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Charlie

Beautiful and unique wedding flowers made from pretty recycled papers

Charlie

Having a short break from our wedding details I wanted to share some of the latest creations from one of the businesses from the directory. I am always so amazed by the creativity and imagination of people, especially those businesses I work with on my website – there can be so much of the same ‘stuff’ in the wedding world, it’s refreshing to see something different.

Kat from The Paper Florist is one of those people. She creates stunning flowers from recycled papers, they can be used for table decorations or even the brides bouquet. Here is some of her recent work at a beautiful May Day wedding.

Charlie

Our rustic country wedding – my antique lace wedding dress

Charlie

Whilst a lot of brides spend hours getting ready, I had just over two hours to cool down (I was so hot from dashing round all day getting the garden ready!), have my hair and make-up done, and get dressed.

I was finally ‘removed’ from the garden and banished upstairs at 2.15pm when Nick and the boys arrived – although we’d spent the morning together, we’d decided we wouldn’t see each other after that.

‘The Dress’

Mark Tattersall Photography

I never intended to buy a wedding dress, I have a friend who is a dressmaker and I’d always planned for her to make one. But I wanted a little of the fun of trying wedding dresses on, so off I went to Cheltenham with my mum and little sister to try some dresses on and see what style and shape suited me best.

Mark Tattersall Photography

We’d been to two generic wedding dress shops before we entered Cocoa Couture owned by Cara Wagstaff. We were instantly blown away by this tiny upstairs room stuffed full of gorgeous dresses all handmade by Cara and her team from antique fabrics and lace.

Izzy Burton Photography

Charlie

Our rustic country wedding – setting up the garden on morning of the wedding

Charlie

It has been so lovely to have our wedding featured on Love My Dress, but I know that some of my readers would like to see more detail, and there’s so many lovely photos it seems a shame not to share more of them.

Our wedding ceremony was due to start at 4.30pm, but we’d invited our guests to have afternoon tea in the garden from 3pm. This meant we had all morning to get ready, which for a wedding at home was all about everyone pitching in to help set up. So with less than an hour before people were due to start arriving this is what we were doing…

The tents were already up, but we had to get all the tables laid up. This is our lovely friend Kate, who along with her husband Tim set out all the crockery and place settings (among a long list of other things!)…

We hung lots of the jam jar lanterns we’d made from the tents, tying them on with twine…

Here’s Tim setting out more lanterns around the garden and hanging them from trees…

Charlie

Our “Rustic, Outdoor, Eco-Chic, Country Garden Wedding” is featured on Love My Dress

Charlie

Such exciting news to tell you all – our wedding is featured on Love My Dress today! You can (finally!) see the photos from our wedding – the lovely Annabel who runs Love My Dress has called it a Rustic, Outdoor, Eco-Chic, Country Garden Wedding.

I would love to know what you all think. There are so many more lovely photos from our wedding and other details that I will be sharing here on my blog, so please check back or stay in touch by adding your email address to the mailing list (you can find it on the righthand side of this page).

Charlie

Luxury Robinson Crusoe style eco honeymoons

Charlie

I am a sucker for anything that brings back memories of childhood, especially when it comes to holidays. When I read that Tribes Travel, one of the businesses listed on the directory, offer Robinson Crusoe inspired honeymoons my mind conjured up romantic notions of living quietly on an exotic island somewhere.

Often, real life fails to live up to your imagination, but not this time. Just take a look at these incredible honeymoon islands – the location, the living space, and on top of that they’ve got a strong committment to the environment.

Charlie

A sneak peek of the first of our wedding photos

Charlie

Yes, this really is a photo from our wedding! Bet some of you can’t believe it (some of my friends are ready to start a mutiny if I don’t share the photos soon!).

Really soon there will be loads of photos from our wedding here, and on Love My Dress (so excited we’re going to be featured on Annabel’s lovely blog!). She’s posted a few sneak peek photos so do have a look.

Charlie

A vintage afternoon tea style wedding in Yorkshire

Charlie

With the whole wedding and blog world mad for vintage, I was sure that brides-to-be would love to hear about the vintage style wedding package offered by The Black Swan in Yorkshire. The Black Swan is an old coaching inn set in the bustling marketplace of Helmsley, a pretty Yorkshire town. Having married a Yorkshire boy this is one part of the country I’ve got to know, and Helmsley is lovely.

If you are wanting a quintessential English wedding, with some of that old-fashioned glamour of vintage teacups, dainty plates and silver cake stands, then The Black Swan offers all that. You can sip on Bramley Apple Pimms, nibble on canapes of mini Yorkshire puddings filled with roast beef and horseradish, and then sit down to an afternoon tea of smoked salmon finger sandwiches, pork pies or even mini fish and chips. This is finished off with a selection of mini pastries, homemade cakes, and scones and jam.

Charlie

A lazy summer picnic photoshoot with cakes and sweetpeas

Charlie

On Wednesday I had so much fun. I drove up to Lancashire to meet Mark Tattersall, we had lunch and caught up, then we set up a mini photoshoot. Mark took the pictures and I brought along a boot full of ‘bits and pieces’ from my home, some beautiful English sweetpeas and delicious cupcakes.

I suppose in the world of weddings you would say I ‘styled’ the shoot, but it feels rather odd, as it was more just a collection of pretty things made to look nice. With this gorgeous (and sometimes stifling) hot weather we’ve had, I wanted to create a small lazy summer picnic.

Charlie

Ethereal country wedding headband

Charlie

This Friday, Cake Love has been usurped by this gorgeous find…

If I had been a bit more of a daring country bride, I would have gone adorned my hair with something like this. My seven year-old self would have thought it fit for the flower fairies that lived at the bottom of my granny’s garden.

Handcrafted by Rosie Weisencrantz, this is an original Victoria wax floral spray, that she wove onto a natural looking headband. I was devastated to discover that it has already been sold (not that I’m planning on getting married again anytime soon!), but there are lots of other gorgeous hair adornments crafted from vintage pieces available on the website.

Charlie

Sneak peek of my day out with Mark Tattersall shooting a pretty picnic of cakes and sweetpeas

Charlie

Today has been utterly lovely despite a lot of driving! I met up with Mark Tattersall, the lovely man-behind-the-lens of our wedding photos, near his home in Lancashire. After a picnic lunch and a catch up at a gorgeous estate, we set up a mini picnic inspired shoot on the lawn.

This is my ‘behind the scenes’ shot of the real photographer taking the photos that will soon be posted. The English sweetpeas are from Blossom Flowers in Manchester, and those stunning cupcakes are from And The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon. Full details coming soon and some great photos!

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