Blog

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: Myfanwy and Tom’s handmade mini milk jug wedding favours and woollen heart place names

Charlie

Our lovely TNWC Real Brides are really planning some most beautiful things for their weddings, and today Myfanwy is no exception as she tells you about the stunning wedding favours they are making (wish I was a guest at this wedding!).

This week we just have the one TNWC Real Bride post but will be back next week to hear from Caroline who is into the final countdown to her wedding which is a week on Saturday! I can’t wait to hear what’s her and her Mr-to-be Gareth are up to in their last week.

Over to Myfawny to tell us about these gorgeous wedding favours her and Tom have been making…

Within a few days of being engaged we’d decided on our favours, Tom tells it differently, he says I told him about the favours… I’m sure he volunteered!

Tom is a potter and has been for nearly 10 years now, his style is very unique and exceptionally fine pottery for hand thrown work. His normal range is exquisite kitchen ware. When we opened our tea shop Tom decided to make a range of new jugs that we could use and sell in the shop, serving milk to customers in them.

These have proven extremely popular, I personally use them as mini vases for flowers. Everyone enjoys these jugs so much and Tom told me they were relatively easy make so we’ve decided these will be our favours!

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: Nik’s floral conundrum and her thrifty ideas for wedding flowers on a budget

Charlie

I hope you are all enjoying reading the wedding adventures of our TNWC Real Brides – they are all planning such varied but personal days and I can’t believe that it’s almost time for some of them to actually get married! Today we have the lovely Nik who is planning a two part wedding and she’s got some fab ideas for being thrifty with your wedding flowers….enjoy!

Tick Tock!

Before I launch into today’s post, I just wanted announce that there’s only just over two months to go ’til we say “I do”!!

This is both terrifying and very exciting. On the one hand, soon I will be married to the love of my life, which is indescribably surreal and wonderful; but on the other hand, I’m a terrible coordinator in charge of the biggest day of my own life, and am constantly terrified that I’m forgetting something important! I hope this is a normal fear, and I keep reminding myself that we want a simple, relaxed day and that the ONLY important thing is that we come away from it married to one another.

All Things Floral

This month, I thought I’d give you a rundown of the many ways we plan to feature flowers/plants in our wedding celebrations. With our wedding being split into two parts, two days apart, it was crucial that we came up with floristry solutions that would ensure we could decorate both our venues, but that also fit within our relatively small budget of £200.

Fortunately, I’m not a fan of huge arrangements or expensive blooms – I much prefer a rustic, simple, ‘thrown in a tin can’ kind of feel and adore wild flowers and abundant foliage, so I’m happy to go with a ‘whatever I can get my hands on’ approach.

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: Emma’s pre-wedding wobble about having her photo taken and how her engagement shoot helped

Charlie

Well firstly I want to announce that this is my 1,000th blog post! Whoop whoop! I can barely believe it, but it seems like a pretty neat achievement. What could be nicer than my 1,000th blog post being written by one of my lovely TNWC Real Brides? Today we have Emma back with us and she’s sharing her super sweet engagement photoshoot, along with her feelings on being photographed on her ‘big day’.

I think it’s fair to say there’s a great number of us brides-to-be who aren’t thrilled about being photographed all day long, I was pretty apprehensive about the whole thing, but my experience was that we picked the right photographer for us (the lovely Mark Tattersall) and we both felt so at ease (plus we were pretty loved up all day!).

For any of you worried about having your photo taken on your wedding day, I hope reading about Emma’s worries and her experience of having an engagement photoshoot helps you feel that it will all turn out fine…

Last month I had a wobble; the only real wobble I’ve had in this whole wedding planning process. I started to freak out about having my photograph taken on the big day. This is probably because I have always been the one behind the camera and despite having taken photographs at lots of weddings, I had never really thought about what I would feel like; really feel like, on my actual wedding day.

I am really good at reassuring the brides I have photographed myself but was worried I wouldn’t be able to reassure myself, so started to worry I would have a mini meltdown about being in front of the lens. So I picked up the phone to our photographer and booked an engagement shoot…

Charlie

Introducing Ellie Gillard Photography and an exclusive 15% off your wedding photography

Charlie

I hope you’ve all had a great weekend and that the sun shone for you, at least a bit. What better way to start the week than with an exclusive offer for all you lovely TNWC readers!

One of recent additions to the directory, Ellie Gillard Photography, was keen to introduce herself to you – I was delighted because not only does Ellie take gorgeous photographs, but like all our businesses she does her bit to run her business in an eco-friendly way.

So if you’re on the hunt for a wedding photographer then get to know Ellie Gillard Photography a bit more, and enjoy looking at some beautiful pictures from weddings she’s captured. Plus, at the bottom you’ll find an exclusive 15% off last minute availability offer if you book before the end of May 2013! Over to Ellie…

Hi, I’m Ellie. I’m the photographer, owner and general dogsbody at Ellie Gillard Photography. I love to photograph couples who want to break for the norm, I always think a picture says a thousand words but what you might not know is that I’m also eco-friendly, both in my life and in the way I run my business. So I make four key promises.

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: Stephanie’s been making homemade honeybee themed gifts for her bridesmaids

Charlie

I’m so delighted that we had an American bride-to-be amongst our TNWC Real Brides as although British and American weddings are similar in so many ways, there are little extras that I love hearing about. Stephanie is getting married this September at a beautiful farm in Rhode Island and her guest post today is all about the homemade gifts she made for her bridesmaids and Matron (or Maid) of Honour.

As well as making the gifts herself, she also sourced honey from her dad who is a beekeeper, so really keeping her wedding details in her family. Plus I am an absolute sucker for honey, always picking up locally produced jars whenever we are visiting new places. I’m sure you will find some lovely inspiration from Stephanie’s blog post today…

I was really excited about asking my sister and a few girlfriends to be in my wedding party, so I really wanted to do something a bit more personalized and special than simply asking them on the phone or over some coffee.

I’ve been in a dreamcatcher phase lately and have been making them from old scraps of fabric and other items around the house. They’re pretty basic, but my sister, Dayna, has loved every one; naturally, I decided to make her a dreamcatcher of her very own as a gift when I asked her to be my Matron of Honor. I also thought it made sense since I’ll be making a few for my reception… I need all the practice I can get!

Charlie

A personal post with some exciting news: my 21 week secret is finally out!

Charlie

How I have ummed and aahed about how to word this post, how to title it, how to share this exciting news with you. So I’ll try to cut out the waffle and just tell you…

My husband Nick and I are expecting our first baby!

This week I have reached 21 weeks and have a small bump (see below!) that hides a very active tiny person that regularly reminds me it’s there and growing.

Having run this business for 6 years now (happy birthday TNWC!) it has given me the opportunity to meet so many incredible people, both running wedding businesses, and brides- and grooms-to-be, and it is such a pleasure to be able to share this news with all of you lovely friends.

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: Caroline tells us about making a wedding cake and getting help from family and friends

Charlie

The countdown for TNWC Real Bride Caroline has really begun – her wedding is less than a month away now so preparations are going at full tilt! Caroline, and her Mr-to-be Gareth, are planning a very homemade wedding on their farm in Nottinghamshire with a picnic lunch full of local produce. On top of it all, this month Caroline has been busy making a wedding cake for her friends wedding!

Over to Caroline to tell you what she’s been up to in the lead-up to her wedding…

Well the most exciting news this month is that the cows are out of the barns and in the fields!!!

The clean up job has officially begun! This is the bit where I gracefully bow out (I have sooooooo much crafting to do so not possibly time to get up to my elbows in cow poo!!) and leave the mucking out, power hosing and yard sweeping to the boys.

Charlie

‘Something beautiful is on the horizon’: coming up next week an exciting announcement on the blog

Charlie

I have an exciting announcement to make on the blog next week. Can’t tell you any more yet…but do stay tuned here on the blog, on my Facebook page and on Twitter!

In the meantime, I hope you’ll enjoy catching up on recent blog posts including the latest from our TNWC Real Brides, an alternative wedding cake made from doughnut holes, a cute version of the ‘tying the knot’ save the date inspired by my own wedding stationery, and these sweet animal ears silhouette place cards.

Plus tomorrow I have another New Wives Club post to share with you, a lovely crafty idea for masking tape that I think is pretty nifty.

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: Sarah has been hunting down an affordable country tweed suit for her groom-to-be

Charlie

On Tuesday we had the lovely Myfanwy telling us all about the fab tea towel wedding invitations she’d been making, and how her Mr-to-be Tom had recruited their cute daschund Arthur to help punch out confetti. Today we have TNWC Real Bride Sarah back with us, and she’s been helping her fiancé Lee look for a country style tweed suit at an affordable price.

Over to Sarah to tell you more…

Hi everyone! Hope you all had a lovely Easter, this month I will be writing about my struggles to find the perfect suit for my groom.

When we first began organising the wedding Lee began researching the type of suit he’d like for the wedding, and quickly decided he’d like a tweed, country looking suit to fit in with our relaxed, vintage theme. He showed me a photo he’d found on Google and so we began to try and find something similar.

Initially we wanted to hire the suits and so we began to research local hire shops, but soon found none of them hired anything other than plain, or over the top suits which wasn’t really us. And so we made the choice to buy the suits.

Charlie

Elegant but rustic ‘tying the knot’ save the dates inspired by my handmade wedding stationery

Charlie

When someone adds one of my blog post links to there’s I get a message about it, so I was delighted when I got this one and discovered that someone had been inspired by my own save the dates. Quite by surprise the save the dates we made for our wedding have become one of the most popular blog posts I’ve featured and many, many TNWC readers have recreated their own versions – I love seeing them all.

Most often people use the recycled brown card that I myself fell in love with, but these ones created by an American letterpress and stationery company use a white card and are equally beautiful. The couple were inspired by the ‘tying the knot’ version of my save the dates (another ‘most viewed’ blog post) where a knot is tied in twine as you open the save the date.

Seasonal wedding ideas:

Spring

Summer

Autumn

Winter

DIY + Inspiration

Real Weddings

Suppliers + Products

Browse the blog:

Planning

Advertise

Get your eco wedding business listed on our directory