Blog

Samantha

A Day in the Life of The Real Cut Flower Garden: behind the scenes of Floristry on the Wild side workshop

Samantha

I think it’s always wonderful to go ‘behind the scenes’ and find out more about the brilliant independent wedding businesses from our directory. Today we get the opportunity to get to know the ever so talented Charlie Ryrie of The Real Cut Flower Garden.

Charlie, in our eyes, is one of the original champions of British grown flowers for weddings, and we have always admired the magic she creates with her seasonal country garden grown flowers. As well as creating wedding flowers, Charlie runs creative floral workshops to share her expertise. Hosted in a wonderful old barn at New House Farm and artisan studios in Broadoak near Bridport in West Dorset. Today’s ‘Day in the Life’ feature showcases her`Floristry on the Wild side’ workshop.

The workshop was beautifully captured by Liz Baker photography, who specialises in luxury wedding photography, brand editorials, and feminine portraiture. To provide the accompanying words with the lovely images we will hand you over to Charlie herself to tell you a bit more about the workshops and the story behind her business…

Charlie

A Day in the Life of Bride and Bloom: crafting wedding flowers from Worcestershire fields to beautiful seasonal bouquets

Charlie

I am always so delighted when our flower farmers get in touch to say they have a set of A Day in the Life photos to share with our readers. Bride and Bloom are one of our newest additions to our eco wedding directory, and whilst I do get to visit a number of our recommended suppliers, it’s always nice to find out more in these kind of features.

You can see ‘behind the scenes’ with a number of our other flower farmers by visiting our A Day in the Life archives, or for similar posts check out our Meet the Maker series. What I particularly love about today’s feature, is that fellow mum and flower farmer Hannah, had her little girl along to help her pick flowers for the wedding.

What’s also special about this feature, is that at the end of the post we’ve shared photos from the wedding that Hannah of Bride and Bloom was working on in her A Day in the Life. Over to Hannah to share her day in the life at Bride and Bloom…

Charlie

A Day in the Life … Blue Poppy: a visit to their coastal cutting garden in Scotland with wildflower meadows in the height of summer

Charlie

Over the years of working in the wedding industry, I have come to realise that some of my favourite parts are the ‘behind the scenes’, the true getting to know the people behind a business, and this is what we hope to do with this series called A Day In The Life. Today we are up in Scotland with Cath from Blue Poppy, reminiscing about those hot summer days when the flower beds are bursting with colour.

If you’d like to see behind the scenes on some of our other recommended suppliers, then do check out the full A Day In The Life series so far, which includes fellow flower farmer florists Tammy from Wild Bunch, Natalya and Fiona from PYRUS, and Becca and Maz from The Garden Gate Flower Company.

So it’s over to Catherine to share her day in the life at Blue Poppy…

A coastal cutting garden

Last August, at the height of summer, the fantastic Chris and Gillian from The Curries came to document an afternoon with us. Looking back over the winter, we had time to reflect on what Chris and Gillian – seeing the garden for the first time – were able to capture.

Blue Poppy is myself, Catherine (florist), my mum Ann (gardener) and Frida (our old Jack Russell who patrols the garden and scares off anything likely to nibble seedlings). We run a florist farmer business from a small holding on the east coast of Scotland.

Charlie

A Day in the Life … Wild Bunch: living and learning the joy of flowers on a beautiful farm on the Herefordshire Welsh borders

Charlie

I was so thrilled when Tammy from Wild Bunch got in touch keen to do ‘A Day in the Life’ blog post having read the ones written by Pyrus and The Garden Gate Flower Company (I’d recommend you go read them too!). She got photographer Nic Rue (who also captured Pyrus’ beautiful garden and studio) to come to her little piece of flower paradise on the Herefordshire / Shropshire border.

The photos are gorgeous, the words are beautiful, and the flowers…well the flowers are stunning! Need I say more…

Over to Tammy…

Entering the second year of my little cut flower business I was searching for a point of reflection on where I was at with my new found work and passion. And when I came across the beautiful work of the photographer Nic Rue, I tentatively asked if she would be interested in working with me to document my garden and flowers.

It was a big step for me asking a photographer into my little world, but Nic was inspirational and really helped me see and think about my garden and flowers with new eyes.

Izzy

A Day in the Life … For The Love Of Vintage: styling an English Summer Fete wedding in the Lake District

Izzy

Today we have a lovely guest post from Sharon who runs a vintage crockery company For The Love Of Vintage. For our ‘A Day in the Life’ feature Sharon is taking us along to find out what it’s like to be involved with one particular summer Lake District wedding.

Over to Sharon…

Apart from my life long obsession with crockery and getting to play tea parties every day, the two things I love most about my job are the variety (as no two vintage weddings are ever the same) and the people I meet.

I have styled weddings in all sorts of venues but was especially excited when Kimberly and Tim contacted me to discuss their big day. We met over a year before the wedding, eating cake, drinking tea and talking about the wonderfully creative ideas they had and our mutual love of Cocker Spaniels!

One of the things I loved most about the ideas for the day was Kimberley and Tim’s determination to use artisan crafts people, local suppliers and really bring their treasured Lake District as a theme into the whole day. I just knew from the start this was going to be a very special wedding.

After a year of planning and preparation July 6th was almost upon us. It’s hard to squeeze an event like this into just one day but here is my story of a perfect wedding day!

Charlie

A Day in the Life … Pyrus: growing seasonal and organic wedding blooms in a Scottish walled garden

Charlie

I am so thrilled to be back with this ‘A Day in the Life’ feature on the blog. Embarrassingly it’s been over a year since I did my first one (have a read here) but I do hope that I can bring it as a more regular feature. The idea behind it is to give you a peek into the lives of some of the fab wedding businesses that you can find on our directory.

Today I’m handing the blog over to Natalya and Fiona who are the dynamic and creative duo behind Pyrus, flower farmers growing seasonal and organic blooms from their walled garden near Edinburgh and weaving them into the most fantastic floral arrangements.

Over to Natalya and Fiona…

Earlier this year we invited the wonderful photographer Nic Rue to spend the day at the Pyrus flower garden and studio outside Edinburgh, documenting us as we prepared for a late summer wedding.

We first met Nic when she came to one of our flower classes with friends and knew we wanted to work with her on a project. We were nervous about opening our doors to be photographed but we needn’t have worried, in fact it was a pleasure to share our studio with her for the day. She brought a plethora of cameras in her kit bag and the results are a combination of digital and film shots which captured the Colstoun estate we are based on beautifully.

Charlie

A Day in the Life … The Garden Gate Flower Company: heavenly Cornish meadow bouquets amidst the mud and farm life

Charlie

I don’t know about you, but when I was planning our wedding I really liked to meet the people behind the business and to get to know them and how they run their company. Don’t you find there are so many gigantic corporations keen to sell us things we don’t really need, whether it be for our wedding or just everyday life. For me I find it a breath of fresh air to meet small businesses who are creating quality products and services.

I’m always curious to find out who they are, why they run their business, how it came about and what it entails – whether it be creating a stunning wedding cake, growing flowers for a wedding, running a unique and personal wedding venue, or handmaking those beautiful details. In a world so dominated by the internet, I want to help you get to know some of the businesses who feature on The Natural Wedding Company directory.

So I’m going to try out a new series on the blog, a kind of ‘day in the life’ where you can find out more about some of the companies on The Natural Wedding Company directory and how they grow, make, and run their businesses. If you have any feedback on this idea (i.e. is it any good?) then please let me know in a comment below, your thoughts really help direct what I bring you on the blog.

Charlie

Favourite Special Wedding Moments: including a breastfeeding bride and the bride who cut up her wedding dress on the day

Charlie

This is the final part of our mini series on featuring our Real Wedding Favourites. If you haven’t viewed the other six parts, you can find them all here, or individual links at the bottom of this post.

Today we are going to round up this series with our Favourite Special Wedding Moments. These are particular moments from the real weddings we’ve featured that really stuck in our minds. Tender moments, a detail that made us feel a bit teary, and even a moment that we found quite scary!

Groom Washes the Brides Feet during their Wedding Ceremony

It’s always lovely to see how couples choose to personalise their wedding ceremony, and this was one of the most tender and intimate moments that we’ve featured. As part of their outdoor wedding ceremony in the French countryside, groom Benjamin washed bride Mariette’s feet as a symbol of his commitment to her.

I imagine it’s not the kind of act that every couple would choose to incorporate into their wedding ceremony. But I love the symbolism, and the moment of quiet and calm that I imagine it would bring to your wedding ceremony. A great reminder to personalise your ceremony and do it your own way.

This beautiful moment was from Mariette and Benjamin’s natural French countryside wedding. Photography by David Blair Photography.

Awesome Breastfeeding Bride

Both Samantha and I have become mums in the past few years, so these images of bride Elena breastfeeding her daughter during her wedding really stand out for me. Elena chose a wedding dress that she would be able to breastfeed her young daughter in and photographer Emma Stoner captured these precious images of the two of them.

A great reminder that your wedding day and wedding dress shouldn’t restrict your personal circumstances, whatever they might be. Make them work for you.

Read the full story at Elena and Simon’s colourful handmade wedding. Photography by Emma Stoner Photography.

Izzy

Hayley and Iain’s rustic and romantic wedding in the country with hessian, lace and daisies for an intimate feel to the day

Izzy

Romantic wedding in the country

I took a look back through the Real Weddings we’ve featured on the blog, and it’s been months and months since we last featured one. In other words, it’s been too long – I know how much wonderful inspiration and ideas that other couples’ weddings provide, and we have lots of pretty ones lined up for you.

Today we have the romantic, rustic country wedding of Hayley and Iain who got married in Cheshire this past September which was sent to me by Christopher Ian Photography, one of the great photographers on our directory. Over to Hayley to share with you the details of their beautiful day…

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: Nik’s been busy on the farm doing DIY projects with only a few weeks until her wedding day

Charlie

Just like TNWC Real Bride Emma last week, Nik has only a few weeks to go until her wedding. Her and Mr-to-be Chris have been busy over the past few months with lots of DIY projects for their coastal farm wedding in Wales, and nothing has changed for this creative duo in these final few weeks before their big day.

Today Nik’s got a fab round-up of what they’ve been up to recently, including a lovely reveal of their beautifully restored VW Beetle, making a wedding swing, and some ‘before’ pictures of the barn that will host their wedding reception.

Over to Nik…

The farm is abuzz with life at the moment – not only have the flowers and trees begun to burst forth with summer colour to brighten the place up, but we too are frantically whizzing around doing odd jobs, trimming and pruning, clearing and tidying and generally making preparations for our wedding day on the 11th July.

There’s been so much going on it’s impossible for me to pick just one topic to write about this month, so I thought I’d share a few of the projects we’ve been getting on with.

Reg Returns!

One of the most exciting parts of our wedding day is the fact that Reginald, our vintage VW Beetle, gets to act as wedding car.

Chris has owned him for over 10 years (longer than he’s known me!). One of my earliest memories of Chris is seeing him get out of Reg in a car park and thinking ‘ooh, nice car…hang on… nice owner!’ Unfortunately, when we first got engaged, Reg was rather looking his age after a few years in a damp garage and was in desperate need of a Gok Wan style makeover.

We sent him off to the paint shop for some TLC and he has come back looking pretty fabulous indeed!

I’m so looking forward to cruising down the winding lanes towards the sea after our ceremony, with tin cans rattling behind us and our ‘Just Married’ sign in the window!

Seasonal wedding ideas:

Spring

Summer

Autumn

Winter

DIY + Inspiration

Real Weddings

Suppliers + Products

Browse the blog:

Planning

Advertise

Get your eco wedding business listed on our directory