Morning lovely people!

Bunting. Fill you with a sense of dread? Are images of ditsy florals and polka dots in pale green and baby pink, adorning a way-too-cutesy tea party whiling round your mind? Yeah, ditto. Man, I am not a fan.

HOWEVER, and it's a big however! Our Festival Brides trip to the In the Woods festival (read more on that here) the other week totally broadened my mind; cue Square Bunting. I mean, REVOLUTIONARY.

Ok ok, so it may seem like a minor change, but by adding just one extra side to your bunting fabric, a whole new meaning and style is born. Said to bring happiness, long-life and prosperity to the individual planting the flags, as well as those in the vicinity, prayer flags have been used by 'Tibetan Buddhists for centuries have planted these flags outside their homes and places of spiritual practice for the wind to carry the beneficent vibrations across the countryside' ...Sounds like something I wanna be in on, and just beautifully symbolic for your wedding day, right?

Come on, look at the setting sun, shining through those sheer flags, it's too good! Traditionally, the prayer flags are inscribed with auspicious symbols, mantras, prayers and invocations and are made of 5 carefully chosen colours which 'represent the 5 basic elements: yellow-earth, green-water, red-fire, white-air, blue-space. Balancing these elements externally brings harmony to the environment. Balancing the elements internally brings health to the body and the mind' ...So not only do they look perfectly boho, but they encourage all sorts of goodness and peace on your beautiful day!

And here at Festival Brides, we're totally of the 'more is more' opinion when it comes to these flags, layer 'em up!

I'm so into these flags, I might just start covering the house with them - seriously gorgeous! Whether you work a traditional palette, adorned with scripted prayers, or choose to employ variations of a single symbol and colour, these flags take bunting to a whole new bohemian, wanderlust-fulfilling level!

A couple of tips for prayer flag perfection: go for a semi-sheer, or natural loosely woven material, hang them roughly and layer them up (yes, I'm talking to all the perfectionists, let them be haphazard!) and add strings of fairy lights or festoons to the mix, so your flags might be appreciated all night long!

Of course, auspicious symbols and primary colour palettes might not be everyone's thing, no problem there are a multitude of alternative ways to effortlessly embrace this four-sided bunting trend. The principles of executing this look remain essentially the same: choose sheer fabrics, we think natural colours mixed with deep indigos are just everything this autumn, maybe even mix up some patterns (as above) and leave edges uneven and frayed. Again, space them unevenly, hang them roughly and add soft lighting and you've created this perfectly nonchalant, whimsical look. No overly structured triangles here, thank you!

Left: Country Living Right: Heather Bullard

I'm totally besotted with the warm terracotta and nudes of the above picture. I mean, oversized sheer squares mixed up with big orbs of light... It's festival perfection!

Left: Ruffled Blog Right: Mira Mira Me

Now, you're gonna need to trust me with this final variation, at the risk of sending you running to the hills: Crochet Squares. Yup, you heard me, CROCHET. This is not something I'd normally advocate, even I had a moment of: 'Really, Clare? You're sure about this?', but I am sure. As long as it's executed correctly, these little squares of crochet are seriously sweet boho chic.

First up, you simply must mash up your colours: employ brights but also deep, natural shades of grape, burnt orange and khaki... Essentially, anything but a pastel palette, otherwise we're gonna end up with one of Grannie's blankets, sure they're cute, but they're not what we're aiming for gals!

And, lastly, but most importantly: don't hang them, drape them! They should look like someone just flung them there, without a care.

I think that's the key to embracing bunting in a bohemian, understated way: aim for unstructured displays of broad-mindedness. Draw the eye with contrasting colours, make bunting that challenges the senses; bunting that your guests stop to read... Now there's a sentence you wouldn't normally associate with bunting!

As always, when in doubt: get all 'free-spirited' on it, ladies!

Peace + Love,

Clare X

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