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Blog: flower crown

Charlie

Zoe and Alex’s rustic hippy outdoor wedding with a barefoot bride in a boho wedding dress

Charlie

Oh what a beauty of a wedding this is, with this effortlessly stylish barefoot bride in her boho two-piece wedding “dress” and the outdoor ceremony beneath an archway of weathered branches. I have literally spent hours attempting to whittle down the photos I received for Zoe and Alex’s stunning wedding, but I’m sure you’ll forgive me for not doing great at cutting them down, because they are pretty awesome.

A special thanks goes out to Alice at Forage and Blossom, one of our fab recommended suppliers and the florist for Zoe and Alex. All those gorgeous white, pale cream and green bouquets, flower crowns and arrangements – those are her work. Alice is also the one who helped get this beautiful wedding to grace our pages.

Put on some music and find somewhere to get comfy, because Zoe and Alex’s wedding deserves all the time you can give it to soak up a truly special celebration. If you are worrying about all the details you need to “have” to create the wedding of your dreams, I hope that Zoe and Alex will show you that you only need a few carefully selected elements and lots of laughter. Over to Zoe…

Charlie

A boho picnic wedding shoot on a lake inspired by English picnics and wildflowers with a barefoot bride in a crochet wedding dress

Charlie

I’m quite sure if you’re a regular reader you will remember this magical fairytale woodland wedding shoot from Austria sent to us by the lovely Stephanie of Mademoiselle Fee – well we have another beautiful shoot to share from her today.

A boho picnic wedding with a barefoot bride

Set on a weather worn wooden dock over an Austrian lake, this English picnic and wildflower inspired shoot brings you just the right amount of down-to-earth boho wedding inspiration.

From a barefoot bride in a 1970s-esque crochet wedding dress to the understated (and therefore perfect in my books) tea party, what I love most about the shoots created by Mademoiselle Fee and her team is the genuine, heartfelt love and emotions that emanate from the pictures. Yes, the detailings are beautiful, but it’s the tenderness that is captured, woven in with the pretty details, that make her shoots truly special.

A homage to English picnics and wildflowers

The inspiration from the shoot came from both the lake itself and a flower crown, from one of our own dear friends, Amy Swann. Stephanie told me:

“I love this place at the lake, so do all our friends, and when I saw Amy Swann’s flower crown, I immediately had this picture in my mind of a relaxed couple lying on the deck. Some years ago, when I was engaged, I found The Natural Wedding Company and have been following your inspiring blog posts ever since. This shoot is a homage to English picnics and wildflowers, to bunting and homemade cakes. I love this outdoor way of enjoying life and nature.”

Charlie

What impact will the unusual weather have on your seasonal wedding flowers?

Charlie

If you are a bride-to-be visiting our blog, it is highly likely that you adore seasonal, British grown flowers, just like us. Every year the weather fluctuates, but I still feel slightly anxious by the variations in the seasons and the impact that will have on locally grown blooms.

Perhaps as a bride-to-be this is something you have concerns about, especially after this long and unseasonably warm winter, followed by the recent cold snap with hail and snow across various parts of the country. And yet as I write this, today we have eaten lunch in the garden and have hats and flip flops on it’s so warm!

“I always worry about the weather…well I’m obsessed by it, but sure enough, the flowers defy nature and arrive at just the right time” – Helen, Bouquets and Butterflies.

Dreaming of a church filled with cow parsley

Every year as we enter spring, my mother likes to reflect on the weather in relation to the cow parsley and whether it would have been out for our wedding date of 21st May (I chose May because I love the cow parsley lined lanes of my childhood home in the Cotswolds). Now let me explain, despite getting married 5 years ago, my mum still contemplates this detail every year – I can quite imagine it continuing for many years to come!

I dreamed of a cow parsley filled church in which to get married, and this is what we got (phew). However, in the run up to our wedding there were lots of nervous moments – was the cow parsley going to be out or was it going to be over? So ever since, even as early at March, my mum starts to comment on the weather and it’s impact on the cow parsley’s development in their part of the country. Luckily I don’t have to worry about the status of the cow parsley, but I know there are many of you who will have similar anxieties.

“I think that Mother Nature throws us curveballs now and again, and that it’s how we [florists] deal with what we have that sets us apart” – Sarah, Floribunda Rose.

Charlie

Felt flower crowns for flower girls straight from the pages of Brambly Hedge and The Flower Fairies

Charlie

We are huge advocates for real British grown cut flowers, but these sweet felt flower crowns for your little flower girls captured my heart. I first spotted them over on Instagram when Samantha at Proverbial Daisies tagged me in a post. I loved their soft muted colours, that they were handmade by a fellow mummy, and that they offered something a bit different.

Brambly Hedge meets The Flower Fairies

Aren’t they beautiful? In my opinion they look like a cross between Brambly Hedge and The Flower Fairies, and any regular reader will know I have a soft spot for both of those books.

Charlie

Wild strawberry and white nigella flower crown for an early summer bride

Charlie

This wild strawberry and white nigella flower crown is pretty much perfection in my books, and my feeling is you’ll agree. It is pretty rare that I genuinely see wedding inspiration these days that I wish I’d incorporated into my own wedding – this is one of those rare ideas.

I first spotted this flower crown over on Instagram, from A Harem of Peacock’s account that is just so achingly beautiful. Imagine Brambly Hedge and the Flower Fairies all come to life and you are on your way to the prettiness that Kelly-Marie creates and shares.

It was this flower crown, with it’s tiny wild strawberries (some blushed red, others still white), frothy white nigella flowers, strawberry leaves and still-green nigella seedheads, that captured my gaze. I knew I had to ask permission from Kelly-Marie to share it all with you as it’s one of those ideas that I am convinced at least one of you lovely natural brides would love to recreate for you own wedding.

Kelly-Marie gathered the nigella and wild strawberries from her garden and used a ribbon wrapped crown, this was a practice run for an up-coming wedding this summer she is hoping to replicate it for. You absolutely should check out more of Kelly-Marie’s work, either on her blog A Harem Of Peacocks or her Instagram account. It’s also worth noting that she’s the in-house florist at Deans Court in Dorset and a freelance floral stylist.

Charlie

Romantic rainy Cornish wedding shoot with rustic and vintage styling in the grounds of a cutting garden

Charlie

I have literally poured over this shoot for hours in a bid to narrow down the beautiful images – there are just too many that I wanted to share. This romantic rainy Cornish wedding shoot features a real couple, a vintage bike, spring florals, and a stunningly decorated ceremony arch.

More and more I’m seeing inspiration shoots that use real couples, and I think it is so refreshing. Just like the fairytale woodland shoot we recently featured, that also featured a real-life couple, the images today just ooze with love and genuine warmth and fun. That’s what I want to see from an inspirational wedding shoot. I want to be inspired by that authenticity against a backdrop of gorgeous and interesting props and styling. I have a feeling that’s what you would like to see as well.

Having spent many of many childhood holidays in Devon and Cornwall, this shoot captures everything I associate with this magical area on a wet rainy day – the damp vibrant moss, the moody greys, and splashes of colour, a palette taken straight from the towering hedgerows of these counties.

So it’s with a huge thank you to the lovely Gemma from Box and Cox Vintage Hire down in Cornwall that I get to share all this loveliness with you. She styled the shoot and showcased some of her collection of vintage hire items, including their new wooden arch which was so spectacularly dressed. The location was The Cornish Cutting Garden and they also created the stunning florals. Over to Gemma to tell you more…

Samantha

Matt and Jo’s relaxed outdoor Cornish wedding with a barefoot bride in a vintage wedding dress and festival inspired decor

Samantha

Relaxed outdoor Cornish wedding with a barefoot bride

We are absolutely loving Matt and Jo’s laid-back homespun wedding that we are sharing with you today. We know warm summer days currently feel like a distant memory whilst it is so dull and grey outside and Christmas is but days away, but this beautiful outdoor celebration is most definitely going to bring a little sunshine to your day.

Married this summer in the forever charming Cornwall this wedding is the ultimate in rustic, relaxed style. For starters the bride went barefoot wearing a vintage dress, the groom sported shorts and the bridemaid’s showed us how to perfectly pull off white. And that is without even touching on all the incredible festival inspired decor and the amazing locally-sourced feast that was served to the guests.

The day was beautifully captured and shared with us by TNWC directory business, Sarah Brittain Edwards Photography.

Retorrick Mill outdoor wedding venue

Matt and Jo chose the beautiful Retorrick Mill in Cornwall as their wedding venue, a place close to their hearts.

”We used to live in Cornwall but moved back to Leicestershire when we had our children so we felt we had to get married in Cornwall as it was where it all began! We had stayed at Retorrick Mill the previous summer. We were camping and loved how laid back the venue was. The owner, Wilf, is equally as laid back and friendly.”

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

Harriet and Paul’s homemade, eco-friendly wedding on a community farm with a dried flower headdress and barn dancing

Charlie

Eco-friendly wedding on a community farm

One of the best parts of my job is when an email pops into my inbox from a bride who has been inspired by ideas they’ve found here on my blog, and used some of the wonderful suppliers we feature in our directory.

Today’s bride, Harriet, sent me one such email shortly after I had my baby last autumn. She described her wedding to me and I fell in love with her commitment to creating her wedding with love, making many things by hand, and doing so all on a budget. It was so nice to hear she was inspired by my blog, and now I hope by sharing her wedding here you too can be inspired by her.

Over to Harriet…

Harriet and Paul got married on the last day of August at Riverbourne Community Farm in Salisbury, in a wedding full of handmade details and surrounded by their loved ones.

“We wanted a homemade, eco-friendly wedding. We didn’t have a huge budget as we were both students so I handmade most things and sourced lots of car boot sales, charity shops and recycled lots from friend’s weddings (such as bunting).

Charlie

Jo and Dom’s natural and relaxed Scottish wedding with a ceremony in a ruined chapel, picnic on the beach, and foraged flowers

Charlie

Relaxed Scottish wedding with a beach picnic

A real wedding feature has been long overdue, and what nicer way to kick off 2014 than with the exquisite wedding of Jo and Dom. They got married last July in Scotland with a ceremony in a ruin chapel amongst the dunes, a beach picnic for all their guests, swimming in the sea, foraged and wild flowers for the bouquets and table arrangements, and a beautifully decorated tent – phew!

I could go on and on and on about everything that I love about this wedding, but it’s better than I just let you immerse yourself. Go get lost in Jo and Dom’s wonderful day…

“We wanted our wedding to be as natural and relaxed as possible. We wanted to be able to enjoy it, and for everyone else to have a good time too! We had a humanist wedding in a tiny ruined chapel on the east coast of Scotland, just down the coast from Edinburgh followed by a picnic on the beach.”

“I grew up there and every Christmas my family walk down the beach to the ruin with some friends and hold an informal Christmas ceremony where we sing carols and have readings and generally acknowledge that its Christmas.”

“Dom proposed on boxing day 2012 on a rock just beside the chapel and there was never any question that we would marry anywhere else. It’s a very important place to me. Our wedding guests had to walk over the dunes for half an hour to reach the chapel so the weather was definitely a concern! But no, we didn’t have a wet weather plan!”

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