Amy & Nick

I'm really excited to share this wedding with you, as gorgeous Bride Amy is wearing a dress by Needle & Thread, one of my favourite high street Bridal designers of the moment. Their dresses are decadently embellished, cut beautifully and offer something a little bit different to the rest of the Bridal world. Amy and Nick's venue is actually of a similar vein, a recently converted mill in Derbyshire, The West Mill is industrial yet rustic and the perfect blank canvas for a stylish big day, it definitely offers something very different venue wise.

The Venue

Amy the Bride: Nick and I got engaged in Marrakech back in January 2015. We started looking at venues as soon as we got home, we didn't want a long engagement so we started searching straight away. Spring is our favourite season so we decided on March 2016. We wanted something industrial & rustic with character; we looked at barns, industrial spaces and even some historical houses. It wasn't until we came across The West Mill in Derbyshire both of us completely fell head over heels. The West Mill wasn't actually completed, in fact it was a building site - which made it even more exciting. Andrew and Chrissie did an amazing job of showing us around the venue and explaining every little detail to us from how the day will flow to what they had in mind for the décor - this was totally our style and we booked within a week of viewing. The West Mill is such a special place and has bags of character so we didn't really want to overdo it with decorations, the venue just speaks for itself. I come from a creative background and wanted to use my skills as much as I could, it was going to be the ultimate DIY wedding and we wanted our day to really represent who we are as a couple and only we could do that.

The Flowers

Shortly after booking I visited A Most Curious Wedding Fair at The Truman Brewery in London with one of my bridesmaids and a friend to start looking for some inspiration. During this visit I pretty much decided on everything, I just needed to share all the ideas with Nick when I got home! It was at the Most Curious wedding fair I met our florist Sophie and Luna Flowers. I knew I wanted to wear a flower crown and as soon as I tried one of Sandra's pieces on I was sold. Just exquisite, and something I can keep forever. Sophie and Luna Flowers created the bespoke pieces for the whole bridal party, we thought it would be a really nice keepsake from our wedding.

The Food

We knew the things we wanted to splash out on and the things we didn't. The few things the both of us really enjoy are great food, good music and nice drinks so we wanted to make this our priority. The West Mill have Jenkinsons Caterers as their preferred supplier, we had a taster day with them and couldn't have been happier - they helped us tailor a menu which was great as we didn't want a traditional roast, we wanted something much more laid back therefore we went for a BBQ platter with salads, coleslaw and fancy bread - who said you cant have a BBQ in March? Another pro to booking this venue was the 'no corkage' they offered. This allowed us to provide all drinks throughout the day, this also included a 'gin station' something the planners helped us out with - great idea & it went down a treat!

Entertainment

Regarding entertainment, we wanted something both of us would remember for the rest of our lives. At A Most Curious Wedding Fair I saw Music by Kate and Dave perform, Kate's voice just blew me away, I couldn't wait to share it with Nick. They offer a great package too, we had them perform our ceremony music (this bought a tear to a few eyes!), during our drinks reception which created a great atmosphere and Kate also sang our first dance. We wanted to incorporate them into the day as much as possible, we also had Dave DJ for us in the evening.

The Decor

We didn't really have a colour theme as such, we just wanted to go for things we liked. So when I started my wedding stationary with my bridesmaid Joanne (freelance illustrator and print designer) I wrote all the templates out for size/fonts etc. We spoke with Jo as to the kind of thing we were looking for which was a hand drawn flower leafy design. She went away and came back with the most beautiful design and offered us numerous colour options. That was the grounding of the wedding stationery, we then used the same floral design throughout the whole wedding. We collected jars which I sprayed with gold, bronze & silver paint. These were used for candles dried lavender and eucalyptus. We collected the most beautiful succulent plants, vases and lanterns for the tables - incorporating a little bit of Morocco. The greenery and lavender we used for the tables was from a wholesalers we had it delivered the day before, tied all the branches together and the West Mill team placed them on the tables. We spoke with the wedding planners at The West Mill about our ideas and nothing was too big of a task, they were more than willing to help out as much as they could. A colleague of mine Anna Fielding made the macramé back drop we had in the ceremony room, it was perfect and looked beautiful!

The Dress

When it came to looking for 'the dress' I didn't want anything traditional. I knew what I wanted for my 'whole look' which included a flower crown and an easy to wear dress (but obviously still wanted to look like a bride). For me it wasn't about how much I could spend but what I felt like 'me' in. I looked online on numerous sites for weeks and kept going back to two dresses on net-a-porter.com. My Mum and I went to visit a beautiful bridal shop with the most exquisite dresses, I tried a handful on but they just didn't feel right and Mum told me I didn't look comfortable so we went back home and ordered the two I couldn't stop thinking about. As soon as I received the dresses I knew which one I was going to go for. I asked my parents for the seal of approval and the Needle & Thread got the thumbs up! My shoes were a simple patent court from L.K. Bennett.

The Wedding Party

Prior to this I already bought the bridesmaid dresses from ASOS and without realising the dresses looked great together. Flower girl dress and accessories were all from Monsoon. Nick wore a navy tux for the wedding with a bow tie & some patent shoes from Dune and we chose a brighter navy suit for the groomsmen with black brogues. All the adults suits were from Next and Ellis' was from John Rocha. Ties and bow ties were from ASOS and shirts & shoes from Moss Bros.  

The Photography

I found our wedding photographer Rosie Kelly via a friend I work with. They had Rosie for their wedding in 2015 and we totally fell in love with her photographs. I started following Rosie on Instagram and Facebook and loved her natural style and filters she used so we got in touch and booked her. We met at the venue prior to the wedding and we discussed exactly what we wanted on the day and Rosie did more than deliver - what a beautiful set of photographs we will treasure forever.

The Cake

About the cake- My mum makes the most beautiful fruit cake! So we couldn't possibly ask anyone else to make our wedding cake, we went for a traditional two tier with royal icing. Because mum made it, it made it much more sentimental to us. Decorations were made by Sophie and Luna flowers. As well as wedding cake we also roped friends and family into baking some homemade cakes for a cake table during the evening.

Final Thoughts

Our wedding day was everything we wanted with all the most important people in our lives. Don't get stressed about the small things and remember the real reason why you are doing this. We wouldn't change a single thing!