I hope you’ve all had a lovely weekend – it has been mixed weather in Cornwall and Devon with a lovely day on Saturday in Padstow, but rain on Sunday up on the north coast of Devon.

On Saturday I paid a visit as part of the TNWC South West Roadtrip to Rowan Tree Studio, a lovely business run by Sarah who offers a range of crafty hen parties, as well as making wedding soap favours.

The afternoon I arrived Sarah was just finishing off a hen party of eighteen, who had spent a fun afternoon making a bridal trousseau.  I hadn’t heard of a bridal trousseau, but thankfully Sarah told me more about it:

“Traditionally a bride to be started making her trousseau to take into her marriage often before she had a groom in mind.  Mothers and daughters collected special toys, cherished books and family recipes to keep in a trunk or case with monogrammed linens, patchwork quilts, stationary, soaps and much more.”

Rowan Tree Studio offer a trousseau making party for groups of hens, which includes a choice of craft activities, including embroidering napkins, making bath bombs or melts, candle making, creating a personalised recipe book, and making a small patchwork item that Sarah later sews into a larger quilt.

The hen party that Sarah had hosted, had done all of those activities – I particularly loved the embroidered napkins they’d created.  What a lovely idea to start married life with a hamper of goodies, made by you and your closest female friends and family members.

As well as the trousseau making party, Rowan Tree Studio offer hen parties doing just one craft activity, such as ‘lotions and potions’ making lovely smelly bath bombs, face creams and so on; making wedding bunting; creating a wedding quilt; and DIY wedding soap favours.  Sarah has a new hen party coming soon making crochet flowers and hearts.

As well as the hen parties, Rowan Tree Studio also create beautiful handmade soap wedding favours through their sister business The Clovelly Soap Company.  They are all handmade at their studio in Devon using natural ingredients, are hand cut, and then carefully wrapped in pretty papers and personalised labels.

You can even work with Sarah to have your own soap stamp with your initials – this is then used to imprint your initials into each of your wedding favour soaps.  What a fab idea!

Below is one of the wedding soap favours, a newly made initial stamp for a bride and groom, and an example of how the stamped soaps look…

I had a really lovely time looking around Rowan Tree Studio and seeing what the hen party had been up to.  Sarah looks after her hens providing them with tea and cake, and a warm and hospitable space to enjoy your party.

Her delightful daughter Rowan, five, whom the business is named after, showed me their lovely collection of vintage sewing machines – even one in which she can fit inside the cubbyhole in the sewing machine table!

A big thank you to Sarah and her daughter Rowan for welcoming to Rowan Tree Studio and for telling me more about their lovely business.

Where I’m Going Today…

So today is the final day of my TNWC South West Roadtrip!  Although I’m looking forward to getting back home, I feel sad to think this lovely adventure is over.

Today I have a busy day with three visits scheduled across three counties as I travel into Gloucestershire to spend a night at my family home.  I will be visiting Greens of Devon to get a little peek behind the scenes of one of my lovely edible flower businesses, Organic Blooms who run a social enterprise growing flowers for weddings, and finally Church Farm, a pretty looking meadow wedding venue in Wiltshire.

Remember you can follow along during the day via Twitter and Instagram, I’m using the hashtag #TNWCRoadtrip, and I hope to post a few pictures on Facebook at the end of the day.

Images: The Natural Wedding Company