Eco-friendly wedding on a community farm

One of the best parts of my job is when an email pops into my inbox from a bride who has been inspired by ideas they’ve found here on my blog, and used some of the wonderful suppliers we feature in our directory.

Today’s bride, Harriet, sent me one such email shortly after I had my baby last autumn. She described her wedding to me and I fell in love with her commitment to creating her wedding with love, making many things by hand, and doing so all on a budget. It was so nice to hear she was inspired by my blog, and now I hope by sharing her wedding here you too can be inspired by her.

Over to Harriet…

Harriet and Paul got married on the last day of August at Riverbourne Community Farm in Salisbury, in a wedding full of handmade details and surrounded by their loved ones.

“We wanted a homemade, eco-friendly wedding. We didn’t have a huge budget as we were both students so I handmade most things and sourced lots of car boot sales, charity shops and recycled lots from friend’s weddings (such as bunting). 

The morning of their wedding, Harriet told me she felt “relieved to be finally getting married! I woke up early after a good nights sleep and got on with a few last minute jobs, but then I relaxed and got ready with my bridesmaids and mum.”

Harriet’s lace wedding dress was from Phase Eight: “I was a little surprised as I was set on getting a vintage dress, but I tried it on and fell in love with it. I tried on other dresses after but nothing fitted more perfectly, it didn’t even need fitting!”

In her hair, Harriet wore a beautiful flower crown from The Artisan Dried Flower Company, one of our great recommended suppliers on The Natural Wedding Company directory. “I love Etsy – my silk veil was from there and my rose engraved wedding ring too.”

Harriet’s four bridesmaids wore long flowing champagne coloured dresses: “I found them the most beautiful bolero’s, they were gold and beaded which matched my dress and they boys’ waistcoats. I am an artist myself so everything had to match!”

For her flowers, Harriet sourced masses of lavender from the New Forest Lavender Farm: “The lavender was for the bridesmaids bouquets and buttonholes, and partially integrated into my bouquet. It was also used for decoration. We dried it in our summerhouse for a couple of months! I strongly wanted seasonal flowers to keep with the eco-friendly theme of the day.”

Harriet’s bouquet was a mixture of white hydrangea and roses along with dried lavender and ears of wheat. A beautiful mix of English garden and country field don’t you think…

Paul wore a dark brown, vintage style suit with a matt gold waistcoat and sage green cravat. Harriet made his and his ushers buttonholes from white roses, lavender and twine.

Harriet and Paul got married at their home church, St Paul’s in Salisbury: “This church has a massive place in our hearts.”

“My mum used to dig up old bottles from the ground, we found them in the loft and filled them with seasonal flowers. I had wicker hearts along the aisle and the church did the most beautiful flowers according to our colour scheme.”

“We made our order of service handouts together using old music manuscript.”

“I was really nervous in the car with my dad, but when I saw Paul, I relaxed, I dare not look at anyone else or I would have lost my nerve.”

As Christians, the church ceremony was very important to Harriet and Paul. “My old youth worker John did the sermon and we had verses read out related to the sermon, the verses are ones we have taken forward into our marriage, Colossians 3 verses 12 – 17. We also took time choosing hymns together and our friends prayed over us during the service.”

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

After the ceremony, there was tea and cake for their guests at the back of the church, while Harriet and Paul took some time just the two of them: “Paul and I went off to have our photos taken at the place Paul proposed to me called Broken Bridge.”

For her, these were some of Harriet’s favourite moments of the day: “Saying our vows, and when we left the church for our photographs, it was the first moment we had alone and it was so special.”

In the evening, there was a hog roast, cooked and served by family friends, at Riverbourne Community Farm: “Our venue for the reception was at a community farm who had never hosted a wedding like this and want to use our wedding as a feature to advertise to other couples. They compost toilets, lots of straw bales for kids to climb on. They were also opportunities to feed the donkeys and pigs.”

Harriet made lots of handmade details to decorate their reception venue: “I made music paper bunting for the barn and doily bunting for the marquee.”

“I also made place names, a seating plan, and ‘forget-me-not’ seed bombs. It was a little stressful making the details, but as I am an artist, making and presentation is my thing, I enjoyed it and put a lot of thought into it.”

Harriet’s sister Maddie made their wedding cake: “It was a lavender sponge with raspberry jam! She rough iced it and decorated it with lavender and our cake topper from The Artisan Dried Flower Company.”

In the evening they had barn dancing, Harriet told me: “This was the most fun we have had with all our friends, I highly recommend it though my feet killed after!”

Photographer and family friend Phil Evans captured their day: “He was perfect, it was like he wasn’t there most of the time, we were able to be totally natural and so were our guests! Phil is a family friend and an awarded photographer, winning wedding photographer of the year 2010.”

It’s lovely to hear from Harriet that her first source of inspiration for her wedding was The Natural Wedding Company, alongside Etsy, Pinterest and arty magazines she found at University. “I had so much fun planning the wedding and even used ideas I had found on The Natural Wedding Company blog such as flower seed bombs and hiring vintage crockery, which was pure genius!”

I always ask what couples got up to for their honeymoon (I think I’m just nosey!), and I loved what Harriet and Paul did: “We went to Biarritz, it was kind of spontaneous, we didn’t want to travel very far, we camped in a yurt for 10 days, it was the best time ever, it was so secluded and private.”

A huge thanks to Harriet and Paul for letting me share their wedding day with you, and to their photographer Phil Evans.

{ Details }

Photography: Phil Evans Photography
Venue: Riverbourne Community Farm, Salisbury
Wedding Dress: Phase Eight
Flower Crown: The Artisan Dried Flower Company (recommended supplier of The Natural Wedding Company)
Lavender: New Forest Lavender Farm
Cake Topper: The Artisan Dried Flower Company (recommended supplier of The Natural Wedding Company)