lavender Archives - The Natural Wedding Company

Blog: lavender

Charlie

Katie and Myles’ garden tipi wedding with rustic decor, a horse riding bride, and a skiing inspired wedding cake

Charlie

A beautiful garden tipi wedding to end the year with, complete with a bride who rode in on her horse. It was my childhood wedding dream, to ride to my wedding on a grey horse, so it seems fitting to finish the year like this.

This year has been a bit all over the place, mainly due to the arrival of my second daughter in the summer. Any mums running their own business will know the challenges a new baby brings. Next year our family has exciting, possibly life changing, plans, which I will share when the time is right. I am looking forward to what the new year will bring, both personally and for The Natural Wedding Company.

I hope you have had a wonderful Christmas and all our best wishes for next year. Snuggle up with a festive drink and some chocolate and enjoy this beautiful garden tipi wedding. Over to Katie to tell us all about their wedding…

A garden tipi wedding

Charlie

Vickie and Liam’s rustic country barn wedding with dried lavender, hessian table runners and a naked wedding cake

Charlie

Raw brick walls and cobbled floors are brought to life and serve as a rustic backdrop in this week’s real wedding. Vickie and Liam’s beautiful rustic country barn wedding is simple, elegant and stylish.

With twinkling fairy lights, jam jar candles and shining glassware, the burlap table runners and bunches of dried lavender help marry together the rustic surroundings and elegance of the wedding.

Vickie and Liam got married at the beautiful Halstead House, which is set in the grounds of a working farm, and chose Sarah Brittain Edwards, a TNWC recommended supplier, to capture their day. We caught up with Vickie who told us all about how they found the venue and what inspired their plans…

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

A romantic Flower Fairy inspired wedding with gypsophila flower crown and woodland themed wedding reception

Charlie

I had another blog feature planned for today, but then I found out it is my colleague Samantha’s fourth wedding anniversary today, and naturally I felt that sharing some snippets from her beautiful wedding was much more appropriate.

Samantha came into my life a couple of years ago when I was looking for someone to become a blog features writer – up until that point it had just been me running The Natural Wedding Company directory and writing the blog. I loved her enthusiasm and obvious love for weddings, I loved that she had become a mum at a similar time to me and had a little boy near in age to my little girl, and I loved that she had been inspired by childhood books The Flower Fairies for her wedding.

Whilst we don’t get to see each other very much because we live at opposite ends of the country, she has become such an important part of my life and the fabric and future of The Natural Wedding Company. So today while she celebrates four years of marriage with her husband Paul, our blog will celebrate that day four years ago when they said their “I do’s”.

Here’s to celebrating true love (these two are truly my idols when it comes to romance – you’ll see what I mean from Paul’s proposal) and to living out our girlhood dreams of being Flower Fairies. Put on a suitable romantic song, turn it up loud and enjoy this sweet celebration of marriage. Over to Samantha for a few snippets from her wedding…

A wedding inspired by The Flower Fairies

I have deep down (ok, not that deep down) always wished to be a flower fairy, therefore wanted to create the feeling of a magical world in the depths of the woods for everyone to enjoy. Luckily Paul didn’t even bat an eyelid when I suggested that we go for a woodland inspired ‘theme’ which would feature giant strawberries.

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

Wreaths throughout the seasons: learn how to make these spring hedgerow inspired wedding table wreaths

Charlie

I am delighted to be back today with Alice from Lock Cottage Flowers with a how to guide for making a spring hedgerow table wreath. Not only are would these wreaths be a great little project to decorate your table for a party, but Alice has also shown how you can dress them up a little more to make them the perfect wedding centrepieces.

I don’t know about you, but spring is one of my favourite times of the year, especially for flowers, and these wreaths remind me of the steep Devon hedgerows of my childhood in March/April just exploding with green and all those exquisite wildflowers.

This wreath how to is part of a wonderful series Alice has put together for us, called Wreaths Throughout The Seasons, which provides inspiration and guides for incorporating wreaths into your home or wedding throughout the year, not just at Christmas.

You can find all her posts by clicking on Wreaths Throughout The Seasons or find the individual features below:

How to make a living winter viola table wreath

How to make a seasonal Valentine’s wreath

How to create a hellebore moss winter wreath

Now, over to Alice…

How to make a spring hedgerow table wreath

Hello everyone, this spring instalment of wreaths through the seasons will cover tabletop wreaths that I recently created for a spring wedding. Similar to the winter wreath that I did, these spring wreaths are a combination of small bedding plants swaddled in moss and cut flowers in floral tubes.

Charlie

A creative and practical guide to making an edible leaf wedding cake

Charlie

I was blown away by this unusually decorated wedding cake with its edible leaves, a fantastic collaboration between TNWC recommended supplier Maddocks Farm Organics and Bees Bakery. If you’ve read our blog for any length of time you’ll know we are big fans of edible flowers, but edible leaves on a wedding cake? It may sound odd, but as you can see from this beautiful cake it creates the most stunning effect. It is both modern and natural, and feels like it could have been painted on. I particularly like the combination of purples and greens used.

Sourcing Edible Flowers For Wedding Cakes

Whilst this is a design you could ask a wedding cake maker to create for you, Maddocks Farm Organics have helpfully given some tips on how to do it yourself. Firstly, it’s important to remember these key points about using edible leaves:

Flowers and leaves should not be eaten unless sourced from a reputable organic supplier of edible varieties (we recommend these edible flower suppliers).
Many flowers and leaves are poisonous and can cause a whole range of serious symptoms if ingested. Even if you don’t plan to eat them, it is wise not to attach them to any food items in case they are mistaken for being edible when they are not. Even if they are just decoration, sap or fine hairs could leech onto your cake and cause irritation.
Do not be tempted to pick up supermarket or regular floristry flowers to decorate your cake. They are routinely sprayed with chemicals that you absolutely do not want to be ingesting or touching your wedding cake.

So when sourcing your edible flowers or leaves, ensure that you 1) buy from a reputable organic supplier; 2) Ask your supplier how they are grown, picked and processed; and 3) Discuss with your supplier how you want to use them.

How To Use Edible Leaves On Wedding Cakes

With that in mind, here’s Maddocks Farm Organics top tips on how to use edible leaves on your wedding cake:

Edible leaves work best when pressed into buttercream.
They should be added to your cake on the day of your wedding.
Choose from organically grown leaves, herbs and wild foragings.
Use clover shaped and fern shaped edible leaves in a variety of shades to create a striking design (like the one above).
More robust varieties include rosemary and lavender (examples below, but please note I am not sure if any of the other flowers/leaves shown on the cakes are suitable, as per the advice above – please check with your supplier).

Charlie

Wreaths throughout the seasons: learn how to make a seasonal heart-shaped wreath for Valentine’s Day

Charlie

Today it’s all about creating seasonal Valentine’s wreaths – I particularly love Alice’s wild and twiggy heart with its bright red berries. These could be used to decorate your door this weekend or the smaller heart wreath would make a great DIY project for a wedding.

In case you missed it, on Monday we shared how to create a hellebore moss winter wreath as part of a new blog series called Wreaths Throughout The Seasons with our friend Alice from Lock Cottage Flowers. We’re hoping to inspire you to start putting up seasonal wreaths on your front door or in your home at times other than just Christmas.

Over to Alice…

How to make a seasonal Valentine’s wreath

This first Valentine’s wreath is made from British parvifolia (small leafed eucalyptus – smells divine) and dried lavender which isn’t too visible here, but is very fragrant. These smaller wreaths are terrific for hanging on a small space in the kitchen, or hanging on a doorknob. For weddings they make terrific chairbacks.

I used heavy duty garden wire – the kind used for wall training roses – a coat hanger could be taken apart and used as well. Don’t worry if the heart is slightly wonky – this is preferable.

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).

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