Hannah & Steve

I love that our gorgeous couple Hannah & Steve chose to have their wedding ceremony unplugged, even better that it was illustrated by a truly gorgeous wedding sign created by the bride herself. But is it any wonder when she runs a fabulous stationery business: Yellowstone Paper Works. She even hand painted each and everyone of her guests their own place setting. SOO special. Also incredibly special are the ladies bespoke outfits by Mariée. The bridesmaids grey tulle skirts and the brides lace dress are exquisite. Teamed with pink peony and peach David Austin Rose bouquets and you have one beautiful bridal party. Everything about this wedding at The West Mill in Darley Abbey, Derbyshire is sentimental, pretty and captured to perfection by Matt Brown Photography and Lara Elliott films. Enjoy every moment.

The Dress

Hannah the Bride: My gown was handmade by Kate from Mariée in Nantwich, Cheshire. As soon as I met Kate I knew she'd create something that I'd be comfortable and feel amazing in. I went for a lovely beaded lace that was light but heavy enough to weigh down gently. The experience of having a dress made for you felt so luxuries but the price tag was similar to lots of ‘off the peg’ dresses I loved so I’d highly recommend exploring the option if you’re thinking about it. I chose to wear a blue drop necklace that both my Great Grandma and my Mum got married in and wore simple gold sandals from Dune (which also happened to be called Mariée!). My only other accessory was a fresh flower crown that I loved. It really set the tone for the whole day and finished my look off in a subtle way.

Venue

As soon as we saw The West Mill in Darley Abbey, Derbyshire, we fell in love with the spectacular venue. The building was only 80% renovated when we saw it but it had the most incredible atmosphere, showstopping huge windows, the original brick floors and walls, and lighting to die for. We were sold. The 4 floor building was exclusively ours and we moved from floor to floor throughout the day (ceremony on one, then the wedding breakfast on another, party floor on another...!) which made for a flawless day and not a moment wasted! Lucie, our coordinator made all of our dreams come true and worked with us to set the venue out exactly as we wanted. I had such a prescribed vision of where everything would go, and she really got every detail spot on.

Ceremony

We decided to hold an unplugged ceremony, which I'd highly recommend! It was so lovely being able to say our vows and look around at our friends and family and see them all smiling (or crying) back at us rather than through their phone screens. We added polka dot grey and pink bags of popcorn to each seat so our guests could have a little snack while they waited for me to arrive.

Beauty

I decided to treat myself and hire Rachael Cahalin to do my make up for the day. Rachael has been a Yellowstone Art Boutique customer for years now so I felt like I knew her well enough to trust her with my face! She's so laid back that I knew I'd feel comfortable with her. I was so nervous about it, wearing very little make up on a daily basis but Rachael was incredible and it was such good fun having her there that morning. She was so calm and understanding, of the look I was going for and I'm so glad she could share those special moments with my bridesmaids and I.

Flowers

Nicola of Brown Sugar Blooms was our florist and she pulled out all the stops as you can see... she is one clever lady! As soon as we started selling the hanging terrariums in Yellowstone I knew I wanted them in the Wedding in some way. Having a flower in each globe looked gorgeous hanging from her ceremony backdrop creations. Our bouquets were just the perfect mix of colour featuring roses, peonies, astilbe, eucalyptus and thistles. We also used lots of fern and eucalyptus around the venue to contrast with the brick and keep things simple. I've worked with Nicola to run our Yellowstone workshops for a few years now and it really meant the world to me that she was our florist for such a special day.

Special Moments

The one thing both Stevie and I commented on after the ceremony that we had no idea how incredible it would feel. We spent a year planning our perfect day, but walking down that aisle and saying our promise to each other was the most overwhelming feeling I've ever experienced. Now I can see why it really can be the best day of your entire life.

Bridesmaid Dresses

I really struggled to choose bridesmaids dresses as I wanted something relaxed but stylish to tie in with the venue. I saw an image of a tulle skirt with a vest top on Pinterest and took it to Kate at Mariée and she made the grey skirts for us. We paired them with blush vests from Phase Eight to create the 'dresses'. My Mum also had Kate create her dress, as she didn't want the traditional 'mother of the bride' look. I love that she rocked grey and yellow!

Stationery

Now...the stationery... So the pressure was on to create something special seeing as I've been designing wedding stationery for 4 years now. After I'd created the invitations, I had a brainwave to create illustrations of each guest as their place name, to match the illustration of Steve and I. I won't go in to detail but we had 95 guests and I was still finishing the paintings as Steve packed the van to leave for the Wedding! It look a crazy amount of hours but I'm SO glad that I made that effort now. Seeing our friends reactions to their little illustrations was amazing and I'm pleased I could do something special for us that I wouldn't be able to do for a customer.  Our place names were places from Steve and I's favourite TV show Home & Away (don't judge please, it's brilliant). We knew it'd make everyone smile as our friends already mock us for watching it.

Food

The food was all of our favourite things- bruschetta, steak, moroccan chicken, cous cous, salad, wedges and cheesey garlic bread. The weather was beautiful so it was lovely to have sharing bowls of food for everyone to dig in to. I won the toss on pudding choice too- homemade meringue and fresh berries. Lots of people told us we wouldn’t eat on our Wedding day but we wolfed the whole 3 courses. Yum thank you Jenkinsons- you know how to cook!

Groomsmen

Steve and his groomsmen wore jackets from Slaters, olive green chinos with grey ties from Topman. Steve's dickie bow was handmade from Etsy seller RubiBell, paired with grey polka dot pocket squares and thistle buttonholes as a nod to his Scottish Dad.

Rings

Ellie Air Jewellery (who made my engagement ring) made our Wedding rings for us, to our specification. I went for a thin, hammered white gold while Steve chose a brushed gold band.

Entertainment

We wanted the day to be fairly informal and as much fun as possible so we bought a tandem that needed a little love which turned out to be BRILLIANT fun! Steve's godfather even took it in the lift to the dancefloor! We bought a full size table tennis table for the courtyard - Steve and his usher Jim, used to have one as their dining table when they lived together and let's just say that some of the men got a 'little' competitive which was hilarious.

Guest Book

Our guest book was a little installation of suitcases to mimic an exhibition we went to on our first date. I'm so pleased we did something a little different as it really encouraged people to leave us a message.

Cake

The cake was made by Steve's stepmum Debbie and the cream, blush and grey tiers were delicious! The gold wire topper was from another Etsy seller LeRusticChic and was the 'cherry on the top'. My Mum, Steph, made 100 meringue kisses to sit next to the cake too (can you tell I love meringue?) which looked so stylish.

Photography

Matt Brown was our chosen photographer and WOW did he capture it! He tuned in to exactly what we wanted and we are thrilled with the images. I'm so pleased that they really represent the feel of the day and we had such a good time with Matt, it was a pleasure to have him share our day.

Videographer

We also decided to book a videographer and Lara Elliott's portfolio and reputation meant she was the only one for the job. I watch our video at least once a week and cry every single time.

Entertainment

In the evening we booked The Party Starters through Alive Network and the dance floor was full ALL NIGHT. The evening passed by in a sweaty, dancing blur and the fish and chips went down a storm.

Planning & Advice

Throughout the process of planning our wedding, we tried our best to stay true to our own style and remember that the day was about our marriage promise. It's so easy to get carried away to create a 'pinterest' worthy wedding but at the end of the day, the marriage is the most important part of it all. We tried to keep things simple and even though I went all out on the stationery, we stayed very calm and excited throughout the whole process. And I think we nailed it. We are so happy and that perfect day was the start of our married lives together. One of the best tips was given to us by our coordinator, Lucie. She advised that as we walked back down the aisle, that we go straight to the dressing room to have 10 minutes of time to just talk and take it all in. It was such a special moment where we could gather our thoughts and talk about our mornings (and the night before). We really wanted to spend the entire day together, which sounds obvious but lots of brides and grooms get pulled away for photos and end up mingling separately. We agreed to hold hands and not let go- if someone wanted one of us they got the other. It worked a treat and meant we shared every moment.