A Naturally Creative Wedding…
By Clare Thompson
My partner Paddy and I decided in 2021 that it was time to tie the knot and finally had our wedding day on 20th May this year. When planning, we decided that we wanted a small, intimate celebration with just our immediate family and close friends attending. We both love being outdoors and exploring North Wales and so we decided that an outdoor venue by the sea would be perfect. We wanted a natural, relaxed feel for the day. I prepared and created outdoor and indoor decorations, bouquets, flower crowns, boutonnieres and confetti from natural materials, many of which were collected from our own garden. These ideas may provide some inspiration for classroom decor, activities, role play resources or perhaps for those who might be planning their own celebration! The photos also show the appeal of spending time in a natural environment as it provides a beautiful backdrop, fresh air and wide open spaces to play and relax for both children and adults…
Our professional photographer on the day was Corinne Fudge Photography . Corinne did an absolutely amazing job of capturing the day and we can’t thank her enough! Many thanks too to family and friends who sent us their photos!
The Venue
The Venue we chose was Bach Wen Cottages on the LLyn Peninsula near Caernarfon, North Wales. It was perfect for our small celebration; a holiday destination with cottages converted from the working buildings of the old farm which served a monastery on the site a thousand years ago. Each cottage is unique and quirky and they vary in size, layout, decor etc. The site accommodation provided a convenient base for our guests to attend the wedding with ample space for camping or glamping for anyone who chose to do this. The venue also has a licensed barn and can hold indoor or outdoor wedding ceremonies. The 3 course dinner menu and canapés created by their in house caterer, Mandy of Rainbow Eats was just delicious, the staff were brilliant on the day and their co-ordinator Serena was lovely and very responsive to any questions and ideas we had throughout the process. But the jewel in the crown of this venue is its unique and absolutely stunning secluded location. With combinations of either sea or mountain views available from every angle, beautiful meadows and even a gorgeous woodland walk down to the beach, we knew straight away this would create the perfect backdrop for our Naturally Creative celebration…
Invitations, Bouquets, Boutonnieres, Flower Crowns and Confetti
Firstly, I created our invitations in transient art style using pressed flower petals and leaves from the garden.
The venue is located on a meadow overlooking the sea. I therefore decided to go for a dried flowers and grasses theme for the wedding decor and bouquets rather than fresh flowers as this would fit in much better with the scenery. It also meant I could create all of the decorations, bouquets and accessories myself in advance. I did buy one bunch of dried teal blue wheat grass from our local market stall, other than than that all of the flowers and grasses used I collected and foraged for free. I started by collecting lots of flowers, grasses and foliage from the garden and nearby meadow and hanging them upside down in a darkened room. We had masses of honesty (lunaria) growing in the garden last year which I also made use of. I waited until the skins were ready to peel off before harvesting it (being sure to leave the seeds in the ground for the following year). Once all the moisture had dried out of the plants (around 2-3 weeks later) I was able to create with them.
The bouquets were made by binding stems together with florist tape starting with one or two large stems as a base and building around them until I was happy with the result. I then finished off with twine to cover the tape. The boutonnieres are simply mini versions of the same technique…
I wanted to keep to the natural dried flower theme when it came to hair accessories for myself, bridesmaids and our flower girl, Kaya. I dried out flowers with dusty, pastel tones for these, mainly in blues to fit with the coastal theme. I found that delphiniums (for adult crowns only, these are poisonous) blue and white cornflowers, gypsophila, white roses and sea grasses dried out particularly well for this purpose. After some experimentation I found that the best way to dry the flowers for crowns is to insert a piece of thin floristry wire into the head of each flower when it is fresh as they become much more delicate after drying and can fall apart if you try to put the wire through them afterwards. Create a hook to keep the wire in the flower and then trim off the natural stem, leave about 2 inches of wire stem to wrap the flower to your base later. Then when dried you can wrap florist tape around the wires so they are not sharp. Create a base of wire and wrap with tape, create a loop at each end to add the twine after then start wrapping the flowers on from one end to the other in one direction. Small bunches of flowers and grasses can just be attached between flower heads by wrapping tape around them. Finish with string, twine or ribbon! I decided to make small, delicate crowns for my bridesmaids and flower girls and a larger bridal one for myself. If you would like to find out more about making these there are lots of tutorials available online…
We kept our confetti natural, eco-friendly and free by simply drying out rose petals from the garden on a tray in a darkened room, we also put some of the dried petals into small wicker baskets to be carried and scattered by our page boys and flower girl during the bridal procession…
The Ceremony
We decided that we would like to have the ceremony in an outdoor area, looking out over the beach and sea. Our guests were gathered first, followed by our bridal procession through meadow and woodland, down to the beach. We kept the ceremony short and simple with a couple of short readings, one performed fantastically well by our page boy, Jack. Our young ring bearer, Roscoe did a great job of looking after the rings for us and handing them over at the right time. We kept the decorations for the ceremony very simple and natural as we wanted the focus to be on the beautiful landscapes and sea view. I created wreaths and driftwood decorations using dried sea holly, flowers and grasses and attached these to the fence and gate overlooking the sea, along with some simple white bunting and a welcome sign. The venue had a lovely table made from a large log slice which we added a bunch of flowers to for signing documents. To keep the ceremony minimalist and natural, we decided not to have seating laid out for it but for our guests just to stand and gather around the meadow.
Barn Decor
Dining, speeches, music and our evening party all took place in the barn. The venue was very flexible, allowing us to add our own decorations including a free standing arch, ceiling lanterns, and table decorations. The metal base for the arch was from hobbycraft and a friend very kindly gave us lots of twisted hazel from her garden (thank you Karen!) which I used to form the branches around the arch, tying it on in bunches using twine. We then added fairy lights (same ones from our Christmas tree) before covering all over with a layer of dried honesty from our garden. Our table centre pieces were log slices (also from hobby craft) with Ann’s charity shop glass bottles and jars. I added pebbles, shells, sea glass and a mixture of dried grasses along with the table numbers. We used battery operated tea lights inside the jars which shone through a layer of pressed petals when lit. I also created decorations using twisted hazel and dried roses and other garden flowers. I made wreaths in the same way, using wooden hoops purchased online. I stuck to simple stencilling for the signage, using wooden panels and easels and sticking to the blue colour theme. Our cake was delicious (made by our sister in law, Anna, thank you!) and was decorated with pressed edible flowers and leaves to fit the theme. Our favours were packs of wild flower seeds.
Outdoor Fun!
Primarily an outdoor venue, our guests spent time outdoors for most of the day. We were very lucky with the weather and the sun shone the whole day! We had games available for children and adults to play, there was a play area and an open field for football. All of our formal photos were taken outside on the meadow overlooking the sea. Reception drinks and canapés were served outside. Spanish guitar duo De Fuego played two sets for us, one in the barn and the second outside on the veranda. Their music was brilliant and fitted in perfectly! In the evening we had fresh stone baked pizza served up by Flour & Flame pizza van which was delicious. Finally, we finished the evening with a party in the barn and a campfire outside for those who wanted to chill!
Making a weekend of it…
We hired the site from Friday until Monday morning with the wedding taking place on the Saturday. This meant that we had the Sunday as a bonus day for anyone who wanted to stick around. After packing up we had a very peaceful day at Nefyn beach with family followed by a BBQ. We both agreed that the weekend could not have gone any better and we are so glad that we opted for a low key, chilled out event, making the most of the outdoors and beautiful scenery!
If you enjoyed the ideas in this post you might enjoy reading other posts in our journal including petals for play. If you would like to check out our range of Naturally Creative ideas books, picturebooks and other resources around the theme of Natural Play, they are available here in our shop. Thank you for reading!