DIY + Inspiration Archives - Page 4 of 19 - The Natural Wedding Company

Blog: DIY + Inspiration

Charlie

A spring wedding shoot with flower crowns of spring blossom and rustic bouquets of tulips and bluebells

Charlie

Back in the spring I attended a spring blossom flower crown workshop run by my friend Rachel of Catkin Flowers. It was held in the beautiful surroundings of Doddington Hall in Lincolnshire, which is where Rachel has her base growing flowers in the old walled garden – it truly is as beautiful as it sounds.

A group of us had great fun creating our own unique flower crowns with spring flowers that Rachel had gathered for us, in particular a variety of blossoms from the spectacular cherry and crab apples that were blooming outside.

After the workshop Rachel put together a mini shoot in the gardens of Doddington Hall and I was invited to go along, and even got roped in for a few pictures – who could say no beneath that stunning tree dripping with pink blossom?

Samantha

An eco farmhouse wedding shoot with a vintage inspired tea party, pretty lavender details and watercolour invites

Samantha

Eco farmhouse wedding photoshoot

Set at a gorgeous German farmhouse, today’s eco-inspired wedding shoot showcases beautiful simple details including a vintage tea party with a naked wedding cake, loose bouquets of lavender and herbs, watercolour invites, and a truly romantic real life love story.

Curated by the clever people at Lovely White Weddings who wanted to provide a fully eco-friendly inspirational shoot to promote to brides-to-be the talented ethical wedding businesses in Germany, where they have yet to gain much mainstream attention. Lisa, Lena and Dani from Lovely White Weddings explain,

“In Germany we still pretty much live in a ‘green wedding desert’, there really is almost no good blog, magazine or specifically green wedding vendor to be found if you do not exactly know what to look for. Since we ourselves try to live as organic and sustainable as possible, we agreed that it was high time to fill that gap and to push the green wedding trend in Germany by throwing together one of the first truly eco German styled shoots.”

Charlie

A London country house spring wedding shoot with a wild bouquet and colour palette of pink and gold

Charlie

Country house spring wedding

Wimbledon has a special place in my heart as it was the place where I was born and spent the first few years of my life, so when this beautiful country house spring shoot landed in my inbox I was especially excited to share it with you.

This recently renovated south London country house wedding venue is set within the stunning Morden Hall Park, which is run by the National Trust. The park contains a variety of natural landscapes, including parkland, a river, meadow and marshland – an idyllic backdrop for this spring wedding shoot.

Photographer Eva Tarnok told me that they wanted to reflect the elegance of this historic venue, but also to showcase the natural beauty surrounding it – I think they did a great job.

Charlie

How to get natural boho wedding make-up with The Vintage Beauty Parlour

Charlie

You’ve got your instructions and inspiration for natural boho wedding hair (and if you haven’t go check it out), so today we’re going to share with you how to get this natural wedding make-up perfect for the down-to-earth boho bride.

I don’t wear a lot of make-up myself and for my own wedding day I wanted that beautiful look that almost looked like I wasn’t wearing make-up (read about it here). It’s a bit like the popular ‘just-picked from a meadow’ wedding flower style, which is very much not just picked and involves lots of creative genius behind-the-scenes in order to achieve a really natural look.

It sounds a bit daft doesn’t, “dear make-up artist, please use make-up to make me look like I’m not wearing make-up”… But they do it, and today we have Bethany Jane Davies from The Vintage Beauty Parlour to show us how to (attempt at least!) achieve this natural boho bride look for ourselves.

Charlie

A rustic wedding bouquet of fragrant herbs and a wedding cake decorated with flowering rosemary

Charlie

I absolutely love it when rosemary is in flower, with those tiny pale blue flowers it takes on a new dimension to its very green version that we mainly see and associate with it here in England. We have featured rosemary and other herbs in abundance here on the blog because they have so many lovely qualities – their fragrance being number one in my opinion.

This simple white wedding cake decorated with flowering rosemary is a wonderful example of how you can achieve a pretty and less conventional look without spending lots of money or time. Invest in a great quality wedding cake, made from organic and fair trade ingredients, and then just decorate it simply with naturally grown herbs.

Charlie

How to create natural boho wedding hair and accessorise it with vintage inspired headpieces

Charlie

If you’re looking for inspiration on how to create natural boho wedding hair then you’re in for a treat. We have a great tutorial to share with you that would enable you to recreate this look for your own wedding day, whether you plan to do it yourself or are looking for ideas for your hair stylist.

A few years ago I had the real pleasure of attending the launch night party for An Era of Experience, a Manchester based vintage hen party business. For someone who doesn’t get dressed up that much and who had a childhood obsession with playing dress up, it was undoubtedly one of the most fun evenings out I’ve had (if you’re interested you can see pictures here).

Some of the team behind An Era of Experience – Bethany Jane Davies who runs The Vintage Beauty Parlour and Nicola of Silver Sixpence in Her Shoe wedding accessories – collaborated to create this fab tutorial for boho wedding hair. In addition to the tutorial are ideas on how you can wear Silver Sixpence in Her Shoe wedding hair accessories with this look.

Next week we have the second part to this feature, which is a how to for getting a natural boho make-up look.

How to create natural boho wedding hair

Samantha

An elegant rustic ballerina wedding shoot with vintage details, handcrafted jewellery and natural petal confetti

Samantha

Please note: Minna is now Indiebride London.

Today’s elegant rustic ballerina wedding shoot, set in an urban oasis in the heart of London, is a beautiful showcase of eco-friendly and ethical wedding suppliers.

Although people are growing more and more discerning regarding the use of ethical and eco-friendly products, it is still not common place in the mainstream and this also rings true for the wedding industry. You only have to look at our directory of recommended suppliers however, to know that there is an abundance of incredible independent businesses producing beautiful products for your big day with ethics at their heart. It is lovely to see these sorts of companies gain more recognition, and today’s shoot brought to us by stylist Charlotte Munro and photographer Paola De Paola does exactly that, showcasing some brilliant businesses including many TNWC recommended suppliers.

Eco-friendly wedding inspiration

Stylist Charlotte explains a little bit more about the inspiration behind the shoot…

‘The main focus of this shoot was on ethical and eco-friendly weddings, something that more and more couples are considering for their wedding day, but hasn’t yet been well publicised on wedding blogs and in magazines. Myself and professional photographer Paola De Paola wanted to change that with a beautiful, editorial styled shoot that focuses on ethical wedding companies.

We wanted to focus on suppliers who could bring their own ethical and eco-friendly ethos to the shoot and create something organic and beautiful that any couple could take away with them to incorporate into their own wedding day. I decided to introduce the ballerina aspect as I loved the concept of something flowing and beautiful, and to help convey our message – that it’s not always easy or straightforward to plan an ethical wedding, but the end result is beautiful, soulful, and can still follow fashion trends.’

Charlie

A boho picnic wedding shoot on a lake inspired by English picnics and wildflowers with a barefoot bride in a crochet wedding dress

Charlie

I’m quite sure if you’re a regular reader you will remember this magical fairytale woodland wedding shoot from Austria sent to us by the lovely Stephanie of Mademoiselle Fee – well we have another beautiful shoot to share from her today.

A boho picnic wedding with a barefoot bride

Set on a weather worn wooden dock over an Austrian lake, this English picnic and wildflower inspired shoot brings you just the right amount of down-to-earth boho wedding inspiration.

From a barefoot bride in a 1970s-esque crochet wedding dress to the understated (and therefore perfect in my books) tea party, what I love most about the shoots created by Mademoiselle Fee and her team is the genuine, heartfelt love and emotions that emanate from the pictures. Yes, the detailings are beautiful, but it’s the tenderness that is captured, woven in with the pretty details, that make her shoots truly special.

A homage to English picnics and wildflowers

The inspiration from the shoot came from both the lake itself and a flower crown, from one of our own dear friends, Amy Swann. Stephanie told me:

“I love this place at the lake, so do all our friends, and when I saw Amy Swann’s flower crown, I immediately had this picture in my mind of a relaxed couple lying on the deck. Some years ago, when I was engaged, I found The Natural Wedding Company and have been following your inspiring blog posts ever since. This shoot is a homage to English picnics and wildflowers, to bunting and homemade cakes. I love this outdoor way of enjoying life and nature.”

Charlie

Wreaths throughout the seasons: learn how to make these spring hedgerow inspired wedding table wreaths

Charlie

I am delighted to be back today with Alice from Lock Cottage Flowers with a how to guide for making a spring hedgerow table wreath. Not only are would these wreaths be a great little project to decorate your table for a party, but Alice has also shown how you can dress them up a little more to make them the perfect wedding centrepieces.

I don’t know about you, but spring is one of my favourite times of the year, especially for flowers, and these wreaths remind me of the steep Devon hedgerows of my childhood in March/April just exploding with green and all those exquisite wildflowers.

This wreath how to is part of a wonderful series Alice has put together for us, called Wreaths Throughout The Seasons, which provides inspiration and guides for incorporating wreaths into your home or wedding throughout the year, not just at Christmas.

You can find all her posts by clicking on Wreaths Throughout The Seasons or find the individual features below:

How to make a living winter viola table wreath

How to make a seasonal Valentine’s wreath

How to create a hellebore moss winter wreath

Now, over to Alice…

How to make a spring hedgerow table wreath

Hello everyone, this spring instalment of wreaths through the seasons will cover tabletop wreaths that I recently created for a spring wedding. Similar to the winter wreath that I did, these spring wreaths are a combination of small bedding plants swaddled in moss and cut flowers in floral tubes.

Charlie

Wild strawberry and white nigella flower crown for an early summer bride

Charlie

This wild strawberry and white nigella flower crown is pretty much perfection in my books, and my feeling is you’ll agree. It is pretty rare that I genuinely see wedding inspiration these days that I wish I’d incorporated into my own wedding – this is one of those rare ideas.

I first spotted this flower crown over on Instagram, from A Harem of Peacock’s account that is just so achingly beautiful. Imagine Brambly Hedge and the Flower Fairies all come to life and you are on your way to the prettiness that Kelly-Marie creates and shares.

It was this flower crown, with it’s tiny wild strawberries (some blushed red, others still white), frothy white nigella flowers, strawberry leaves and still-green nigella seedheads, that captured my gaze. I knew I had to ask permission from Kelly-Marie to share it all with you as it’s one of those ideas that I am convinced at least one of you lovely natural brides would love to recreate for you own wedding.

Kelly-Marie gathered the nigella and wild strawberries from her garden and used a ribbon wrapped crown, this was a practice run for an up-coming wedding this summer she is hoping to replicate it for. You absolutely should check out more of Kelly-Marie’s work, either on her blog A Harem Of Peacocks or her Instagram account. It’s also worth noting that she’s the in-house florist at Deans Court in Dorset and a freelance floral stylist.

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