a day in the life Archives - The Natural Wedding Company

Blog: a day in the life

Samantha

A Day in the Life of The Real Cut Flower Garden: behind the scenes of Floristry on the Wild side workshop

Samantha

I think it’s always wonderful to go ‘behind the scenes’ and find out more about the brilliant independent wedding businesses from our directory. Today we get the opportunity to get to know the ever so talented Charlie Ryrie of The Real Cut Flower Garden.

Charlie, in our eyes, is one of the original champions of British grown flowers for weddings, and we have always admired the magic she creates with her seasonal country garden grown flowers. As well as creating wedding flowers, Charlie runs creative floral workshops to share her expertise. Hosted in a wonderful old barn at New House Farm and artisan studios in Broadoak near Bridport in West Dorset. Today’s ‘Day in the Life’ feature showcases her`Floristry on the Wild side’ workshop.

The workshop was beautifully captured by Liz Baker photography, who specialises in luxury wedding photography, brand editorials, and feminine portraiture. To provide the accompanying words with the lovely images we will hand you over to Charlie herself to tell you a bit more about the workshops and the story behind her business…

Charlie

A Day in the Life of Bride and Bloom: crafting wedding flowers from Worcestershire fields to beautiful seasonal bouquets

Charlie

I am always so delighted when our flower farmers get in touch to say they have a set of A Day in the Life photos to share with our readers. Bride and Bloom are one of our newest additions to our eco wedding directory, and whilst I do get to visit a number of our recommended suppliers, it’s always nice to find out more in these kind of features.

You can see ‘behind the scenes’ with a number of our other flower farmers by visiting our A Day in the Life archives, or for similar posts check out our Meet the Maker series. What I particularly love about today’s feature, is that fellow mum and flower farmer Hannah, had her little girl along to help her pick flowers for the wedding.

What’s also special about this feature, is that at the end of the post we’ve shared photos from the wedding that Hannah of Bride and Bloom was working on in her A Day in the Life. Over to Hannah to share her day in the life at Bride and Bloom…

Charlie

A Day in the Life … Blue Poppy: a visit to their coastal cutting garden in Scotland with wildflower meadows in the height of summer

Charlie

Over the years of working in the wedding industry, I have come to realise that some of my favourite parts are the ‘behind the scenes’, the true getting to know the people behind a business, and this is what we hope to do with this series called A Day In The Life. Today we are up in Scotland with Cath from Blue Poppy, reminiscing about those hot summer days when the flower beds are bursting with colour.

If you’d like to see behind the scenes on some of our other recommended suppliers, then do check out the full A Day In The Life series so far, which includes fellow flower farmer florists Tammy from Wild Bunch, Natalya and Fiona from PYRUS, and Becca and Maz from The Garden Gate Flower Company.

So it’s over to Catherine to share her day in the life at Blue Poppy…

A coastal cutting garden

Last August, at the height of summer, the fantastic Chris and Gillian from The Curries came to document an afternoon with us. Looking back over the winter, we had time to reflect on what Chris and Gillian – seeing the garden for the first time – were able to capture.

Blue Poppy is myself, Catherine (florist), my mum Ann (gardener) and Frida (our old Jack Russell who patrols the garden and scares off anything likely to nibble seedlings). We run a florist farmer business from a small holding on the east coast of Scotland.

Charlie

A Day in the Life … Wild Bunch: living and learning the joy of flowers on a beautiful farm on the Herefordshire Welsh borders

Charlie

I was so thrilled when Tammy from Wild Bunch got in touch keen to do ‘A Day in the Life’ blog post having read the ones written by Pyrus and The Garden Gate Flower Company (I’d recommend you go read them too!). She got photographer Nic Rue (who also captured Pyrus’ beautiful garden and studio) to come to her little piece of flower paradise on the Herefordshire / Shropshire border.

The photos are gorgeous, the words are beautiful, and the flowers…well the flowers are stunning! Need I say more…

Over to Tammy…

Entering the second year of my little cut flower business I was searching for a point of reflection on where I was at with my new found work and passion. And when I came across the beautiful work of the photographer Nic Rue, I tentatively asked if she would be interested in working with me to document my garden and flowers.

It was a big step for me asking a photographer into my little world, but Nic was inspirational and really helped me see and think about my garden and flowers with new eyes.

Izzy

A Day in the Life … For The Love Of Vintage: styling an English Summer Fete wedding in the Lake District

Izzy

Today we have a lovely guest post from Sharon who runs a vintage crockery company For The Love Of Vintage. For our ‘A Day in the Life’ feature Sharon is taking us along to find out what it’s like to be involved with one particular summer Lake District wedding.

Over to Sharon…

Apart from my life long obsession with crockery and getting to play tea parties every day, the two things I love most about my job are the variety (as no two vintage weddings are ever the same) and the people I meet.

I have styled weddings in all sorts of venues but was especially excited when Kimberly and Tim contacted me to discuss their big day. We met over a year before the wedding, eating cake, drinking tea and talking about the wonderfully creative ideas they had and our mutual love of Cocker Spaniels!

One of the things I loved most about the ideas for the day was Kimberley and Tim’s determination to use artisan crafts people, local suppliers and really bring their treasured Lake District as a theme into the whole day. I just knew from the start this was going to be a very special wedding.

After a year of planning and preparation July 6th was almost upon us. It’s hard to squeeze an event like this into just one day but here is my story of a perfect wedding day!

Charlie

A Day in the Life … Pyrus: growing seasonal and organic wedding blooms in a Scottish walled garden

Charlie

I am so thrilled to be back with this ‘A Day in the Life’ feature on the blog. Embarrassingly it’s been over a year since I did my first one (have a read here) but I do hope that I can bring it as a more regular feature. The idea behind it is to give you a peek into the lives of some of the fab wedding businesses that you can find on our directory.

Today I’m handing the blog over to Natalya and Fiona who are the dynamic and creative duo behind Pyrus, flower farmers growing seasonal and organic blooms from their walled garden near Edinburgh and weaving them into the most fantastic floral arrangements.

Over to Natalya and Fiona…

Earlier this year we invited the wonderful photographer Nic Rue to spend the day at the Pyrus flower garden and studio outside Edinburgh, documenting us as we prepared for a late summer wedding.

We first met Nic when she came to one of our flower classes with friends and knew we wanted to work with her on a project. We were nervous about opening our doors to be photographed but we needn’t have worried, in fact it was a pleasure to share our studio with her for the day. She brought a plethora of cameras in her kit bag and the results are a combination of digital and film shots which captured the Colstoun estate we are based on beautifully.

Charlie

A Day in the Life … The Garden Gate Flower Company: heavenly Cornish meadow bouquets amidst the mud and farm life

Charlie

I don’t know about you, but when I was planning our wedding I really liked to meet the people behind the business and to get to know them and how they run their company. Don’t you find there are so many gigantic corporations keen to sell us things we don’t really need, whether it be for our wedding or just everyday life. For me I find it a breath of fresh air to meet small businesses who are creating quality products and services.

I’m always curious to find out who they are, why they run their business, how it came about and what it entails – whether it be creating a stunning wedding cake, growing flowers for a wedding, running a unique and personal wedding venue, or handmaking those beautiful details. In a world so dominated by the internet, I want to help you get to know some of the businesses who feature on The Natural Wedding Company directory.

So I’m going to try out a new series on the blog, a kind of ‘day in the life’ where you can find out more about some of the companies on The Natural Wedding Company directory and how they grow, make, and run their businesses. If you have any feedback on this idea (i.e. is it any good?) then please let me know in a comment below, your thoughts really help direct what I bring you on the blog.

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