Planning Archives - Page 4 of 15 - The Natural Wedding Company

Blog: Planning

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: Emma’s beautiful DIY wedding details from viola pops to gold animals on their tables

Charlie

Back in July our lovely TNWC Real Bride Emma got married in a beautiful wedding in the heart of Liverpool. Emma is back today to share some stunning pictures from their wedding day and the final few details they made. In Emma’s first blog post she said:

“It might seem a contradiction, a natural wedding in the city, but I’m determined we can made it happen!” And I’m sure you’ll agree from the snippets below that her and Shane most definitely made it happen.

Over to Emma…

Three months ago Shane and I said “I do!” in a city wedding in Liverpool with a natural, handmade flair. The day itself was full of smiles, laughter and love, and I’m looking forward to telling you all about it and sharing more of our photographs soon! But first, I want to share some of the personal and handmade elements we brought to our day.

Viola pops and meaningful keepsakes

It was important to us to make our wedding as personal as possible, not just in terms of reflecting who we are but letting our guests know what a significant part of the day – and our lives – they are.

Something that was quite a simple idea but very popular was the name tags I made using my granddad’s old typewriter. I was very close to my grandparents growing up and they’re sadly not with us anymore, so despite the fact it’s not in the best shape I was determined to use my granddad’s vintage Olympia and not just any old typewriter!

I bought some lovely cream luggage tags from a local craft store and typed the names directly onto them, but the black ink smudged terribly no matter what we tried. After a bit of trial and error, I found that the red typewriter ribbon smudged much less so I typed them in red ink instead!

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: Lisa’s handmade napkins and bunting, vintage crockery collecting and other last minute wedding preparations

Charlie

For any of our regular readers you’ll probably have realised that our lovely TNWC Real Bride Lisa is now married, however she got so busy in the lead up to her wedding day that it’s only now post-wedding and post-honeymoon that she’s been able to fill us in on the final aspects of her wedding planning.

Over to Lisa to tell us more…

Vintage crockery, stamping, bunting, lots of napkins and trying to get ahead…

In the run up to our big day, we realised that a lot of the things we wanted to do could only be done at the very last minute, such as our favours which were Welsh cakes, the flowers (which Tom’s mum was growing) the drinks for the drinks dispensers etc. We also found that we were still coming up with ideas even up until the eleventh hour! Below are some of things we did manage to do in advance (thankfully!!).

The hunt for vintage crockery

For our reception we had beautiful Kata tents, if you are not familiar with them they are a type of interlocking tipi and are absolutely beautiful inside. You could pretty much leave them as they are without doing very much decoration, I can imagine them to look stunning with very simple table settings and lighting. However I have always had my heart set on a very colourful, mismatch of styles filling the tables and all around.

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: Ellie’s trip to her florists garden to pick out her seasonal blooms for her late spring wedding

Charlie

How many other brides-to-be have visited their florists garden to pick out the flowers for their wedding? Well in today’s post from TNWC Real Bride Ellie she shares how she did exactly that over the summer, and she took along some of her family and bridesmaids.

Ellie is a girl after my own heart with her love of countryside and seasonal flowers and foliage. Over to Ellie to tell you all about it…

For some brides, the most exciting part of wedding planning is finding the perfect dress. For some, it’s food and drink and, for others, it’s music or decoration. For me, however, the most exciting part of planning my big day has always and unequivocally been…flowers!

Since I was a little girl, I have walked along country lanes with my Mum and Granny and been filled up with the names of the flowers growing madly all along the verges.

I’ve also been lectured somewhat extensively on the folklore of flowers; from blackthorns being the preserve of evil faeries, to a horror of white lilies displayed on their own (exceptionally funereal), flowers have always been a part of my life – and, perhaps oddly, a huge part of how I’ve related to members of my family, and an important impetus for spending time together.

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: Kerry shares the details of her many hen parties including a joint hen-stag do to Glastonbury Festival

Charlie

For our 2014 TNWC Real Brides we have just Kerry and Nick left to get married in August – I can barely believe it, this year has gone so fast! Kerry is sharing the details of what became a hen-a-thon with four hen parties (including a hen and stag do at Glastonbury Festival).

Over to Kerry to tell you more…

Nick and I originally said we weren’t going to have hen and stag do’s. The very idea of such an event is to “celebrate” your last night of freedom prior to becoming man and wife; however we’ve been together for 15 years and didn’t see the need, so we opted for Glastonbury Festival instead.

However, my bestmate and bridesmaid Raz had other ideas. She convinced me I needed something a bit more hen-like. So I gave her a date and a list of names and off she went, organising a surprise extravaganza! I was instructed to make my way to Covent Garden for lunch at Dishoom a fantastic Bombay café, which was followed by a Michael Jackson dance lesson at Pineapple Dance Studio.

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: Miriam’s sharing her homemade wedding details of tartan bunting and a personalised save the date stamp

Charlie

The lovely Miriam and John are getting married this coming Saturday! So excited for them both and fingers-crossed this incredible British weather hangs around for them.

So over to Miriam for her last pre-wedding blog post…

DIY weddings stitch by stitch

One of my favourite things about The Natural Wedding Company blog is that there are so many beautiful homemade creations from other brides for your wedding and beyond. With our wedding looming very close I am starting to realise how much I will miss all the planning, researching and creating that has occupied most of my brain-space for the last 18 months. Having this creative outlet in my otherwise very science-oriented life has been wonderful, and I will surely miss it – but luckily I will have John and our new married home to carry on the next creative adventure!

Like many brides, physically creating aspects of our Big Day and researching novel ideas has hugely spurred on the crescendo of excitement towards the day, so I thought it would be good to share some of the homemade or personally designed aspects that are not too difficult to incorporate into a wedding to ensure that intimate feel for your guests.

Personal by design

There are some fantastic suppliers out there who will go the extra mile to create something handmade and personal for your wedding, without stretching yourself too far trying to do absolutely everything by yourself (as I am prone to attempting!). I was very lucky to find Noolibird via The Natural Wedding Company, who crafted this beautiful personalised stamp that we used to make our save-the-date cards, and might use somewhere in our home post-honeymoon decorating.

Lauren

The shy bride’s guide to planning an engagement shoot – a guest post from Emma at Freckle Photography

Lauren

Today the lovely Emma from TNWC business Freckle Photography shares her wisdom on engagement shoots. Personally I think they’re the perfect opportunity to embrace the things you love to do together and take a moment out from the craziness of wedding planning.

I’m sure these beautiful images featuring beekeepers, vintage railway lovers and camping couples will inspire you to plan something beautiful, fun and memorable to capture the essence of you as a couple.

Over to Emma…

Whilst planning my own wedding last year, I suddenly realised that the thought of being photographed all day terrified me! Not just because I spent my life behind the lens, but because I’m a normal girl with all the usual insecurities about my wobbly bits and the way my face scrunches up a bit too much when I’m really happy.

As for the boys, the idea of being obviously affectionate in ‘public’ and then being photographed can be equally as alarming.

What is an engagement shoot and why have one?

I’m sure this is a fairly normal reaction when planning a wedding, which is why I offer a photo shoot prior to the wedding. Sometimes called an ‘engagement shoot’ or a ‘pre-wedding shoot’, the aim is for you and your photographer to get to know one another, dispel any myths about having your photo taken and get some awesome and fun images in the process.

Despite it being a bit daunting at first, I can tell you within minutes you will be enjoying yourselves. It’s a great excuse to have a bit of time out together, kiss more than you have all week and generally lark about!

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: Miriam’s sharing details of the wildflower and sweet bee elements of her natural wedding

Charlie

It’s been a little quiet on the blog the past couple of weeks as I’ve been away on holiday with my little family to France.

We’re getting stuck back in with a lovely bee related blog post from TNWC Real Bride Miriam – it’s so great to hear how Miriam and John are incorporating meaningful elements into their that have such importance to the both of them.

Over to Miriam to tell you more…

Bee Happy – Love is Sweet

The natural world is very important to both John and I, and we hope to capture the magic of the great outdoors for our wedding guests. This concept fits in perfectly with our wish for an eco wedding and a 1920s style, when overflowing bouquets of locally grown flowers were abundant, as discussed in my last blog post.

We have tried our best to sneak beautiful British nature into every aspect of our Big Day, with heady scents and dazzling colour enveloping our guests and transporting them to our own idea of paradise.

Our first exciting wedding job was to create our “Save the date” cards, inspired by Charlie’s now infamous design that inspired the tie-the-knot version. In the place of brown card we used beautiful seeded paper by Wildflower Favours. This not only looks and feels beautiful with a gorgeous weighty quality, but planted in some damp soil allows our guests to grow some of their very own beautiful wild flowers.

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: Emma tells us about her botanical inspired wedding stationery and illustrated save the dates

Charlie

It is less than a month now to Emma and Shane’s wedding – I can’t believe the time has flown by so quickly! Fingers-crossed Emma will be able to squeeze in another blog post or two if we’re lucky with a few more details about their beautiful sounding natural city wedding. You can catch up on all her posts so far here.

Today she’s sharing details of her botanical inspired invitations (I love this design so much!), so over to Emma…

Love Local, or, A Tale of Two Cities

In all aspects of our wedding we’ve aimed to make the most of the incredible pool of local talent, and our wedding invitations are no exception! Although I must admit that if I had the time and skill I would have loved nothing more than to make all of the wedding stationery myself.

It was important to us that they reflected our day and felt personal and informal – I spent an inordinate amount of time searching for “the one”. As we had a small budget for stationery, we couldn’t go the bespoke route, so I looked instead for something off-the-peg that could be customised.

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: Miriam tells us her plans to incorporate 1920s elements into her summer wedding

Charlie

TNWC Real Bride Miriam told us in her introductory blog post that her wedding would be featuring 1920’s details, and today she is telling us more about her plans for incorporating this beautiful era into their celebrations. I was particularly excited to see mention of two TNWC Recommended Suppliers – Pyrus and Lancaster and Cornish – who are involved in their wedding.

Over to Miriam…

A nod to the 1920’s

John and I have each individually had a long love affair with the 1920’s. We both naturally suit the fashion, with his Italian heritage crying out for sharp grooming and well-fitting suits, and my frame being of the long-limbed-and-necked variety. Add to that a predilection for period films, classic jazz and Charles Rennie Mackintosh art/design, it was inevitable that some of the 1920’s would find a way into our wedding plans.

This was confirmed when John presented me with the most beautiful art deco style diamond and sapphire engagement ring, and a celebratory surprise mini-break to Paris (which I think of as a “very 1920’s” city).

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: Kerry’s sharing details of her brown card wedding festival programmes and hessian crafting

Charlie

It is so lovely to be joined by a new group of brides-to-be for the TNWC Real Brides series here on the blog. Last time we heard about Kerry and Nick’s initial plans for their festival inspired wedding, and today Kerry is back with more details on the crafting they’ve been up to.

Over to Kerry to dish the details…

Planning, Making and Gluing

So, it’s May, the last 5 months have been spent; planning, meeting, researching, making and gluing.

We spent hours deliberating over the invites (featured in my last blog post). We both had different ideas of what we wanted, so it was quite tricky to find a middle way. In the end we decided on a PDF printable from STH Blue on Etsy.

Niki customised one of her standard invites especially for ‘Kipstival the Wedding’ and we LOVED it, it’s so personal to us and unique. We liked the postcard RSVP idea, and have had lots of lovely responses back already.

Festival Wedding Programme

The next piece of stationery we created was the programs. We wanted to create something which would inform our guests of what’s happening next. A kind of playlist of the day, as it will be broken up into various sections around the farm. This introduced our first conundrum – what are our timings for the day?

We had to sit down, walk through it in our minds, and try and agree on both format and timings; we got there in the end, after a number of hours sat at the kitchen table and a few glasses of wine! Once that was sorted, we then decided on a front cover and I used old festival programs, which I’ve hoarded over the years, as inspiration for a ‘With thanks’ section on the back page.

I’d bought a pack of blank cards with natural brown envelopes from Papermania, we used the envelopes to send our invites, but had the left over cards, so I put these to good use, and had the programs printed on these. I also wanted to include a handful of confetti in the program, I’d seen a Pin on Pinterest that I liked, so I consulted The Natural Wedding Company directory and found The Confetti Farm.

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