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Charlie

Quirky and eco-friendly hand drawn wedding stationery from Hollyhock Lane with an exclusive reader discount

Charlie

I am loving the influx of talented illustrators who are turning their hand to creating stunning wedding stationery that is not only beautiful, but in many cases eco-friendly too. Today I want to introduce you to Hollyhock Lane, a brand new wedding stationery business set up by artist and illustrator Julie Annis.

Plus, Julie is offering readers of The Natural Wedding Company an exclusive 15% discount on all orders placed before August 20th 2012, so if you love her designs below or want a bespoke design, simply mention The Natural Wedding Company when you get in touch with Julie.

From her little cottage in rural Sussex, Julie is busy dreaming up and creating quirky wedding stationery that has all the charm and creativity that I certainly was searching for when planning my wedding. Hollyhock Lane provides a collection of ready designed stationery or you can commission Julie to create a bespoke design that intimately captures the essence of your wedding day.

The Hollyhock Lane Collections:

Hazy Woodland

Inspired by Julie’s own woodland wedding – whether you’re getting married in the woods or are using nature as an inspiration.

Charlie

Inspire your younger wedding guests by creating a natural flower carpet

Charlie

I am always on the lookout for something new and original to share with you, so I was quite intrigued when I received an email from Camelia telling me about her wonderful business Sea Mandala and the flower carpets she helps you to create.

These flower carpets are a wonderful way to get your family and friends to create a unique piece of art at your wedding day, and look incredibly engaging for kids.

Before Camelia got in touch I had never heard of a mandala or flower carpets, so I asked her a few questions to help understand the creative process…

So what is a flower carpet? “A flower carpet is an art design that is created out of an exuberance of petals and other colourful natural material through the contributions of children and adults at a wedding ceremony. It is a beautiful and aromatic space that creates a lasting impression on onlookers and participants alike and provides for wonderful unique photographs of the couple placing handfuls of petals onto the evolving design.

The design evolves through the energy of the people that pass through it and their contribution with a handful or more of the materials on display. Children love it and adults feel inspired to contribute a handful of material towards the evolving design through the duration of the wedding party.”

Charlie

Rustic postcard save the dates with stamped lettering on recycled brown card

Charlie

Oooh I do love a great but simple idea, and this one is just downright fab. I know there is a huge following for rustic brown recycled wedding stationery on this blog (there’s lots of you after my own heart and I love it), so I’m pretty sure this design will interest a few of you.

Designed by the very talented Allie Ruth, this is a postcard sized save the date, very simply stamped on one side with the words ‘Save the Date’, and on the back the basic details such as date and place, along with space for your guests address and a stamp. The white lace motifs were also stamped on.

What’s brilliant, is that Allie Ruth has a fab Etsy shop where you can buy that lovely ‘Save the Date’ stamp, complete with arrow struck heart, plus she also does custom address stamps should you be looking for a new ‘Mr and Mrs’ style return address stamp.

Charlie

Summer sale! Get 25% off vintage ribbon garters from A Alicia Handmade before the end of July 2012

Charlie

The lovely Anna from A Alicia Handmade got in touch to tell me about a great offer she’s running, but only until the end of the month – 31st July 2012 – so that’s less than a week! If you’d love to purchase one of Anna’s beautiful garters, which are made with organic, fair trade and vintage textiles and ribbons, and you quite fancy a 25% discount, then click on this link and use the code LOVE25 at the checkout.

A Alicia Handmade has been part of The Natural Wedding Company directory for before I can even remember, I bought one of her blue ribbon garters for my own wedding last May and can testify to not only how pretty it was (even the box it came in was beautiful) but how comfy it was.

Charlie

Come and join the conversation – come find The Natural Wedding Company online

Charlie

One of the best things about running The Natural Wedding Company is getting to meet and chat to other likeminded people, especially brides-to-be, and when I say ‘meet and chat’ I mean both online and in person. I really love when I get an email asking me for help or advice from a wedding planning couple, or when I hear from you via Twitter or Facebook, so I thought I’d take a moment to share all the places you can find me online.

If you use any of these social media networks I’d be delighted if you’d come find me and say hello, I’d also love to stay in touch with how you’re wedding plans are coming along, and even after your ‘big day’. So here’s where you can come join me and other likeminded brides-to-be…

Charlie

Win a beautifully illustrated map of your wedding day worth £250 from Pigeon & Quill

Charlie

*Please note this competition is now closed 01/08/12*

Today I have a very exciting competition to share with you my lovely readers – one lucky couple will win a handpainted illustrated map of their wedding day. Alexandra Mannion is an illustrator currently setting up a new business called Pigeon & Quill to document weddings in the form of beautifully illustrated maps, capturing those unique moments that come together to shape your day.

Alexandra got in touch with me to offer one of her personalised handpainted maps to one lucky bride- and groom-to-be (I’m just a little bit jealous!). As the winning couple, you will work with Alexandra to detail your wedding day plans, which she will then transform into a beautifully illustrated A3 sized map – the one below is the map she created for her own wedding…

Charlie

Heavenly midsummer photoshoot in a field of cow parsley with pink rose flower crowns

Charlie

Today’s blog feature is just so pretty and I’m delighted to be able to share this series of photos from photographer Svetlana Batura (who you may recently remember from this gorgeous Lithuanian family farm wedding). I spied them on her blog and asked if I might share them, as I know there is a good following amongst you who love cow parsley as much as I do.

These images take me back to an imagined childhood and provide some nice inspiration for bridesmaids for a relaxed wedding – long skirts, pretty blouses, flowers in their hair and a bouquet of cow parsley. Bliss. Enjoy…

Charlie

Handcrafted clay eggs filled with messages from your family and friends – a great new gift experience from Metta Eggs

Charlie

The Natural Wedding Company directory is full of fantastic businesses offering brides- and grooms-to-be products and services to make their wedding day more unique with an eco-conscious twist. Today I’m going to share my personal experience of the beautiful gift service of one of the newest businesses to join our handpicked suppliers – there’s also a special offer for TNWC readers so scroll to the bottom for full details.

Metta Eggs offers a very unique and special gift experience that was “born out of the desire to provide loving, individual and positive testimonies to people at every key stage of their lives, and to give those who love them an engaged and participating role.” These pretty handmade clay eggs have messages from your family and friends hidden inside of them, with each tiny egg rolled in glitter or meadow flowers seeds and then nestled in a fair trade box.

These ones we received are covered with the meadow flower seeds…

Metta Eggs can be used in a variety of ways for weddings – a friend or family member can commission Metta Eggs in the lead up to your wedding day, you can include it on your gift list, it could make a great alternative to a wedding guestbook, or you can even have a Metta Egg stag or hen party where you create the eggs yourself.

The lovely Libby who runs Metta Eggs invited myself and Mr Rigg to receive a box of Metta Eggs to celebrate our first wedding anniversary in May. As Metta Eggs are usually gifted to someone, we nominated my mother-in-law to help us tell our family and friends so as to keep the messages a surprise for us.

Charlie

Learning the art of flower farming – a guest post from our competition winner on the Catkin cut flower workshop

Charlie

Last week I set off at a very early hour for the Lincolnshire countryside to a place called Doddington Hall where I would spend the day with a group of likeminded ladies learning about cut flowers from Rachel of Catkin Flowers. On the way I picked up the lovely Dasha Caffrey, wedding photographer and one of the lovely businesses you can find on The Natural Wedding Company directory, who took all these stunning photos.

If you are a regular reader of the blog, you might remember that I ran a competition to win a place on this cut flower workshop, and I was thrilled to be joined by the lovely Nik who won the competition and writes a blog called Little House In Town.

Charlie

The pretty village fete wedding of my friend Jen on Love My Dress

Charlie

I couldn’t finish today without sharing the link to my beautiful friend Jen and her husband Chris’s wedding which was featured on Love My Dress today. Jen and Chris got married back in April in the pretty village church in Dunham Massey – I have been lucky enough to get to know Jen through running my website (it turned out we’d been sat in church together whilst she’d been reading my blog!), making me truly grateful for this lovely little business of mine.

Jen and Chris’s wedding is full of pretty handmade details and personal items from their home, many of which have been passed down through the family – as you’ll see from the lovely feature over on Love My Dress, Jen and Chris’s wedding was heavily inspired by their grandparents.

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