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Blog: Forage For

Charlie

What a truly seasonal British Valentine’s bouquet looks like – hellebores, daffodils, primroses, snowdrops, violets and more

Charlie

I love roses, but garden grown and in season, not on Valentine’s Day. But what does a seasonal British Valentine’s bouquet look like? We asked Anne-Marie from Forage For to make us a Valentine’s floral creation – she is quite renown for her stunning floral designs.

So from one corner of Suffolk in a walled garden, this is what was seasonal this year – and it’s worth noting that this has been a particularly unusual year, with unseasonable weather resulting in quite an array of flowers.

The above floral heart features bellis daisies, witch hazel, primroses, hellebores, snowdrops, heather, daffodils, violets, violas, scabious, muscari, blossom and cow parsley (yes really). This crazy unusual weather means that Anne-Marie still has one cow parsley plant that’s hung on all winter and is still flowering. Incredible.

Samantha

Ciara and Matt’s relaxed outdoor wedding with vibrant red accents, handpicked florals and an amazing eclectic reception

Samantha

Relaxed outdoor wedding

Well our first real wedding of 2015 is an absolute scorcher, just like the beautiful weather that shone for the gorgeous outdoor wedding of Ciara and Matt, who had the first and only garden wedding at the beautiful Anglesey Abbey Gardens. The setting could not have been more perfect for their vibrant, relaxed day on 31st August. Taking inspiration from wedding blogs (including our very own pages) and Pinterest they created the ‘natural, summery, vintage, outdoorsy, chilled and informal’ wedding they dreamt of.

The day was beautifully captured in the most stunning wedding film by TNWC recommended suppliers Bright Star Films, and as Ciara explained choosing a videographer was a priority for them,

‘For us the video took precedence, and with the help of Sinead and Kieran at Bright Star Films, we are the proud owners of what we consider to be the best wedding video of all time! (we’re biased….of course!) Their video will forever be treasured by us both, and all of our family and friends!’

Wow! Now if that hasn’t bought a tear to your eye!

Read on to hear from bride Ciara about all the lovely details wrapped up in that gorgeous video with great images captured by some talented friends as well as stills from their wedding film by Bright Star Films.

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

TNWC Real Brides: Nik’s floral conundrum and her thrifty ideas for wedding flowers on a budget

Charlie

I hope you are all enjoying reading the wedding adventures of our TNWC Real Brides – they are all planning such varied but personal days and I can’t believe that it’s almost time for some of them to actually get married! Today we have the lovely Nik who is planning a two part wedding and she’s got some fab ideas for being thrifty with your wedding flowers….enjoy!

Tick Tock!

Before I launch into today’s post, I just wanted announce that there’s only just over two months to go ’til we say “I do”!!

This is both terrifying and very exciting. On the one hand, soon I will be married to the love of my life, which is indescribably surreal and wonderful; but on the other hand, I’m a terrible coordinator in charge of the biggest day of my own life, and am constantly terrified that I’m forgetting something important! I hope this is a normal fear, and I keep reminding myself that we want a simple, relaxed day and that the ONLY important thing is that we come away from it married to one another.

All Things Floral

This month, I thought I’d give you a rundown of the many ways we plan to feature flowers/plants in our wedding celebrations. With our wedding being split into two parts, two days apart, it was crucial that we came up with floristry solutions that would ensure we could decorate both our venues, but that also fit within our relatively small budget of £200.

Fortunately, I’m not a fan of huge arrangements or expensive blooms – I much prefer a rustic, simple, ‘thrown in a tin can’ kind of feel and adore wild flowers and abundant foliage, so I’m happy to go with a ‘whatever I can get my hands on’ approach.

Charlie

Edible spring flower lollipops with violas and primroses for sweet Easter wedding favours

Charlie

I’ve been meaning to share this idea with you for a while, but what could be more perfect than sharing them now – well, apparently it’s supposed to be the start of spring although the snow across the UK suggests otherwise.

These homemade lollipops each hold a pretty edible spring flower, such as these beautiful primroses, and would make lovely wedding favours for an Easter or spring wedding. These ones were made by our lovely TNWC businesses Forage For.

The tiny violas or violets are just the right size to be kept whole in a lollipop, whereas the larger pansies can have an individual petal carefully removed and used instead. You can find a recipe for the edible flower lollipops at Sprinkle Bakes – I particularly love that you don’t need to buy special lollipop moulds, but can in fact use powdered sugar to create your mould! If you’d rather not add another item to your already lengthy ‘to make’ wedding list, then I’d recommend checking out Eat My Flowers who make them with their homegrown edible flowers – you’ll find them in their shop.

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