I have had the pleasure of knowing Lizzie from Wedding Yurts for nearly five years now, and everything she creates is pure magic. When I heard she was putting on an Open Week in Herefordshire, I knew I want to visit, to see what delights she had been dreaming up, and to catch up (as best you can with a two and a half year old in tow).

I wasn’t disappointed. My little girl had a magical time running around this beautiful rural spot at Wye Valley Weddings and I soaked up the atmosphere inside Lizzie’s stunning yurts, with their wooden floors and rustic decorations.

As part of their Open Week, Lizzie had pulled together some incredible teams of suppliers to create so inspirational wedding shoots. One of those shoots was a Spring Eco Wedding Festival with a down-to-earth natural style, and featuring wedding suppliers who all weave an eco-friendly ethos into their business. I particular love the simple but striking table design with terracotta pots of herbs and those tiny chai bowls holding tealights.

Lizzie’s work is the kind of style I’d like to have at my own wedding or party, so I’m sure you’ll be as inspired as I am by today’s Spring Eco Wedding Festival shoot.

A Spring Eco Wedding Festival from Wedding Yurts

Stylish and sustainable, Wedding Yurts is a one-of-a-kind travelling wedding venue. Their handcrafted yurts, made from local, sustainable woodlands are lovingly made the old-fashioned way with hand tools and time-honoured techniques, they use natural cotton canvas and the yurts are finished with eco products. Lizzie, the owner of Wedding Yurts, is always keen to work with and promote like-minded environmentally conscious wedding suppliers, so she decided to create a Spring Eco Wedding Festival to showcase ethical and inspiring suppliers as part of Wedding Yurts Open Week.

Held this year at Wye Valley View Weddings, a brand new venue in the wilds of Herefordshire, Wedding Yurts prepared for the Open Week in a space that was made for natural weddings. Wye Valley View Weddings is most definitely a nature lover’s paradise with amazing views, rivers and streams that bubble through the countryside and acres of ancient woodlands.

Foraged apple and wild cherry blossom

Early May couldn’t have been kinder to the Wedding Yurts team and the carefully chosen suppliers. Christiane from The Honeysuckle Flower Co. foraged big bundles of apple and wild cherry blossom to decorate the yurts and created a simple and natural look for the outside picnic and dining areas.

Terracotta pots of fragrant herbs

Lizzie created seasonal tablescapes, with terracotta pots of sweet-smelling herbs used alongside potted plants to add scent and colour in the yurt.

Vintage wooden tables for feast style dining

Blue Wren Barn brought along their gigantic vintage wooden tables, they were perfect for creating feast style dining. The tables worked so well alongside Lizzie’s collection of antique glassware, vintage cutlery and hand carved wooden bowls. Blue Wren Barn loves simple, rustic pieces, and their carefully chosen collection, once described as a ‘calming ode to castoffs’ features hundreds of beautiful pieces with age-old charm.

Eco glampting tents

For additional accommodation, an ethical camping experience was provided by Love Lotus, an eco glamping tent hire company whose motto is ‘camp in comfort, tread with care.’ The tents themselves are filled with gorgeous up-cycled furniture and unique pieces made by artisan craftsmen and women.

You’re always warm and snug in a Love Lotus tent and all the soft furnishings are made using wonderfully eco-friendly fabrics such a hemp and bamboo. They also plant a tree for every tent that’s hire from them, helping with the carbon footprint left by guests travelling, so you can relax in every sense of the word.

Seasonal spring cocktails

Wedding Yurts are well known for their delicious seasonal cocktails, so for their Spring Eco Wedding Festival, Lizzie worked alongside the fantastic Toots Sweets, adding their boozy sorbets to locally produced vodka to create cooling spring cocktails.

Toots Sweets can bring ‘Beau,’ their rustic ice cream trike to events too, and this family business is all about using locally made, Fairtrade products and sustainable items. Cups and plastic glasses are 100% compostable and their pretty tubs for ice creams and sorbets are recyclable and made from pine shavings.

Green tea ice cream and edible flowers

For the Wedding Yurts Spring Eco Wedding Festival, Toots Sweets served a refreshing combination of green tea ice cream and Prosecco sorbet decorated with edible viola flowers.

Eco-chic wedding photography

Capturing the event was Katrina Bartlem, a wedding photographer who does everything she can to be nature-friendly. From using British companies for her albums and frame and sourcing gifts and products that are made by companies with strong eco values, to structuring her business to be as paperless as possible and planting a tree with the World Lane Trust for every couple that books her, Katrina truly lets her love of the outdoors influence her work in the very best ways possible.

Couples visiting the Wedding Yurts Open Week fell in love with the naturally beautiful setting; with the right team of suppliers it is absolutely possible to create a beautiful green wedding with a low impact on the environment but with long lasting memories.

If you’re on the hunt for a wedding photographer and love Katrina’s style, she has an exclusive 10% discount for our readers, full details here.

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Photographer: Captured by Katrina Photography (TNWC Recommended Supplier)
Venue: Wedding Yurts (TNWC Recommended Supplier) at Wye Valley View Weddings
Props & Styling: Lizzie Jones (Wedding Yurts)
Flowers: Honeysuckle Flower Co.
Vintage Tables: Blue Wren Barn
Glamping Tents: Love Lotus
Sorbets & Ice Cream: Toots Sweets