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Nikki and Ben’s rustic Pimhill Barn wedding with a pastel dahlia bouquet, hessian jam jar lanterns and gypsophila buttonholes

Charlie

This week’s Real Wedding is delicately rustic, pretty and full of pastel florals and sprigs of gypsophila. Set on a beautifully sunny July day at Pimhill Barn in the fields of rural Shropshire, Nikki and Ben focused their plans around their extraordinary venue. They chose handmade signage and cut log decor to complement the 16th Century vaulted ceilings of the barn.

Nikki and Ben decided upon Amy Taylor Imaging Photography to capture the best day of their lives, a photographer from our eco wedding directory whose photographs we always enjoy. You can see other weddings from photographer Amy that we’ve featured here.

Bride Nikki caught up with us to give us the inside knowledge on the couple’s planning and ideas for their rustic Pimhill Barn wedding…

Charlie

Claire and James’ rustic Easter wedding in the Cotswolds with an egg hunt for the kids and lots of homemade details

Charlie

Rustic Easter wedding

What could be more appropriate for this week than a pretty homemade wedding held on Easter Sunday complete with spring flowers and an Easter egg hunt? I hope you agree, so I am delighted to be able to share Claire and James’ beautiful wedding which has all those elements.

Over to Claire…

“As we’d chosen to have a spring Easter wedding in a barn in the beautiful Cotswolds, we decided that a rustic Easter country themed wedding was for us – nice and relaxed with lots of fun.

April has always been a favourite month of ours and Easter a family favourite time growing up. As all our family and friends would have to travel, we decided to give them the opportunity to have a mini break to the Cotswolds and an Easter egg hunt sealed the deal!”

“I’m slightly embarrassed to admit this – but I started planning my wedding day (probably like others) years and years ago! James (Jim) and I had been together 12 years when we got married so he gave me plenty of time to start a scrapbook (no Pinterest back then!). Some of the thoughts I’d had never changed and made it to being part of the day – particularly the theme.”

“Our day was rustic country and Easter themed, bursting with creative touches, many of which we’d made ourselves. There were handmade clay birds, beautiful flowers, tree slices, bales of hay, milk churns, birch tealight holders, homemade chutney, chalkboard signposts, handmade stationery and printed linen, planted wellies, rusty letters, old French crates, Easter photo props, a lucky dip and chocolate eggs galore!”

“There is so much inspiration out there, but mostly we felt inspired to create a day that reflected our love for nature and relaxed natural style.”

Charlie

Crochet lace jam jar hangers to create soft twinkling lanterns

Charlie

I’m sure at some point someone will declare jam jars and their many uses at weddings “so last year” in fact, they probably already have. At any rate, I don’t care – there is something wonderfully simple and pleasing about a jam jar filled with flowers from your garden, or flickering as a lantern in the evening with a tealight – whether it’s at your wedding or in your home. Especially knowing that in a previous life it contained jam, honey, chutney or some other condiment.

Charlie

A simple way to decorate your wedding reception tables with jars of seasonal flowers and cake stand arrangements

Charlie

Apologies for the rather brief (and belated) blog post this morning – I’ve been having rabbit crisis at home with my littlest bunny not very well, so back and forth to the vets. That being said, I wanted to bring you some inspiration and I’ve chosen this picture about as a beautiful example of why you don’t need to go over-the-top decorating your reception tables.

Sometimes you see these incredibly luxurious wedding reception tables, where there are flowers simply overflowing and you can barely see the tables for all the decorations, crockery, and wedding favours. I must admit that having beautiful wooden tables, like they do above, does make decorating more simply much easier – I doubt there’s many of us who would want to leave plastic trestles uncovered.

Charlie

Mariette and Benjamin’s natural French countryside wedding ~ part two

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Natural French countryside wedding (part two)

If you missed part one of Mariette and Benjamin’s natural French countryside wedding yesterday, get over there now and immerse yourself in an utterly gorgeous wedding. Today it’s the second part with some gorgeous photos in woodland and around the stone villa, and their fun reception and rustic decorations.

>> View Mariette and Benjamin’s natural French countryside wedding (part one) here <<

What a happy looking couple – and those gorgeous lace sleeves and floral headband. Everything is just so fitting about this wedding, nothing seems out of place or contrived – just simple, natural and beautiful.

It always helps to have a beautiful rustic backdrop to create romantic wedding photographs, like an old French villa with mint green shutters and a rambling rose (oh France how I miss you!)…

Charlie

Mariette and Benjamin’s natural French countryside wedding ~ part one

Charlie

Natural French countryside wedding (part one)

It goes without saying this might possibly be one of my favourite weddings ever. Shot by American photographer David Blair, this oh-so-pretty wedding of Mariette and Benjamin took place at a family-owned, rustic stone villa in the French countryside.

>> View Mariette and Benjamin’s natural French countryside wedding (part two) here <<

If you’re regular readers of the blog, it won’t come as any surprise that the brides dress is one of my absolute favourites – I’m not sure I’ve seen many more that I think are more exquisite. I even told Nick that I might have swapped my own wedding dress for it – he was shocked!

I love the delicate lace sleeves and the way the front is loosely draped and edged with more lace. I love the ribbon sash around the waist that is fastened in a bow at the back and the way the skirt falls simply to the floor – the lace hem full of dainty detailing. It seems quite Edwardian inspired – one of my favourite eras for wedding dress inspiration.

Charlie

Homemade jam jar lanterns – a ‘how to’

Charlie

We have spent the last few weekends making jam jar lanterns for our wedding. I have had friends and colleagues at work saving all their jars for us, Mr Rigg has been busy soaking off all the labels and together we have been attaching wire to make handles.

They are so simple to make, just time consuming! Especially attaching the wire. They’re not particularly beautiful, the wire is a bit twisted, but I love the handmade look of them, all that glass and silver wire, and the fantastic shapes and sizes of the jars.

Charlie

Making wedding jam

Charlie

I realise that I haven’t spoken much on the blog about my own wedding planning. I’m quite a private person when it comes to my own wedding and I seem to change my mind about things so often that it’s hard to say ‘this is what we’re doing’.

But last weekend, with autumn approaching, Mr Rigg and I went to a local farm to pick autumn raspberries to make into jam. One thing we’re almost certain about is that we want to incorporate an afternoon tea into our wedding day.

This is for a number of reasons:

1) A large part of my childhood was spent at my grandparents house in Devon. Many of my memories are eating homemade scones, with granny’s jam and clotted cream from a family farm up the road.

2) I have a friend who makes the best teeny tiny scones and who is prepared to make enough for our guests.

3) I love the Englishness of it and the connections I have with it.

4) And who doesn’t love scones with clotted cream and jam?

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.

Charlie

Mel and Ben’s English country barn wedding with cottage garden flowers and handmade wedding details

Charlie

We have a beautiful English country barn wedding for you from TNWC recommended photographers Warren & Carmen Photography. Mel and Ben chose to keep their day simple and classic, sourcing as many of their suppliers close to their wedding venue alongside some handmade projects.

Over to bride Mel to tell us all about it…

English country barn wedding

Both of us just wanted a laid back feel to the wedding without any particular theme. We really liked barn weddings and simple weddings without too much formality. We also knew that we wanted to put a lot of what we enjoy in to the wedding and hoped that our guests would enjoy the personal touches.

Music was therefore really important and we spent hours agonising over the playlist. We also really wanted to embrace the area where the wedding was located so we tried to incorporate all things local such as the food and drink, flowers etc.

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