Spring is around the corner

It's been a very long time coming but today it really feels like Spring isn't too far away.

The first of the daffodils and crocus' are starting to peep through at the base of the trees in the woodland which is so lovely to see. This time last year you wouldn't have believed me if I'd have told we'd be in this position 12 months down the road. It's taken a lot of hard work and we're by no means finished but The House Meadow has come such a long way. It's only when you take a moment to look through all the "development" photos we've taken long the way that you realise how far we've come. We're starting to feel a sense of achievement and that's only going to get stronger the more the sun shines and the pretty flowers and trees grow.

A crocus peeping through

The first Daffodil about to bloom

Also, yesterday saw the completion of our bespoke designed Gazebo. We totally love it. It suits the venue perfectly, rustic charm at its best. Granted we still need the grass to grow around it, but I'm sure you'll agree it will be the most perfect spot for a Humanist Wedding Ceremony.

Our completed Gazebo

We've had a bit of a celebration this weekend at The House Meadow (my little brothers birthday) and although it's not at all comparable to a wedding, seeing a group of people outside, in a beautiful space and enjoying the fresh outdoors makes you remember what a wonderful venue we have here, and please note, this is in February...May onwards will be so much better. So exciting. 

My first attempt of a panoramic picture

Autumn Leaves

So, "Summer" is over. I'm not really sure when it actually began this year, but, we are officially moving into Autumn days and we love it. Although it's the beginning of a more dormant period for us, it does create the a best time to prepare the ground with seed and bulbs just waiting for Spring to creep up again so the Meadow can burst into colour. Exciting! Before I wish the months away though I thought we should appreciate the bronze tones that the Meadow is throwing our way now, it is b.e.a.u.t.i.f.u.l.

Check back next month for news of our upcoming Photo Shoot with AphroditeNet.

Enjoy x

Finally the Lawn around the barn is "greening up"

A corner in The Woodland

A corner in the Woodland

Across the pond

The colour comparison from now and spring will be amazing :)

PRESS RELEASE - Autumn photo shoot with Aphropitenet

Exciting news for the Autumn....

Press Release

AphroditeNet Wedding Photography is pleased to announce details of our forthcoming autumn bridal fashion photo shoot.

We will be using wedding dresses from ‘Forever Y­ours’ bridal boutique of Rye, East Sussex, who have a large and stunning collection of designer wedding gowns. We have commissioned some gorgeous vintage inspired jewellery from Lizzie of ‘La Chic Unique’, and will also be working with the hugely talented Tiggy of ‘Tiggy Johnson Bespoke Florist’ and ‘Idyllic Days’. Accessories for our shoot have also been provided by ‘Vintage Amethyst’. The beautiful Jamie Collins has been cast as our model. We are looking forward to working with Jamie to create some wonderful images which we hope will prove inspirational to prospective brides when planning their wedding!

With such a strong creative team involved in this shoot, we had to look for a special venue, and have chosen The House Meadow at Biddenden, Kent. The House Meadow is a unique wedding venue – a working farm set in the beautiful Kent countryside, with plenty of rustic country charm!

Modern vintage continues to be big news as we go into autumn, with traditional country crafts being resurrected throughout the UK and retro style weddings, complete with vintage china table settings, continuing to be popular… We are hoping to incorporate some of this modern vintage style into our photo shoot, with an added Kentish inspired twist!

We will keep you informed as our plans for the shoot progress!

Aphroditenet Wedding Photography - www.aphroditenet.co.uk

The House Meadow – www.thehousemeadow.com

Jamie Collins - www.starnow.co.uk/jamiecollins7

Forever Yours - www.foreveryours-ofrye.co.uk

La Chic Unique - www.la-chic-unique.co.uk

Tiggy Johnson bespoke florist - www.tiggybespokeflorist.blogspot.com

Idyllic Days - www.idyllicdays.com

Vintage Amethyst – www.vintageamethyst.co.uk

What a difference some doors make...

Our barn is looking super duper fabulous! After weatherboarding the second half of the barn, our friend Joe (or, "no show Joe" as we like to call him), constructed a lovely Oak frame for our new wooden barn doors, and then to prove us that calling him "No show Joe" wasn't really fair he knocked up some doors and returned to fit them in record speed! If my mum shows him this he may never return to do the other door...whoops! :) It looks FABULOUS though. The wood will colour to a duller tone and then next year we will possibly wood stain the doors and frame. We're so happy though, it all looks so different! 

I know, I know, I know. We still need to replace the broken glass, paint the window frames, paint the roof, clear the front and add new grass BUT it is a huge improvement. I'm now going to try and dig out the photo of it before....

....all I have discovered is that I have A LOT of photos of my babies, hmmmm, I know there is a barn picture somewhere but at the moment I just can't find it.

Anyway, other things we have been doing lately. Weeding. Yuck, if I had to list things I HATE then stinging nettles and other such disgusting weeds come very close to the top. The horrid little idiots grow everywhere. Cue me and my super killing weed spray and DD (my step dadda, who we lovingly refer to as DD as a shortening of Darling Daddy Dookums, I don't know why but it stuck) and his shovel. Oh yes, they learnt a lesson, we will win, you're not liked so buzz off and inhabit someone else's home! Or, just buzz off full stop! So, hopefully once the spray has set in we will be starting to get rid of them. Horrah!


Also, DD has been getting great loads of fertiliser (please see previous post about the joys of living on a farm) and spreading it over all the areas left to be grass seeded. This in itself makes such a huge difference, the ground is so dry and clay like it looks like a desert when it's dry, so just seeing some brown out there is better and fingers crossed we can start seeding once its all been harrowed/rolled etc within the next month or so. Oh how I long to see more grass! Sad aren't I?!

Lastly we went to the Wealden Times Summer Fair last weekend for a little nosey at all the lovely stalls. I could have spent a small fortune but I restrained except for a couple of plants. I am a sucker for flowers but managed to be quite good and just picked up a corn flower, lupin and another little lovely called "Cherry on Ice" I have no idea what it is but it's really pretty. So we spent the last rainy Sunday in the garden raising up the neglected flower beds and then planting them. It's brightened up the garden already :) The roses in the garden are pretty lovely though so they are deffo staying put. I had a nice surprise on my last walk in the meadow when I saw some bright pink poppies on the island - I'm not sure my iphone shows it in great detail but they look so sweet!

Poppies on the Island

Poppies on the Island

Corn flower

Lupin

Cherries on Ice

 

 A happy note to end on  is that my lovely Dalmatian Perdita has just given birth to 7 gorgeous puppies! We have 4 boys and 3 girls and they are the sweetest things ever. I can't wait for their Dally spots to come through - they are a cross breed with our collie and this is her second litter so we know how stunning they will be! Here's a pic just because I'm a proud Mummy!

 

Thats all for now. Nighty night xx
 

Update

It's ridiculous. We get set back 6 weeks due to snow and rain, and now we're getting set back due to all this fabulous heat!
It doesn't take a scientist to figure out when you're planting lots of trees/grass seed/plants that rain is a must. Have we had any? Not a drop. Cue numerous visits to hardware stores to invest in A LOT of hose pip, sprinklers etc. So our days have been spent watering and watering all of our baby trees. Neil our fabulous landscaper came to see us and warned that no more planting can take place (cottage garden, wild flower meadow etc) until we get out of this mini heat wave. We honestly do not have enough hours in the day. Each tree needs 1 full hours worth of watering, and we must have near 100 of the things. Of course once they have all had an hour long soak we need to start again, needless to say, I'd LOVE some rain. It's all OK though - the trees are looking healthier than they previously did, so our efforts are paying off.

The same goes for our grass seed, it is impossible to get seed to take in super hard soil. We had been seeding/watering/stomping/watering/seeding/stomping just hoping we'll see some new blades of grass pop up through. It's been pretty exhausting. So, after a lot of thought we finally had the brains to realise a little fertiliser might aid the process. Now, living on a farm with lots of animals we have a lot of poop(!) and for once its been very useful. We have now spread/raked/shovelled rather a large amount of fertiliser all through the woodland area for the little grass seeds to live in. So, fingers crossed the little seedlings will be growing in full glory in a month or so. Needless to say we will keep watering!

Lastly, we've also cleared the main avenue ready for top soil and seeding. This area has been my nightmare for so long so I am sooo happy it's finally being tackled. It's made such a difference. Take a look for yourself...

Finally. 7pm, my favourite hour in the meadow - and why? Because everything has such a golden sheen to it. It's such a gorgeous sight out there in the early evenings and for all of you getting married in May/June - good choice! It will be picture perfect this time next year :)

We've got another photo shoot planned for the end of July, so we'll keep you posted on that but for now thats our little update over. Please please please do a rain dance for us :) xcx

Humanist Ceremonies

We've had an inspiring day at The House Meadow.

This afternoon we had an informal meeting with Croianna Bradshaw, a celebrant for weddings and partnerships accredited by the British Humanist Association.

We, like many couples we have met, were a little unsure about what a Humanist Ceremony was all about. Upon visiting the humanist website I was still non the wiser, generally because I have the attention span of a gnat, so arranging a meeting with a local Celebrant seemed like the way forward. So, here's the low down as I see it...

A Humanist Ceremony is a non religious celebration of marriage. The ceremony has no restrictive boundaries, you can marry anywhere you like with no rule book dictating which 'licensed plot' you must marry within. Massive tick. Also, you can marry whenever you like...dusk, dawn, midnight it's up to you. Massive tick. So, the obvious places at The House Meadow would be on the island, in the woodland, under the oak tree...the choice is yours. The celebrant will lead the ceremony, however your vows, readings, promises (yes, you can make him promise to do the washing up!) can all be written by you. There are no set guide lines but if you need advice on how to structure the ceremony then your celebrant can advise you. Your ceremony can be as conventional or as laid back as you wish, it is so personal. If you'd like live music, cue the violinists, you can. Even great aunt Ethel who is mega religious can say a prayer, the celebrant just stands to one side. So, I'd say that keeps everyone happy wouldn't you?

I know I know, there is one problem in this, it's not 'on paper' an official marriage. I was shocked to discover that in Scotland Humanist Celebrants can be licensed registrars too, yet in England this is not the case, booooo. It is going to parliament though so fingers crossed for the future. Anyway, I digress. Yes, to be legally married you need to pop to the registry office (£40) with 2 witnesses to sign your marriage certificate, but (and this to me was significant) you do not need to be declared man and wife and you do not need to exchange rings. Superb. So your marriage certificate is merely your license to wed. A fabulous way of putting it was this "When buying a house you don't remember the day you signed the contract, you remember the day you moved in". I think I'd even keep it as casual as to put it on a to do list alongside 'pick up wedding cake', 'call the caterer'....'get marriage certificate'! Fabulous! Your ceremony will be the first time you exchange rings and the first time you are declared man and wife. Perfect.

Your ceremony is your declaration, a promise to each other celebrated in front of all your closet friends and family so now for the tingly stuff. I swear I must be a hippy at heart (that's what Rob just told me) but check out these ideas for something truly meaningful....

+If you have a small bridal party (up to about 40) you can run a length of ribbon to all your guests, and then, at the start of the ceremony the wedding ring gets threaded on to the ribbon. Your guests hold the ring and silently make a wish for the couple and then pass it on through the rest of the bridal party, ending back in the hands of the couple who then make their vows. Gorgeous or what?

+There is a special way (don't ask me how) to do a hand fastening. This is where the celebrant links your hands together during the ceremony and ties them with ribbon. Once your ceremony is complete you part hands and the ribbon streams away to allow your hands to separate yet reveals a knot to show the promise you have made. Awwwwww.

+Croianna also had a lovely vision of the two families camping over in separate yurt villages the night before and then following a dawn ceremony, the couple now married and their families, join each other in a day celebration.

+Croianna has also experienced many ways to link families and children into the ceremonies. A lovely idea for the families of the couples (namely the mother in laws) is to bring earth from each family home and as a gift to each other "I give you my son" "I give you my daughter" they mix the earth and keep it (probably in a pretty jar or pot!) but what a lovely way to show the linking of the two families. Cute. Also, many couples have children of their own and/or step children and the couple can write in promises to make the children feel included in the marriage and their families future. I know I'd make my babies a huge part of our ceremony given the chance!

These are all just ideas though, as ever, it's your day, do it your way.

Hopefully that covers the most of it, and I hope, inspires many of you to step out of the conformity we're led to believe we must follow. It's not wacky or crazily ritualistic, its just all about you and your love for each other.

I just would like to wrap this up by passing on Croianna's contact details, I know she'd be more than happy to meet with you here at The House Meadow to chat through the many more possibilities that are out there.

Croianna Bradshaw
croianna@gmail.com
07989 746580
http://humanist.org.uk/croiannabradshaw

Enjoy x

Little things....

Today I have been mostly writing out our terms and condition....yawn. We like to think we're pretty damm relaxed about things here but it's amazing how much thought has to go into these things! Anyway, the first draft it complete, so those of you waiting for me to finish it so you can book your weddings, fear not, it's on it's way! :)

Also, I've been compiling lists of local accommodation (whilst watching Moulin Rouge, obviously!) so that you can get all your guests booked up in one of the many guest houses in Biddenden and the surrounding areas! Lovely lovely.

Fabulousness. Signing off to soak up the Pareeeee love fest x