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SURPRISE Wedding for Friends!

April 22nd, 2017

It brings me so much joy to share with you a project that kept me sufficiently occupied for much of last year. With the help of friends, family and more than 20 generous sponsors, I threw the ultimate festival wedding as a complete surprise for friends of mine! I know, you all think I’ve gone completely bonkers, and trust me, the thought crossed my mind several times over the last year. In an industry fuelled by the desire to have, acquire and want, I found a way to use my skills and network to simply give, in a selfless, pure and honest way. To people I felt were the most deserving.

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On a beautiful late summer’s day, my friends Mimi and Yelke, were wed at the very charming De Lievelinge in Vuren, The Netherlands, in a festival style celebration. The wedding was a COMPLETE SURPRISE to both the bride and groom and was organised and funded in it’s entirety by a group of generous vendors, wedding professionals, friends and family. Theirs was a charming, low key, festival inspired celebration in which love and togetherness – along with food trucks and twinklight lights, wildflowers and Chantilly lace – were the main ingredients.

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Posted in Events, Florals, Wedding | 11 Comments »

Munich Botanical Gardens

September 26th, 2016

While I was in Munich a couple of weeks ago attending the ‘Best of Interior Blogs’ awards ceremony, I decided to spend day two doing something with my little girl Lola that we could both enjoy. I had been invited by the German publishers Callwey Verlag to the botanical gardens to attend the book launch of Igor Josifovic and Judith de Graaf‘s fabulous new book ‘Urban Jungle‘ however sadly we didn’t land until the afternoon. As much as I would have loved attending – especially given that my big IG girl crush Anastasia Benko was hosting a floral workshop which I knew would be breathtaking AND my pal Gudy Herder was giving a trend talk I would have loved to see – we just didn’t make it. We had left the house at four o’clock that morning and by the time we arrived it was the late afternoon and I had a tired toddler on my hands. We set out and went for cake and cappuccino’s instead but I kept an eye on my Instagram feed for updates of the event and with all the beautiful snaps of the botanical gardens streaming in I made a promise to Lola that we would go there the next day, since we had an entire day to burn before flying home on the Saturday night.

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We started our day with a leisurely breakfast on the terrace of our hotel. We stayed at Bold Hotel, a lovely place to stay if you’re visiting Munich, with very pretty interior design. After breakfast, we jumped on the metro and made our way over to the Botanical Gardens at Nymphenburg. We decided the gardens were so near to Nymphenburg Palace that it would be silly not to stroll the palace grounds before making our way to the botanical gardens. Lola was delighted to spot a bride posing behind the palace, and loved racing down the pathways with bare feet. And gosh, what we found once we arrived at the greenhouses I had been desperate to visit was nothing short of breathtaking. Get the full scoop

Posted in Events, Florals, Travel | 2 Comments »

Pretty Patio Style

May 23rd, 2016

Now that we are finally enjoying a few rays of sunshine and warmer temperatures after months and months of cold, we’ve decided to give our neglected outdoor area some love in time for the summer. With my husband’s birthday this past week there has been no better time to prioritise our tired old back yard and get our hands dirty, since I decided that the theme of his gift this year is ‘the garden’. And while I wouldn’t go so far as to call ours a garden per se – perhaps ‘elongated concrete box’ would be a better description though my father-in-law feels that ‘chicken coop’ is rather accurate – nonetheless it holds loads of urban patio potential.

It needs pretty much everything done to it. New floor, paint, shed makeover, seating, lighting, greenery. All of it. Because of that we have felt a bit overwhelmed, so to get inspired (and make some design decisions) I popped into a local tile centre to see what was on the offering where garden flooring is concerned these days. Well, I was anything but inspired. Rather, completely baffled as to what to choose and couldn’t help but wonder that if it was tough for me, an interior stylist, how on earth do other people cope when faced with five thousand options and that’s just the floors! I was expecting I would waltz in there, spot my dream patio floor from a mile away and order the tile on the spot, just in time for hubby’s birthday the following week. The opposite occurred, whereby I wandered around aimlessly, returning home empty handed with nothing but a head full of question marks. So in my confusion, I gathered some inspiration to show you guys exactly what’s floating my boat right now in the world of patio style, with six simple ideas for getting your own balconies, courtyards or gardens ready for summer. I will be returning triumphantly to the tile centre having pinned a few ideas down from the below gorgeous photographs. Get the full scoop

Posted in Florals, Interior, Styling | 3 Comments »

Inspire Cabin Sessions: Styling & Photography Booster

March 17th, 2016

When Hanke Arkenbout asked me to join her in creating a series of workshops in my home based around styling and photography, we both didn’t realise how much fun and rewarding they would turn out to be. After an overwhelming response to our Inspire Sessions afternoon workshops, we have decided to offer a full day retreat to be held in a beautiful old cabin in the East of the Netherlands that is the perfect place to inspire those wanting to refine their photography skills, practise styling, play with gorgeous props and food, network with creative people who love to photograph and basically just have an awesome time. Plus we are thrilled to announce that we will be working with food stylist Ajda Mehmet for this event, an Amsterdam based foodie who is wonderfully talented, deeply passionate about food and styling and has her work published in several top magazines including Jamie Magazine NL, Delicious and Libelle. Sound good? Keep reading.

Inspire Cabins Sessions, as we are calling this one-day creative retreat, will be held on Saturday, 16 April. The programme will include food styling and photography, prop and table top styling, a garden soiree where we will feast together on home made deliciousness from Ajda, Hanke and my own kitchen, a nature walk in the beautiful surrounding forest and farmland and a visit to the beautiful and hugely inspiring By Mölle linen atelier. There will be lots of time to network, ask questions to me and Hanke at a round table discussion, share and receive tips and tricks, shoot gorgeous stuff, have fun and be silly and we promise you will leave feeling hugely motivated and deeply inspired. Get the full scoop

Posted in Art & Craft, Events, Florals, Food, Interior, Styling | 1 Comment »

Simple, Ethereal Bridal Style

February 6th, 2016

When Hanke Arkenbout – who you’ll know from our recent workshops, our great outdoors editorial and my family photoshoot – asked me to style a bridal inspiration session for her to shoot, it didn’t take too much convincing before I was on board the pretty train. Her work is flawless, her images dreamy and she’s fun to be around. Sold. So with simplicity being the key component for this collaboration, as it always is with us, we brought to life a beautiful concept celebrating the art of restraint. All too often weddings turn into these massive, crazy things that end up costing the earth and sending the bride into a frenzy trying to have a pin-perfect celebration. I know. I have been there. What we wanted to show in this collection of images is that it doesn’t take much to create the kind of wedding that dreams are made of, and that sometimes simple is just perfect.

Less is always more, and what you’re about to see is the very epitome of pared back, effortless and ethereal inspiration for today’s boho modern bride. And the team that put this together? So good that it’s no wonder Wedding Sparrow snaped this feature up right away! Get the scoop below and watch the behind the scenes video too, created by Koen Kolkerts from Narratief (the same dude who made my video). And for anyone out there planning a wedding, I hope you take some inspiration away from today’s post.
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Posted in Florals, Styling, Wedding | No Comments »

Style Files: Silke Bonde + Win a Print!

January 16th, 2016

I been following Copenhagen based artist and brand designer Silke Bonde since first discovering her delicate and minimalistic line of watercolour prints some time last year, in awe of her graphic, nature inspired works and simplistic aesthetic. As I am always curious to know a little bit more about artists and get behind their creative processes, I reached out to her with questions I’ve been aching to ask, and am delighted to feature Silke and her work here today, with a stunning collection of images created by Studio Oink, Chris Tonnesen and Sofie Brünner. And of course I am even more delighted that we will be giving away two of her stunning prints! Have a look below on how to snag one for your home. What a fab way to kick off the year, don’t you agree?

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|| What is the background behind your label Silke Bonde and how long have you been in business?

When I was little I really enjoyed my own company especially when I had something creative to work with. I could sit for hours and work on the same thing, I guess I had a good imagination. I was always the creative one in my class and I enjoyed having that role. While studying entrepreneurship design in Copenhagen six years ago I started blogging. I mostly blogged about my creative projects and paintings at home and suddenly someday someone asked if they could buy some of it. I was surprised and happy. Shortly afterwards I built my own webshop and then it all started. That was four years ago.

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Posted in Art & Craft, Florals, Interior, Style files, Styling | 19 Comments »

A Simple Table for Two

October 30th, 2015

Do you guys remember the workshops I gave at last year’s Engaged event? Last weekend was the third edition, taking place at the same location where I also had my own wedding, the industrial space Lijm en Cultuur in Delft, and for this edition I hosted four workshops spread over two days. My attendees were a mix of brides and wedding planners, all looking to seek inspiration and advice on styling and conceptualising a wedding from start to finish. Naturally, I shared images of my wedding but also got everyone thinking about identifying their own styles and building their ideas from a concept. I offered some styling tips and at the end they got to play with props and style a table setting for two using the tips they had learned.

They were then asked to take a picture of their table and share it either with me or, if they had an Instagram account, post it there with the hashtag #engagedstyle so that everyone could learn from each other. While they played, I wandered around offering advice and critiquing each setting. There was also a little competition – the person who designs the best table setting wins a one-on-one styling session in my studio, where they (either a bride-to-be or wedding planner) can share their wedding plans or current project with me and receive advice and ideas in a two hour session. The winner will be announced on Instagram later today but after everyone worked so hard to create such lovely tables and share them for everyone to see, I thought it only fair that I share my table too.

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Posted in Events, Florals, Styling, Wedding | 2 Comments »

The Great Outdoors

October 26th, 2015

Do you ever just throw on a backpack, some well worn shoes and hit the outdoors? The crisp fall air, the crunching of leaves underfoot and the adventure of the path unknown can be therapy to the soul. Being amongst nature, wandering, foraging and exploring are things I love to do this time of year with everything changing so beautifully around us, and so this beautiful collection of images shot on film by Hanke Arkenbout as part of a collaboration we did together a few weeks ago is really hitting the spot for me. How often do you hit the outdoors for a wander in your local forest or park? I did this past weekend with my little family, roaming our local forest on our bicycles stopping every so often to forage for dried grasses, foliage and berries. Perhaps today’s post will inspire your own weekend wander.

The forest itself served as inspiration enough for me and Hanke to team up for this shoot, but I realised while working on it that having recently seen the film ‘Wild‘ must have resonated with me on a deep level and inspired me more than I knew at the time.

In the movie, the main character and autobiographer Cheryl Strayed (played by Reece Witherspoon) embarked on a solo, three-month, hike along the Pacific Crest Trail covering some 1,100 miles of continuous wilderness with nothing but a backpack and little to no hiking experience.

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Posted in Art & Craft, Florals, Styling, Travel | 3 Comments »