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Charlie

Why you should choose seasonal wedding flowers – in support of British Flowers Week 2015

Charlie

Seasonal wedding flowers in support of British flowers

When I first started out with my business there was only really one or two people growing flowers for weddings in the UK. Now 8 years on and there are flower farmer florists all over the country, I imagine in every county, in varying degrees of growing their own to supporting British growers. That is just SO incredibly exciting, especially if you a bride-to-be.

As it’s British Flowers Week I wanted to do a mini showcase of how you can have British flowers for your wedding all year round, it’s just about embracing seasonality and celebrating the wonderful blooms being grown in this country. So coming up over the rest of the week will be a post dedicated to each season (links below) and a snapshot of the kinds of beautiful seasonal British flowers you could choose for your wedding.

As a long time supporter I wanted to dig through my archives and share some of the great posts we’ve previously featured that are full of seasonal flower inspiration and ideas.

And don’t forget to go and treat yourself to a bunch of British grown seasonal blooms this week in celebration of British Flowers Week – and download a copy of this seasonal chart of British flowers and foliages.

Seasonal blooms for weddings all year round

Be sure to check out all the posts in this series for lots of inspiration and ideas for your wedding:

Seasonal blooms for your spring wedding

Seasonal blooms for your summer wedding

Seasonal blooms for your autumn wedding

Seasonal blooms for your winter wedding

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: Fern’s ‘how to’ guide for the pretty envelopes she made for her bird and wildflower inspired wedding stationery

Charlie

I have just the loveliest post today from TNWC Real Bride Fern, who has not only made the most heavenly bird and wildflower inspired wedding stationery (and with my favourite brown craft card featuring!), but she has put together an easy-to-follow ‘how to’ guide for how she made the pretty envelopes. Plus she’s also shared details of how she created her different wedding stationery items.

I just know you are going to love this wedding stationery and it’s beautiful little details. If you are on the hunt for eco-friendly materials to make items for your wedding, do check out our DIY Resources section of the directory for a great selection of businesses that we love.

>> View Fern and Dominic’s woodland bird and country flower inspired wedding here <<

How to guide for pretty envelopes

It is always lovely to receive special parcels and post by mail, and wedding invitations can tell you so much about a wedding. Most of the weddings we have been to, couples have handmade their invitations and I never considered doing my invites any other way, but I really wanted my wedding invitations to have a wow factor as soon as they land through the letter box. So it was clear very quickly that I was going to make my envelopes as well.

I have included a ‘how to’ guide for making envelopes below, but I will tell you about my other stationary first.

DIY Floral Envelopes

Full ‘how to’ guide below!

Invitations, save the dates and RSVPs

I designed all the stationary myself in Microsoft Publisher and Microsoft Word, inspired by my finds on Pinterest. As I had decided that my envelopes would hold lots of colour it meant that I could keep my invitations more simple.

The fonts were Segeo Script used for our names on the save the dates and the rest of stationary we only used Traditional Arabic but varied use in all capitals or italics. The save the dates I made in Publisher by using the layout guides to divide the page into 8. I did for the RSVPs in Word; it is do-able but a lot fiddlier. I printed them on A4 and then cut them up with a guillotine.

The card for the invitations I found in a local shop with 10 brown kraft and 10 white sheets in. The design of my invites was dictated by this and its size. These were designed in Microsoft Word by customising the page size, even the map on the details.

We decided to trim all the corners to tie in with the envelopes, hole punch and tie together with ribbon. I then also made an afternoon invitation in the same way by customising the page size to A5 and then putting amended details inside. I printed everything at home on my own printer. It has cost around £35 for everything, not including postage, but I still have things left over for other projects.

Samantha

Clare and Ian’s fun outdoor farm wedding with a colourful, DIY decorated barn reception

Samantha

Fun outdoor farm wedding with colourful barn reception

The beautiful couple who’s wedding we are sharing with you today truly had their wedding their way, choosing their starting point to be a day built around the people that they wanted there. I adore this sentiment and it really shines through in the gorgeous images captured by Dasha Caffrey.

This fun, relaxed, country inspired wedding is full of the biggest smiles, heaps of laughter, colourful rustic DIY decor and the most divine looking wedding cake made from cheese.

A beautiful July day for a summer wedding

Clare and Ian (Clarkey) were married on a beautiful July summer’s day at a ‘friend-of-friends’ farm in West Stoke, near to where the groom grew up. Wanting to steer away from the traditional their charming day and laid-back style is sure to be one you will love.

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: introducing Em and Nick’s intimate homemade wedding in a beautiful walled garden

Charlie

Introducing our third lovely TNWC Real Bride of 2015 – the lovely Em, who is also getting married in a location very special to her and Mr-to-be Nick. I love that this year’s brides-to-be have all chosen really intimate spots for their wedding, not intimate in the sense of small, but places that they know really intimately.

Over to Em to tell you more…

Intimate homemade wedding in a beautiful walled garden

Hello, my name is Em, and Nick and I are getting married on 1st August 2015…which is perhaps a little ambitious as we got engaged just before Christmas and have a LOT to do. Add to this that we are also moving house in literally weeks and it has seemed like the perfect if chaotic storm. Although we made a few decisions relatively fast, we have a lot to work out before August and the months are beginning to glide by at an alarming rate.

Our ‘ideal wedding’

Describing the wedding we would like in 5 words, I would have to go for intimate, homemade, welcoming, warm and vintage. We will be getting married at Norton Priory Gardens, which is a beautiful walled garden in Runcorn where I grew up.

Nick and I have been there a few times with my son and Nick’s step son James (who is 2), and I have been going since I was a child, so it is somewhere which we hold very dear and if anything is our theme it is associating our wedding with memories and special people.

As we are booked in August, we are – fingers crossed! – going to have a lovely late summer afternoon (!) surrounded by the flowers and bees in a site which has been occupied since the middle ages. The reception venue will then be a local village hall in Manley, as we wanted to have a country family celebration air to the proceedings, with Amy Swann my amazingly creative friend making the cake (she initially recommended that I look on The Natural Wedding Company site!).

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: introducing Vicky and Steve’s DIY Devon country village wedding

Charlie

Plans for a DIY Devon country village wedding

It’s really lovely to be back again to introduce you to our second TNWC Real Bride of 2015 – Vicky – who is getting hitched this summer to her Mr-to-be Steve. I really love how hands-on Vicky and Steve seem to be with creating their wedding (helpful when your Mr is a builder!) and that they have chosen their home village as the spot to hold their celebrations.

>> View Vicky and Steve’s DIY village fete wedding here <<

Over to Vicky to tell you more…

A proposal in Greece

Hi my name is Vicky and I will be marrying my fiancé, Steve, this summer. Steve and I have been together for over 6 years now and much to the relief of our friends and family we are finally getting married this July.

Steve proposed last year in Skopelos, outside the church from Mamma Mia, with a beautiful ring he’d bought in secret. It totally floored me. I’m not sure what actually amazed me more, the proposal (I’d have staked a lot of money on that never happening after 6 years!), the fact he had managed to get the ring to Greece without losing it or that he’d been confident enough to tell practically everyone we knew what he was planning – even announcing it in the village pub before he left!

Typically he waited until the very last day of the holiday before asking me, leaving our families at home convinced he’d changed his mind at the last moment! Once I’d got over the shock I finally remembered to say yes and started crying – which pretty much carried on all day! As you can see from the photo!

Planning a Devon village wedding

Since then it’s been full steam ahead with the wedding planning. I can’t honestly say I had any real idea of what our wedding would be like when we started planning it, we probably had more idea of what we definitely didn’t want. Steve didn’t want it to be in a hotel where we had to fit in around them and I didn’t want it to be too prescriptive with a set colour scheme and matching outfits etc.

Charlie

A May wedding bouquet of apple blossom, cow parsley and other exquisite English wildflowers and spring flowers

Charlie

May wedding bouquet of apple blossom and cow parsley

If you’ve been reading this blog long enough you’ll know by now that I’m an absolute sucker for a May wedding. In fact, just the month of May in general. I love it for so many reasons – it’s my birthday month, it’s the month we got married, it’s the month of bluebells, cow parsley, hawthorn blossom, and so much more. So I am always excited when this month arrives to see what creations my fabulous flower farmer and florist friends create for May weddings.

This bridal bouquet from Common Farm Flowers caught my attention immediately at the mention of May bouquet with apple blossom – really, what could be lovelier?

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: introducing Fern and Dominic’s natural woodland bird and wildflower inspired wedding in Somerset

Charlie

Plans for a natural woodland bird and wildflower inspired wedding

I am pretty excited today to be introducing you to the first of our TNWC Real Brides for 2015! It’s that fun time of the year when emails start to drop into my inbox sharing all kinds of wonderful plans and handmade details from these brides-to-be in the run up to their weddings.

Our first TNWC Real Bride to introduce you to is Fern, who is getting married to her Mr-to-be Dominic this August in Somerset. Both of them have a love of the countryside, and Dominic works as a forester, so they are weaving elements of woodland birds and wildflowers throughout their wedding. I can’t wait to hear more!

>> View Fern and Dominic’s woodland bird and country flower inspired wedding here <<

But for now, over to Fern to give you a little introduction to how they met and their initial wedding ideas…

How we met

Dominic and I have been together for over eight years. We met in our first week of university in one of our first lectures, introduced by a new mutual friend, Jon. After one day saving a space for Jon between us in the lecture hall for four hours without him coming, we decided that maybe we would sit next to each other from now on.

We both studied Geography and had most lectures together and got to know each other better. Over a year later, and after some shaky first dates, meaning we now affectionately hold Airplane as the first film we saw together, we finally became a couple and two years afterwards had our first flat together.

A village home in Montacute

After a few jobs, more courses and house moves later we eventually found our way to our little house in the village of Montacute, which has truly been a real home for us. We live right in the centre of this beautiful village in a secret courtyard where we know all our neighbours and are just a stones throw away from breathtaking countryside.

Samantha

Lisa and Tom’s Welsh country wedding with a handmade wedding dress, locally sourced feast and giant tipis on the village green

Samantha

Welsh country wedding

Today we have for you you the wonderful Welsh, country fete inspired wedding of of our Real Bride Lisa and her husband Tim. It is bursting with amazing handmade details and it features the most inspiring fashion that is all made by the mother-of-the-bride.

This sewing supermum not only made Lisa’s stunning beaded wedding dress, but the bridesmaid’s floral dresses, the grooms and groomsmen attire, flat caps and all and then to top it off her own outfit for the big day. To say I’m impressed is an understatement!

Lisa and Tom’s whole big day truly was crafted with love by their family and friends, and it is one thing I truly adore about weddings is not only the love the couple have for one another but the love shared by everyone around them who want to help in anyway they can to create their dream day.

Anyway to the matter in hand, Lisa and Tom got married in June last year, in a lovely little Welsh town where Tom grew up and for all other details I’ll pass over to Lisa to share.

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: Ellie and Jon’s DIY guide to making your own giant light-up letters

Charlie

DIY guide to making your own giant light up letters

It is so lovely to be back with TNWC Real Bride Ellie today after a bit of a gap in posts. I have just this week been contacting a handful of (hopefully!) new TNWC Real Brides to introduce you to. Today we have a Real Brides first – a groom-to-be has written this fab post (thanks Jon!), which details how him and Ellie created a set of giant light-up letters for their up-coming wedding.

Over to Jon to tell you how to create them…

A how to guide for making giant light up letters

We were looking for giant light-up letters that we want to hang at the end of the field when we get married in May – a huge ‘J & E’ to welcome everyone to the party. However, each letter cost nearly £200 each to buy – and not much less to rent. This was way out of our budget. However, I was a bloke looking for a blokey wedding job – and confidently proclaimed that they’d be easy enough to make. It turns out (fortunately) that it was actually quite simple!

I’ve included a step-by-step on how to do it below. It is significantly cheaper to build them yourself – all three letters’ raw materials came to about £150 (mostly electrics), and they take a bit of time to put together, but if you’re like me and enjoy pottering around outside with a cup of tea and some power tools, then read on!

Samantha

Claire and Andrew’s secluded woodland wedding with rustic chic handmade details, giants tipis and festoon lighting

Samantha

Secluded woodland wedding with giant tipis and festoon lighting

Set among the woods with a swoon-worthy sunset as a backdrop today’s beautiful rustic chic wedding of the gorgeous Claire and Andrew is pure wedding magic! Stunning creative homemade details, tipi tents from TNWC recommended supplier Papakata with festoon lighting and page boys in bow ties are just a few of the many things I am sure you are going to love about this wedding.

A summer wedding in Yorkshire

Claire and Andrew were wed in the summer in South Yorkshire on a gloriously sunny day. Their reception venue having never before been used for that purpose, required meticulously planning from scratch to create the beautiful day we are sharing with you today.

With bride Claire being a designer by profession, you can understand how it all was executed so perfectly and you are guaranteed to find some fantastic do-it-yourself inspiration along the way. So on that note it is over to the lovely lady herself, beautiful bride Claire with all the details from their big day.

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