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Charlie

A guided tour of our eco wedding directory for newly engaged couples

Charlie

Hello and a massive congratulations to you if you are newly engaged. We know the festive period is a very popular time of year for people to pop the question, so if this is your first time here and you are just about to start your wedding planning journey we are delighted to welcome you to our pages.

We hope that throughout the next months or years we can help assist you with everything wedding planning related and offer great ideas on how to create an eco-chic wedding. This post is designed as a guide tour of all the wonderful things you can find here at The Natural Wedding Company.

Be sure to check back next week for our Alternative Guide to Wedding Planning. We’ll be sharing our honest thoughts and advice on how to really go about planning your wedding – we promise it doesn’t include 18 month check lists or encourage teeth whitening.

Who am I?

My name is Charlie – I’m the founder of TNWC and I’ve been running it for nearly 10 years.

You can find out more about the origins of TNWC and me here.

Welcome to our Guided Tour of our Eco Wedding Directory

You’ve got engaged and are still high on the excitement of committing to your love, and now begins the (sometimes) mammoth task of planning the wedding you want. It can all be a bit overwhelming, the wedding industry often provided a checklist of what you “need” to create a wedding day, but we like to put that aside and do it our own way.

If you’ve found us then it might be because you weren’t feeling any of the other wedding blogs and inspiration. There is so much quality information on our website just waiting to be discovered, so in the spirit of feeling overwhelmed, we’ve put together a sort of guided tour to our pages. Here’s what one bride had to say about us:

“I just wanted to say thank you for your gorgeous website. With the help of your directory we have sourced a great organic caterer and commissioned some beautiful recycled silver wedding rings. I’ve also got loads of great ideas from the site for DIY decorations and flowers, and I’m even planning to have a go at making my own wedding cakes. I’m not sure how I would have managed so far without your directory. More than that, you have made the process of wedding planning (which I was rather dreading) into something meaningful and even enjoyable.” Read more

Samantha

Hazel and Dan’s backyard family wedding with child-friendly entertainment and colourful, DIY details

Samantha

Today’s wonderful backyard family wedding is full of colour, smiles, love and laughter – a perfect wedding recipe.

Hazel and Dan were married October 2015 in an intimate humanist ceremony in their backyard surrounded by their family and friends. Followed with a parade through Arthur Street in Edinburgh they continued their celebrations at their local community hall with child-friendly entertainment and a celidh.

The moments and details of their day were beautifully captured by one of our talented directory member Solen Photography, and to tell us a bit more about it all is lovely bride Hazel…

Samantha

An elegant rustic ballerina wedding shoot with vintage details, handcrafted jewellery and natural petal confetti

Samantha

Please note: Minna is now Indiebride London.

Today’s elegant rustic ballerina wedding shoot, set in an urban oasis in the heart of London, is a beautiful showcase of eco-friendly and ethical wedding suppliers.

Although people are growing more and more discerning regarding the use of ethical and eco-friendly products, it is still not common place in the mainstream and this also rings true for the wedding industry. You only have to look at our directory of recommended suppliers however, to know that there is an abundance of incredible independent businesses producing beautiful products for your big day with ethics at their heart. It is lovely to see these sorts of companies gain more recognition, and today’s shoot brought to us by stylist Charlotte Munro and photographer Paola De Paola does exactly that, showcasing some brilliant businesses including many TNWC recommended suppliers.

Eco-friendly wedding inspiration

Stylist Charlotte explains a little bit more about the inspiration behind the shoot…

‘The main focus of this shoot was on ethical and eco-friendly weddings, something that more and more couples are considering for their wedding day, but hasn’t yet been well publicised on wedding blogs and in magazines. Myself and professional photographer Paola De Paola wanted to change that with a beautiful, editorial styled shoot that focuses on ethical wedding companies.

We wanted to focus on suppliers who could bring their own ethical and eco-friendly ethos to the shoot and create something organic and beautiful that any couple could take away with them to incorporate into their own wedding day. I decided to introduce the ballerina aspect as I loved the concept of something flowing and beautiful, and to help convey our message – that it’s not always easy or straightforward to plan an ethical wedding, but the end result is beautiful, soulful, and can still follow fashion trends.’

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.

Samantha

Delicious edible flower inspiration for savoury dishes to wow your wedding guests

Samantha

Did you see the beautiful edible flower inspiration we brought to you last week? The inspiration we have for you today is just as lovely, but takes on a more unusual twist. Ever thought about serving flowers with a fish dish? No me neither!

These beautiful images are a collaboration between two of our lovely recommended suppliers from our directory; gorgeous edible flowers and herbs by Greens of Devon and all perfectly styled and captured by the talented Betti Confetti Photography.

Inspired by Italian and Mediterranean al fresco dining, these mouthwatering images prove that pretty flowers aren”t just for topping the wedding cake. They are so effective at adding the finish touch to every dish throughout your big day!

Samantha

Beautiful edible flower inspiration of sweet treats and cocktails to wow your wedding guests

Samantha

Edible flower inspiration of sweet treats and cocktails

One of the loveliest things about our website is meeting and connecting with such wonderful wedding suppliers and locally run companies. And it is even lovelier when our directory’s recommended suppliers go on to create gorgeous things together!

What we have for you today is the MOST beautiful edible flower inspiration; with edible flowers and herbs by Greens of Devon captured by the talented Betti Confetti Photography.

Providing ideas for how to incorporate edible flowers into your wedding day bubbly and sweet treats, these simple touches will not fail to add that little extra magic and will certainly amaze all your guests!

You can read part 2 here >> Delicious edible flower for savoury dishes to wow your guests

Charlie

Pre-Raphaelite and Flower Fairy inspired loose and natural wedding bouquets and seasonal flower crowns

Charlie

Pre-Raphaelite and Flower Fairy inspired loose and natural wedding bouquets

What a treat we have today, featuring an array of beautiful floral wedding ideas inspired by dreamy pre-Raphaelite paintings and a sprinkle of fairy magic from Cicely Mary Barker’s ever-loved Flower Fairies.

Shot against the evocative backdrop of Doddington Hall, an Elizabethan manor house in Lincolnshire, the floral designs were created by our friend Rachel at Catkin, using all homegrown blooms from the walled garden she tends to on site.

Rachel is a long-standing member of the British Flowers community, so putting English grown, seasonal flowers at centre stage was vital.

The flowers she chose – garden roses, scabious, cornflowers, nigella, sweet peas, pinks, astilbe, larkspur, ammi and daisies – all contributed to the ethereal look Rachel was after, imbuing her floral creations with natural movement and texture.

Charlie

Why you should choose seasonal blooms for your spring wedding – in support of British Flowers Week 2015

Charlie

Choose seasonal blooms for your spring wedding

Well what a lovely positive week it’s been following all the goings-on of British Flowers Week 2015 – I hope you’ve been following along on Instagram and Twitter. This week we have covered why you should choose seasonal flowers for your summer wedding, autumn wedding, and winter wedding – now we are finishing off with inspiration for a seasonal spring wedding.

It was evident when I started collating images for this seasonal spring wedding flower feature that is such an incredible selection of British grown flowers available, I think the most difficult part as a bride should be choosing, not deciding whether to choose British or not.

Apple blossom, lilac and cow parsley

BareBlooms (photo by Cloud9 Wedding Photography)

Mixed tulips, blossom and dusty miller

The Garden Gate Flower Company

Peonies, larkspur and love-in-a-mist

I would love this one, it’s my own bridal bouquet!

The Real Cut Flower Garden (photo by Mark Tattersall Photography)

Violets and more violets!

Bramble and Berry

Clematis, verbena and peonies

Blue Poppy Florist

Charlie

Why you should choose seasonal blooms for your winter wedding – in support of British Flowers Week 2015

Charlie

Choose seasonal blooms for your winter wedding

I know that on a warm sunny day like to day it seems a bit mad to be talking about winter wedding flowers, but it’s a topic that I feel quite passionate about. When it comes to weddings held during December, January and February, I think it’s easy to assume that there are no flowers growing in this country, and therefore if you want wedding flowers they’re going to be imported.

I’m here to show you that it’s just not true!

And if you’re planning a spring, summer or autumn wedding, we’ve also written posts about these, just click on those links or the ones at the bottom.

With this selection of seasonal winter bouquets, I hope I can encourage some winter brides to fully embrace a truly British grown wedding when it comes to the flowers. So say no to the red and white roses, and fill your bouquets and arrangements with hellebores, anemones, catkins, narcissi, and more!

As with all naturally grown flowers, there will be seasonal and locality variations, depending on when and where you are getting married. We would always recommend choosing a flower farmer or florist who specialises in British grown flowers, and ask for their advice.

Charlie

Why you should choose seasonal blooms for your autumn wedding – in support of British Flowers Week 2015

Charlie

Choose seasonal blooms for your autumn wedding

In the UK we are pretty lucky to have such defined seasons, and when it comes to weddings I think it means your quite spoilt – it also makes it harder to choose which time of year you want to get married in!

This week we are supporting our many flower farmer florist friends across the country for British Flowers Week, and the best thing I think I can do is just inspire you with what’s available throughout our different seasons (here’s our posts on winter, spring and summer flowers).

The autumn months – September, October, November – still offer an incredible selection of British grown blooms and foliage (as you will see below), and so shouldn’t always be overlooked in favour of summer.

Do remember that there are variations year-to-year and across the country. Here’s to being inspired for an autumn wedding…