Blog: berries
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Homemade dark chocolate dipped peanut butter and raspberry jam wedding favours from Clean Cakes by Henrietta Inman

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One of my other loves in life is food and cooking, and wherever possible using wholefood ingredients rather than that processed nonsense, so you can imagine my delight when I was given the opportunity to share a new cake and patisserie book with you (and give a copy away – more details on that below).

Clean Cakes by Henrietta Inman is full of delicious sounding recipes using whole, natural and nourishing ingredients, and is totally free from gluten, dairy and refined sugar for those who are avoiding those foods. Not only is this a great recipe book for home baking, but it is also full of recipes that I think would be great for weddings – which is why I felt I wanted to share it with you.

Having a lovely flip through the book, I ear-marked a number of recipes that I thought would be idea for a wedding, so if you are planning to DIY some of your wedding, here are my thoughts on some edible homemade projects.

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DIY sweet treats for your wedding

I thought the Strawberry verbena granita would be delightful for a summer wedding and a delicious alternative to ice cream.

There are two pages of recipes for truffles, including the scrummy sounding Blackcurrant truffles and Camomile and honey ‘white chocolate’ truffles – all of which I thought would make thoughtful homemade wedding favours.

What about making your own Fresh mint thins (think fresh mint leaves covered in dark chocolate) to decorate your wedding cake

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Wreaths throughout the seasons: learn how to make a seasonal heart-shaped wreath for Valentine’s Day

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Wild twiggy heart wreath with berries for Valentine's Day // By Lock Cottage Flowers // The Natural Wedding Company

Today it’s all about creating seasonal Valentine’s wreaths – I particularly love Alice’s wild and twiggy heart with its bright red berries. These could be used to decorate your door this weekend or the smaller heart wreath would make a great DIY project for a wedding.

In case you missed it, on Monday we shared how to create a hellebore moss winter wreath as part of a new blog series called Wreaths Throughout The Seasons with our friend Alice from Lock Cottage Flowers. We’re hoping to inspire you to start putting up seasonal wreaths on your front door or in your home at times other than just Christmas.

Over to Alice…

How to make a seasonal Valentine’s wreath

This first Valentine’s wreath is made from British parvifolia (small leafed eucalyptus – smells divine) and dried lavender which isn’t too visible here, but is very fragrant. These smaller wreaths are terrific for hanging on a small space in the kitchen, or hanging on a doorknob. For weddings they make terrific chairbacks.

I used heavy duty garden wire – the kind used for wall training roses – a coat hanger could be taken apart and used as well. Don’t worry if the heart is slightly wonky – this is preferable.

Learn how to make a heart-shaped eucalyptus and lavender wreath // By Lock Cottage Flowers // The Natural Wedding Company

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Izzy Izzy

A stunning jewel toned wedding cake with edible flowers, petals and berries for a rustic autumn wedding

Izzy

Jewel toned autumn wedding cake with edible flowers and berries

Today we have a mouth-watering guest post from P-J Parker of Emily Harmston Cakes, with a gorgeous autumn inspired wedding cake that features such beautiful rich purple colours. When we first saw these cakes we fell in-love with the use of edible flowers and petals – why not take a look for yourself?

Don’t forget we have a regular feature on wedding cakes called Cake Love, so do check out the link if you are after more wedding cake inspiration.

Over to P-J to tell us more about these stunning creations…

Purple and red autumn wedding cake with edible flowers and berries

We have just seen the end of a glorious English summer but it brings an abundance of our beautiful berries that rival any array of the fruits that are imported. The colours and choice are breath-taking; it’s almost as if all summer long the sun has become concentrated to give the sumptuous jewel colours inside our blackberries, blueberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants and damsons.

I really wanted to capture the beauty of this season.  The three tiered cake I made here incorporates two white chocolate and raspberry cake tiers at the top and bottom with a double layer of blackberry and raspberry cheesecake in the middle.  All topped off with fresh edible Dahlias and handcrafted blackcurrants lollipops.

Raspberry cheesecake wedding cake with edible flower petals

Edible flowers and petals for an autumn wedding cake

Slice of raspberry cheesecake with edible flowers and berries

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My autumnal styled stall at the Eco Wedding Fair with seasonal flowers and ideas for wedding table centrepieces

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The Natural Wedding Company stall at the Eco Wedding Fair

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!

Rustic wedding decorations

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.

Autumn leaf curtain tablecloth

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

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A timeless autumn wedding with romantic wool wedding dress and an apple and berry bouquet

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Timeless autumn wedding in Lithuania

You might well have spied this stunning autumn wedding from Lithuania out on the web already, but when I saw it I just knew that it was the kind of wedding that you’d love to see – so I got in touch with photographer Svetlana Batura to ask if I might share it.

autumn apple berry wedding bouquet

For me this beautiful Lithuanian wedding is one of those timeless weddings that just melts my heart – it has a few exquisite season-inspired details, a couple very much in love, and other than that it makes the most of the landscape and time of year in which it takes place.

Svetlana Batura Photography

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Inspirational natural winter wedding decorations

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For all those brides and grooms planning an autumn or winter wedding who are in need of some inspiration when it comes to decorating – look no further.

From red berries to dried ferns, maple leaves scattered on tables, abundant fir cones and gourds, ivy coiled around willow hearts, and beeswax candles – this wedding shows how beautiful natural decorations can be when you look to what nature can provide.

With the help of a few vintage pots and metal jugs and a little bit of imagination an autumn or winter wedding can be just as beautiful as any summer wedding with its pick of flowers.

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Winter berry buttonholes for a cosy Christmas wedding

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Recently I have seen so many beautiful ideas for buttonholes that I have been inspired to design my own for this month’s *creative project*.  Sometime soon I will pull all the images together and showcase them on the blog as they are well worth sharing.

I have created my buttonholes for a cosy Christmas wedding, choosing some of the vibrant red berries that there are in the hedgerows at the moment combined with dark glossy greens.

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On Sunday I could be found stuck in hedgerows on the country lanes of Surrey searching for a selection of berries that I could use in this month’s project – with Mr Rigg sat in the car reading the newspaper wondering what on earth I was up to.

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