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Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: Nik’s been busy on the farm doing DIY projects with only a few weeks until her wedding day

Charlie

Just like TNWC Real Bride Emma last week, Nik has only a few weeks to go until her wedding. Her and Mr-to-be Chris have been busy over the past few months with lots of DIY projects for their coastal farm wedding in Wales, and nothing has changed for this creative duo in these final few weeks before their big day.

Today Nik’s got a fab round-up of what they’ve been up to recently, including a lovely reveal of their beautifully restored VW Beetle, making a wedding swing, and some ‘before’ pictures of the barn that will host their wedding reception.

Over to Nik…

The farm is abuzz with life at the moment – not only have the flowers and trees begun to burst forth with summer colour to brighten the place up, but we too are frantically whizzing around doing odd jobs, trimming and pruning, clearing and tidying and generally making preparations for our wedding day on the 11th July.

There’s been so much going on it’s impossible for me to pick just one topic to write about this month, so I thought I’d share a few of the projects we’ve been getting on with.

Reg Returns!

One of the most exciting parts of our wedding day is the fact that Reginald, our vintage VW Beetle, gets to act as wedding car.

Chris has owned him for over 10 years (longer than he’s known me!). One of my earliest memories of Chris is seeing him get out of Reg in a car park and thinking ‘ooh, nice car…hang on… nice owner!’ Unfortunately, when we first got engaged, Reg was rather looking his age after a few years in a damp garage and was in desperate need of a Gok Wan style makeover.

We sent him off to the paint shop for some TLC and he has come back looking pretty fabulous indeed!

I’m so looking forward to cruising down the winding lanes towards the sea after our ceremony, with tin cans rattling behind us and our ‘Just Married’ sign in the window!

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: Emma’s been making pretty labels for her wildflower seed wedding favours

Charlie

It’s so nice to be back today with another TNWC Real Bride instalment from the lovely Emma. She has less than three weeks to go until her wedding! I’m so excited for her. If you’re new to the feature, you can read all of Emma’s blog posts here and this fab guest post she wrote all about bridal beauty.

Over to Emma…

With less than three weeks to go I am getting butterflies and bubbles of excitement. We have nearly completed the ;to do’ list and the DIY attempts have been continuing late into the evenings.

In the last few days I have been making pretty labels for our favours, which are wildflower seeds for butterflies and bees. I bought some little brown recycled envelopes last year, which have been nestled in the loft waiting to be decorated. For ages I wanted to make a lino cut to hand print each envelope, but time got away and I found a great alternative that is way less messy; some cute little oval labels from Avery, which are made from 100% recycled paper too.

There is free template software included online, which was very easy to use – I made my design in Photoshop then just copied and pasted into the template ready to print.

Chris is filling these little envelopes each with a tablespoon of wild flower seeds as I write this!

Charlie

Chloe and Nick’s relaxed seaside Devon wedding with natural seasonal ‘just picked’ flowers and a jasmine flower crown

Charlie

Relaxed seaside Devon wedding

I am really delighted to be bringing you another exclusive real wedding to the blog today. This wedding was shared with me via the lovely Chloe from BareBlooms, a TNWC flower farmer, as it was not only a wedding she did the flowers for, but she was also a guest as the bride (also called Chloe) and groom are friends of hers.

Bride and groom Chloe and Nick were really relaxed about their wedding day and wanted a simple celebration with just a few lovely details – it’s quite refreshing when it’s so easy to get bombarded by detail heavy weddings seen on so many wedding blogs.

Over to bride Chloe to share their pretty wedding day with you…

Chloe and Nick got married last June in Devon, which they chose because it was the place where they met: “Nick was at Dartington College of Arts and I was working in Exeter, my mum, stepdad and gran live in Exeter and all our friends are mostly based in the south of England, so we felt that Devon was a natural choice.”

Charlie

Announcing the lucky winner of the Mama Wolf competition to win the springtime bow tie and pocket square set

Charlie

Just over a week ago this lovely competition to win a pretty springtime bow tie and pocket square set from new TNWC business Mama Wolf finished. This afternoon I get to announce the lucky winner!

Everyone who entered shared what they loved most about spring, and who they’d like to win the bow tie and pocket square for – I really enjoyed reading everyone’s entries, but there can only be one winner…

A huge congratulations to Emily Wilson! I really hope your husband-to-be enjoys his new springtime bow tie and pocket square and we would love to see some pictures. I will be in touch by email to connect you up with Sandeep from Mama Wolf to ensure your prizes get sent out shortly to you.

Charlie

TNWC South West Roadtrip Day 8: final visits to Greens of Devon, Organic Blooms and Church Farm

Charlie

I have finally come to the end of my TNWC South West Roadtrip. I have travelled hundreds of miles, stayed in numerous homes, B&Bs and hotels, and met over 15 businesses who are all listed on the directory. It has been exhausting but amazing. If you would like to catch up on my travels, just click on TNWC Roadtrip for all the posts.

So yesterday I set of from the north coast of Devon, travelled into the county to Greens of Devon, then up the motorway to Organic Blooms, and across into Wiltshire to Church Farm for my final visit of the trip. I hope you’ve liked following along, and enjoy this, my final post on the (first) TNWC Roadtrip.

Greens of Devon

My first stop of the day was to Greens of Devon and are one of my lovely edible flower businesses. With the resurgence in British, locally grown, seasonal flowers, their edible brothers and sisters are following suit. I’ve personally been interested in edible flowers for a few years now, so it’s really nice to see more couples incorporating them into their weddings.

Charlie

TNWC South West Roadtrip Day 7: a visit to Rowan Tree Studio

Charlie

I hope you’ve all had a lovely weekend – it has been mixed weather in Cornwall and Devon with a lovely day on Saturday in Padstow, but rain on Sunday up on the north coast of Devon.

On Saturday I paid a visit as part of the TNWC South West Roadtrip to Rowan Tree Studio, a lovely business run by Sarah who offers a range of crafty hen parties, as well as making wedding soap favours.

The afternoon I arrived Sarah was just finishing off a hen party of eighteen, who had spent a fun afternoon making a bridal trousseau. I hadn’t heard of a bridal trousseau, but thankfully Sarah told me more about it:

“Traditionally a bride to be started making her trousseau to take into her marriage often before she had a groom in mind. Mothers and daughters collected special toys, cherished books and family recipes to keep in a trunk or case with monogrammed linens, patchwork quilts, stationary, soaps and much more.”

Charlie

TNWC South West Roadtrip Day 6: visiting the studio of Charlie Scribble

Charlie

I can’t believe that I only have two days left of visiting businesses on the TNWC South West Roadtrip (Sunday is my day off with family) – it has been an incredible week so far and I hope that you’ve enjoyed reading about my adventures.

Yesterday I had a pretty chilled day, which at nearly 29 weeks pregnant I was in need of after the busy week I’ve had. I headed from the south coast of Cornwall, across the county to just outside Wadebridge too meet up with Flo from Charlie Scribble. Flo creates beautiful wedding stationery with a very distinct style that incorporates her beautiful illustrations.

Charlie

TNWC South West Roadtrip Day 5: Lancaster & Cornish, Sarah Wants and The Blue Carrot

Charlie

After the dire weather yesterday, today the south coast of Cornwall has been blessed with blue skies and patches of sun and an almighty wind. I spent the morning in Lostwithiel and then travelled further down the coast to Portscatho and have finally seen the sea.

I’ve met another group of wonderful businesses, all of whom you can find on The Natural Wedding Company directory, and it has been a pleasure to get to know them and hear more about what they do. It’s been a real honour to get an inside look into these small businesses, especially to very private places such as offices, studios, workrooms and cutting gardens.

So this is what I got up to yesterday on the TNWC Roadtrip…

Lancaster & Cornish

A recent addition to the directory and a last minute add on to my visits today, was a trip to the studio office of Lancaster & Cornish. I met the lovely Sian, who runs Lancaster & Cornish, last night at dinner with the ladies from The Garden Gate Flower Company, and was really excited at the prospect of looking at pretty fabrics and lace.

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: Sarah’s been busy with her family working on a number of DIY craft projects for her wedding

Charlie

At about this time I will probably be meeting Susanne from The Blue Carrot in deepest Cornwall, over 300 miles from my home. If you’ve just joined us, this week I am on a TNWC South West Roadtrip travelling around Somerset, Devon and Cornwall visiting a number of the lovely wedding businesses listed in the directory.

This afternoon I have Sarah one of my TNWC Real Brides who is sharing some of her DIY projects that her and her family have been busy creating for their upcoming wedding.

Over to Sarah…

Hi everyone! In this blog I will be writing about some of the creative projects we are doing for the wedding, with less than 3 months to go everything is starting to get a bit crazy!

One of my projects is using a gorgeous old gate dad came across, we were thinking of painting it but soon decided it was perfect as it was. I’m going to use it to display picture of myself and Lee. I’m also going to decorate it with lovely trinkets and bunting along the top.

My mum has been busy making bunting, we were told we’d need 150 meters worth – my mum nearly fainted at the thought! She’s making lots of progress after lots of trouble with it – we sourced our fabric from charity shops and eBay, and I bet it will look stunning!

Charlie

TNWC South West Roadtrip Day 4: The Garden Gate Flower Company with Taylor & Porter Photographs

Charlie

What a lovely day I had yesterday, despite the most miserable drizzly weather in Cornwall. I spent the whole day at The Garden Gate Flower Company (who are based just outside Fowey) with Becca and Maz, generally having a lot of fun with their beautiful flowers.

Our plan was to spend the day creating beautiful wedding hair flowers with the aim to inspire brides-to-be who want to wear flowers in their hair, but don’t feel the big, bold, statement flower crowns are ‘them’.

In the afternoon we were joined by Louise and Teo from Taylor & Porter Photographs, the loveliest couple who’ve recently relocated to Cornwall, and take all their pictures on vintage film cameras – you should definitely check out their work if you want something a bit different for your wedding photography.

Today you get my photos, but soon I’ll be featuring all Louise and Teo’s photos. Can’t wait!