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Charlie

Edible spring flower lollipops with violas and primroses for sweet Easter wedding favours

Charlie

I’ve been meaning to share this idea with you for a while, but what could be more perfect than sharing them now – well, apparently it’s supposed to be the start of spring although the snow across the UK suggests otherwise.

These homemade lollipops each hold a pretty edible spring flower, such as these beautiful primroses, and would make lovely wedding favours for an Easter or spring wedding. These ones were made by our lovely TNWC businesses Forage For.

The tiny violas or violets are just the right size to be kept whole in a lollipop, whereas the larger pansies can have an individual petal carefully removed and used instead. You can find a recipe for the edible flower lollipops at Sprinkle Bakes – I particularly love that you don’t need to buy special lollipop moulds, but can in fact use powdered sugar to create your mould! If you’d rather not add another item to your already lengthy ‘to make’ wedding list, then I’d recommend checking out Eat My Flowers who make them with their homegrown edible flowers – you’ll find them in their shop.

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: Stephanie on deciding their wedding style and choosing farmers market flowers

Charlie

Rounding up the second guest posts from our TNWC Real Brides is Stephanie talking about a subject I love – flowers. As well as revealing details of her seasonal farmers market-sourced flowers, Stephanie also shares Pinterest helped her realise the style for their wedding.

When we got engaged we began to receive a lot of questions pertaining to the style of the actual wedding: What will your colors be? Where is it going to be? What types of flowers will you have? My initial thought was “My God, we’ve only been engaged for ten seconds… I have no idea about any of these things!”

Honestly, I began to panic a little bit because I wondered if perhaps I should already have some sort of idea of what I wanted. I began to pour through blogs, wedding magazines – whatever I could get my hands on – and felt even more overwhelmed! After a few weeks of this I decided just to take a step back and relax. I realized that I was allowed to move at my own pace and all of these questions were not meant to stress me out; they were well-intended and out of pure excitement for Justin and myself.

Charlie

Win a beautiful personalised embroidered map of your wedding location from House of Whatnot

Charlie

*Please note this competition is now closed 28/03/13*

There are some lovely little businesses out there and when an email drops into my inbox from one who creates a product that I utterly love, it’s a pure pleasure to share details (and a competition!) with you all. Today I get to introduce you to Sally who runs House of Whatnot creating these beautiful framed maps with embroidered personalised details.

If, like me, you fall head-over-heels for Sally’s delightful keepsakes, then you might want to enter the competition at the bottom of the blog post – one lucky couple will win a personalised framed map, featuring a special location to you picked out with an embroidered heart and your initials. I am just so envious of whoever wins this!

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: Caroline tells us about their picnic style wedding lunch and foodie favours

Charlie

Another Tuesday rolls around and I have another lovely guest blog from a TNWC Real Bride. Today Caroline who is planning an eco-friendly farm wedding is sharing her delicious sounding plans for a picnic style wedding lunch, foodie wedding favours and a pork pie wedding cake. Yum yum!

I’d advise reading this while munching a biscuit or your own lunch or you are likely to feel extremely hungry by the end of it…you’ve been warned!

Eleven weeks to go, and the lists are getting longer, hours spend asleep are getting shorter (I keep waking up in the middle of the night remembering things I have to do – it is SUCH a good idea to have a pen and paper next to the bed to write them down!). And the spare room is getting fuller and fuller of wedding related paraphernalia!

I thought that for this months blog post, I’d share our food plans with you, as planning and organising that bit is proving to be heaps of fun, and I think one of the most enjoyable and important parts of our day.

Gareth and I are both big foodies, and we try to buy locally wherever we can, and having a picnic lunch is a brilliant way to be able to use local suppliers and get to know lovely local food producers in our area. It’s also a fab way to make sure the foods amazing, even on a limited budget!

Picnic Wedding Menu

So far for our menu we’ve decided on:

Sourdough and olive bread from Welbeck Bakery, ham and smoked salmon pate from The Country Victualler, lots of homemade chutney from my lovely friend Jo, bags of Pipers Crisps, cheeses from Long Clawson Dairy (Thomas Hoe Red Leicester and Stilton), Lincolnshire poacher cheese, Mike Maloneys pork pies, salads made by my brilliant big sister (we haven’t decided quite what salads yet though!), houmous, grapes, apples and celery.

I’m sure there will be a few extras added too though, and we have a lovely farm shop just down the road who I’m sure will be having lot of last minute visits from us!

Charlie

Tribes Travel share their top 5 honeymoon destinations from secluded beaches to wildlife adventures

Charlie

Here on The Natural Wedding Company blog I’ve recently been introducing some guest bloggers in the form of my TNWC Real Brides – it’s been lovely for me to share the blog with others, and I hope you’ve been enjoying their wedding plans so far. Today I’m going to hand the blog over to one of my fab TNWC businesses to tell you all about something they specialise in – stunning, ethical honeymoons.

Amanda set up Tribes Travel with her husband 15 years ago after spending many years as a travel guide. Their ethos for Tribes Travel is all about giving you the very best holiday experience possible, whilst trying to ensure that travel is sustainable. You must check out their website for some of the wonderful holidays and trips they offer, but today Amanda is going to give you her recommendations for their top five honeymoon destinations.

Over to Amanda…

Someone in our office is getting married and we were discussing where she should go on her honeymoon. Since selling holidays and honeymoons is what we do, we of course all had definite personal views as to what would make the perfect honeymoon.

A beach came high on the list of many of us, luxury was a must, and romantic accommodation was undeniably important. We decided to forgo what some of our more active clients have chosen in the past for a honeymoon – Kilimanjaro!

Our top 5 honeymoon destinations eventually came down to the following list of exciting holidays and wonderful places to stay.

1. Luxury Kenya Bush and Beach

We are all wildlife and nature lovers, and this luxury combination of an exciting safari in the Masai Mara followed by an indulgent stay at an exclusive beach house on the southern coast of Kenya certainly worked for us. Not only is the accommodation on this honeymoon absolutely superb, personal and romantic, but you’ll end up with memories to treasure of the special places and experiences you’ll enjoy on this holiday.

Charlie

A round-up of spring events, workshops and open days from our TNWC businesses – from flower arranging to giant tipis

Charlie

I am currently working on some improvements to the website and blog, which I am really excited about and hope to get ‘live’ soon. I’m hoping one of the those improvements will be a dedicated events pages where you can find out, all in one place, the brilliant events, open days, fairs, and workshops that TNWC businesses are hosting around the country.

In the meantime, with so many coming up in the couple of months I thought I’d do a round-up so you can see if there’s any that take your fancy.

March 2013

Event in a Tent Open Weekend – Cheshire

Event in a Tent Open Weekend on Friday 22nd March 2013 from 3pm – 5pm, Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th March 2013 from 11am – 5pm at Delamere Forest.

“If you want your event to stand out from the crowd then our tipis are just the ticket! Our tipis are known by a couple of names, Giant hats, Katas and stratus or cirrus tents. Whatever the name, we know you will love them! So, if you think the tipis are perfect for your event, get comfy, and have a look around – we’re sure you will love them just as much as we do!”

For full details visit www.event-in-a-tent.co.uk.

Grow Your Own Cut Flowers – Kent

Run by Blooming Green on Saturday 23rd March 2013 from 10am – 3pm at Loddington Farm.

“Learn the tricks of growing a regular supply of organic, long-lasting cut flowers, from sowing to picking to conditioning your stems. Refreshments and delicious lunch using local produce, plus flower goodies to take away.”

Cost: £100. To book a place visit www.bloominggreenflowers.co.uk/events/grow-your-own-cut-flowers-3.

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: Sarah has been dreaming up a very vintage afternoon tea for their homemade wedding

Charlie

Welcome back to another fab guest post from one of our TNWC Real Brides. Today we’re joined by Sarah who is planning a homemade child-friendly wedding to her Mr-to-be Lee. She’s been a very busy lady (along with her mum) collection a mass of vintage china for their wedding, as I’m sure many of you are…

Hi everybody!

So much has changed since I wrote my last blog post, it would seem that as the wedding gets closer our plans and ideas develop and change.

But one thing we have set in stone is our plans for wedding food, which from the start of our planning we have always been pretty certain of what we wanted.

After the service we will be having an afternoon tea, which fits in perfectly with our relaxed theme for the day. We will be having a selection of sandwiches, sweet and savoury pastries along with scones and other sweet treats. There will also be coffee and a selection of teas served with the meal. This will all be served on vintage china cups and saucers and vintage cake stands which my mum has been collecting for a few months now!

Charlie

Special discounted places for TNWC brides on ‘Grow Your Own Wedding Flowers’ course from Green & Gorgeous

Charlie

There really are some wonderful and exciting courses and workshops popping up at the moment, I must book onto a few more as those that I have done I have loved. TNWC business Green & Gorgeous always have a fabulous programme of courses throughout the year, but have just added to new ones especially for those getting married – and I have a special discount on them just for you!

This summer Green & Gorgeous will be running two special courses, one called ‘Grow You Own Wedding Flowers’ and the other ‘Arrange Your Own Wedding Flowers’. Rachel from Green & Gorgeous told me that it will be a great opportunity “to enjoy the unique and deeply satisfying experience of watching your wedding flowers grow from a few seeds to armfuls of fresh, garden grown blooms.”

Having previously attending a Green & Gorgeous flower course I can definitely recommend them – I went with my mum just before my own wedding and we learnt how to arrange with cut flowers. You can read about my experience here and see the beautiful arrangements we created.

Below is a little more detail on each of the courses, which are being run on multiple dates during April 2013, and then the special TNWC discount.

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: Myfanwy on brewing up homemade elderflower champagne and crafting origami flowers

Charlie

It’s that lovely time of the week when we get to hear from one of the TNWC Real Brides. Today, Myfanwy is sharing details of the homemade elderflower champagne that her and her Mr-to-be Tom have been brewing up for their wedding. She’s also done a great ‘how to’ guide for these pretty origami flowers she’s been making from old book pages.

If you’re new to the TNWC Real Brides feature, you can read Myfanwy’s first guest post here on her plans for a creative vintage-inspired wedding. I hope you enjoy Myfanwy’s latest update…

It’s been a busy few weeks finalising the bid decisions for the wedding, the catering, the dress, the DJ! These are things we wanted to get done over the winter before our shop re-opens at Easter.

So now the major details are pretty much done this leaves plenty of time for us to make and prepare the little handmade details that we feel are important to us. We’ve made a list (got to love a list!) of tasks to do each month.

Making elderflower champagne

February’s list included starting off the elderflower champagne and making origami paper flowers. We have decided to have a drinks reception when we arrive the tipi’s for people to help themselves. We thought of having some bottles of local beer, the inevitable Pimms and really wanted something else a little bit different. Our friends had made some elderflower champagne a couple of years ago and we’d rally enjoyed it. It’s lucky we looked into making it so early on, we hadn’t realised that once bottled it needs to stand for 3-4 months!

Equipment was really easy to get hold of in fact Dorset Homebrew sell and elderflower champagne making kit with a recipe and all the equipment you need to get started on you first brew. Or of course the River Cottage recipe is really easy to get hold of online – we plan on trying this one when elderflower is in bloom.

Charlie

Win the beautiful Zara veil from Minna and take a look at their beautiful new collection of ethical wedding dresses

Charlie

Please note: Minna is now Indiebride London.

*Please note – this competition is now closed 20/03/13

Already this year we have had some great competitions on The Natural Wedding Company, and today’s prize is up there with the most gorgeous.

Finish designed Minna Hepburn has recently launched her 2013 collection of exquisite wedding dresses to her beautiful brand Minna, and to celebrate that launch one lucky TNWC bride will win the Zara veil worth over £100 – read on for full details of how to enter.

The new collection which is called “Love Letter” was inspired by an old petticoat and a love letter found at an antique market, and adds more delicious and affordable wedding dresses in Minna’s ethereal style. All of the dresses are handmade in Minna’s London studio and range from floor sweeping gowns to mid-length dresses from between £360 and £800.

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