summer wedding Archives - Page 6 of 8 - The Natural Wedding Company

Blog: summer wedding

Charlie

Chloe and Nick’s relaxed seaside Devon wedding with natural seasonal ‘just picked’ flowers and a jasmine flower crown

Charlie

Relaxed seaside Devon wedding

I am really delighted to be bringing you another exclusive real wedding to the blog today. This wedding was shared with me via the lovely Chloe from BareBlooms, a TNWC flower farmer, as it was not only a wedding she did the flowers for, but she was also a guest as the bride (also called Chloe) and groom are friends of hers.

Bride and groom Chloe and Nick were really relaxed about their wedding day and wanted a simple celebration with just a few lovely details – it’s quite refreshing when it’s so easy to get bombarded by detail heavy weddings seen on so many wedding blogs.

Over to bride Chloe to share their pretty wedding day with you…

Chloe and Nick got married last June in Devon, which they chose because it was the place where they met: “Nick was at Dartington College of Arts and I was working in Exeter, my mum, stepdad and gran live in Exeter and all our friends are mostly based in the south of England, so we felt that Devon was a natural choice.”

Izzy

Sarah and Sam’s old fashioned country village wedding with a pretty garden party reception on a shoestring

Izzy

Old fashioned country village wedding

I’m thrilled to be sharing another exclusive real wedding with you on the blog today – a gorgeous June wedding set amongst stunning North Yorkshire countryside. The bride Sarah, was one of the lovely girls who joined me for my TNWC 5th Birthday Party last April, so it’s especially lovely to share her wedding after hearing about their plans last spring.

For anyone planning a wedding on a ‘shoestring’ then this wedding is for you – as Sarah mentions later on, they took ideas they saw and worked out how they make it themselves. It’s a real DIY wedding on a budget, but a totally beautiful one.

Over to Sarah to tell you all about her beautiful wedding to Sam…

Sarah and her husband Sam chose the 23rd June 2012 to get married, “because it was the Saturday closest to the midsummer solstice and there’s an old English tradition of weddings on that day. We wanted an old-fashioned country wedding with an informal feel, and we tried to make everything homemade if it possibly could be.”

“The week before the wedding was a crazy whirl of preparations because it was such a DIY affair. Luckily we had a fantastic team of family, friends and neighbours who worked tirelessly to finish preparing the food and decorations.”

Charlie

Fairtrade and organic summer bridesmaid dresses in vintage inspired floral prints

Charlie

People Tree is one of the original fair trade clothing brands in the UK and one that I love. As ‘ethical’ and ‘fairtrade’ has become more mainstream it has been great to see People Tree’s collections grow and there to be even more choice of beautiful clothes.

I ended up on their website checking out what was in their sale when I spotted a number of dresses that I thought would make perfect summer bridesmaid dresses and knew I had to share them with you.

Please bear in mind these are currently in the January 2013 sale so they might not stay around long. Even if you come across this post later, do check out their current collections as I’m sure there will be more lovely items – www.peopletree.co.uk.

Lora V Neck Dress

This vintage inspired dress is made from a pretty floral print in 100% organic Fairtrade certified cotton and is £37.50 (50% off) in the People Tree sale. Perfect for a English country garden wedding.

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

Christine and Joe’s intimate woodland wedding with vows beneath a beech tree

Charlie

Intimate woodland wedding with vows beneath a beech tree

I have such a lovely wedding to share with you today, which will be of extra interest to anyone considering a woodland or outdoor ceremony, because Christine and Joe had one of the most beautiful looking wedding ceremonies I’ve seen.

Their photographer, Emma Stoner, is one of the talented wedding photographers listed on The Natural Wedding Company directory, and I’m thrilled to be able to share this wedding with you.

On a sunny August day, Christine and Joe were married in the grounds at West Lexham in Norfolk in an intimate woodland ceremony beneath the boughs of a red beech tree. “We wanted an intimate and joyous feel for our wedding, as if we were in the heart of our community and supported by them. It was important to us that everyone had a good time – despite having to work for it by making contributions!”

“We wanted to find somewhere that we could get married outdoors, near trees and water. I guess you could say it was symbolic to us as I love water and Joe loves woodlands. In personality, I think of Joe as the strong, grounded one, and me as the strong, flowing one!”

“We chose West Lexham because it felt like the right place – we could get married under the boughs of a beautiful red beech tree by a little river. Also, the site had camping in bell tents, a swimming pool, gardens, rowing on the river, as well as cottages and the manor house.”

Charlie

Anna and James’ relaxed country tea party wedding at South Farm

Charlie

Country tea party wedding at South Farm

I’m utterly delighted to be able to share Anna and James’ relaxed country tea party wedding on the blog today. They got married at South Farm in Cambridgeshire back in June and the lovely Dasha Caffrey captured their wedding.

“Our idea was to have a really relaxed country wedding with bunting, vintage tea cups and hopefully an outdoor ceremony if the weather was good enough! James and I are also real ale enthusiasts, so we had a good number of polypins [barrels] of beer on the bar, which along with the pimms and croquet, helped create a lovely village fete type atmosphere.”

“We fell in love with South Farm as soon as we saw it – it has a very natural charm and just felt like a friendly place. We thought it would be totally out of our budget, but decided to go and have a look anyway as it’s only about 20 minutes from where we live.” It turned out a number of Anna and James’ friends had either been married there or been to weddings at South Farm and all highly recommended it. “I guess having so many personal recommendations just clinched it for us!”

Charlie

An end of summer bridal bouquet inspired by the approaching change in season

Charlie

I love the colours in this end of summer bouquet from one of our new TNWC businesses, The Garden Gate Flower Company. This bunch of gorgeous flowers was picked from their cutting garden in Cornwall yesterday and they dropped me an email to share it with me – and I thought it only right to share it with you all too.

Rebecca from The Garden Gate Flower Company told me, “Inspired by the slight change in the air and the browning of the leaves, this bouquet will still keep any bride happy with its cheerful red sunflowers and the second flush of yellow roses! It just goes to show an autumn wedding can still be a lovely time to get married….only problem is I’d never through this bouquet over my shoulder!” I don’t think I would either!

Charlie

Quirky and eco-friendly hand drawn wedding stationery from Hollyhock Lane with an exclusive reader discount

Charlie

I am loving the influx of talented illustrators who are turning their hand to creating stunning wedding stationery that is not only beautiful, but in many cases eco-friendly too. Today I want to introduce you to Hollyhock Lane, a brand new wedding stationery business set up by artist and illustrator Julie Annis.

Plus, Julie is offering readers of The Natural Wedding Company an exclusive 15% discount on all orders placed before August 20th 2012, so if you love her designs below or want a bespoke design, simply mention The Natural Wedding Company when you get in touch with Julie.

From her little cottage in rural Sussex, Julie is busy dreaming up and creating quirky wedding stationery that has all the charm and creativity that I certainly was searching for when planning my wedding. Hollyhock Lane provides a collection of ready designed stationery or you can commission Julie to create a bespoke design that intimately captures the essence of your wedding day.

The Hollyhock Lane Collections:

Hazy Woodland

Inspired by Julie’s own woodland wedding – whether you’re getting married in the woods or are using nature as an inspiration.

Charlie

Heavenly midsummer photoshoot in a field of cow parsley with pink rose flower crowns

Charlie

Today’s blog feature is just so pretty and I’m delighted to be able to share this series of photos from photographer Svetlana Batura (who you may recently remember from this gorgeous Lithuanian family farm wedding). I spied them on her blog and asked if I might share them, as I know there is a good following amongst you who love cow parsley as much as I do.

These images take me back to an imagined childhood and provide some nice inspiration for bridesmaids for a relaxed wedding – long skirts, pretty blouses, flowers in their hair and a bouquet of cow parsley. Bliss. Enjoy…

Charlie

A rustic Lithuanian village wedding celebrating old traditions and a simpler way of life

Charlie

Rustic Lithuanian village wedding

It’s always nice to get inspiration from other countries and cultures when it comes to all aspects of life, but in particular I love seeing the way the other people celebrate their wedding days. I am so excited that I get to share with you this gorgeous Lithuanian wedding shot by photographer Svetlana Batura (who also captured this timeless autumn wedding I featured).

Svetlana took the time to tell me all about the wedding of Irminta and Artur and what they were inspired by, I particularly love the horse drawn cart ride for the bride and groom and their friends – more about that below!

Irminta and Artur were inspired by their love of nature, old traditions, the naturalness they feel is missing from everyday life, and of their grandmother’s stories of village weddings. They wanted to combine old and new styles to create a wedding day that was beautiful, fun and that celebrated their family traditions.

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