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Our 2017 Eco Valentine’s Day Gift Guide 

Samantha and I are sharing our favourite finds for a possible Eco Valentine’s Day gift for your loved one – women, men, and even a gift from your little ones. We’ve stuck to all UK based businesses and artisans, most of them small independent businesses. You’ll also find we’ve tried to include ideas across a span of costs, with only one true ‘blow the budget’ gift.

In putting together this guide we discovered that neither of us celebrate Valentine’s Day in a big way. I’m sure lots of people choose to celebrate their love and gratitude towards each other on a daily basis. But for those who are looking to give something special or just a token of their love, here are some ideas.

Personalised Valentine’s Biscuits

The Kitsch Hen is run by a former TNWC Real Bride, Caroline (part one + part two of her wedding is not to be missed). Her iced biscuits are homemade from locally sourced ingredients, and all handstamped. We love this option because it can be personalised to a meaningful message – lyrics from ‘your’ song, a love quote from your favourite novel, or just a simple ‘I Love You’. A scrumptious Eco Valentine’s Day gift.

£12 for 6 personalised biscuits – Buy them here

You Are My Favourite Valentine’s Day Card

Our friend Lucy Says I Do always has a fab offering of Valentine’s Day cards, and we love this design. Short and sweet, perfect for anyone not wanting to give an overly mushy card full of text. Printed onto FSC approved card and with a brown kraft envelope it’s a great card for the eco-chic.

£3.25 – Buy it here

Fairtrade Gold Heart Ruby Ring

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Our 2016 Eco Christmas Gift Guide

It’s December and we want to help you with your gift searching with our eco Christmas gift guide. Samantha and I have been scouring the internet to bring you our favourite eco-chic finds – from gifts to decorations to wrapping.

You might think ‘not another Christmas gift guide’ but we promise ours is a bit special because all the items we’ve chosen have eco credentials, all come from UK based businesses (many of them small independent businesses), and we’ve kept the majority of items affordable with a few luxuries thrown in.

The items in our eco Christmas gift guide are handpicked by us because we feel they are truly worth sharing – they are not just what’s ‘on trend’ or cool this year. We’ve also included direct links to where you can buy the items to make it even simpler. So go dive in and support our ethical British businesses.

If you love a more rustic and natural Christmas style, then check out all blog archives for natural Christmas decorating ideas and DIY projects – my personal favourite being the DIY guide for making snowflakes from vintage doilies.

Decorations for an Eco Christmas

First up in our eco Christmas gift guide – our favourite eco Christmas finds for decorating your home…

Snowflake Garland from Paper Tree

This pretty paper snowflake garland is a super version of those handmade paper ones you (attempt) to make. Plus, these 14 handcrafted snowflakes unfold to create a 3D effect.

£7.50 – Buy it here

Eco Credentials – Made from recycled and FSC paper; Paper Tree are members of 1% for the Planet and give 1% of our sales to environmental organisations.

Beeswax Christmas Tree Candles from Gold&Black Candles

Beeswax is the ultimate candle and with it’s gorgeous gold colour couldn’t be more glorious at this festive time. Made by hand from 100% pure beewax the set of 3 Christmas Tree candles urn for approximately 8 hours each.

£20 (set of 3) – Buy it here

Eco Credentials – natural beeswax; gift box from recycled board and paper covering from sustainable forests.

Mistletoe Wreath from Paper Tree

A beautiful hand crafted paper mistletoe wreath with raffia hanging string and ribbon. The mistletoe is hand crafted from eco-friendly saa paper – we love this.

£25.95 – Buy it here

Eco Credentials – Made from recycled and FSC paper; Paper Tree are members of 1% for the Planet and give 1% of their sales to environmental organisations.

Rustic Driftwood Christmas Tree Decorations from Emma Lane Designs

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What a treat we have for you today – free printable Christmas gift tags exclusively created for our readers by a selection of  our talented wedding stationery designers. Themed around ‘A Natural Christmas’ each design captures the individual style of the designer, and there are various sheets for you to download and print off.

We’ve come up with some various idea of how you might choose to use these beautiful Christmas gift tags – whether printed out onto recycled card and cut out as traditional gift tags, or perhaps you’d prefer to print them off on sticker paper and simple stick them onto your wrapped gifts.

Speaking of gifts, check out the blog this weekend for our special eco-chic Christmas Gift Guide.

Download your free mixed Christmas gift tags

First up we have a sheet of each of the 6 designs of Christmas gift tags.

Download the mixed sheet of Christmas gift tag designs

Here’s what the sheet looks like printed out…

Next up we have created individual sheets of each of the 6 designs of Christmas gift tags, so if there’s one design you really love, you can print out a sheet of just that design.

Download our Christmas gift tag and meet the designers

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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.

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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!

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Another lovely treat for you on the blog today from guest blogger Lucy of Lucy Says I Do – especially for all of you who share my love of the Edwardian era when it comes to weddings.  If you’re a regular blog reader you’ve probably already read Lucy’s previous guest posts on her bridesmaids dresses and growing your own wedding flowers, which are full of inspiration.  

Today Lucy is sharing the story of how she came to choose her stunning Edwardian wedding dress – I’m just a little bit jealous!  Who else is?  If you have the budget to have a wedding dress made for you, then I hope you’ll be inspired by Lucy’s story.  Love Charlie x

Over to Lucy…

Notoriously fussy when it comes to clothes, I imagined the search for my wedding dress was going to be difficult and long, and I was a little apprehensive, as were my mum and my sister! When I booked my first dress appointments I knew what I didn’t want, but I was yet to see anything (in magazines or online) that I could see myself in on my wedding day.

My first appointment was at Jane Bourvis’s Atelier, and that’s where my wedding dress story ends, short but oh so sweet!  As soon as I walked in, I knew we’d found something very special.

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We’re back today with the lovely Lucy from Lucy Says I Do, who is sharing with us some of the wonderful DIY projects from her own country wedding.  If you missed her first guest blog on designing and creating her bridesmaids dresses, do check it out here. Over to Lucy…

We wanted to embrace the location of the wedding and play with the English Country Garden idea.  I love flowers and plants that are found in wild flower meadows and old walled gardens, and I wanted to incorporate these into our wedding.  We were also heavily inspired by the wonderful Petersham Nurseries, and their beautiful plants and flowers.

We decorated the area outside of the marquee with a multitude of plants and flowers, many of which we grew from seedlings specifically for the wedding.  We decided on the plants and flowers we wanted, and made sure they were likely to be flowering or at least alive at the time of the wedding and set to work planting and potting them up.

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