Jay Archer Floral Design Archives - The Natural Wedding Company

Blog: Jay Archer Floral Design

Samantha

Emily and George’s intimate winter wedding with literature inspired DIY decor and festive seasonal flowers

Samantha

Intimate winter wedding with literature inspired decorations

Our last real wedding for 2014, beautifully put together by Samantha…

There is something so magical about this time of year isn’t there? I just love Christmas time and all the festivities that come with it, there is an air of excitement and everything seems to have a glow about it!

It was for just this reason that Emily and George the beautiful couple from today’s real wedding chose to have a winter wedding on the 28^th December: “We love the winter, and we really wanted to play to its strengths for our wedding. With long, dark evenings and intimate, cosy family gatherings, there was a lot to work with.”

We couldn’t agree more, their wedding is so romantic and elegant, with some wonderful inspiration for those couples planning a winter wedding without wanting a bit of tinsel in sight!

There’s a gorgeous bouquet featuring succulents and rosemary sprigs by Jay Archer Floral Designs from our directory, fabulous wedding shoes, and literature inspired DIY decor. Don’t take my word for it though, read on and enjoy a little light relief from all that last minute Christmas wrapping…

Charlie

A new affordable wedding package for brides seeking seasonal and locally sourced flowers from Jay Archer Floral Design

Charlie

Here at The Natural Wedding Company, we’re great advocates of DIY weddings. DIYing certain elements not only allows you to keep within a budget, but gives you the chance to get hands-on and really make the day your own.

However I’ll be the first to put my hands up and admit that sometimes you simply can’t do everything yourself, especially those things on the list that have to be done last minute and not prepped ahead of time — at least if you want a few precious moments to relax with your best girls and a good night’s beauty sleep before walking down the aisle.

Cue award-winning florist, champion of seasonality and bride-to-be herself, TNWC recommended supplier Jay Archer Floral Design; “I’ve often been called upon last minute by distressed brides who decide to go it alone with their wedding flowers, only to find themselves in a fluster when they’ve run out of time, a friend has let them down, or they’re disappointed with the end result.”

Jay’s come up with a new option, the simply JAFD package, which provides the seasonal, locally-sourced flowers she and her team are renowned for, at a set price. The Simply JAFD package costs £750 and includes:

• The bridal bouquet
• 3 bridesmaid bouquets
• 6 men’s buttonholes
• 2 ladies buttonholes
• 10 table centres in a choice of vessels (that couples can be keep afterwards)

Izzy

Jaime and Dave’s relaxed spring wedding with lawn games, a seasonal bouquet and Scottish kilts

Izzy

Relaxed spring wedding

Today we are sharing Jaime and Dave’s gorgeous spring wedding in Hampshire. Fans of the outdoors, Jaime and Dave wanted their wedding to reflect the natural beauty of the gardens at Taplins Place in Hartley Wintney where they held their ceremony and reception.

Guests were entertained with giant lawn games, a coconut shy, a ‘hook-a-duck’ stall and homemade ‘Fruits of the Forest’ gin. With a wedding cake made of cheese and the relaxed ‘fete’ feel to the wedding, Jaime and Dave were able to make their wedding truly about them – nature and garden lovers.

– Izzy x

Now over to Jaime to share their beautiful wedding day with you…

Jaime and Dave got married in May this year, I love the reason why Jaime and Dave chose May for their wedding and honeymoon, “As we grow our own veg, we knew that we didn’t want to leave too much work to Dave’s Dad and his wife, who were looking after the house, our dogs and our garden. So I guess you can say that our vegetable dictated when we got married!”

Charlie

Support our British flower growers this year by proudly displaying a seasonal Christmas wreath on your front door

Charlie

I am slowly beginning to admit that Christmas is on the way, what with my recent blog feature on those stunning festive dessert tables and now Christmas wreaths and workshops.

I absolutely love wreaths, I wish that we were more like the States and had wreaths for different seasons and celebrations throughout the year, and not just Christmas – anyone else up for starting this trend? Perhaps The New Wives Club could get a group of us to make a wreath for each month of 2013 and we could share our pictures? Am I getting carried away 🙂

A number of the lovely florists and flower farmers listed on the TNWC directory have started to release details of upcoming wreath workshops and how to order their Christmas wreaths online, so I thought to help you all out I’d do a feature to showcase a lot of them all in one place.

Plus, there are a couple of exclusive discounts for TNWC readers below, so don’t miss out on those!

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 offer on wedding flowers from Jay Archer Floral Design

Charlie

It’s time for a fantastic offer from one of our TNWC businesses – the lovely Jay from Jay Archer Floral Design is offering my readers a 10% discount on wedding flowers for November 2012 weddings booked before Friday 20th September 2012.

Jay Archer Floral Design create beautiful wedding floristry using seasonal blooms, and rare and native species with quirky textures and old fashioned scents. Jay likes to reflect the British seasons, using varying herbs, fruit, vegetables, wild and unusual flowers to provide a different and unique take on floral design.

So if you’re getting married in November 2012 then don’t miss this wonderful offer – to get your 10% discount simply quote Autumn Love when you get in touch with Jay before Friday 20th September 2012. For more details and to enquire about wedding flowers, contact Jay at jay@jayarcherfloraldesign.com or by phone on 07519 818 223.

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

Win 50 pretty sunflower or sweetpea seedling favours in tiny pots from Jay Archer Floral Design

Charlie

It’s the last day of the month, and almost the end of all the wonderful competitions that I’ve had to share with you lovely readers. This evening you could win 50 sunflower or sweetpea seedling wedding favours from the wonderful Jay Archer Floral Design.

Jay is offering all of our readers who apply for a quote and subsequently book her to do their wedding flowers entry into a prize draw to win 50 free flower seedling favours. You will be able to choose from sunflower or sweetpea seedlings that will be grown by Jay, and a choice of tiny zinc or terracotta pots.

Charlie

A simple way to decorate your wedding reception tables with jars of seasonal flowers and cake stand arrangements

Charlie

Apologies for the rather brief (and belated) blog post this morning – I’ve been having rabbit crisis at home with my littlest bunny not very well, so back and forth to the vets. That being said, I wanted to bring you some inspiration and I’ve chosen this picture about as a beautiful example of why you don’t need to go over-the-top decorating your reception tables.

Sometimes you see these incredibly luxurious wedding reception tables, where there are flowers simply overflowing and you can barely see the tables for all the decorations, crockery, and wedding favours. I must admit that having beautiful wooden tables, like they do above, does make decorating more simply much easier – I doubt there’s many of us who would want to leave plastic trestles uncovered.

Charlie

Winter hair garland of wax flowers and ivy

Charlie

If you’re planning a winter wedding for 2012 and you fancy something quite earthy and in tune with the natural world, then this gorgeous hair garland of wax flowers and ivy would fit in wonderfully. Whether it was worn by your bridesmaids, or yourself (I could only dream of being gutsy enough to pull it off), it would certainly add to that ‘mid-winter’ feel.

I’m imagining something along the lines of roaring log fires, mugs of hot mulled cider and lots of ivy hung everywhere…very Robin Hood. I think these flower garlands would be equally at home at a wedding held at country house hotel. It’s such a beautiful combination of greenery and flowers.

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