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Holly and Laurie’s English picnic wedding in Shropshire with country garden flowers and handmade details

Izzy

English picnic wedding

I have got some truly lovely exclusive real weddings coming up for you on the blog, so I do hope you’ll check back over the coming weeks to soak up all the wonderful inspiration these brides and grooms have to share.

Today’s real wedding is beautiful. I feel like I’ve got to know bride Holly over the past year or so as she emailed me a couple of times in the lead up to her wedding – not only was she inspired by my own wedding stationery, but she also won her wedding photography via a competition that I’d promoted on the blog!

Holly and Laurie got married in Shropshire on the 15th of September 2012 with a wedding ceremony held at Ludlow Castle, and followed up by a picnic wedding reception at Henley Farmhouse on the Acton Scott Estate.

Over to Holly to tell us all about their wonderful day…

“We both just wanted a really relaxed wedding where all our guests could just have fun. We wanted a day that was personal to us – we didn’t have a huge budget so we knew from the start that we would probably be doing lots of the work ourselves – with the help of our friends and family.”

“We actually found searching for a venue one of the most stressful parts of planning, we were looking for a blank canvas without lists of suppliers we had to use and we didn’t have lots of money to spend so we struggled to find somewhere. I grew up in Shropshire and loved the idea of a Shropshire country wedding.”

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: Emma’s latest crafting projects and and worries about the small things on their wedding ‘to do’ list

Charlie

So we had a little break last week from our TNWC Real Brides series – the first of our real brides, Caroline, got married on May 18th in a beautiful farm wedding (you can see a gorgeous picture of Caroline and Gareth on their wedding day here on Facebook) and I can’t wait to hear all about it.

Today we have Emma back with us, and she only has 8 weeks to go until her big day in Cornwall. These weddings are all coming so quickly! She has a couple of gorgeous craft projects to share with you all today – a pretty decorated bottles for table flowers, a homemade blackboard seating plan, and the sweetest aisle liners I’ve seen.

Over to Emma to tell you what they’ve been up to…

All The Small Things (seem to bring the biggest headache)

Up until a week ago I was feeling calm, organised and under control with the planning going swimmingly. Then suddenly with less than 8 weeks to go (EXCITED!) I started to get a bit worrisome. All the big things have been well and truly ticked off the list but the little things seem like they have started breed!

I suspect this happens to every bride and the point at which where ‘bridezilla’ may start to rear her ugly head, I can feel it bubbling beneath the surface now… I think the main problem is worrying that we will forget something! Like having enough tables for the caterer to put food on, sorting out music for the ceremony and how we are going to play it outside in the amphitheatre.

I have been worrying about things that we had slightly overlooked; like what we can feed our vegan guests when we are having a hog roast and cream tea (slight fail). The only oven on site is an outdoor pizza oven…hmmm, still to be solved.

Charlie

The House Meadow Open Weekend in Kent on 25th and 26th May 2013

Charlie

Coming up this weekend TNWC wedding venue The House Meadow are holding an open weekend for all you lovely brides- and grooms-to-be out there who are looking for a beautiful meadow setting for your wedding day.

If you’re looking to get married in Kent, or if you’re on the hunt for that dream spot to say your vows beneath a tree in an English meadow, then you must get yourselves along this weekend to take a look at what The House Meadow has to offer.

The House Meadow is described as “country charm in its purest form.” It’s one of those special places that can be a completely blank (and rather stunning!) backdrop to enable you to create the wedding you want. The meadow is full of beautiful details, whilst remaining rustic – something that is so often difficult to find amongst wedding venues.

Charlie

Celebrating our second wedding anniversary with a bespoke apple blossom keepsake print from Lucy Says I Do

Charlie

Today Mr Rigg and I are celebrating our 2nd wedding anniversary. Two years ago today (or at least this past weekend), we were saying our “I do’s” and celebrating with 70 of our closest family and friends. If you’re new to the blog and would like to see some photos from our wedding you can find them all here.

This year is pretty special as we’re sharing it with a new addition, a little person in my belly that likes to wriggle around and remind us that it’s here and on it’s way. Last year we celebrated with a picnic dinner on our allotment, this year it’s the cinema and a meal out – as we are being told so often we should make the most of this baby free time. Personally, I’m just too excited about this baby arriving to currently care about forfeited meals out and trips to the cinema.

Neither me nor Mr Rigg are particularly big on celebrating anniversaries, or buying each other extravagant gifts, but this year I felt the urge to create something as a lovely reminder of our wedding day. With so many lovely businesses featured on The Natural Wedding Company directory, I am always seeing beautiful ideas not only for weddings, but for holidays and gifts, and much more.

This was how I came across Lucy Says I Do. A relatively recent addition to the directory, Lucy Says I Do is run by Lucy Clark (of this incredibly beautiful wedding), who it turns out hired our wedding photographer Mark Tattersall to capture her day after seeing our wedding pictures. As well as creating rather beautiful wedding stationery, Lucy also designs prints incorporating your wedding vows, poems or readings.

Charlie

A vintage-eco wedding photoshoot with quirky styling and a brooch bouquet at The Pines Calyx

Charlie

Last autumn a group of local Kent wedding businesses got together to create a wedding photoshoot inspired by all things vintage and eco-friendly. They created a number of different looks and I have some of them here today to share with you, featuring some pretty vintage dresses, dainty crockery, lovely florals and an exquisite brooch bouquet.

The shoot was another collaboration between TNWC photographer Rebecca Douglas and make-up artist Suzanna who created this ethereal harvest shoot I featured last year. This time, Rebecca and Suzanna swapped the English country field for the beautiful eco-chic The Pines Calyx wedding venue, also one of our TNWC businesses.

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: Caroline’s final guest post with just two sleeps until her handmade, eco-friendly farm wedding

Charlie

This is a pretty special post today – in just two days my first ever TNWC Real Bride will be getting hitched! The lovely Caroline will be getting married to her Mr-to-be Gareth this coming Saturday in Nottinghamshire. I love this weekend and time of year, it’s the same weekend two years ago that me and my Mr got married, and despite the recent rain the countryside is looking stunning.

Caroline started sharing her wedding journey with us back in February, and now three months later her big day has almost arrived. She has one last post to share with us all, and I’m delighted to hear that she’s already keen to come back and tell us all about the wedding in a couple of weeks.

For everyone who’s followed along with Caroline’s plans for a laid back, eco-friendly farm wedding, I hope you enjoy this last instalment, and if you have a moment to leave her some well wishes that would be lovely. Over to Caroline…

Wow- this is it – 2 more sleeps to go until the big day! I honestly can’t quite believe that in 2 days time I’ll be waking up on the morning of my wedding day! (It’s 5.30am as I’m writing this – have pretty much given up on sleeping beyond 5am this week – way too excited!)

I’ve managed to wangle the whole week off work, thanks to friends and family pitching in and taking care of REloved for me, so we’re properly able to enjoy this last week of getting everything ready. Gareth and I have soooooo many lists all over the house, that get a bit shorter, then a bit longer, then a bit shorter again, and now the only things left are the fun bits – the final touches, and I’m loving it!

300 Metres of Fairy Lights

We’ve decided to leave a lot of the barn decorating until Friday, after a torrential downpour last Thursday left rather a lot of puddles all over the floor (eeek!) but thank goodness, it seems that ‘normal’ rain showers are ok, as its pretty much rained every day since on and off and other than a couple of drips its all ok!

We have however been busy collecting small hay bales from a local farmer and making sofas in the barn, and a couple of nights ago Gareth asked me to go out to help him move a few of them and when I walked into the barn, he’d only gone and strung up 300 metres of fairy lights, so instead of an old cow shed, for the first time I walked into a wedding venue and it pretty much took my breath away.

Charlie

Rustic brown ‘Thank You’ luggage tag postcards from Wedding in a Teacup

Charlie

Wedding blogs, TNWC included, focus lots on the actual day, but when it’s all over there’s usually the business of thanking those who helped and who came along to share your celebrations with you.

When I spotted these new ‘Thank You Very Much’ postcards from TNWC business Wedding in a Teacup I was certain they would be a hit with a number of my readers. They combine a number of elements that are so popular here on this blog – beautiful brown card, luggage tags, and postcards.

Charlie

A virtual visit to the Etsy Wedding Event showcasing British designers and artists

Charlie

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook you’ll probably know that this past weekend I went to London for the first Etsy UK Wedding Event. It was a fabulous showcase of British Etsy sellers who are crafting beautiful wedding items and I was delighted to be invited to get involved.

I’ve long been a fan (and customer) of Etsy, a number of my TNWC businesses have Etsy shops, and I’ve always tried to support small hand,are businesses by featuring their work here on the blog.

No doubt there are lots of you who would have liked to attend the event on Saturday but were unable to, so I wanted to try my best to share the experience here on the blog. With a little help from my sister Izzy Burton we’ve created a sort of virtual showcase of just some of what was on display at the event in the form on inspiration boards.

I do hope you enjoy having a look around!

Charlie

An ode to snake’s head fritillary – wedding inspiration using this unusual native British spring flower

Charlie

Here at The Natural Wedding Company I love to promote seasonality, and to encourage and inspire couples to choose to plan their weddings fitting in with the season whether that be flowers, food, or decorations. Choosing seasonal blooms for your wedding flowers is one way to reduce the environmental impact of your big day (rather than imported flowers), as well as reflecting the beautiful and varied times of year.

Recently on my Facebook feed I’ve been seeing one particular spring flower popping up in bouquets from various TNWC flower businesses – the snake’s head fritillary. This very dainty bell like bloom is a native English flower that makes it appearance during the spring months.

Following on from my previous floral ‘odes’ (‘an ode to violets’ and ‘an ode to old-fashioned roses’) today I’m going to showcase the snake’s head fritillary. From bouquets and buttonholes to table centrepieces, I’m going to show you how you can incorporate it into your spring wedding.

Image: The Garden Gate Flower Company

I’m delighted to have put together this feature on the snake’s head fritillary with the help of some of my talented TNWC flower businesses. As I know many of you are planning your wedding and searching for a florist who grows their own or sources local British blooms, I’ve included their details and where they are based in the country as all of them provide stunning flowers for weddings.

Bouquets and Posies

When it comes to wedding flowers what better place to start than with bouquets. Every bride needs a bouquet and I have a beautiful selection here to showcase all featuring the dainty snake’s head fritillary.

First up this seasonal spring bouquet from Susanne at The Blue Carrot based down in Cornwall. Along with the snake’s head fritillary, Susanne used the following homegrown flowers: parrot, double and single tulips from her tunnel; hellebores; narcissi, ranunculus; and feverfew. She also added a few sprays of jasmine, which she bought as a plant from B&Q and used the cuttings.

Flowers: The Blue Carrot

Here’s a close up of this beautiful bouquet – I particularly love how Susanne combines colour, with the sweet shop pastels set off by the addition of those deep, velvety purple hellebores.

Flowers: The Blue Carrot

Charlie

Flash ticket giveaway for the Etsy Wedding Event in London this Saturday 11th May 2013 – win a pair of tickets!

Charlie

*This ticket giveaway is now closed 12:00 09/05/13*

Evening lovely friends! You might have heard that this weekend in London it’s the first ever Etsy UK Wedding Event, and it looks set to be a cracking day. I’ve got five pairs of tickets to the afternoon to giveaway to some of my lucky readers, so keep reading to find out how you could get your mitts on a pair.

The Etsy Wedding Event is taking place in Soho in London this Saturday 11th May 2013, and will be full of wedding inspiration, including a selection of unique handmade and vintage items. I’m told there will be a little bit of everything on show from decor and dresses to stationery and tableware!

Here’s one of my Etsy wedding inspiration boards as featured on the Etsy blog this week

As well as a selection of handpicked Etsy sellers there will DIY workshops running throughout the day. Hosted by Parapluie Events, these DIY workshops will let you have a go at making a selection of wedding decorations from colour themed pom-poms to bride and groom pegs.

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