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Charlie

Lucy and Jon’s rural Peak District wedding handcrafted by family and friends

Charlie

Peak District wedding handcrafted by family and friends

I am thrilled to be sharing with you another real wedding and one that took place at the beautiful Beechenhill Farm who are one of the wedding venues you can find listed in The Natural Wedding Company directory.

I must say a huge thank you to Timm and Sam at Timm Cleasby Photography who have been incredibly patient with me and for sharing this lovely wedding with us.

Lucy and Jon got married in July at Beechenhill Farm in the Peak District National Park. With the help of their family and friends they created a beautiful and personal weekend-long wedding amongst this rather special rural setting.

Charlie

Last chance to claim on these fantastic wedding offers and a competition to enter

Charlie

I thought I would do a round-up of those exclusive offers left over from the birthday month that are finishing within the next week, plus a competition that you still have time to enter.

Win!

Win an eco-friendly handcrafted wedding album worth £750 when you book Lisa Dawn Photography for your wedding (competition deadline 03/05/12)

Exclusive Offers

Sabina Motasem Bride is offering our readers an exclusive 20% off any wedding dressing from their main collection (offer deadline 30/04/12)

Charlie

In support of seasonal British wedding flowers – my feature for Unique Bride Magazine

Charlie

I love seasonal, British flowers. I want to take my love for seasonal, British grown flowers and share it with you all. This week sees the launch of a fabulous new wedding magazine called Unique Bride Magazine (if you haven’t already seen me shouting about it on Facebook and Twitter). I was lucky enough to be invited to write an article for the launch issue and my copy arrived in today’s post.

I chose for my article to reflect my love of seasonal, British grown wedding flowers and to showcase to brides-to-be the beautiful options that are out there if you look just a little further afield. Rather than rambling on about why I love seasonal, British flowers I’ll let you read my article and be inspired (Issue 1 of Unique Bride Magazine goes on sale in WHSmith from tomorrow 26th April) by some of what the seasons have to offer.

Charlie

An extraordinary evening at An Era of Experience – the wonderful new travelling vintage party

Charlie

There has been so much going on recently in my TNWC world that I can barely keep up – much of it very exciting. Last week I was lucky enough to be invited to the press event that launched a fabulous new travelling vintage party called An Era of Experience.

Before I jump in to telling you all about my experience of An Era of Experience, I’d like to introduce you to the four talented ladies behind this collaboration.

They are Sharon, owner of vintage china and prop hire company For The Love Of Vintage; Bethany Jane Davies, the glamorous make-up artist behind The Vintage Beauty Parlour; Nicola, bespoke bridal accessories designer for Silver Sixpence in Her Shoe; and Anna, the baker and owner of boutique bakehouse And The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon.

An Era of Experience combines glamorous vintage styling, Speakeasy cocktails served in teacups, boozy cakes and a chance to create your own era inspired headpiece. If you’re planning your hen party then the ladies from An Era of Experience have got everything you need to create a wonderful celebration for you and your guests.

It’s always lovely to be invited to an event or party, but this one was particularly lovely as it’s a collaboration between a number of businesses, many of whom I’ve come to know really well through The Natural Wedding Company.

Charlie

Sneak peek of our ‘on the farm’ photoshoot at Heaton House Farm

Charlie

Yesterday I got to spend the day with a lovely group of wedding suppliers at a great wedding venue in Cheshire called Heaton House Farm. I was invited to be part of the photoshoot by photographer Jonny Draper and I was delighted to go along, get involved and see how a photoshoot works.

I will be featuring the photoshoot with Jonny’s fantastic photos in the coming weeks, but for now I thought you might all like to see a behind-the-scenes look at what we got up to. All these pictures are taken by me on my phone, so nothing fancy, but hopefully you’ll get a glimpse and what’s to come.

Our lovely model Lizzie on Tootsie the horse wearing beautiful red and gold Indian decoration…

Charlie

A spring birthday party to celebrate five years of The Natural Wedding Company

Charlie

It is with great pleasure that I get to share with you the photographs from The Natural Wedding Company’s 5th birthday party that took place recently. I’m not really sure where to start, so I’m just going to dive in and hope it all makes sense!

March saw the website’s 5th anniversary of when I first launched it, so I knew a few celebrations were in order. As well as lots of exclusive offers and competitions on the blog, most excitingly, a party was dreamt up.

I wanted a party with a group of likeminded girls, some recently married, others still planning their wedding, so I opened up the invites to my wonderful readers. My guests were chosen, invitations sent out, and on Sunday 15th April, my husband and I welcomed 11 of my lovely readers into my home for, what I hoped would be a fun afternoon of crafts, cake and wedding chatter.

Charlie

Announcing the winner of the beautiful jewellery set from Kate Hamilton-Hunter Studio

Charlie

Hope everyone’s had a good start to the week and that you all had a lovely weekend. There’s lots to celebrate on the blog today, firstly the winner of the Kate Hamilton-Hunter Studio competition, and later today I’ll be sharing all the pretty pictures and details from The Natural Wedding Company’s 5th Birthday Party!

Kate had over 60 entries to choose a winner from and found it so hard to choose a winner, but there can only be one winner…

Charlie

The new heritage 1930s inspired jewellery collection from CRED Jewellery

Charlie

It seems I’m having a bit of a 1920s and 1930s inspired day on the blog today, following on from this morning’s glamorous wedding cake I get to introduce you to the stunning new collection from CRED Jewellery. The Penelope Collection from designer Annabel Panes was inspired by the cocktail drinking ladies of the 1920s and ’30s, in particular her own grandmother.

This fabulous 13-piece collection includes engagement rings, necklaces and earrings, all created from Fairtrade and Fairmined certified gold and each item set with ethically sourced gems. I particularly love the deep and rich colours of the gems used, especially the Amethyst.

Niki from CRED Jewellery told me “Annabel has taken the elegance and glamour of the 1930’s and applied a modern twist. The deep blues and reds of the precious stones are placed in delicate white gold settings that maximize their splendour and reflect the romantic elegance of the time.”

Charlie

Sneak peek of my lace and feather birdcage veil from An Era of Experience

Charlie

I wasn’t planning on a lunchtime blog post, but I really wanted to share a quick picture of the birdcage veil I made last night at An Era of Experience. With much help from the lovely Nicola of Silver Sixpence in Her Shoe, I created this navy blue and cream birdcage veil, with feathers and lace, and blue netting.

If you fancy making something similar, Nicola is running an exclusive “Made By You” bridal workshop in May where you can create your own, handmade headpiece, garter or ring pillow. There are still places available on the workshop if you haven’t booked on already, and why not book your maid of honour, bridesmaid or mum on as well – they could make you a beautiful bridal keepsake. I’ll be attending so hope to see you there!

Charlie

Natural handmade corn lover’s knots, hearts and horseshoes for an eco-friendly country wedding

Charlie

These pretty handcrafted corn hearts, lover’s knots and horseshoes are the latest items available from the Wedding in a Teacup online shop – aren’t they beautiful? I am always at risk of over-using the word ‘natural’ here, but I do love how ‘natural’ these items are, and according to Hester from Wedding in a Teacup they have centuries of British rural tradition behind them.

If you’re planning an autumn wedding I can’t imagine many things more lovely than these to decorate your ceremony or reception venue with. In fact, it was my family church decorated for the harvest festival that inspired how I wanted the church to feel for our wedding – among other details, they used two big milk churns outside filled with dried corn, we used those same milk churns but filled with cow parsley for our wedding. You could also give them as wedding favours.

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