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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

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We have such a lovely DIY guest post today from Julie at Hollyhock Lane – she’s put together an exclusive ‘how to’ guide for our readers on how to create these gorgeous paper flowers that can be used both as place settings and/or wedding favours.  They are a perfect project for all you crafty and creative brides out there.

Over to Julie to get you started on making your own pretty paper flowers…

So here’s a DIY for those brides that like to make stuff. Paper flowers can be used for anything really, but in this example I decided to make them into place settings which can be taken away as favours for the guests as well.

Admittedly, these could take some time if you’re planning on a wedding for a hundred guests or more, but when you get into the flow of it, they only take about 10-20 minutes each. The good thing about them is that they can easily be made in front of the TV, and unlike fresh flowers, they can be finished well in advance of the big day.

You could always make it part of your hen party activities and get crafting with a group of your best friends. There’s nothing like bonding over a creative project and a good cup of tea to while away the hours.

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This time last year my sweet friend Jen was getting married to her Mr, Chris, as it happens in the lovely village church that we both go to sometimes.  It’s in a gorgeous little village called Dunham Massey in the countryside south of Manchester.  Most of the cottages are owned by the National Trust so it still has this old fashioned feel to it, and the vicar is just the best ever.

I was lucky enough to meet Jen a couple of days after her wedding for my TNWC 5th Birthday Party and we had previously met up for a cup of tea when Jen emailed me and we suddenly realised for a few months we’d been sat in church together whilst she was busy reading my blog – she created some beautiful paper details for her wedding based on our own wedding stationery.

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I’m hoping this post is ‘better late than never’ today as I realise it’s already quite late into the day. This week leading up to Easter I am spending some time with my family in Gloucestershire and trying to balance having some time off whilst still working a little each day.

With Easter less than a week away, my plan is to try and share some Easter/spring themed ideas – although not too twee! – here on the blog.  I think if you are planning a wedding near Easter then it would be lovely to loosely incorporate some of those elements that are so often associated with Easter.

I thought this idea for a place setting featuring a pretty egg in an egg cup with a tiny slip of paper with your guests name on what a really sweet idea.  This egg is made of papermache and uses découpage to decorate it, but I think you could easily use other ideas such as hollowed out eggs dyed pretty colours.  The egg cups could also double up as wedding favours!

If you’d like to recreate something similar to the above image, you can find a tutorial on how to create this decoupaged patterned egg here.

Image: Polka Dot Bride

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Epic weekend wedding with handmade details

Today I have an incredible real wedding.  It is utterly epic (I don’t use words like that often) and it’s not short on beautiful ideas and inspiration if that’s what you’re looking for.  I’ve even broken it down into headings because there is so much to share with you!

Jodie and James got married on 15th September 2012 and spent the whole weekend celebrating with their family and friends.  Jodie has kindly told me so much about their incredible weekend celebration, and I am sure that many of you brides-to-be will find lots of helpful snippets throughout from Jodie and James’ experience.

Without further ado, I’ll hand you over to the lovely Jodie to tell you all about their epic wedding weekend…

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Christmas or winter weddings can be dreamt up so beautifully with just a little bit of inspiration  – I love this so, so simple idea for place settings using small trimmings of Christmas tree branches with a rustic luggage tag tied on.  Just popped in each guest’s dinner place they would bring festive cheer to any winter wedding reception.

Regular readers will know I’m all about the simplest ideas being the best, but don’t they look so effective when you get it right?  I love images that conjour up a whole ‘look’ or ‘feel’ for a wedding or celebration – can’t you just imagine a natural, rustic winter wedding unfolding from this one idea for using evergreen branches for place settings?  Lots of twinkling candles, greenery and garlands, simple linens with maybe a hint of festive berry red, and tree trunk cake stands.

Image: Sean Flanigan via Ruffled

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I really wanted to share some inspiration from this wedding because not only is it beautiful but because I’m very familiar with the lovely lady whose wedding it was.  The bride, Brigitte, is one of my lovely readers who whilst planning her wedding was always leaving me sweet comments on my blog posts and Facebook page – it’s so nice to be able to become familiar with one of my readers like that.

Brigitte got married in July at Goldbrick House in Bristol and had the styling help of Kirsten, the talent who is The Little Wedding Helper to make her ideas a reality.  To honour Paris, the city they got engaged in Brigitte and her fiance Graham included some nice French touches to their day, which had such a romantic feel to it.  What I particularly loved was Brigitte’s table decorations and floral arrangements – you often see weddings inspired by Paris, but I think this one captures that essence the nicest.

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