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Blog: wedding planning

Lauren

The shy bride’s guide to planning an engagement shoot – a guest post from Emma at Freckle Photography

Lauren

Today the lovely Emma from TNWC business Freckle Photography shares her wisdom on engagement shoots. Personally I think they’re the perfect opportunity to embrace the things you love to do together and take a moment out from the craziness of wedding planning.

I’m sure these beautiful images featuring beekeepers, vintage railway lovers and camping couples will inspire you to plan something beautiful, fun and memorable to capture the essence of you as a couple.

Over to Emma…

Whilst planning my own wedding last year, I suddenly realised that the thought of being photographed all day terrified me! Not just because I spent my life behind the lens, but because I’m a normal girl with all the usual insecurities about my wobbly bits and the way my face scrunches up a bit too much when I’m really happy.

As for the boys, the idea of being obviously affectionate in ‘public’ and then being photographed can be equally as alarming.

What is an engagement shoot and why have one?

I’m sure this is a fairly normal reaction when planning a wedding, which is why I offer a photo shoot prior to the wedding. Sometimes called an ‘engagement shoot’ or a ‘pre-wedding shoot’, the aim is for you and your photographer to get to know one another, dispel any myths about having your photo taken and get some awesome and fun images in the process.

Despite it being a bit daunting at first, I can tell you within minutes you will be enjoying yourselves. It’s a great excuse to have a bit of time out together, kiss more than you have all week and generally lark about!

Charlie

DIY bride Holly shares her top ten tips and advice for a handmade wedding

Charlie

You might remember that back in the late spring I featured Holly and Laurie’s beautiful picnic wedding that was full of creative handmade details, well today we’re lucky enough to have Holly back with us.

Holly’s sharing her top ten tips and advice for a DIY wedding and I’m sure that her advice will provide invaluable to any of you brides- and grooms-to-be who are in the stages of planning a handmade wedding.

Over to Holly…

1. Firstly (and probably most importantly) make sure you have a small army of friends and family who are willing and kind enough to help out and don’t be afraid to ask for help.

In his speech my husband Laurie described our friends as the ‘games makers’ of our wedding and they really were- we couldn’t have done it without them!

2. Make sure you have a willing fiancé.

Creating a handmade wedding isn’t a one person task, it will take up lots of your free time so make sure you work together. My husband Laurie helped me out so much with all the handmade elements of our wedding – he put up with me spending hours reading wedding blogs and chugging away at my sewing machine, he also spent a whole weekend printing out and tying up invitations and made dozens of gorgeous paper flowers.

3. Spend some time gathering inspiration before you start.

There are so many ideas out there that it can feel a little overwhelming sometimes. Spend some time gathering inspiration so you know the kind of wedding you want and you have an idea of how it will all tie together. Pinterest is such a useful tool and it is full of beautiful images and ideas.

There are also a few blogs I would recommend; The Natural Wedding Company for ideas and wonderful suppliers, Junkaholique for gorgeous vintage styling (and their wedding is one of the loveliest I’ve ever seen!), and Green Wedding Shoes for a dose of eco-friendly wedding loveliness from the USA.

Charlie

Directory Showcase: Love a Locavore, Tribes Travel and World Inspired Tents

Charlie

Welcome to this week’s Directory Showcase – sharing a selection of the fabulous businesses that you can find on The Natural Wedding Company directory. If you like what you see and want to search for more, click on the links below or take a look around the directory which can be found at the top right of the webpage in the lovely luggage tag.

The lovely Alice of Love a Locavore can cook you a delicious, seasonal and locally sourced wedding feast, even sourcing some ingredients from her kitchen garden in Gloucestershire. Alice caters for weddings of up to 80 people and can also cook you a wonderful celebratory meal for hen and stag parties. Visit the directory for a full list of eco-friendly, ethical and seasonal wedding caterers.

Tribes Travel is the original Fair Trade travel company, offering a wide selection of luxury honeymoons in Africa, South America, India and Jordan. They can even help to organise wedding ceremonies and vow renewals in a number of the countries they work with. Tribes Travel also offer a honeymoon gift voucher scheme. Visit the directory for a full list of ethical and green honeymoon spots.

Charlie

Introducing our businesses with the new Directory Showcase: Foundation Jewellery, Dale Cottage Farm and Beechenhill Farm

Charlie

Welcome to my newest soon-to-be regular blog post showcasing the businesses featured on The Natural Wedding Company directory. There are so many wonderful businesses offering products or services to help you make your wedding day natural, eco-friendly, seasonal, handmade or vintage-inspired that I thought it was about time I started regularly sharing details of what you can find.

Each week on a Tuesday I will showcase three businesses sharing a snippet of what they do and where you can find more suppliers within the directory. So without further ado, I’d like to introduce you to the first of the wonderful businesses…

If you’re looking for Fair Trade gold wedding rings or a diamond engagement ring with full traceability, then have a look at the jewellery created by Foundation Jewellery. They are one of the world’s first jewellers to be registered to craft in Fair Trade gold, and also design in recycled gold and platinum and with 100% ethical gemstones. Visit the directory for a full list of ethical wedding jewellers.

Dale Cottage Farm offer a seasonal, locally grown, eco-friendly alternative to conventional wedding flowers, growing all their flowers themselves on their Worcestershire smallholding. Natural, country-style wedding flowers are their speciality. Visit the directory for a full list of seasonal and eco-friendly florists around the country.

Charlie

Cute eco-friendly notebooks for an organised bride

Charlie

These cute little notebooks from Yield Ink are handprinted onto recycled card notebooks and come packaged in this sweet calico drawstring bag. I think they would be great for an organised bride planning her wedding, or a not-so-organsied bride that wanted to be more organised.

During my wedding planning I was always coming up with ideas on what we could do, or another item for another list, and we ended up with so many pieces of paper floating around we had to stick them in a rather ugly binder. A little bag of these would have been much nicer.

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