The Blue Carrot Archives - The Natural Wedding Company

Blog: The Blue Carrot

Lauren

Rustic floral stationery from Sarah Wants inspired by The Blue Carrot’s cutting garden in high summer

Lauren

I can’t think of a nicer outing than a visit to a working cutting garden, full of British blooms – choosing the flowers was definitely my favourite part of wedding planning! I remember visiting a local grower on several occasions and seeing little seedlings flourish into gorgeous wedding-worthy flowers was quite a privilege.

There are some wonderful florists who grow their own on the directory and if you’re lucky, you may even be invited to visit their cutting garden as part of your consultation.

When Charlie was planning the TNWC South West Roadtrip back last summer, scheduling a visit to meet Suzanne of The Blue Carrot in Cornwall was high on her priority list. You can read all about what she got up tohere.

On the day of her trip, Charlie was also joined by Sarah from Sarah Wants, an award winning wedding stationery designer and self-confessed country bumpkin who today shares with us the idyllic visit which inspired a new collection. Plus there’s an exclusive discount for TNWC readers!

Over to Sarah…

On a day of sunshine and blue skies, I met Charlie and Suzanne for a lovely lunch at the Hidden Hut just above the beach in Porthcurnick. Afterwards, I was very privileged to visit Suzanne’s beautiful walled cutting garden which was such a treat, it felt like a little hidden secret!

Charlie

Emma and Chris’ relaxed festival wedding on the Cornish coast with outdoor ceremony in an ampitheatre and colourful flowers

Charlie

Relaxed festival wedding

Well what an utterly wonderful way this is to start the week – a stunning, sunny, Cornish wedding. The wedding of one of my lovely TNWC Real Brides from last year, Emma (you can read all about her wedding planning and handmade details here). I do hope you’ll check back tomorrow as well as I have their wedding film to share and it is a feel-good way to begin your day.

Emma and Chris got married in July on a stonking hot sunny day in Cornwall. They planned a day that was relaxed and informal, full of colour and with a festival type vibe. I’ll let you decide but I think they achieved all those things they dreamed their day would be.

Over to Emma…

“The Natural Wedding Company and Pinterest played a bit part in the planning process. I used the internet to search for all sorts of things! I also bought a sketchbook and started scrap booking images and very quickly formed a strong theme for the day. Most the ideas came from the festival theme – we booked the venue and the flags in the same day – the rest sort of followed naturally.”

“I just want to say that despite the hiccups nothing could have ruined our day – it was just perfect in its imperfection – all the bits that didn’t go according to plan just make for good memories. Something will always go awry but it is those differences that make your special day yours and your only – and the things you will chuckle about when old and grey!”

Charlie

TNWC South West Roadtrip Day 5: Lancaster & Cornish, Sarah Wants and The Blue Carrot

Charlie

After the dire weather yesterday, today the south coast of Cornwall has been blessed with blue skies and patches of sun and an almighty wind. I spent the morning in Lostwithiel and then travelled further down the coast to Portscatho and have finally seen the sea.

I’ve met another group of wonderful businesses, all of whom you can find on The Natural Wedding Company directory, and it has been a pleasure to get to know them and hear more about what they do. It’s been a real honour to get an inside look into these small businesses, especially to very private places such as offices, studios, workrooms and cutting gardens.

So this is what I got up to yesterday on the TNWC Roadtrip…

Lancaster & Cornish

A recent addition to the directory and a last minute add on to my visits today, was a trip to the studio office of Lancaster & Cornish. I met the lovely Sian, who runs Lancaster & Cornish, last night at dinner with the ladies from The Garden Gate Flower Company, and was really excited at the prospect of looking at pretty fabrics and lace.

Charlie

A winter woodland wedding photoshoot with lush florals, fur stoles and vintage details

Charlie

Did you see yesterday’s wintry Cornish reindeer photoshoot? If not you must go take a look – it’s stunning! Today I’ve got part 2 of the photoshoot that was dreamt up by wedding photographer Sarah Falugo (who also runs Green Photographic) and took place at Cornish wedding venue Gwel an Mor.

Yesterday the setting was a wild and windswept landscape, today a sheltered woodland featuring lush floral arrangements full of ferns and blackberries. For a photoshoot done on a budget, it is overflowing with lovely inspiration and ideas that can easily be recreated for your own wedding.

Despite it’s wintery themes, the shoot took place in August (can you believe it!) which explains the soft blush dahlias you can spot in the floral arrangements – no doubt from The Blue Carrot’s cutting garden.

Charlie

A wild and wintry Cornish photoshoot with reindeer and timeless vintage styling

Charlie

I am so thrilled to share this photoshoot with you, and what could be lovelier than a bridal shoot featuring a reindeer, some owls, the beautiful windswept Cornish landscape, and a lush woodland? Oh, and a handful of TNWC recommended wedding suppliers.

Well, in my book, there aren’t many things lovelier, so I was delighted when Sarah Falugo (who also runs Green Photographic) got in touch to see if I would featured this stunning shoot.

There are just so many lovely photos from this shoot that I struggled to narrow it down – so rather than only share a handful I’ve decided to split the shoot into two parts to allow you to enjoy them all.

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

Free buttonholes from Cornish florist The Blue Carrot – naturally grown seasonal wedding flowers

Charlie

The lovely Susanne who runs The Blue Carrot in Cornwall is offering one lucky person four free buttonholes when they book her to do your wedding flowers. All Susanne’s flowers are naturally grown, most of which she grows herself – she has a particularly beautiful style of arranging and uses unusual combinations to create natural and wild looking wedding flowers.

The Blue Carrot is a small cut flower garden on the Roseland peninsula in Cornwall, where Susanne specialises in growing unique, unusual and old-fashioned varieties of flowers and foliage. Susanne says “all of my flowers are grown with the utmost care and love and I believe this approach gives my flowers a distinct difference: deeper more vibrant colour, lasting beauty and the long forgotten fragrance of real flowers.”

Charlie

Wild and natural looking wedding flowers with grasses and country garden blooms

Charlie

Following up from my post about using grasses in wedding arrangements and bouquets, I wanted to share some pictures of from Susanne at The Blue Carrot in Cornwall, one of the businesses listed in the flower section of the directory. She got in touch with me after the original blog post to say that she loves using grasses in her arrangements and to share a couple of pictures.

Thought you’d all like to see some on a dreary January afternoon! Any favourites?

I love these deep wine colours with the silvery green grasses and foliage, and the spray of blackberries too.

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