Hannah from Green Soul Weddings is passionate about helping you make sustainable choices for your wedding day. By joining forces with Noemi from Thyme Lane Photography and many other talented suppliers, Hannah was able to show just how beautiful a sustainable wedding day can look!

Inspiration

The concept for this shoot arose from a desire to show that you don’t have to travel to anywhere exotic to have a beautiful, meaningful and intimate elopement or small wedding. We wanted to encourage couples to consider hosting your celebration wherever is the most meaningful to you, even if that might be your home town and favourite café! 

Living just 15 minutes apart from each other, Noemi from Thyme Lane Photography and I were keen to create a shoot that celebrated our local area and the amazing selection of sustainable suppliers we are lucky to have on our doorstep. Our initial inspiration came from a local sustainable café we both love to visit.

The venue

Bohemia is a fantastic café in St Neots who have the most welcoming staff and atmosphere and delicious food, coffee and cocktails. They have opened their own MicroRoastery in the town, sustainably source their coffee beans, and look to use local seasonal produce as much as possible in all of their dishes. Their sustainable ethos combined with their relaxed, welcoming yet super stylish interior décor made them the perfect choice for this shoot; not to mention that it’s a firm favourite spot for many locals and they offer private hire of their spaces too. 

The colour palette

With all of our inspiration centred around the café’s interior décor, we chose to keep the colour palette in keeping. We embraced the terracotta shades of the exposed brickwork, the dark and metallic tones of the piping and light fixtures and combined this with warm natural tones reminiscent of the worn wooden tables and cosy atmosphere.

The styling and flowers

We wanted to ensure that the styling accentuated the existing décor rather than detract from this, so we kept the table styling minimal with the addition of candles and florals to add that special finishing touch. 

Our florals were a fantastic sustainable addition to this shoot, having all been grown just 5 miles away from the venue by Flowers at 58, a lovely family run business who pride themselves in working in an eco-friendly manner. The bouquet and buttonhole contained a mixture of dried florals and foliage in addition to seasonal fresh blooms and was tied with naturally and locally plant-dyed silk ribbons by Bertie and Fred in beautiful complimentary shades. Our floral centrepiece utilised a hoop framed candle holder I had as décor in my own home and was prepared in a foam free manner, supplemented on the table by small glass jars filled with additional fresh and dried florals.

The sustainable ethos of this shoot was integral and as such continued after all of the photos had been captured, with me returning all reusable elements from the florals back to the team for further reuse and drying all of the fresh flowers from the shoot for use as dried elements or confetti. 

The stationery

Our beautiful stationery suite by Kimberley of Norfolk based KGH Illustrates was created using recycled Kraft card and incorporated hand drawn wire frame lampshades characteristic of the café interiors. This stationery suite shows how you can still get creative with beautiful stationery for elopements, here having chosen to reflect the style of their intimate celebration in their invites to a follow-up family celebration.

The cake

This stunning cake was created by Jenni of Two Little Cats Bakery and tasted as amazing as it looked! With coloured and textured buttercream icing that suited the café environment perfectly, Jenni used fresh and dried flowers from our florists to complete the look. As well as being locally made, the cake utilised locally sourced ingredients that are free from palm oil and avoided the use of any single use packaging.

The couple

Our female model wore a one-off dress from Poppy Perspective’s Cornucopia Collection, lovingly and sustainably handmade from reclaimed vintage lace, fabrics, and trims in a beautiful pale mocha shade. This was accessorised with a natural coloured fedora hat and tan heeled brogues with a worn finish, emphasising the natural and relaxed style of the dress and shoot. Our female model completed her own hair and makeup, keeping this very natural and relaxed in style.

Our male model wore the Burford Brown woollen tweed waistcoat and jacket paired with black chinos for a smart casual and relaxed urban wedding vibe and accessorised his suit with a pair of brown braces. The male models’ suit was hired from the fantastic and local Bedford based business, The Vintage Suit Hire Company. 

This shoot was so much fun to curate, and shows that small teams, focused within a small local area, aiming to make as small of an environmental impact as possible in the creation of a small wedding or elopement, can be just as beautiful and meaningful as any big celebration! 

The suppliers

Concept & photography: Thyme Lane Photography
Wedding planner & styling: Green Soul Weddings
Venue: Bohemia, St Neots
Dress: Poppy Perspective
Suit: The Vintage Suit Hire Company
Flowers: Flowers at 58
Silk ribbons: Bertie and Fred
Cake: Two Little Cats Bakery
Stationery: KGH Illustrates
Models: Olivia and Adam

For more tips on being sustainable with your wedding check out Hannah’s other posts:

7 ways to make your wedding favours sustainable

7 easy ways to plan sustainable food

10 ways to think ethically about your wedding attire