Nichola and Gary's rustic, woodland styled wedding at Frasers Barn

Given the growing trend for woodland and extremely natural weddings, we thought we would include a wedding from Spring last year on the blog today.  Nichola and Gary married at Frasers Barn in Egerton and wanted an extremely natural, woodland style of wedding featuring browns, greens and ivory with a tiny hint of pink.  We chose pinecones, moss, succulents, willow, penesetum, dendrobricum orchids, astrantia, wheat, waxflower, hypericum and mixed foliages along with bark, wood, terracotta and other lovely items designed to fit into the theme.

For the bridal bouquet, we used pinecones and succulents on their own with senecio foliage and wrapped the stems with hessian.  Nichola asked us to add a special locket to the stem to finish. 

For the bridesmaid, we provided a pinecone bouquet wrapped in hessian and with a special Tree of Life locket provided by Nichola. 

The Flower Girl carried a wire and moss basket dressed with pinecones and filled with leaves to scatter down the aisle, and the Page Boy carried a ring "nest" which we designed to match the theme and have the rings attached.

Given the style of the bouquets, we followed this theme with buttonholes and corsages for the Groom's party.  We used slightly different combinations for different members of the group, with it all designed to work together with the theme.

For the ceremony, we provided rustic baskets / wood sections dressed with flowers for the celebrant table.  We then dressed the table plan birdcage that Nichola and Gary had provided with a trailing cluster of flowers to match the overall theme.  We also provided a very rustic crate lined with hessian for their cards and some arrangements to dress their gift tables.

Nichola and Gary had decided upon afternoon tea for their wedding, and had chosen a horseshoe layout for their tables.  We therefore dressed down the middle of the tables with various jars wrapped in bark or hessian, low pieces of bark, wood slices etc and added random leaves, moss and orchid heads where appropriate. 

We then provided a succulent plant for each of the guests as a combined favour and place name.  Not only was it a lovely long lasting gift to take away, but it really added to the look on the tables. 

For the centre section of the tables, where Nichola and Gary were seated, we provided a long piece of bark which we dressed with flowers to match the wedding.  We finished the overall dressing with our large woodblock cake stand and as we had a few succulent plants leftover, we added a couple in terracotta pots to frame the cake.

We loved creating this wedding and being given free rein to design the most appropriate flowers and arrangements.  It really worked with the natural surroundings of Frasers Barn and with Nicola and Gary's style.  It should give you all some ideas of how to bring that natural and earthy feel to your special day and we hope you like it.

Eleanor and Alex's rustic Cooling Castle Barn wedding

 
Ok, I know I have so many weddings from last year and this year to blog, but I fell in love with the colours of Eleanor and Alex's wedding (any opportunity to showcase seasonal flowers).  Eleanor and Alex wanted a very rustic, natural and seasonal wedding...think Robin Hood...and chose plums and burnt oranges as their colours.  This was further enhanced with the addition of red to match Eleanor's shoes.  I mentioned the colour scheme to several people who didn't look impressed, but changed their minds as soon as they saw it.  One future bride who was struggling to find the right mix of colours for her big day was even reduced to tears when I sent her some photos.

So, to the flowers (ranunculus, anenomes, hellebores, tulips, calla lilies, anigozanthus, syringa, veronica, hypericum and lots of fresh greens in the form of ivy, guelder rose, panicum fountain). We then added pussy willow and willow to bring in a touch of brown, although we had to be careful not to use too much as it would have blended in with all the wood in the barns in Cooling Castle Barn.

Eleanor's bouquet was a spriggy textured, but not too wild bouquet tied with raffia and including most of the flowers and colours.  Her bridesmaids' followed suit but with smaller bouquets and less orange.  I LOVED them all, so fingers crossed you all do too.

And then came the buttonholes which were a first for me...I can honestly say I have never tried to attach Batman, a Stormtrooper, Bob the Builder et al to buttonholes before.  Alex chose the lego pieces specially for his groom's party and left the rest to us, so textured buttonholes were designed and my only dilemma was how to attach Batman with his moveable cape!

For the wedding ceremony, we used one of our large rustic hearts at the centre of the dais, dressed with gorgeous flowers to match the wedding.  We then added two tall vases of flowers with trailing ivy to frame Eleanor and Alex taking their vows.  The ceremony room was completed by a natural hollowed out piece of wood dressed with an organically styled arrangement of the flowers which we think worked perfectly on the celebrant table.

For the main barn, we wrapped the beams with faux blossom garlands and fairy lights, then added four tall vases with full and natural arrangements and trailing ivy to the corner tables to frame the room.  We added tealights in votives and pinecones at the bottom to tie in with the other tables.

The remaining guest tables all had rustic woodblocks added with a random selection of jars, pots and containers (many made by ourselves) and filled with selections of the flowers used elsewhere.  We finished the tables with pinecones, votives with tealights and some bun moss.

The circular top table was dressed with a hollowed out wood piece at the centre front to fill the gap between the chairs and to allow guests to see the happy couple.  We then added lots of rustic pots and vases to a stacked arrangement of wood blocks. We also added a wood wrapped vase to take Eleanor's bouquet during the meal. 

Finally, we provided a terracotta pot arrangement to be placed on the gift table filled with lots of lovely flowers to match the wedding...I reluctantly left this at Cooling as I have a perfect place for it at home!!!

Not that we're obsessed with cake (much!), but when the wedding cake is the fabulous Hummingbird Bakery Cakes, we have to include a picture.  Placed on large log stands, finished with great picks and with added flowers and pinecones by us, it was almost irresistible.

We personally loved this wedding and it got a lot of love from staff and other wedding couples alike when we were setting up, so I hope it shows how well a more unusual colour scheme can work.