DIY + Inspiration Archives - Page 9 of 19 - The Natural Wedding Company

Blog: DIY + Inspiration

Charlie

A wild and natural bridal bouquet of fragrant blooms and trailing jasmine for a Scottish wedding

Charlie

Hi everyone! A quick message here from Charlie – I’m really sorry that it’s been so quiet on the blog lately, but we’ve got loads of great guest posts coming up. There’s some gorgeous floral prettiness on the blog today, and coming up soon a beautiful Bedouin tent real wedding and a competition. Hope all your wedding plans are going well!

In order to find the loveliest inspiration and ideas for my readers I trawl the internet and blogs on the hunt for only the very best. When it comes to flowers, sometimes I spot a bouquet and am convinced that it must have been created by one of our talented flower farmers or florists – and quite often I’m right.

This is one such bouquet that I spotted on this Fairytale Scottish Castle Wedding and thought it was just the kind of wild and natural style that many of our TNWC recommended florists dream up – indeed, it is from one of our Scottish contingent, the lovely Pyrus.

Charlie

Behind-the-scenes at our seasonal wedding hair flowers shoot with The Garden Gate Flower Company

Charlie

Last week I shared all the gorgeous photos from my seasonal wedding hair flowers mini shoot with The Garden Gate Flower Company – if you haven’t seen them already and are dreaming of wearing flowers in your hair at your wedding, click here right now for a heady dose of floral inspiration.

As much as I love sharing all the pretty pictures to inspire you for your weddings, I also like to show the real ‘behind-the-scenes’ stuff that goes into a wedding shoot and the small businesses that put in all the hard work. Today I’ve got all the behind-the-scenes photos from my day at The Garden Gate Flower Company, beautifully captured on film by Taylor & Porter Photographs.

I’m going to hand you over to Maz from The Garden Gate Flower Company who will tell you their experience of the day…

“A misty, typically Cornish day back in June was positively brightened by Charlie from The Natural Wedding Company who stopped off on her TNWC South West Roadtrip. We had a little workshop of our own and focused on hair. Charlie has totally sparked a new interest in native grasses (or … errm, weeds to us gardeners: until now? I am totally embracing the ‘can’t beat them join them’ aspect of this idea!).”

Charlie

Delicate and romantic seasonal wedding hair flowers – beautiful alternatives to the flower crown

Charlie

A couple of weeks ago I was travelling around Devon and Cornwall visiting TNWC businesses, and as part of that roadtrip I got to spend a whole day with the lovely ladies at The Garden Gate Flower Company (you can read more about it here). We had made plans to do a little shoot of seasonal wedding hair flowers, and despite the fact that it was a wet and windy day on the farm, we were undeterred.

Flower crowns have been a popular wedding trend for over a year now, and don’t seem to be going away any time soon. Whilst I absolutely love them, I noticed they were getting bigger and bolder, and felt that I would never have felt confident or comfortable to pull off a flower crown like that for my wedding. It got me wanting to share some inspiration for more subtle and understated hair flowers, yet still incredibly beautiful.

Becca and Maz at The Garden Gate Flower Company equally loved the idea, especially as they’ve had more and more brides this year asking for more demure hair flowers, so it was a great opportunity to try out their ideas. We were joined on this wild June day by Louise and Teo from Taylor & Porter Photographs who have captured Becca and Maz’s designs exquisitely.

Louise and Teo have recently relocated to Cornwall and their photography business Taylor & Porter Photographs is quite special – why? Because they only shoot on vintage cameras using film. With at least six of us huddled in the polytunnel at The Garden Gate Flower Company for the shoot, it was pretty magical listing to the whizz and click of Louise and Teo’s vintage cameras.

Somehow I ended up ‘modelling’ a number of the hair flowers, which wasn’t my intention, but my long hair wound me up in the styling seat when Becca and Maz’s friend who was going to model for us had to leave early. I am not one for having my photo taken, especially when I’m not prepared with a bit of make-up and less windswept hair – I’m hoping the hair flowers are so stunning you don’t even notice me!

Enough talking, over to the flowers…

Charlie

A vintage-eco wedding photoshoot with quirky styling and a brooch bouquet at The Pines Calyx

Charlie

Last autumn a group of local Kent wedding businesses got together to create a wedding photoshoot inspired by all things vintage and eco-friendly. They created a number of different looks and I have some of them here today to share with you, featuring some pretty vintage dresses, dainty crockery, lovely florals and an exquisite brooch bouquet.

The shoot was another collaboration between TNWC photographer Rebecca Douglas and make-up artist Suzanna who created this ethereal harvest shoot I featured last year. This time, Rebecca and Suzanna swapped the English country field for the beautiful eco-chic The Pines Calyx wedding venue, also one of our TNWC businesses.

Charlie

An ode to snake’s head fritillary – wedding inspiration using this unusual native British spring flower

Charlie

Here at The Natural Wedding Company I love to promote seasonality, and to encourage and inspire couples to choose to plan their weddings fitting in with the season whether that be flowers, food, or decorations. Choosing seasonal blooms for your wedding flowers is one way to reduce the environmental impact of your big day (rather than imported flowers), as well as reflecting the beautiful and varied times of year.

Recently on my Facebook feed I’ve been seeing one particular spring flower popping up in bouquets from various TNWC flower businesses – the snake’s head fritillary. This very dainty bell like bloom is a native English flower that makes it appearance during the spring months.

Following on from my previous floral ‘odes’ (‘an ode to violets’ and ‘an ode to old-fashioned roses’) today I’m going to showcase the snake’s head fritillary. From bouquets and buttonholes to table centrepieces, I’m going to show you how you can incorporate it into your spring wedding.

Image: The Garden Gate Flower Company

I’m delighted to have put together this feature on the snake’s head fritillary with the help of some of my talented TNWC flower businesses. As I know many of you are planning your wedding and searching for a florist who grows their own or sources local British blooms, I’ve included their details and where they are based in the country as all of them provide stunning flowers for weddings.

Bouquets and Posies

When it comes to wedding flowers what better place to start than with bouquets. Every bride needs a bouquet and I have a beautiful selection here to showcase all featuring the dainty snake’s head fritillary.

First up this seasonal spring bouquet from Susanne at The Blue Carrot based down in Cornwall. Along with the snake’s head fritillary, Susanne used the following homegrown flowers: parrot, double and single tulips from her tunnel; hellebores; narcissi, ranunculus; and feverfew. She also added a few sprays of jasmine, which she bought as a plant from B&Q and used the cuttings.

Flowers: The Blue Carrot

Here’s a close up of this beautiful bouquet – I particularly love how Susanne combines colour, with the sweet shop pastels set off by the addition of those deep, velvety purple hellebores.

Flowers: The Blue Carrot

Charlie

Elegant but rustic ‘tying the knot’ save the dates inspired by my handmade wedding stationery

Charlie

When someone adds one of my blog post links to there’s I get a message about it, so I was delighted when I got this one and discovered that someone had been inspired by my own save the dates. Quite by surprise the save the dates we made for our wedding have become one of the most popular blog posts I’ve featured and many, many TNWC readers have recreated their own versions – I love seeing them all.

Most often people use the recycled brown card that I myself fell in love with, but these ones created by an American letterpress and stationery company use a white card and are equally beautiful. The couple were inspired by the ‘tying the knot’ version of my save the dates (another ‘most viewed’ blog post) where a knot is tied in twine as you open the save the date.

Charlie

Jen and Chris’ pretty village fete wedding – happy anniversary guys!

Charlie

This time last year my sweet friend Jen was getting married to her Mr, Chris, as it happens in the lovely village church that we both go to sometimes. It’s in a gorgeous little village called Dunham Massey in the countryside south of Manchester. Most of the cottages are owned by the National Trust so it still has this old fashioned feel to it, and the vicar is just the best ever.

I was lucky enough to meet Jen a couple of days after her wedding for my TNWC 5th Birthday Party and we had previously met up for a cup of tea when Jen emailed me and we suddenly realised for a few months we’d been sat in church together whilst she was busy reading my blog – she created some beautiful paper details for her wedding based on our own wedding stationery.

Charlie

DIY project: how to make handmade recycled seeded paper flowers

Charlie

The Natural Wedding Company is lucky enough to be blessed with some fantastic small and independent businesses, who aren’t only making and selling beautiful things, but they’re also showing you how to do it too.

I’m delighted to welcome back to the blog Sharon Langsdale from TNWC business Razzle Dazzle Rose – she’s going to be showing you how to make recycled seeded paper flowers that are ideal for decorating wedding favours or invitations, and even transforming into alternative buttonholes.

Razzle Dazzle Rose sells a number of fantastic eco-friendly craft materials, specifically in my favourite brown craft card. A new addition to her shop are these paper flower kits – you can choose from recycled brown kraft paper flowers, cream vintage fleck flowers, or seeded paper flowers.

Once you have your kit, here’s how to make the flowers – over to Sharon who is using the cream vintage fleck flower kit…

Handmade Recycled Seeded Paper Flowers

Step 1 – Unpack your paper flower kit and you’ll see you have a number of die cut pieces of paper, just like these…

Charlie

Vintage finds and seasonal spring flowers for an Easter window display from The Garden Gate Flower Company

Charlie

Happy Easter everyone! I was delighted when an email popped into my inbox earlier this week from Becca and Maz at The Garden Gate Flower Company – I’ve come down with a horrid cold this week so it was lovely when they appeared with a wonderful Easter-inspired guest post.

It’s full of beautiful inspiration for wedding styling if you love that combination of seasonal flowers and vintage finds. I’ll hand you over to The Garden Gate Flower Company to tell you about the beautiful Easter window display they created in one of their local vintage and antique shops in Cornwall. Over to Maz…

Easter is here, and we have gone all nostalgic at the Dower House in Lostwithiel. We have just been styling an Easter window in a shop that is filled with vintage lace, jelly moulds, buttons, ribbons and much more!

Becca rediscovered The Downy Duckling (or something like that, it’s a good job she’s got little kids to read it to!).

We made pretty miniature arrangements in vintage cups. Spring flowers like primroses and grape hyacinths are short stemmed so make a good addition to a tea cup.

Charlie

The perfect Easter decorated Simnel cake with crystallised edible flowers and mini chocolate eggs

Charlie

I must say I hadn’t really heard of Simnel cake until a few years ago, and I certainly haven’t ever tried one. But I do love traditions, and Simnel cake is often eaten over Easter. I particularly love the way this one, created by TNWC business Eat My Flowers, is decorated – both the colours (yellow and purple), the little pile of chocolate eggs, and those beautiful crystallised edible spring flowers.

Sarah who runs Eat My Flowers shared her recipe for this Simnel cake and I thought it would be a nice thing to share with you all. Many of us who life making things, often like making sweet treats, so I thought you wouldn’t mind a recipe. Even if you don’t fancy making a Simnel cake, you could always take inspiration from the way Eat My Flowers decorated it, and use this on an Easter cake of your choice.

According to Sarah from Eat My Flowers, “the cake is made with 11 balls of marzipan icing on top representing the 11 disciples. (Judas is not included.) Traditionally, sugar violets would also be added. Simnel cake is very easy to make and because of the extra layer of marzipan is very moist and keeps well.” Her recipe is from Mary Berry.

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