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Charlie

The importance of saying thank you when running a small business gets tough

Charlie

“We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.”

The wedding industry and blogging world has changed so much since I started out 9 years ago, I fell out of touch for the first few years that my little girl was born and now I’m trying to find my feet in a world that I don’t quite recognise. It is easy to get disheartened working by yourself. It is easy to get lost in why you’re doing what you’re doing.

It is emails and comments like the one I recently received (and shared below) that are rare but so incredibly valuable to someone like me, working most of their time behind a screen wondering if the work they’re doing really has a tangible impact on others.

I know how time poor we can all feel, taking the time the tell others that what they’re doing is great, worthwhile or appreciated is something I’m not particularly good at either. I don’t make the time to do this enough.

This comment I recently received on this blog post brought me to tears on a tough day when I was wondering what I’m doing.

It reminded me of all the lovely women who I have connected with through my work, those who I am still friends with via social media, those I have watched get married around the same time as me and then go on to become mothers at a similar time, and those who I have become real life friends with. It reminded me of all the wonderful people behind the businesses that I work with whom I deeply value for supporting The Natural Wedding Company and who I have come to call friends.

To anyone that has found a few moments to write me an email, leave me a comment, or even send me a note in the post, thank you. Thank you so very much, I really and truly appreciate your kind words more than you can ever imagine.

This is to thank anyone who reads the blog, has/is using the directory to help plan their wedding, or who follows us on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram and is thinking about reaching out, I would love to connect with you, so if you feel inclined to do so please do say hi – you are the reason that I do all this.

Much Love,

Charlie xXx

Charlie

A romantic Flower Fairy inspired wedding with gypsophila flower crown and woodland themed wedding reception

Charlie

I had another blog feature planned for today, but then I found out it is my colleague Samantha’s fourth wedding anniversary today, and naturally I felt that sharing some snippets from her beautiful wedding was much more appropriate.

Samantha came into my life a couple of years ago when I was looking for someone to become a blog features writer – up until that point it had just been me running The Natural Wedding Company directory and writing the blog. I loved her enthusiasm and obvious love for weddings, I loved that she had become a mum at a similar time to me and had a little boy near in age to my little girl, and I loved that she had been inspired by childhood books The Flower Fairies for her wedding.

Whilst we don’t get to see each other very much because we live at opposite ends of the country, she has become such an important part of my life and the fabric and future of The Natural Wedding Company. So today while she celebrates four years of marriage with her husband Paul, our blog will celebrate that day four years ago when they said their “I do’s”.

Here’s to celebrating true love (these two are truly my idols when it comes to romance – you’ll see what I mean from Paul’s proposal) and to living out our girlhood dreams of being Flower Fairies. Put on a suitable romantic song, turn it up loud and enjoy this sweet celebration of marriage. Over to Samantha for a few snippets from her wedding…

A wedding inspired by The Flower Fairies

I have deep down (ok, not that deep down) always wished to be a flower fairy, therefore wanted to create the feeling of a magical world in the depths of the woods for everyone to enjoy. Luckily Paul didn’t even bat an eyelid when I suggested that we go for a woodland inspired ‘theme’ which would feature giant strawberries.

Samantha

The beautiful and affordable eco wedding dress collection from Sister Organics

Samantha

Affordable eco wedding dress collection from Sister Organics

Today we are introducing you to our new series Meet the Maker. Our eco wedding directory is bursting full of incredible independent businesses with just as incredible people behind those businesses. The aim of this series is to not just introduce you to their products but share a little bit about the people that make them what they are and why in particular our brides-to-be will love what they do.

The first person we are excited to showcase today is Natalie, who is the brains behind the organic and eco-fabric wedding dress brand Sister Organics. We love the beautiful laid-back and classic designs she creates and we are sure you will do too.

Why brides should consider a dress from Sister Organics

Hi Natalie, it’s lovely to get to chat to you and find out what goes on behind-the-scenes. Firstly, we’d love to know what makes Sister Organics a bit special and why should brides consider a dress from you?

Sister Organics offer affordable casual/alternative eco wedding dresses for free-spirited brides, bridesmaids dresses and party dresses. All dresses are made right here in Brighton in lovely environmentally sustainable fabrics; organic cottons, beautiful cotton laces made in England, vintage fabrics and organic silks.

My dresses are feminine, soft and comfortable to wear – they are perfect for those looking for an unconventional wedding dress.

Brides who choose a Sister Organics wedding dress

What kind of bride do you think chooses a Sister Organics dress for their wedding?

I have to say that the majority of my customers are just the loveliest people. Some of my customers are vegans or really want an organic or eco-friendly wedding dress. Others can’t find what they are looking for in a conventional wedding dress shop or want a more casual, alternative dress for a relaxed or outdoor wedding.

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

Zoe and Alex’s rustic hippy outdoor wedding with a barefoot bride in a boho wedding dress

Charlie

Oh what a beauty of a wedding this is, with this effortlessly stylish barefoot bride in her boho two-piece wedding “dress” and the outdoor ceremony beneath an archway of weathered branches. I have literally spent hours attempting to whittle down the photos I received for Zoe and Alex’s stunning wedding, but I’m sure you’ll forgive me for not doing great at cutting them down, because they are pretty awesome.

A special thanks goes out to Alice at Forage and Blossom, one of our fab recommended suppliers and the florist for Zoe and Alex. All those gorgeous white, pale cream and green bouquets, flower crowns and arrangements – those are her work. Alice is also the one who helped get this beautiful wedding to grace our pages.

Put on some music and find somewhere to get comfy, because Zoe and Alex’s wedding deserves all the time you can give it to soak up a truly special celebration. If you are worrying about all the details you need to “have” to create the wedding of your dreams, I hope that Zoe and Alex will show you that you only need a few carefully selected elements and lots of laughter. Over to Zoe…

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.’

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