herbs Archives - The Natural Wedding Company

Blog: herbs

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

Spring Eco Wedding Festival with a cherry blossom chandelier and rustic tablescapes from Wedding Yurts

Charlie

I have had the pleasure of knowing Lizzie from Wedding Yurts for nearly five years now, and everything she creates is pure magic. When I heard she was putting on an Open Week in Herefordshire, I knew I want to visit, to see what delights she had been dreaming up, and to catch up (as best you can with a two and a half year old in tow).

I wasn’t disappointed. My little girl had a magical time running around this beautiful rural spot at Wye Valley Weddings and I soaked up the atmosphere inside Lizzie’s stunning yurts, with their wooden floors and rustic decorations.

As part of their Open Week, Lizzie had pulled together some incredible teams of suppliers to create so inspirational wedding shoots. One of those shoots was a Spring Eco Wedding Festival with a down-to-earth natural style, and featuring wedding suppliers who all weave an eco-friendly ethos into their business. I particular love the simple but striking table design with terracotta pots of herbs and those tiny chai bowls holding tealights.

Lizzie’s work is the kind of style I’d like to have at my own wedding or party, so I’m sure you’ll be as inspired as I am by today’s Spring Eco Wedding Festival shoot.

Samantha

An eco farmhouse wedding shoot with a vintage inspired tea party, pretty lavender details and watercolour invites

Samantha

Eco farmhouse wedding photoshoot

Set at a gorgeous German farmhouse, today’s eco-inspired wedding shoot showcases beautiful simple details including a vintage tea party with a naked wedding cake, loose bouquets of lavender and herbs, watercolour invites, and a truly romantic real life love story.

Curated by the clever people at Lovely White Weddings who wanted to provide a fully eco-friendly inspirational shoot to promote to brides-to-be the talented ethical wedding businesses in Germany, where they have yet to gain much mainstream attention. Lisa, Lena and Dani from Lovely White Weddings explain,

“In Germany we still pretty much live in a ‘green wedding desert’, there really is almost no good blog, magazine or specifically green wedding vendor to be found if you do not exactly know what to look for. Since we ourselves try to live as organic and sustainable as possible, we agreed that it was high time to fill that gap and to push the green wedding trend in Germany by throwing together one of the first truly eco German styled shoots.”

Charlie

A rustic wedding bouquet of fragrant herbs and a wedding cake decorated with flowering rosemary

Charlie

I absolutely love it when rosemary is in flower, with those tiny pale blue flowers it takes on a new dimension to its very green version that we mainly see and associate with it here in England. We have featured rosemary and other herbs in abundance here on the blog because they have so many lovely qualities – their fragrance being number one in my opinion.

This simple white wedding cake decorated with flowering rosemary is a wonderful example of how you can achieve a pretty and less conventional look without spending lots of money or time. Invest in a great quality wedding cake, made from organic and fair trade ingredients, and then just decorate it simply with naturally grown herbs.

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

DIY tutorial to create your own wedding pomander ball using herbs and seasonal flowers from Jay Archer Floral Deisgn

Charlie

I’ve got some lovely blog posts lined up for you, from real weddings to creative ‘how to’ guides – and today I’ve got a fantastic DIY tutorial created especially for you by Jay of Jay Archer Floral Design. Jay has created this beautiful floral pomander ball using homegrown muscari and garden herbs, along side pretty white ranunculus.

So here’s over to Jay:

The pomander ball has been traditionally carried by flower girls and bridesmaids. However, a bride may also carry a pomander ball as a modern replacement to a traditional bouquet. Making your own pomander ball is really quite easy. Maybe spend an afternoon practising one with your Mum, friends and bridesmaids over a glass of vino or cup of char.

You could make a pomander from almost any flower; hydrangea florets, spray roses & rose buds and dahlia are just some examples. I would opt for smaller, more rounded flowers to give a better shape.

Charlie

What goes into a wild and loose September wedding bouquet?

Charlie

I thought it would be nice to follow up from Rhiannon and Richard’s wild and natural Welsh wedding (it’s so beautiful – you must have a look if you haven’t seen it already) with more details of the wild looking bouquet Rhiannon carried. The bouquet in question was created by the wonderful Chloe of BareBlooms who is featured in The Natural Wedding Company directory.

I got in touch with Chloe to find out exactly what flowers she used to create Rhiannon’s bouquet, and to find out what look she had been asked to create. Chloe told me, “Rhiannon was so relaxed about her bouquet – she wanted something loose and wild and not too fussy.”

Charlie

A summer season of natural and vintage inspired wedding flowers

Charlie

For many of the flower businesses listed on the directory who grow their own flowers, they will have just finished up a long summer wedding season. Rachel from Catkin Flowers told me she’s been non-stop since May – phew! So it’s been nice to get a chance to catch up with her and find out what she’s been up to this summer.

Catkin Flowers are based in Lincolnshire where they grow all their own seasonal flowers and foliage in their cutting garden. Rachel has been sharing with me some of the beautiful creations she’s made for weddings this summer and I thought you’d all like to have a look at them too.

Rachel has done the flowers for a lot of vintage inspired weddings, such as this one in a Papa-Kåta tipi, and this stunning trailing bouquet…

Charlie

A round-up of seasonal summer wedding flowers – including a floral dog collar of cornflowers and mint

Charlie

I thought it might be nice to do a round-up of what some of the lovely businesses listed on the directory have been up to recently. So I’ve had a snoop round their blogs and decided I would feature some seasonal flower photos, for the following reasons:

I just can’t get enough of English flowers at the moment (probably spurred on by the buckets of gorgeous flowers I had to arrange for my wedding)
They are always such a positive and beautiful reflection of our seasonal countryside

Charlie Ryrie from The Cut Flower Garden has been creating floral wonders such as this stunning globe of flowers for a wedding recently…

And arranging flowers for this wedding in vintage style jugs and jam jars…

Jo and Rachel over at Green and Gorgeous created this stunning (and pretty fabulous, don’t you think!) summer collar for one of their dogs.

It’s made from blue cornflowers and apple mint – I think this could be the new must-have item for anyone incorporating their dog into their wedding…

Charlie

Wild winter wreaths with seedheads, herbs and dried flowers

Charlie

Utterly gorgeous handmade winter wreaths from The Real Cut Flower Garden. I am certainly considering forgoing the traditional Christmas wreath in place of one of these.

Would also make a divine decoration at a winter wedding – perhaps on the entrance to the church or hall where you’re getting married, or just to decorate part of your venue.

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