country garden flowers Archives - The Natural Wedding Company

Blog: country garden flowers

Charlie

Mel and Ben’s English country barn wedding with cottage garden flowers and handmade wedding details

Charlie

We have a beautiful English country barn wedding for you from TNWC recommended photographers Warren & Carmen Photography. Mel and Ben chose to keep their day simple and classic, sourcing as many of their suppliers close to their wedding venue alongside some handmade projects.

Over to bride Mel to tell us all about it…

English country barn wedding

Both of us just wanted a laid back feel to the wedding without any particular theme. We really liked barn weddings and simple weddings without too much formality. We also knew that we wanted to put a lot of what we enjoy in to the wedding and hoped that our guests would enjoy the personal touches.

Music was therefore really important and we spent hours agonising over the playlist. We also really wanted to embrace the area where the wedding was located so we tried to incorporate all things local such as the food and drink, flowers etc.

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

Lizzy and Graeme’s country fete inspired Cheshire wedding with vintage ice cream van and cottage garden flowers

Charlie

To describe this wedding at a country fete inspired wedding is really to do it a disservice, because it is so much more than just that. The bride, Lizzy, told me that her photographers “truly captured the happiness and love felt”, a wish that I imagine most of us have for our wedding day. Lizzy has put into words so many of those feelings we have in the lead up to our wedding day, so if you are a bride-to-be then I encourage you to stop a while and read as well as soak up all the pretty details.

For an overview of this beautiful wedding this slideshow put together by photographers Bohemian Weddings gives you a little of the magic these two shared on their wedding day, and includes lots of extras captures. A lovely alternative to a wedding film, and I get all teary watching it despite not knowing these two…

As a quick aside, you might also notice that we’ve changed up the format of our real weddings a bit, we have crafted a new questionnaire for our couples which we hope gives them more freedom to tell us the story of their wedding in their own words. For this reason I imagine that the appearance of these features will change from wedding to wedding, but I’m sure you’ll agree that it will truly allow the stories to shine through.

Lizzy + Graeme, July 2015

So many of the real weddings I share have extra special meaning to me, and today’s wedding is no exception. I was contacted by Lizzy after her wedding photographer cancelled just 8 weeks before her wedding, asking if I could help. After I emailed all of the wonderful wedding photographers in our directory, Lizzy received over a dozen replies, and from those she fell in love with one couple – Michael and Andrea of Bohemian Weddings. I understand the four of them really connected and I am just so delighted to be now sharing Lizzy and Graeme’s wedding with you. Over to Lizzy…

Charlie

Fern and Dominic’s woodland bird and country flower inspired wedding at their idyllic Somerset village

Charlie

This beautiful summer woodland bird and country flower inspired wedding is a delight to share, not only because it’s full of lovely details that will undoubtedly inspire many of our brides, but also because it’s the wedding of one last years TNWC Real Brides, Fern (find all her blog posts here).

Fern and Dominic planned a natural down-to-earth wedding in their home village Montacute in Somerset. This idyllic rural village provided a pretty backdrop against which they celebrated their marriage, and wove into their wedding day some of the things they love most – woodland birds and country garden blooms. Over to Fern to share her wedding day…

Fern + Dominic, August 2015

Our wonderful August wedding was everything that we had hoped for. It was really important to us right from the beginning for our day to be really welcoming, intimate occasion to share with our family. We had a very small wedding party with only one bridesmaid, best man and one usher, but this was right for us. Lots of our guests commented on how much they enjoyed the relaxed family atmosphere.

Lauren

Rustic floral stationery from Sarah Wants inspired by The Blue Carrot’s cutting garden in high summer

Lauren

I can’t think of a nicer outing than a visit to a working cutting garden, full of British blooms – choosing the flowers was definitely my favourite part of wedding planning! I remember visiting a local grower on several occasions and seeing little seedlings flourish into gorgeous wedding-worthy flowers was quite a privilege.

There are some wonderful florists who grow their own on the directory and if you’re lucky, you may even be invited to visit their cutting garden as part of your consultation.

When Charlie was planning the TNWC South West Roadtrip back last summer, scheduling a visit to meet Suzanne of The Blue Carrot in Cornwall was high on her priority list. You can read all about what she got up tohere.

On the day of her trip, Charlie was also joined by Sarah from Sarah Wants, an award winning wedding stationery designer and self-confessed country bumpkin who today shares with us the idyllic visit which inspired a new collection. Plus there’s an exclusive discount for TNWC readers!

Over to Sarah…

On a day of sunshine and blue skies, I met Charlie and Suzanne for a lovely lunch at the Hidden Hut just above the beach in Porthcurnick. Afterwards, I was very privileged to visit Suzanne’s beautiful walled cutting garden which was such a treat, it felt like a little hidden secret!

Charlie

Designing and creating bespoke bridesmaids dresses with an English Country Garden theme from Lucy Says I Do

Charlie

I’m delighted that the incredibly creative Lucy from Lucy Says I Do, a recommended TNWC supplier who designs beautiful wedding stationery, will be joining us for a series of guest blog posts whilst I’m off on maternity leave. Lucy had a stunning wedding that was featured on Love My Dress and she booked wedding photographer Mark Tattersall after seeing his photos of our wedding.

Lucy created so many lovely things for her wedding, that I’m really excited to share some of them here with you – I just know you’re going to be inspired. Love Charlie x

Over to Lucy…

I knew I wanted to make dresses that suited the wedding, so my thoughts were: English Country Garden, summery, fun, and natural. In addition to this I wanted the girls to feel really special when wearing them, so they needed to be high quality, feminine, soft and elegant.

My sister (one of my lovely bridesmaids) and I designed the bridesmaids’ dresses together. We decided to design the print as an English country garden story. When developing the design I created an ‘English Country Garden’ inspiration board to help focus my ideas for the print. Here’s my print inspiration board:

Taking different natural elements of the English Country Garden idea we developed the print to include lots of detail including: flowers, fruits and insects. I loved the way the print developed, and the way that every time you looked at it you’d notice something different. Including the little bumblebees! We made sure we incorporated botanical elements such as the strawberry plant, but we balanced this with soft painterly effect flowers to make sure the print maintained a softness, like that of wild flowers.

Here’s a sample piece of the print, how many different elements can you spot?

Charlie

Charlotte and George’s informal English country wedding with handmade decorations and a village hall reception

Charlie

Informal English country wedding

What could be a nicer way to start the New Year than with a beautiful real wedding to provide you with lots of inspiration and ideas for your own ‘big day’. Today’s wedding is particularly special to me because it’s the wedding of one of my TNWC businesses – the lovely Charlotte who runs The Crafty Baker.

It’s also pretty special because a number of TNWC businesses were involved in this wedding, including the photographers Bohemian Weddings who are a recent addition to the directory AND Charlotte was inspired by my own wedding stationery.

Plus, tomorrow on the blog I have an exclusive wedding photography offer from Bohemian Weddings so don’t forget to check back! If you fall in love with any of the suppliers from their Charlotte and George’s wedding you’ll find all the details and links at the bottom of the post.

Charlie

Laura and Charlie’s relaxed and natural wedding with heavenly country garden flowers and handmade details

Charlie

Natural wedding with heavenly country garden flowers

It’s with great pleasure that I get to bring you another real wedding from a couple who planned a beautiful, handmade and natural wedding. Bride Laura used a number of TNWC businesses to help her create the wedding that her and groom Charlie dreamed of, and they were even inspired by my own handmade wedding invitations.

I know you are just going to love this wedding and I’m sure you’ll find inspiration for your own day here. So stop what you’re doing, make yourself a cup of tea and settle down to read all about Laura and Charlie’s beautiful day (and if you like specific details you’ll find links to all the suppliers at the bottom of the post)…

Laura and Charlie got married on a very rainy Saturday in July at Silchester House in Berkshire. “We wanted the wedding to be fairly informal and very relaxed. Charlie and I are very casual so it would have felt a bit false to go for something overly traditional. We tried to make the day feel like ‘us’ wherever possible.”

“We also avoided having a specific colour scheme as we wanted everything to be as organic and natural as possible. I think this approach made planning the wedding a bit more work – we ended up DIYing lots of the elements when we couldn’t find any alternatives that we liked – but seeing everything come together just as we wanted made it worthwhile.”

Charlie

An autumn visit to The Real Cut Flower Garden and a beautiful seasonal bouquet

Charlie

I feel like I’ve known Charlie Ryrie who runs The Real Cut Flower Garden for almost as long as I’ve run The Natural Wedding Company, and that’s quite a few years now. Undoubtedly one of my favourite parts of running this business is the people I get to meet and talk to, and the friends I make – both couples planning their wedding and the lovely people behind the businesses I work with.

The best treat is getting to meet up with these wonderful people and spend a little bit of time getting to know them, and in the case of businesses, seeing behind-the-scenes and how they work. These are fabulous, real, small businesses, and it’s partly why I’ve started my new blog series A Day in the Life.

Last week I was on the road for a couple of days and it was in deepest Herefordshire that I had elevenses with the lovely Charlie Ryrie. It’s not the first time I’ve visited Charlie, the first time was back in 2010, then I went to see her about our wedding flowers, and finally I’ve been back again. We had a catch up over a cup of tea before wandering around her flower field in the drizzle.

Charlie

A breathtakingly beautiful wildflower wedding cake with sugarpaste flowers

Charlie

Couples planning your weddings – I’m so envious of you! I know, I’ve been there, planned and enjoyed an utterly wonderful wedding day (which I wouldn’t change for the world), but I get a tiny bit jealous when I come across all these wonderful new businesses and ideas.

This stunning wedding cake is from one of our new TNWC businesses – Amy Swann Cakes. Isn’t it just breathtaking! Each of those tiny flowers are handcrafted by Amy from sugarpaste – handcrafted!

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