Charlie
Charlie
Happy 1st of December everyone! Yesterday afternoon I mentioned that I was going to make these four weekends in the run up to Christmas all about crafting, decorating and gifts for the festive period, so here I am with the first of those specials. To make it easy to find all the special Christmas blog posts, I’m going to tag them with ‘Natural Wedding Christmas Special’.
Charlie
Charlie
There are so many beautiful wedding ideas out there, but sometimes something pops into my inbox that just seems that little bit extra special. When Caroline from REloved Boutique in Nottingham emailed me to tell me all about the beautiful embroidered wedding scrolls made by her friend Sally I was intrigued.
From her shed studio nicknamed Upsticks Boutique, Sally uses recycled, reclaimed and vintage fabrics to create what I can only describe as art – in particular, she makes these beautiful wedding scrolls with your wedding date and details hand-stitched into them.
They have a variety of uses, from a keepsake of the day (particularly beautiful when framed) to actual wedding invitations to be sent out to your guests. She’s also started making ‘save the dates’ in a similar style, and is keen to expand into all elements of wedding stationery.
Charlie
Charlie
I am slowly beginning to admit that Christmas is on the way, what with my recent blog feature on those stunning festive dessert tables and now Christmas wreaths and workshops.
I absolutely love wreaths, I wish that we were more like the States and had wreaths for different seasons and celebrations throughout the year, and not just Christmas – anyone else up for starting this trend? Perhaps The New Wives Club could get a group of us to make a wreath for each month of 2013 and we could share our pictures? Am I getting carried away 🙂
A number of the lovely florists and flower farmers listed on the TNWC directory have started to release details of upcoming wreath workshops and how to order their Christmas wreaths online, so I thought to help you all out I’d do a feature to showcase a lot of them all in one place.
Plus, there are a couple of exclusive discounts for TNWC readers below, so don’t miss out on those!
Charlie
Charlie
I know that not everyone spends months and months, or even years, planning their wedding, so if that’s you and you’re searching for a beautiful venue for spring 2013, why not take advantage of these special offers at Huntstile Organic Farm?
Set in the stunning Somerset countryside, Huntstile Organic Farm provides you with multiple options, from a cosy farmhouse reception to a marquee in the garden. They also have the added benefit of a Stone Circle for handfasting ceremonies atop a hill with the most incredible views, and a tractor to take drop off your guests in rustic style.
Charlie
Charlie
I really wanted to share some inspiration from this wedding because not only is it beautiful but because I’m very familiar with the lovely lady whose wedding it was. The bride, Brigitte, is one of my lovely readers who whilst planning her wedding was always leaving me sweet comments on my blog posts and Facebook page – it’s so nice to be able to become familiar with one of my readers like that.
Brigitte got married in July at Goldbrick House in Bristol and had the styling help of Kirsten, the talent who is The Little Wedding Helper to make her ideas a reality. To honour Paris, the city they got engaged in Brigitte and her fiance Graham included some nice French touches to their day, which had such a romantic feel to it. What I particularly loved was Brigitte’s table decorations and floral arrangements – you often see weddings inspired by Paris, but I think this one captures that essence the nicest.
Charlie
Charlie
It is increasingly popular at weddings to have a whole table of cakes or desserts rather than a single traditional tiered wedding cake; I had my own with cakes made by our wedding guests, and recently I shared this beautiful new wedding dessert table service from TNWC business And The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon.
Well, Anna and her team from And The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon are back with a festive version, ideal for a winter wedding or Christmas wedding – I was instantly in-love with this dreamy display of cakes, pies, and desserts. All of them are handmade at their bakery in Manchester and they even come and style the table for you, so it looks this beautiful.
I’m going to be taking inspiration from this for my Christmas celebrations!
Anna told me a bit more about this festive cake service: “We wanted to take our standard dessert tables and add a festive twist – if you have a winter wedding we can offer a spread that is delicious and decadent in equal measure! You can treat your friends and family to a range of treats, from delicious mince pies made with our own homemade mincemeat recipe, to the very decadent pear and whiskey tart, or pecan and bourbon brownies.”
Charlie
Charlie
Even I had to admit that Christmas is looming on the horizon, and as someone who likes to buy gifts from small independent sellers via sites like Etsy, I have to start thinking ahead to have enough time for things to arrive.
This morning I have a fantastic offer (nearly 50% off!) on these beautiful bracelets from Rosie Weisencrantz – they would not only make a beautiful Christmas present, whether for yourself or for someone you love, but I also think they’d make stunning bridal jewellery.
Rosie Weisencrantz is well known for her exquisite jewellery and accessories, each piece handcrafted using vintage and antique beads, brooches and trinkets dating as far back as the 1900s.
Charlie
Charlie
It’s with great pleasure that I get to bring you another real wedding from a couple who planned a beautiful, handmade and natural wedding. Bride Laura used a number of TNWC businesses to help her create the wedding that her and groom Charlie dreamed of, and they were even inspired by my own handmade wedding invitations.
I know you are just going to love this wedding and I’m sure you’ll find inspiration for your own day here. So stop what you’re doing, make yourself a cup of tea and settle down to read all about Laura and Charlie’s beautiful day (and if you like specific details you’ll find links to all the suppliers at the bottom of the post)…
Laura and Charlie got married on a very rainy Saturday in July at Silchester House in Berkshire. “We wanted the wedding to be fairly informal and very relaxed. Charlie and I are very casual so it would have felt a bit false to go for something overly traditional. We tried to make the day feel like ‘us’ wherever possible.”
“We also avoided having a specific colour scheme as we wanted everything to be as organic and natural as possible. I think this approach made planning the wedding a bit more work – we ended up DIYing lots of the elements when we couldn’t find any alternatives that we liked – but seeing everything come together just as we wanted made it worthwhile.”
Charlie
Charlie
On Saturday I shared Jennie Hill’s lovely photos from the Eco Wedding Fair (you can see it all here), and today I’ve got my pictures of my stall and a few more details about how I decorated it. Perhaps you’ll find some inspiration for your wedding or just an autumn or winter celebration you might be planning.
We arrived at Riverstation in Bristol at about 9am and first we had to: unpack a number of boxes of what at first glance probably looked like a pile of junk, carry two heavy buckets of sand up a flight of stairs, and manoeuvre a bundle of 7ft long bamboo canes. I was so pleased that the other exhibitors had equally quirky bootfuls for their stalls!
My mom and I had two hours to set up before visitors started arriving, so here’s what I did with the mottley collection of items. I used a pair of curtains to cover my table – they are a rather fun botanical print style curtain with what looks like horse chestnut leaves on them, and they ended up working in perfectly with that autumn feel I was going for.
The two metal buckets of sand went either side of the table and they held some of my bamboo canes – apologies this is the best picture I have which shows the bamboo canes and bunting…
Charlie
Charlie
So this time last week my mom and I were at the Eco Wedding Fair in Bristol – if you follow me on Twitter or Instagram you might have seen some pictures I took whilst we were there, but I wanted to share the day in full and also show you what my stall looked like.
Today I’ve got all the pictures from the wedding fair as captured by the talented Jennie Hill (who is utterly lovely, so definitely check her out if you’re looking for a wedding photographer). I will have a follow up post to share my stall in more detail so keep an eye out for it.
It was wonderful to be part of the Eco Wedding Fair and to see the fruition of Riverstation’s Michelle and Sally’s hard work. There were about 20 exhibitors in total and we had the beautiful upstairs room at Riverstation for our venue – seriously, the view of the harbour is incredible, I can see why it is so popular with brides and grooms.
The Eco Wedding Fair – Saturday 3rd November 2012
Take a look at these pretty goody bags that were given out to 100 lucky brides…
There was champagne on hand as people arrived…
Vintage blue and green glass bottles filled with flowers on the Auntie’s Vintage China stall…
