DIY + Inspiration Archives - Page 13 of 19 - The Natural Wedding Company

Blog: DIY + Inspiration

Charlie

Rustic shabby chic wedding stationery with brown card, lace and luggage tags

Charlie

Some of my favourite emails are from you lovely readers, sending me pictures of your wedding stationery that has been inspired by my own wedding invitations or save the dates. Today I get to share with you Hollie’s wedding stationery, which was also inspired by ours, with a few tweaks and her own stamp on it.

She combined our two ideas, turning her wedding invitations into a larger version of our sealed save the dates. I love this idea, I can imagine it would be lovely to receive one of these in the post and to unfold it.

Charlie

Inspiration for a spring wedding menu featuring foraged wild leaves and edible flowers

Charlie

Sometimes emails land in your inbox that totally inspire you, I had one such email last week from Sarah at Eat My Flowers with her ideas for floral inspired menu. Immediately I was dreaming up a spring wedding picnic based on her menu ideas and thought that you all might like to be inspired as well.

Why not serve your wedding guests a slightly different take on the English afternoon tea, starting with dainty sandwiches filled with organic free range egg and wild hedgerow leaves. Almost too pretty to eat!

Sarah suggests “Swap one layer of the free range egg mayonnaise with a selection of wild leaves such as sorrel and hedge mustard, and edible flowers such wild rocket, violas and mustard. The peppery leaves and flowers make a novel alternative to cress.”

Charlie

New Wives Club #6: how to grow your own cut flowers – equipment and how to grow

Charlie

Last week on the New Wives Club we started this two part feature on how to grow cut flowers by looking at what to grow. If you missed the part one, make sure you catch up by reading ‘how to grow your own cut flowers – what to grow’ first.

Today I have the concluding part of this lovely feature by Chloe from BareBlooms, looking at the equipment you need and a step-by-step guide on how to grow your chosen flowers. You’ll also find some top tips from Chloe at the bottom of the post, along with a glossary like we included in part one. So without further ado I hand you over to Chloe…

Equipment

There is a lot of choice out there (seed trays, modules, pots etc) but as a lover of thrift I’m going to concentrate on the budget options. I like to sow larger seeds into Jiffy 7s – these are little dehydrated compost pellets – and the advantage of these is that you don’t need to buy bags of seed compost, which is handy if you’re short of space. For those who are environmentally-minded you can get peat-free ones made from coir.

Charlie

A spring open day and photoshoot to celebrate the new cathedral size wedding yurt from Hooe’s Yurts

Charlie

The Easter weekend saw a fabulous open day hosted by Hooe’s Yurts in deepest, most beautiful Devon. They were celebrating the completion of their huge new 44ft yurt – a cathedral sized structure that can seat 120 wedding guests, or even linked to smaller yurts to create an even bigger space.

Charlie

New Wives Club #5: how to grow your own cut flowers – what to grow

Charlie

The idea of growing your own cut flowers seems to be popular at the moment, with many of us dreaming of a small patch of ground dedicated to our own supply of pretty blooms that we can raid to decorate ours homes. The most difficult part, I find, is translating that dream into a reality.

In a bid to get myself a small patch of cut flowers, and to encourage and help you to as well, I’ve enlisted the help of Chloe from BareBlooms to share some of her tips on how to start your own cutting garden. Chloe grows many of her own flowers for her business BareBlooms, which provides beautiful seasonal flowers for weddings, you may well have seen some of her work when I featured Rhiannon’s wild September bouquet on the blog.

Charlie

A spring birthday party to celebrate five years of The Natural Wedding Company

Charlie

It is with great pleasure that I get to share with you the photographs from The Natural Wedding Company’s 5th birthday party that took place recently. I’m not really sure where to start, so I’m just going to dive in and hope it all makes sense!

March saw the website’s 5th anniversary of when I first launched it, so I knew a few celebrations were in order. As well as lots of exclusive offers and competitions on the blog, most excitingly, a party was dreamt up.

I wanted a party with a group of likeminded girls, some recently married, others still planning their wedding, so I opened up the invites to my wonderful readers. My guests were chosen, invitations sent out, and on Sunday 15th April, my husband and I welcomed 11 of my lovely readers into my home for, what I hoped would be a fun afternoon of crafts, cake and wedding chatter.

Charlie

Make your own natural spring wreath by finding inspiration in the hedgerows

Charlie

Regular readers will know that on Sunday it was the TNWC 5th birthday party, which was held at my house with 11 lovely guests – all readers of the website and blog. I made a number of items for the party, which I hope to share with you, but to start with I wanted to share this natural hedgerow wreath I created. All the photos are taken on my phone so nothing fancy!

My hedgerow wreath was created using hawthorn cuttings, mostly green ones, but I managed to find a few with the pretty white blossom already out. Before I go any further I must say I wouldn’t recommend you to use hawthorn, even though it is so beautiful and so seasonal at the moment. Why? Because it droops incredibly quickly – more on that below.

Charlie

DIY tutorial to create your own wedding pomander ball using herbs and seasonal flowers from Jay Archer Floral Deisgn

Charlie

I’ve got some lovely blog posts lined up for you, from real weddings to creative ‘how to’ guides – and today I’ve got a fantastic DIY tutorial created especially for you by Jay of Jay Archer Floral Design. Jay has created this beautiful floral pomander ball using homegrown muscari and garden herbs, along side pretty white ranunculus.

So here’s over to Jay:

The pomander ball has been traditionally carried by flower girls and bridesmaids. However, a bride may also carry a pomander ball as a modern replacement to a traditional bouquet. Making your own pomander ball is really quite easy. Maybe spend an afternoon practising one with your Mum, friends and bridesmaids over a glass of vino or cup of char.

You could make a pomander from almost any flower; hydrangea florets, spray roses & rose buds and dahlia are just some examples. I would opt for smaller, more rounded flowers to give a better shape.

Charlie

A jug of English grown white tulips and branches of delicate blossom for a pretty spring wedding

Charlie

It is lovely to be able to share some inspiration from one of the businesses listed on The Natural Wedding Company directory this afternoon. This beautiful spring arrangement of white tulips and branches of blossom was put together by the lovely Green and Gorgeous, and I think just captures this time of year.

If I was getting married now, I would have jugs of these white tulips and blossom everywhere – such a simple combination but artfully arranged by Green and Gorgeous – and all seasonal and English grown, can you really get any better than that?

Charlie

New Wives Club #4: how to make your own vintage teacup bird feeders

Charlie

Wow, this feels very strange – a return to ‘normal’ blogging after an incredible month of offers and competitions (lots are still running so do take a look!). And what better way to return, than with a lovely New Wives Club post and a guest post from the lovely Sharon from For The Love Of Vintage.

Sharon came up with this fantastic idea to give a new lease of life for chipped vintage teacups – turning them into rather lovely bird feeders! In her business, hiring out vintage crockery for weddings, the china understandably takes some wear and tear. So Sharon came up with this idea for reusing some of the pretty teacups that are too good to throw away.

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