Festival Brides

How many times have you seen a beautiful bouquet of flowers on blogs, photos or magazines and thought ‘those are the flowers I want for my wedding,’ but when it comes to speaking to your florist or researching online, you have no idea what they’re called!

Well Festival Brides have teamed up with the lovely Katherine from Florist in The Forest (a flower guru – I kid you not!) to bring you regular posts on seasonal flowers so you know what’s growing when and more importantly what they’re called!

Using seasonal flowers is not only good for the environment but they are also better in quality compared to mass produced flowers grown in controlled conditions. I much prefer the idea of using flowers that have grown in their natural habitat for my wedding plus (and this is a fact) seasonal flowers are kinder on the old purse strings! A huge bonus if you are on a tight budget but still want gorgeous colourful flowers.

Katherine has put together a list of Spring flowers so if you are getting married between February and May then take note!

Personally I am going to go Anemones mad for my bouquet – love them!

Early spring flowers Feb/march

The perfect flowers for this time of year are Hellebores, Fritillaries, Anemones, Hyacinths and Narcissi. Each flower blossoms in a different colour so if you fancy only having 1 type of flower in your bouquet but in a range of colours then you can.

We had Hellebores on our stand at the save the date exhibition in deep red and purple and they were gorgeous. Smelt pretty good too!

Early Spring Seasonal Flowers

Clockwise from top left 1. Hellebores 2. Hellebores and Fritillaries 3. Anemones 4. Hyacinths 5. Narcissi 6.Fritillaries

Beautiful anemones and musscari bouquet and a musscari wreath

Hellebores and a bouquet of anemones and muscari

Hyacinths with heather and narcissi in bottles

Spring flowers – March/April

For March and April comes the blossoming of some beautiful and bright seasonal flowers. You can choose from Tulips, Ranunculus, Hyacinths, Guelder rose, Lilac, Blossom, Lily of the valley, Bluebells and Iris.

Clockwise from top left 1. Tulips 2. Guelder Rose 3. Ranunculus 4. Lilac 5. Hyacinths 6. Guelder Rose

Blossom and Lily of the Valley

Bluebells, Hyacinths, Iris and Lily of The Valley

Yellow Ranunculus and Tulips and Ranunculus bouquet

Bluebell and Daffodil bouquet and-Blue Iris

If you wanted your bouquet to be soft, romantic with a carefree festival vibe then Katherine suggests wedding flowers in muted soft pastels such as ranunculus, anemones, fritillaries, lilac, lily of the valley and then late spring peonies and sweet peas.

For a bright zingy festival choose a more eclectic mix of wedding flowers such as vibrant tulips and ranunculus with guelder rose in fresh yellows, whites and lime.

For your table flowers why not plant bulbs in unusual containers or fill large enamel pitchers or bottles with apple or cherry blossom. You could collect various jam jars and mason jars and fill these with bright spring flowers or even paint terracotta pots to match your colour scheme!

Katherine has put together a pinterest board for some of the spring flowers mentioned in this post so check it out: Spring Pinterest

May Spring Flowers will be on Festival Brides on Monday so please don’t be a stranger!

If you need some expert advice on which flowers to choose and when, then please contact Katherine. She grows her own flowers too and if you give her enough notice she will even plant some especially for you – that’s why we love her!

Florist in The Forest - floristintheforest@gmail.com – 07984 540893

Thank you so much to Katherine for your flower suggestions - you rock!

Have a lovely weekend guys!

Big Love

Festival Brides xx

Last Thursday Laura and I took a trip down to Brighton to see The Hurly Burly Wedding Circus in full swing.

The Hurly Burly ensemble have been touring festivals for many years and have recently tailored their catering performances and ideas for festival weddings! They have formed The Artillery of Love which consists of theatre makers, dancers and acrobats who creatively deliver food and performance during your wedding breakfast right into the early hours of the morning.

The huge circus tent was set out on the Green, South of St Peters Church in central Brighton. The event was part of The Brighton Family Fringe Festival, offering an eclectic mix of performances, visual arts, workshops, live music and silly games. The festival continues until 27th May so if you are near Brighton be sure to visit for some fun and frolics.

The Hurly Burly team gathered a handful of alternative and creative wedding suppliers to exhibit at the circus with the intention of producing an event that inspired ‘wild wedding ideas for the adventure seeking betrothed!’ There were entertaining and quirky performances with dancing throughout the event as well as a vintage beauty parlour, live music with some amazing acoustic sets, and some really cool and unique wedding suppliers.

Read all about The Hurly Burly wedding options here (we plan to post a lot more about them in the future so watch this space for a real Hurly Burly wedding!)

We wanted to showcase all the cool suppliers and ideas we saw during the evening, so here are our top hits of people, things and ideas we loved…

Miss Cake – Funky cake toppers and jewels

We have to say we have never seen cake toppers like it………..a far cry from the floral wedding designs you see at a traditional wedding fair. You can basically choose any message, icon or shape and have it laser cut in bright colours for your cake. Choose from your names, Mr and Mrs, or your own unique slogan!! Sarah (Miss Cake) also designs necklaces, signs and cool props so perfect for a festival wedding.

www.misscake.co.uk

Duke & Lolly – Cool event and decor design

Duke and Lolly is an Events and Decor company based in Brighton, specialising in creative event management and wonderful decor.

Their stand really caught our eye with lots of quirky and unusual  ideas for table settings, favours, wedding notes and table plans. We loved their Sunday paper confetti idea – so simple and very personal to the couple!

We also fell in love with their jar lighting which was very cool. All hand made, you can choose from an array of coloured bulbs which are then encased in different sized mason and jam jars. Perfect for a retro festival wedding!

www.dukeandlolly.com

Candy Queens – The pink ladies

You couldn’t miss these two with hair as bright as the candy floss they were making!

The Candy Queens spin multi coloured, fruit flavoured candy floss and can colour co-ordinate their floss to match your wedding décor or wedding flowers. Choose from a wide array of yummy flavours, toppings and glitter and the girls will spin some sweetastic treats for you and your guests. Who said candy floss is just for kids!

You may well see these girls at various festivals over the summer, they are at Secret Garden Party and Boomtown with some pretty impressive ideas!

www.candyqueens.co.uk

Reginald Spleen’s Travelling Snuff Bar

Looking for an unusual party idea or a unique take on a vintage stag or hen night? Why not offer your guests free snuff from Reginald Spleen’s Travelling Snuff Bar! We simply loved this idea! Fully stocked with eighteen flavours on display, there is enough snuff to last a party of 100 people an entire evening.

The bar is built into a vintage suitcase and really adds a retro atmosphere to any event. Reginald Spleen is on hand to offer advice on each blend helping guests find their favourite flavour and keep them coming back for more.

Tobacco free options are available so everyone can join in.

For those wanting to take snuff home with them sample tins are available to buy.

Quite simply – A Suitcase Stuffed With Sneezes!

www.snuffbar.co.uk

Ma Fleur – Naturally styled flowers with an edge

We loved their fab quirky floral designs that are inspired by nature and the multitude of seasonal shifts that take place throughout the year. Each unique creation has a contemporary artistic edge whilst conveying an air of sophistication influenced by classic period designs.

As well as mixing the modern with the classic, their signature style is natural but luxurious. They use beautiful colours to create chic designs and incorporate raw textures and elements to achieve the most enchanting results.

We simply loved their designs and they are by far our favourite florist on the South Coast!

 www.ma-fleur.co.uk

Sussex LoveBug – Beautiful Belle 

What can we say about Belle, a beautiful bug with equally beautiful owners (Kelly and Joss). If you are looking for unique and cool transport to your festival field then Belle should be your car of choice! We loved the champagne and sheep skin rug in the back coupled with her uber cool cream and green lino seats.

Due to the age of Belle she is limited to how far she can travel. Do get in touch with Kelly and Joss to see if she can travel to your area and to discuss your wedding ideas and plans.

www.sussexlovebug.co.uk

We thoroughly enjoyed the evening at The Hurly Burly Wedding Circus despite the rain! We met some awesome people and more importantly gained quirky inspiration to share with all our festival loving readers.

We hope you have loved reading about it!!

xx

Photography by Wookie Photography and Festival Brides

A few weeks ago on Sunday 22nd April we exhibited at our very first wedding event in Nottingham! We are generally not huge fans of the wedding fair industry, but we’re starting to change our minds as there are so many cool and unique fairs/events popping up all over the UK…many festival related!

At Save the Date – Wedding Event with a Difference, you can expect to see fantastic suppliers, interactive demonstrations, catwalk show and lots of fabulous goodies! An uber stylish and highly unique wedding event with a difference.

You couldn’t miss our stand – it was so bright and eclectic just like a festival! It certainly caught the eye of many passers by and we loved meeting like minded brides to be who wanted something out of the ordinary for their special day. We had lots of inspiration and wedding pretty on display with a large scale scrap book full of unique ideas (think our blog but in a book!) and a ‘washing line’ of inspiration which we changed and added to throughout the day. Laura and I also put together a slideshow (in the early hours of morning before the show!) of mood boards and festival wedding inspiration which seemed to go down really well.

On our stand we featured the wonderful Plant Box crates who design bespoke wooden crates in various sizes – a wicked idea for a festival/country vibe and great for stacking your beers in!! You can pick your colours and choose personalised messages and decor. Check them out www.plantabox.co.uk

Catkin Flowers very kindly supplied the flowers for the stand which were bright and beautiful. The sweet smell of wild flowers graced our senses for the whole day and the cute bunches of poppies and bluebells fitted perfectly in our beer bottle collection. If you need an English grown florist in the Midlands be sure to contact www.catkinflowers.co.uk for natural and seasonal flowers.

The very talented Katy from Hand Picked Vintage designed an awesome feather top hat and bridal feather headdress especially for Festival Brides and they looked amazing on the stand. Katy makes these from scratch so if you want to swap your veil for a stunning feather head dress then you need to be contacting this lady!

Lastly and by far not least Big Beautiful Bunting supplied the bright and colourful bunting which we draped from pilar to post around our stand!! the bunting was so impactful and made our festival theme come to life!! For quirky and unique bunting with a difference be inspired by www.bigbeautifulbunting.com

We met Lucy and Chris (who are modeling the top hat and feather head dress from Hand Picked Vintage above) who are planning a Festival Wedding for 2014! They have a love of tea so we suggested they celebrate their day embarrassing their love of tea and having their very own tea festival!! Not sure what they thought about this idea but they certainly loved the tea cup bunting that we had on display! 

The fabulous Kate from Vintage Style Hire supplied all the props and furniture for the event and we loved the fireplace set above. Coral and lime is fastly becoming a new favourite colour combo of ours…….just lovely!

We mixed with some lovely suppliers and bloggers during the day. We met the lovely Kelly from Boho Wedding and Events - An awesome boho wedding blog; Chloe from Adore by Chloe - Wicked handcrafted wedding blog; Peach Blossom - Pretty and stylish party decorations; CW Campervans – East Midlands Camper Van hire; Ruby + Diva – Cool and unique wedding boutique……..plus so many more.

Event photography by Rachel Connerton

The next Wedding Event with a Difference is on 14th October 2012…we will definitely be making an appearance so hope to meet you all there!

Book your tickets now for early bird offers

Over the Easter weekend Hooe’s Yurts hosted a photo shoot and open day to celebrate the completion of their huge new 44ft yurt. It was a fantastic day supported by some excellent local wedding suppliers and enjoyed by a crowd of happy guests. Lots of cake was eaten and the yurt had the joyous christening!!

Hooe’s Yurts provide stunning tents for wedding receptions, hen weekends and wedding nights. They specialise in decorating the yurts with exotic textiles creating beautiful stylish venues. A brilliant alternative to a traditional marquee and perfect for adding the wow factor to your wedding day. Along with large venue tents, Hooe’s Yurts also supply luxury bedroom yurts which are perfect for creating your own wedding hotel and honeymoon bedroom. (How about this for glamping in style!!)

Images via Hooe’s Yurt and credited to Rosie Parsons

Their new 44ft yurt is a cathedral sized structure with the capacity for 120 guests to dine under its majestic high ceiling. This wonderful structure can be linked with other large yurts to create a yurt palace ideal for big weddings. For the open day Hooe’s Yurts added a little chill out snug with a wood burner to show how it is possible to create alcoves off larger yurts. These alcoves are great for entertaining children or for guests to relax in after some serious dancing!

Joining Hooe’s Yurts for the photo shoot and providing all the little touches for a boho country wedding were some lovely local suppliers. The vintage crockery was supplied by the The English Tea Party who specialize in original vintage crockery and accessories. Charlie Scribble who designs simple and unusual wedding stationary made some bespoke yurty place names to adorn the dinner table. The model and actress Daisy Dugmore looked stunning dressed in a vintage inspired gown by Kula Tsurdiu provided by The Ivory Secret in Crediton. She held a hand tied bouquet made by Joanna Game Flowers. Nat Haydon, who recently set up the new wedding planning and venue styling company Jolly Good Wedding, dressed the little chill out sung yurt with her exotic bollywood props and put together a charming vintage table plan ladder. The yurt exterior was decorated with striking bunting from Big Beautiful Bunting, wedding signs from Muddy Creek Signs and huge vintage fabric parasols from Sunbeam Jackie.  Finally and most importantly all the photos were taken by the talented and award winning Devon wedding photographer Rosie Parsons.

Hooe’s Yurts want to thank everyone who took part in the photo shoot and attended the open day. Roll on the summer. xx

Hooes Yurts – Stunningly decorated tents for hire – Devon

www.hooesyurts.co.uk / info@hooesyurts.co.uk / 01837 880334

Joanna Game Flowers – Flowers for weddings, parties and Events – Devon

www.joannagameflowers.com  / jmgame@joannagameflowers.com / 01647231657

Big Beautiful Bunting – Designers, makes and hirers of high quality bunting – Cornwall

www.bigbeautifulbunting.com / info@bigbeautifulbunting.co.uk / 01326 281513

Muddy Creek Signs – Beautiful hand painted wedding signs – Cornwall

www.muddycreeksigns.co.uk / amaryllis-thisbe@fsmail.net / 07861 308858

Sunbeam Jackie – Magnificent and unique handmade vintage fabric parasols – Cornwall

www.sunbeamjackie.com / sunbeamjackie@gmail.com / 07590 019 835

Charlie Scribble – Unusual wedding stationery that is personal individual and simple – Cornwall

www.charliescribble.com / info@charliescribble.com

Jolly Good Wedding – Bespoke Wedding Planning and Venue Styling – Devon

www.jollygoodwedding.com / info@jollygoodwedding.com / 07885264053

The English Tea Party – Hires out a unique collection of high quality vintage crockery and accessories – Devon

www.theenglishteaparty.co.uk / info@theenglishteaparty.co.uk / 01647 432704

The Ivory Secret – Intimate and inspiring bridal boutique – Devon

www.theivorysecret.co.uk / info@theivorysecret.co.uk / 01363 777500

Rosie Parsons – Talented and award winning wedding photographer – Devon

www.rosieparsons.com / rosie@rosieparsons.com / 01404 44506

I wonder how many of you know about BECCA… It’s an awesome make-up brand from Australia. They have a beautiful boutique in South Kensington and here is your excuse to check them out and indulge in some pampering!!

The BECCA Bridal Event takes place this Saturday at the BECCA Boutique (South Kensington). They have partnered with some truly amazing brands who will be there on hand to give all the brides-to be lots of advice and support – perfect outing for you and the bridesmaids!!

Included on the day: Free wedding makeup trials (valued at  £70, must be booked), plus discounts and offers on luxury goods and services including lash extensions, beauty treatments, hair styling, wedding flowers, Conran gift registry, Blakes Hotel packages, honeymoon packages, bespoke cakes and much more!

Contact BECCA for more information T: 0207 225 2501

BECCA Boutique – 91a Pelham Road, South Kensington, SW7 9NJ