspiration board to help focus my ideas for the print. Here’s my print inspiration board:

Taking different natural elements of the English Country Garden idea we developed the print to include lots of detail including: flowers, fruits and insects. I loved the way the print developed, and the way that every time you looked at it you’d notice something different. Including the little bumblebees! We made sure we incorporated botanical elements such as the strawberry plant, but we balanced this with soft painterly effect flowers to make sure the print maintained a softness, like that of wild flowers.

Here’s a sample piece of the print, how many different elements can you spot?

Charlie

Jodie and James’ epic weekend wedding full of feasting, festivities and handmade details

Charlie

Epic weekend wedding with handmade details

Today I have an incredible real wedding. It is utterly epic (I don’t use words like that often) and it’s not short on beautiful ideas and inspiration if that’s what you’re looking for. I’ve even broken it down into headings because there is so much to share with you!

Jodie and James got married on 15th September 2012 and spent the whole weekend celebrating with their family and friends. Jodie has kindly told me so much about their incredible weekend celebration, and I am sure that many of you brides-to-be will find lots of helpful snippets throughout from Jodie and James’ experience.

Without further ado, I’ll hand you over to the lovely Jodie to tell you all about their epic wedding weekend…

Charlie

Heavenly midsummer photoshoot in a field of cow parsley with pink rose flower crowns

Charlie

Today’s blog feature is just so pretty and I’m delighted to be able to share this series of photos from photographer Svetlana Batura (who you may recently remember from this gorgeous Lithuanian family farm wedding). I spied them on her blog and asked if I might share them, as I know there is a good following amongst you who love cow parsley as much as I do.

These images take me back to an imagined childhood and provide some nice inspiration for bridesmaids for a relaxed wedding – long skirts, pretty blouses, flowers in their hair and a bouquet of cow parsley. Bliss. Enjoy…

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