July 20th, 11 / by Laura Fitzpatrick
Wow, what a whirlwind the last few months have been. If you were following the big green wedding blog then you’ll know I’ve been a little less than consistent at updating – well what do you expect planning a wedding in less than 6 months with Christmas in the way.
Beautiful favours!
Nevertheless it was one amazing day, and our homemade bunting and pompoms went down a treat. Decorations aside, I want to talk favours with you.
Favours at friend’s weddings have come in many shapes and sizes, from stick on moustaches, to the ever popular sugar coated almonds. The Sharps-to-be put our thinking caps on, and out we came with organic soap (that also hold a fair trade certification) No, we weren’t trying to tell our guest that they were in need of a bath, but we wanted to give them something to take away and use at home.
An organic thank you!
So we called on Dr. Bronner’s, a firm favourite of ours when it comes to organic soaps – and they come in a range of different colours, so they looked cracking when people opened them on the day. They got a big plug from our Best Man William who was a big fan, and one of our friends scooped up our ‘extras’ to take home for her guest bathrooms!
If you fancy trying out some for yourself, unfortunately ours were snapped up fast, but you can check out – http://www.drbronner.com. Enjoy!
ps – more wedding blogging and pics coming soon…
Posted in eco wedding |
April 5th, 11 / by Laura Fitzpatrick
Admittedly it’s been a while since my last wedding blog – planning a wedding in five months is not easy and definitely not for the poor planners out there. It is however character building, and I am a better (if slightly spottier – stress!) person for it…
So, the latest craft session we’ve taken to is bunting making … there are a lot of places out there to buy fabric – I opted for an online retailer – e-fabrics, cheap, cheerful and a huge selection. Admittedly I haven’t chosen organic material ahead of price, but I am putting love and affection in to the decor of my big day – it’s also a lovely bonding experience between family and friends!
With the arrival of the fabric came a night full of pinking shears and of course, homemade cake to see us through to the late hours of the evening.
We found that cutting 3-4 bunting triangles out of paper, pining them and then cutting around worked really well – and layering a few sheets of material on top of one another to make sure the pinking shears cut through (it’s also a great time saver!)
Five sheets of one meter material have given us an abundance of bunting pieces that now need to be lovingly sewn together – final pictures will be with you soon…
Remember bunting isn’t just for a wedding – it’s for life!
Tags: bunting, eco wedding
Posted in eco wedding |
January 23rd, 11 / by Laura Fitzpatrick
We’ve taken a little bit of a break from wedding planning to get the Christmas festivities out of the way and take some time out to enjoy the engagement… ok ok, drink some more champagne. But now it’s mid Jan and the wedding is less than four months away, so we’re back on track…
The venue is booked – it’s 10 minutes away from the Church and boasts North East chef of the year as its head chef – less travelling and some cracking food!
The dress is ordered – after shopping around to get a whopping £200 off the price tag, the dress that made everyone who saw it cry is now en route! Confessions ahoy – it’s not by an ethical designer – it is however made in Spain – much closer than India (I think I get a slight eco point for that?!… !!) The thing about buying from the UK is that you double your cost of the dress… at least… unfortunately my budget won’t stretch to that so we’re ‘ecoing’ up some aspects of our wedding (such as crafting) to compensate… it’s all about balance…
The cake – we’re having this home made by the wonderful Aunty Sheila and Chris’ mum, Irene (the fabulous Thrifty Northumbrian Cook we often see make an appearance on Hello Eco Living!). We’re going for a classic three tiered approach, fruit followed by sponge, followed by chocolate and heaps of cup cakes for our evening guests… if you want to get involved in the cup cake making, just give us a shout… we’ll happily delegate!
The decor – now here’s the fun bit – with just over three months to go, one may be tempted to rock up to the shops, get your eyes taken out for bunting all because you don’t ’have time’. Well ladies… you do have time… it’s also great bonding for you and the ladies closest to you in your life (and the occasional man – needed for woodwork of course!) Currently we have my fantastic mum making the invitations from beautiful natural cards (they’re home designed too), my dad is making an array of signs (yes, signs) from a wooden Mr & Mrs for the top tables (these things cost a fortune to buy online!) and signs to direct people down the tree lined road to the venue. We have Uncle Kevin making mini May Poles (it’s a May Day wedding of course) that will become our table decorations. Metres of bunting are yet to be made – but this will eventually decorate the outside of the Church for the festival wedding feel…
Photos will join the blog very soon…
Tags: green wedding
Posted in Uncategorized, eco wedding |
December 28th, 10 / by Laura Fitzpatrick
The day has arrived where I have been asked to spend the rest of my life with one man (hooray) – of course I said yes, and a month in to becoming a ‘financé’ the champagne drinking is moving over and making way for the wedding planning.
Over the next four months (I’ve always worked better under pressure) I’ll be blogging my way through organising a fabulous wedding, with some eco twists along the way. I hope to share the best bits, worst bits and the bits that made me chuckle along the way, starting here …
I have to admit that I had a small addiction with wedding magazines – I bought a grand total of two (plus one dedicated to flowers!?!) and they all take you through the planning process month by month. What they fail to do is cater for those of us who want to get married within a year of getting engaged – so the addiction was short lived – I simply don’t have 18 months to faff on with.
What I did come across, was a fabulous item called ‘The Natural Wedding book’ – lovingly put together by Louise Moon with a forward by Jo Wood, this book has giving me all sorts of inspiration from making your own chair covers to bouquets. What it’s great at is giving you questions to ask to ensure you’re making the right choices – we don’t all having a garden big enough for a marquee, so when we’re looking at venues taking in to consideration their environmental policies etc. This book is like a honorary bridesmaid and will be by my side for the next four months.
Tags: green wedding
Posted in eco wedding |
September 30th, 10 / by Laura Fitzpatrick
Tags: spotlight on
Posted in eco |
August 5th, 10 / by Laura Fitzpatrick
Green Phoenix Festival organisers have taken the decision to cancel the festival planned for 19-22 August at Gibside National Trust Estate.
Organisers took the decision due to insufficient advance ticket sales, and had no option but to cancel the festival, in order to be able to completely refund public tickets and deposits from traders.
Festival director Jim Lepingwell said:
“We recognize that purchasers may have been waiting to buy tickets on the gates, but we could not professionally take the risk to allow suppliers and traders to set up and artists to travel to us without guaranteeing them an audience. Over the past few months we have taken every step possible to ensure that the festival could go ahead. We are devastated to be cancelling the festival, however we felt it was responsible to do it at this stage so we can completely refund the tickets and deposits. Had we started the set up of the festival as planned for Monday, we would have incurred considerable costs. As it is, all the ticket money and deposits are safeguarded and we are able to completely refund ticket-holders and traders. We want to thank everyone who has supported us this year and the team who have worked very hard to put together the amazing event we had planned.”
Organisers hope to find a way to make some of the music and events happen as smaller events and will let people know as soon as these are confirmed. Please see www.greenphoenixfestival.org.uk.
Posted in Uncategorized |
August 2nd, 10 / by Laura Fitzpatrick
If you’re planning a festival which is completely powered by the sun and the wind, you can imagine there may be a power struggle when you have to provide power for Bob Marley’s backing band.
The Green Phoenix Festival has working towards their fabulous four day festival which is to be brought to the North East using only power from the sun and wind. As the headliners The Wailers, have just been booked, the organisers now fear that their solar charged batteries may not be strong enough to let their headline band be heard.
Festival Director Jim Lepingwell said:
“We’re confident that our technology can power the rest of the festival but The Wailers need a lot of power to rock the North East. We’re worried that the only way to make them loud enough will be to plug into the mains, which, of course, takes some of its energy from nearby nuclear power stations. We won’t let our ticketholders down. If we have no option other than to use the national grid to power the Wailers performance we will do it… but we’d dearly love to prove that cleaner, renewable energy sources are up to the job and we’re going to need a lot of solar power to make that happen.”
The Green Phoenix Festival is now calling for people with portable wind or solar systems to come and provide the additional electricity and help them stay true to their environmental ethos.
The festival organisers are offering free tickets and a contribution towards expenses to anyone who can help to lend them additional solar or wind powered energy systems. Volunteers are invited to contact Jim Lepingwell, Green Phoenix Festival Director at jim@ppcic.org.uk andsee greenphoenixfestival.org.uk for more information on the festival.
Tags: green festival, renewable energy
Posted in eco |
July 2nd, 10 / by Laura Fitzpatrick
Love, life and Latitude
As the summer is hotting up to the finest we’ve seen in a good few years, so is the build up to one of the UK’s top festivals.
Latitude festival is set to be a stunning festival experience , combining a massive mix of literary art,
Theatre, cabaret, comedy and world class artists including Florence and The Machine, Belle and Sebastian and Vampire Weekend – who will all grace the headline spots of the Obelisk Arena over the weekend.
Staring in our top eco festivals of the summer feature earlier this year, Latitude is going to be a real treat for everyone this July. And when we say treat, we really do mean that – how many other festivals do you think that take time to paint the sheep so that they fit in with the festival atmosphere? (LOVE IT!)
Latitude is a magical world of its own and you won’t want to leave – kick back and spend quality time with your best friends and family in gorgeous surroundings with a wonderful mix of things to do and see. There certainly is something at Latitude for everyone.
Happy festival season everyone!
Laura x
Tags: green festivals
Posted in bits and bobs |
June 27th, 10 / by Laura Fitzpatrick
I’ve just returned from a gorgeous relaxing weekend in the Yorkshire Dales to a garden full of deliciously ripe strawberries – 70 of the beauties to be precise! What’s even more exciting is that only 4 had the tooth marks from a slippery little snail, so the organic approach of hand picking the mites and throwing them over yonder (safely) has worked… yipeeee!
From garden to mouth in less than 10 mins!
It took a bit of persuading to get down to the bottom of the garden and harvest our crops… scared of the creepy crawlies I may find, but it’s actually really refeshing knowing that you’re picking your own food that you’ve grown yourself and watered with love for the past few months. Even if I did manage to get a nettle sting on my arm, it was well worth the trip!
Here’s to a cracking season of growing … I hope I have this much success with the purple sprouting broccoli…
Tags: organic gardening
Posted in gardening |
June 15th, 10 / by Laura Fitzpatrick
At hello eco living magazine we are huge fans of Kendal Calling – we may be slightly biased as we’re based in Northumberland and can almost pop around for a cup of sugar when needs require – but we love the natural feel, the lack of queues and the fantastic line up of music.
We’re now in for an extra treat as the 2010 Kendal crew are teasing us with a real ale festival. That’s right, a selection of tasty Lake District ale will be up for grabs over the weekend 30th July – 1st August – the brewers have also created a unique festival exclusive tipple – Kendale! (Love it!)
The festival is now in its 5th year and to add some extra sparkle, Saturday is inviting guests to partake in fancy dress. Think ‘kids birthday’ mixed with a crazy Mad Hatters Tea Party, anything goes at the birthday bash so let your imagination run wild! To capture the birthday party mayhem there will a photo shoot from the main stage on Saturday teatime.
To perfect the best costumes the festival will have its very own tailors ready to add the finishing touches to any outfit. This sewing shop will have crazy seamstresses ready to add sequins and feathers. There’ll be several stalls onsite stocking accessories for costumes, full fancy dress outfits or services to pimp up outfits by the festivals special tailors!
Kendal Calling full festival: Friday 30th July – Sunday 1th August 2010
Tickets: £85 / Lowther Deer Park, Hackthorpe, The Lake District
Tags: festivals
Posted in bits and bobs |
Laura Fitzpatrick