September 01, 2010

Party themes and canvas tents

Conjure up an image of opulence and lavish living, flock fabrics in luscious rich colours, shabby-chic lamps and over the top chandeliers; meet in the summer scented garden by the two tall trees with your family and friends over a nice cup of English tea (in china cups of course); have your senses stimulated by warm orange and ochre amongst Moroccan lanterns and pretty fairy lights, sumptuous rugs and cushions; tread the grooves into the early hours within a cool minimalist interior and canvas washed with violet on a central dance floor, surrounded by seating and a handy bar – the party is bouncing at the first beat!

We're delighted to welcome Posh Frock & Wellies to our Wedding Directory. This brand new Cheshire based marquee and tent company specialises in providing beautiful and sumptuous surroundings for your wedding celebrations.

The company's whole purpose in life is to make your wedding forever memorable by creating an intimate, warm and enticing tent interior.

Their marquees are the traditional type of canvas pole tents made from natural fabrics and a lot of their equipment is recycled. For instance, they say that unlike many other marquee companies, they carefully preserve and reuse all their flooring and interiors which helps to limit the company's impact on the environment and provides a wholesome and natural space for partying.

Owner Sarah Powell-Barker designs the marquee themes employing her unique perspective on the use of textiles, furniture and lighting. The perspiration is provided by the other staff, many of them women too, which means they do seem to have a more sensitive approach to preserving your precious gardens and lawns!

Posh Frocks & Wellies is founded on a firm and historic base within the marquee industry - Sarah’s husband’s great grandfather founded Barker’s marquees in South London in 1888!

For more information visit their website, email sarah@poshfrocksandwellies.co.uk or pick up the phone 01829 751979.

Posted in Green Wedding Inspiration , Marquees & Tents

August 12, 2010

Green fingered wedding - part 2

Leann updates us on the run up to her eco friendly wedding ...

Four weeks to go! What happened to July?

The feeling that there isn’t time to get everything done is mounting and worry is beginning to set-in, have we paid for everything? How many people have we forgotten to invite? Do all the suppliers still have what we like? It’s quite hard to stick to the ethical ideals when last minute jobs come-up, the temptation is to do the first or easiest thing that comes to mind to get it done but then you know that you’ll feel bad on the day with the niggling feeling that something wasn’t right.

The dress is finally hanging in the wardrobe! My Nan’s wedding dress from 1952 features prominently against the new hemp/silk fabric and looks much nicer after a gentle wash and line dry; we forgot how many people smoked back in ’52 and were really surprised when the fabric revealed itself as a beautiful ivory instead of a dingy taupe!

Matt’s outfit has been a tad more troublesome though. We’ve been frustrated at the lack of choices for eco-conscious menswear. The options for women’s’ clothing is really very good (almost everything from tie-dye vests to sharp designer tailoring and can be found if you search hard) but looking at the menswear options on most sites, you would think that men wore nothing but T-shirts, boxer shorts and socks! We finally discovered British company Quail by Mail, whose selection of well tailored but not too formal shirts hit the right note and Matt is smiling again.

70 metres (yes 70!) of home-made bunting made from salvaged calico, fabric remnants and old clothes now sits in our spare bedroom on a huge roll amid the increasing boxes of organic wine, recycled napkins and tombola prizes (yep, that’s right!) We decided that we should go the whole hog with the village fete idea and have a tombola stall to raise some money for the venue. All of the prizes are ethical in some way (organic chocolate, recycled stationary and notebooks, hemp and fair-trade cotton clothing and energy saving gadgets) so while our guests have some fun they also get a look at a whole range of ethical products. We even managed to pick up some recycled raffle tickets. LoveLula liked the idea and kindly donated a prize which they sent over with my last order of Elysambre and Lavera make-up (I’ve now completed the make-up switch over, including face masks and cleansers!).

Posted in Green Wedding Blogger Brides , Inspiration , Natural Nuptials , Wedding Planning