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Izzy

Make your own edible flower wedding favours from flowerpot muffins to floral marshmallows and petal studded chocolates

Izzy

Today we have a great post from Jan of Maddocks Farm Organics with some great tips on how to create your own wedding favours using edible flowers. There are some truly beautiful ideas that are sure to inspire you to create some fab homemade wedding favours.

Over to Jan to tell us how to create these beauties…

Whilst increasingly popular, wedding favours are yet another expense and can be very pricey if they are not to look cheap and tacky.

An easy way around this is to make your own. Not only do they look much nicer but they also add a personal touch and can be a fraction of the price of commercial alternatives. Here are a few suggestions which are all very straight forward to make so it is job that could be delegate to the future mother-in-law or chief bridesmaid!

Flowerpot Muffins

These are a sweet idea for a rustic themed garden wedding. I used a classic Mary Berry recipe (you can’t improve on Mary perfection!) but any good quality chocolate cake recipe will do or you could use a rich chocolate mousse if you prefer. The mini silicone flower pots are available from Lakeland and other online retailers.

The choice of edible flower is important if you want the ‘plants’ to hold well. Tagetes and Dianthus are particularly good for this but cornflowers also work if you add them at the last minute. We also used springs of rosemary to add to the foliage.

Floral Marshmallows

Marshmallows make a lovely wedding favour and running some edible flower petals through the mix ensures that they are as individual as your wedding.

Charlie

Behind-the-scenes film with The Garden Gate Flower Company for a sea-meets-land wedding of seasonal British blooms

Charlie

Today I’ve got a pretty special blog post for you and something a little different. The lovely Becca and Maz from The Garden Gate Flower Company have had a short film made telling the story of one couples wedding flowers, from picking seasonal blooms in their Cornish cutting patch, to setting up the venue and delivering the brides bouquet (such a gorgeous moment!).

This beautiful film provides couples with a special insight into how one homegrown flower business creates stunning seasonal blooms for a wedding. So take a peep behind the scenes with The Garden Gate Flower Company and don’t miss that magical moment when Becca delivers the bride her bouquet – so sweet.

Also keep a look out for my other favourite moment of the film – their use of tomato cuttings for the table centrepieces!

http://vimeo.com/76329323

Now over to Maz from The Garden Gate Flower Company to tell you a little bit more about the wedding and the film…

Our friend, Emma Griffin is a super creative photographer, artist and more recently film maker, based in Cornwall. Together we had the idea to make a short film which told the story of Katie and Damian’s flowers from picking to setting up the venue and delivering Katie her bouquet.

Charlie

DIY bride Holly shares her top ten tips and advice for a handmade wedding

Charlie

You might remember that back in the late spring I featured Holly and Laurie’s beautiful picnic wedding that was full of creative handmade details, well today we’re lucky enough to have Holly back with us.

Holly’s sharing her top ten tips and advice for a DIY wedding and I’m sure that her advice will provide invaluable to any of you brides- and grooms-to-be who are in the stages of planning a handmade wedding.

Over to Holly…

1. Firstly (and probably most importantly) make sure you have a small army of friends and family who are willing and kind enough to help out and don’t be afraid to ask for help.

In his speech my husband Laurie described our friends as the ‘games makers’ of our wedding and they really were- we couldn’t have done it without them!

2. Make sure you have a willing fiancé.

Creating a handmade wedding isn’t a one person task, it will take up lots of your free time so make sure you work together. My husband Laurie helped me out so much with all the handmade elements of our wedding – he put up with me spending hours reading wedding blogs and chugging away at my sewing machine, he also spent a whole weekend printing out and tying up invitations and made dozens of gorgeous paper flowers.

3. Spend some time gathering inspiration before you start.

There are so many ideas out there that it can feel a little overwhelming sometimes. Spend some time gathering inspiration so you know the kind of wedding you want and you have an idea of how it will all tie together. Pinterest is such a useful tool and it is full of beautiful images and ideas.

There are also a few blogs I would recommend; The Natural Wedding Company for ideas and wonderful suppliers, Junkaholique for gorgeous vintage styling (and their wedding is one of the loveliest I’ve ever seen!), and Green Wedding Shoes for a dose of eco-friendly wedding loveliness from the USA.

Izzy

Alison and Rama’s back garden Bedouin tent wedding with a dash of English country charm and a bohemian bride

Izzy

Back garden bedouin tent wedding

What a treat we have for you today with another beautiful real wedding – this time with a bit of twist. Usually weddings are submitted to us by the bride or her wedding photographer, but today’s pretty Somerset wedding was sent to us by wedding stylist Kirsten who runs The Little Wedding Helper.

The bride and groom – Alison and Rama – had a down-to-earth wedding held in their garden full of bohemian styling, Moroccan lanterns, and a dash of English country charm. The couple decided not to have a wedding photographer, but lucky for us they allowed Kirsten to bring along her own photographer to capture some of their day and gorgeous details.

One of my favourite parts of Alison and Rama’s wedding is that guests were invited to bring flowers rather than gifts, which were then used to create the table decorations – what a lovely idea and one that created a vibrant palette of colour that really complements the Bohemian feel of their wedding.

So it’s over to Kirsten to tell you about Alison and Rama’s wedding and how she helped style it…

Izzy

Win wedding prizes worth over £1000 with the White Memoirs Vintage Wedding Fayre competition!

Izzy

*This competition is now closed 12:00 04/10/13*

Earlier this month we shared details of the fabulous upcoming White Memoirs Vintage Wedding Fayre that is being held in Cheshire on Sunday 6th October 2013. With entry to the fayre free, if you’re a bride-to-be and planning to go then make sure you enter to win one of 25 goody bags we’ve got to give away.

Today we’ve got an incredible competition in which you could win a bundle of fantastic wedding prizes worth over £1,000! Read on to find out what you could win and how to enter…

A free engagement shoot from Dotmoxee Photography is just one of the fab prizes!

The wonderful White Memoirs Vintage Wedding Fayre exhibitors have put together a fantastic giveaway of prizes worth over £1,000 for one lucky bride to win! If the date is in your diary or you were thinking about visiting this lovely wedding fair, then don’t miss this opportunity to win all of the following – yes, just one lucky bride will walk away with all of this…

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.

Izzy

Get a free goody bag at White Memoirs Vintage Wedding Fair in Cheshire on Sunday 6th October 2013

Izzy

Here at The Natural Wedding Company we are delighted to tell all you brides-to-be that White Memoirs Vintage Wedding Fair is returning to Cheshire on October 6th 2013. This autumn wedding fair promises to be a ‘whimsical wedding wonderland designed for the vintage inspired modern bride’, and we’ve got the opportunity for you to win one of 25 goody bags – more details below!

Held at the beautiful “Festival Hall” a 1920’s ballroom in Alderley Edge, this new venue for White Memoirs Vintage Wedding Fair will host host 25 independent bridal suppliers from across Manchester and Cheshire, who specialise in providing services and products with a twist on tradition.

Coming up later in the month we will be hosting the White Memoirs Vintage Wedding Fair competition (here’s details of the last one we ran), where one lucky bride-to-be will win a bundle of fab wedding prizes – so put Wednesday 25th September in your diary and be sure to check the blog that day to find out how you can enter.

Today though, White Memoirs Vintage Wedding Fair has 25 goody bags to give away to 25 lucky readers of The Natural Wedding Company blog. Find out how you could win one below.

Izzy

Jaime and Dave’s relaxed spring wedding with lawn games, a seasonal bouquet and Scottish kilts

Izzy

Relaxed spring wedding

Today we are sharing Jaime and Dave’s gorgeous spring wedding in Hampshire. Fans of the outdoors, Jaime and Dave wanted their wedding to reflect the natural beauty of the gardens at Taplins Place in Hartley Wintney where they held their ceremony and reception.

Guests were entertained with giant lawn games, a coconut shy, a ‘hook-a-duck’ stall and homemade ‘Fruits of the Forest’ gin. With a wedding cake made of cheese and the relaxed ‘fete’ feel to the wedding, Jaime and Dave were able to make their wedding truly about them – nature and garden lovers.

– Izzy x

Now over to Jaime to share their beautiful wedding day with you…

Jaime and Dave got married in May this year, I love the reason why Jaime and Dave chose May for their wedding and honeymoon, “As we grow our own veg, we knew that we didn’t want to leave too much work to Dave’s Dad and his wife, who were looking after the house, our dogs and our garden. So I guess you can say that our vegetable dictated when we got married!”

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides Married! Emma’s back to tell us all about her outdoor festival wedding in Cornwall

Charlie

Charlie here writing from my maternity leave, I couldn’t not be here today to share with you this exciting blog post – it’s the first blog post from a now married TNWC Real Bride! Eeek!

So far, three of our TNWC Real Brides have got married – Caroline, Nik and Emma – and all have been busy ladies since their weddings over the summer, both honeymooning with their new husbands (!) and running their businesses. I’m utterly delighted to have Emma with us today sharing how her wedding went, and we’ve even got some of the beautiful official photographs from Rebecca Roundhill Photography of the day.

In the coming week’s we are going to be lucky enough to share with you all of the stunning photos from Emma and Chris’ Cornish outdoor festival wedding along with many more details. So do stay tuned for those!

For today though, over to Emma…

Getting married is officially the best thing ever!

Our wedding day was just perfect; it really was all we had hoped for and I can tell you it is better on the ‘other side.’

My bridesmaid and I left Plymouth on the Thursday prior to the big day with a car full of wedding regalia and hand made prettiness. We stopped off on the way to see Susanne at The Blue Carrot to collect our flowers for the table decorations. It was so lovely to see her again and she kindly showed us around her magical garden. She had chosen a wonderful array of wild and beautiful flowers for us to use to fill the collection of glass bottles.

I had chosen The Copper House in Portreath as a base for the preparations, which was a wonderful choice. On arrival we were greeted with a cream tea! I would highly recommend it to anyone wanting a complete getaway with serene and peaceful surroundings.

Charlie

TNWC Real Bride: Myfanwy’s been preparing her reception venue and Arthur the dachshund has a new wedding coat

Charlie

It’s been a little while since we had an update from one of our TNWC Real Brides, it’s been a busy summer with three of them (Caroline, Nik and Emma) now married! Don’t forget we’re looking for the next TNWC Real Brides who are getting married in 2014 to become our new bloggers – full details here if you’re interested.

Today we have Myfanwy back with us, who is having an autumn wedding, and has been busy preparing her reception site, turning a piece of driftwood into table centres, and kitting out Arthur the dachshund with a smart new coat!

Over to Myfanwy…

Since the summer has started and all this amazing weather I’ve been finding it a little hard with working and daily trips to the beach to sit down and get some wedding stuff done!

So I thought I’d blog about our reception location first which is really looking great! We wanted our reception in a tipi, some friends of ours had theirs in a tipi and it truly was a memorable wedding, we love being outside which could largely be because we work indoors all day.

We chose a field in front of Tom’s parents home (my parents live on a hill so that ruled their house out!) and the farmer has kindly agreed we can use the field. The lovely people at Event in a Tent have been to see the field is suitable (it is phew!).

We will be having tents similar to these…

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