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Charlie

Handmade eco paper wedding flowers from Cooper Floral Design

Charlie

If you’re considering or searching for an alternative to fresh wedding flowers, then Cooper Floral Design’s handmade eco paper wedding flowers might just be what you were looking for. We’re sharing a selection of her beautiful wedding bouquets that combine her delicate tissue paper flower creations alongside dried foliage and flowers. We’ll also be hearing more about how she creates her flowers, including dying the paper herself with natural plant dyes.

Sharon has an incredible skill for creating incredibly delicate and realistic flowers from plant dyed papers, and then arranging them into exquisite bouquets alongside dried foliage, flowers and seedheads. Hers is a small eco-friendly wedding business that I get really excited about.

Cooper Floral Design is a Recommended Supplier of The Natural Wedding Company directory. Find out more about them here.

Bespoke wedding bouquets, buttonholes and arrangements

Sharon of Cooper Floral Design handmakes all of the paper flowers used in her floral wedding creations. These are beautiful, unique paper flowers dyed in a subtle palette of natural colours (read more about this below). She has a real talent for combining her handmade paper flowers into exquisite bouquets, buttonholes and arrangements alongside dried flowers, foliage and seedheads.

Bouquets and arrangements are made to order based on your specific wishes, so time is needed to plan and create your wedding flowers. Most of the bouquets featured here on the blog range in price from about £80 to £150. They will last a long time after your wedding too, and I love the idea that you can continue to receive a lot of joy from displaying the flowers in your home long after your wedding day.

Charlie

Favourite Natural Wedding Flowers: bouquets, buttonholes, flower crowns, wedding hair flowers, and floral arrangements

Charlie

We hope you’re enjoying our Real Wedding Favourites mini series, looking back at some of the loveliest details from the weddings featured on our blog. If you’d like some inspiration do check out the series so far. From bride and groom wedding styles, to wedding ceremony and reception spaces. From beautiful wedding details to some of the most unique weddings we’ve featured.

Today we’re sharing our Favourite Natural Wedding Flowers. Gosh what a hard post this was to create! Narrowing down to just a handful of our favourites was incredibly difficult, because we love flowers. Hopefully this post will give you a taste of what kinds of British grown, seasonal wedding flower inspiration you can find on our blog.

Our Favourite Wedding Bouquets

A Bee-Friendly Wildflower Wedding Bouquet

Miriam was one of our TNWC Real Brides and I loved her passion for incorporating seasonal, locally-grown and bee-friendly blooms into her wedding day. Her wild summer bouquet has always stuck with me, it seems like a genuine representation of the ever-popular ‘just picked’ bouquet style.

It incorporates some really beautiful blooms – blue borage flowers, white cosmos, hot pink honeysuckle, yellow dill flowers, and delicate foxgloves. They all come together in this heavenly meadow-garden bouquet that truly captured the bee-friendly element that Miriam was passionate about.

Charlie’s favourite wedding bouquet comes from Miriam and John’s Scottish 1920’s wildflower inspired wedding. Bouquet by Pyrus. Photography by Photos by Zoe.

Charlie

Alex and James’ intimate natural wedding with vintage French lace wedding dress, local pub reception and pavlova wedding cake

Charlie

We’ve got a treat for you in this week’s intimate natural Real Wedding. This couple decided to do things their way and it turned out to be all about friends and food.

They dug up their garden the day before the wedding to fill rusted tins with sweet peas, rosemary and lavender, saved the partying for the weekend after their big day, and ceremoniously cut into a berry-topped wedding pavlova at their reception. Intrigued? You should be.

Luckily it was all captured beautifully by TNWC recommended Oxana Mazur of Oxi Photography, who is renowned for her natural and intimate documentary style. So let’s delve into the rosy-hued pictures and learn more from bride Alex…

Charlie

Rachel and Lee’s autumn lake house wedding with outdoor ceremony and sunflower bouquets for this boat loving couple

Charlie

For this Real Wedding we travel across “the pond” to the beautiful East Coast of America. Rachel and Lee’s early autumn lake house wedding is a feast for tired January eyes. They held their wedding at Rachel’s family’s Lake House in Maryland under the hazy September sun.

Before we catch up with bride Rachel to learn more about this rowing boat-filled, sunflower-adorned day, a few words from to TNWC’s Charlie…

This wedding feels close to my heart, which might sound strange when I’ve never met Rachel or Lee, but I have got to know Rachel a little over the past year. Firstly she shared with me her nautical wedding invitations inspired by my own save the dates. I especially loved that the “tying the knot” element (inspired by this version of mine) had such relevance to their love of sailing.

Since their wedding, Rachel and Lee have been on the most incredible 12 month adventure sailing around America in their yacht. I have followed their adventures on Instagram and have kept in touch following their return to dry land, where Rachel has set up her own business Rachel Kendall Events. I am so thrilled that we get to share their wedding with you.

Charlie

Jenny and David’s botanical Welsh wedding with succulent buttonholes, button bouquets and wildflowers

Charlie

We might be hurtling towards Christmas but today on the blog we are back in June for a beautiful summer wedding. This botanical Welsh wedding is full of sweet eco details – homegrown plants for decorations, handmade bunting – and a love of plants and the natural world.

Jenny and David got married on 25th June at the Ceridwen Centre in the Welsh countryside, and their wedding was captured by TNWC Recommended Photographer Emma Stoner. Over to Jenny to tell us more about their botanical Welsh wedding…

Charlie

A romantic Flower Fairy inspired wedding with gypsophila flower crown and woodland themed wedding reception

Charlie

I had another blog feature planned for today, but then I found out it is my colleague Samantha’s fourth wedding anniversary today, and naturally I felt that sharing some snippets from her beautiful wedding was much more appropriate.

Samantha came into my life a couple of years ago when I was looking for someone to become a blog features writer – up until that point it had just been me running The Natural Wedding Company directory and writing the blog. I loved her enthusiasm and obvious love for weddings, I loved that she had become a mum at a similar time to me and had a little boy near in age to my little girl, and I loved that she had been inspired by childhood books The Flower Fairies for her wedding.

Whilst we don’t get to see each other very much because we live at opposite ends of the country, she has become such an important part of my life and the fabric and future of The Natural Wedding Company. So today while she celebrates four years of marriage with her husband Paul, our blog will celebrate that day four years ago when they said their “I do’s”.

Here’s to celebrating true love (these two are truly my idols when it comes to romance – you’ll see what I mean from Paul’s proposal) and to living out our girlhood dreams of being Flower Fairies. Put on a suitable romantic song, turn it up loud and enjoy this sweet celebration of marriage. Over to Samantha for a few snippets from her wedding…

A wedding inspired by The Flower Fairies

I have deep down (ok, not that deep down) always wished to be a flower fairy, therefore wanted to create the feeling of a magical world in the depths of the woods for everyone to enjoy. Luckily Paul didn’t even bat an eyelid when I suggested that we go for a woodland inspired ‘theme’ which would feature giant strawberries.

Charlie

A London country house spring wedding shoot with a wild bouquet and colour palette of pink and gold

Charlie

Country house spring wedding

Wimbledon has a special place in my heart as it was the place where I was born and spent the first few years of my life, so when this beautiful country house spring shoot landed in my inbox I was especially excited to share it with you.

This recently renovated south London country house wedding venue is set within the stunning Morden Hall Park, which is run by the National Trust. The park contains a variety of natural landscapes, including parkland, a river, meadow and marshland – an idyllic backdrop for this spring wedding shoot.

Photographer Eva Tarnok told me that they wanted to reflect the elegance of this historic venue, but also to showcase the natural beauty surrounding it – I think they did a great job.

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

An ode to snake’s head fritillary – wedding inspiration using this unusual native British spring flower

Charlie

Here at The Natural Wedding Company I love to promote seasonality, and to encourage and inspire couples to choose to plan their weddings fitting in with the season whether that be flowers, food, or decorations. Choosing seasonal blooms for your wedding flowers is one way to reduce the environmental impact of your big day (rather than imported flowers), as well as reflecting the beautiful and varied times of year.

Recently on my Facebook feed I’ve been seeing one particular spring flower popping up in bouquets from various TNWC flower businesses – the snake’s head fritillary. This very dainty bell like bloom is a native English flower that makes it appearance during the spring months.

Following on from my previous floral ‘odes’ (‘an ode to violets’ and ‘an ode to old-fashioned roses’) today I’m going to showcase the snake’s head fritillary. From bouquets and buttonholes to table centrepieces, I’m going to show you how you can incorporate it into your spring wedding.

Image: The Garden Gate Flower Company

I’m delighted to have put together this feature on the snake’s head fritillary with the help of some of my talented TNWC flower businesses. As I know many of you are planning your wedding and searching for a florist who grows their own or sources local British blooms, I’ve included their details and where they are based in the country as all of them provide stunning flowers for weddings.

Bouquets and Posies

When it comes to wedding flowers what better place to start than with bouquets. Every bride needs a bouquet and I have a beautiful selection here to showcase all featuring the dainty snake’s head fritillary.

First up this seasonal spring bouquet from Susanne at The Blue Carrot based down in Cornwall. Along with the snake’s head fritillary, Susanne used the following homegrown flowers: parrot, double and single tulips from her tunnel; hellebores; narcissi, ranunculus; and feverfew. She also added a few sprays of jasmine, which she bought as a plant from B&Q and used the cuttings.

Flowers: The Blue Carrot

Here’s a close up of this beautiful bouquet – I particularly love how Susanne combines colour, with the sweet shop pastels set off by the addition of those deep, velvety purple hellebores.

Flowers: The Blue Carrot

Charlie

A wild and wintry Cornish photoshoot with reindeer and timeless vintage styling

Charlie

I am so thrilled to share this photoshoot with you, and what could be lovelier than a bridal shoot featuring a reindeer, some owls, the beautiful windswept Cornish landscape, and a lush woodland? Oh, and a handful of TNWC recommended wedding suppliers.

Well, in my book, there aren’t many things lovelier, so I was delighted when Sarah Falugo (who also runs Green Photographic) got in touch to see if I would featured this stunning shoot.

There are just so many lovely photos from this shoot that I struggled to narrow it down – so rather than only share a handful I’ve decided to split the shoot into two parts to allow you to enjoy them all.

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