
Real Wedding at The West Mill Venue, Derbyshire
Your Love Story?
We met at university 13 years ago and became really close friends in the first few years, this blossomed into a relationship in December 2009. Seven years later, Alex planned a surprise dinner in London and on the way to the restaurant he suggested we stopped in Hyde Park’s rose garden… this is when he surprised me with the most romantic letter and a proposal, everything was so perfect. Champagne celebrations and dinner followed at one of our favourite restaurants in London. A further surprise followed when we got home, Alex had printed a photo of us from every year we’d known each other. The proposal was quite unexpected… I didn’t have my nails painted, it was the first thing I did the next morning! We thought it would be nice to get married 10 years to the day that we became an item, hence a winter wedding on the 12th December. This date will forever have so many memories for us.
What was your inspiration and vision for your day?
With it being a winter wedding, we wanted to have strong winter colours and lots of foliage in the flowers and throughout our decorations and stationery, all to compliment the venue’s rustic feel. We wanted to have a great party that would bring so many different people together, in a relaxed atmosphere, from the entrance to the dance floor and the photobooth to the bar. We are both very much foodies, whether that is cooking good food at home or eating out at our favourite restaurants, so it was important to us that we had stand-out dishes as part of our day.
Why did you choose The West Mill Venue?
The West Mill was the first venue I found online and knew I wanted to get married there. The instant Alex and I walked into the venue to look around, we knew it was perfect for us, and we didn’t need to look elsewhere. The industrial feel reflected our own style and with us getting married in December, it means you definitely can’t rely on the weather! The venue is perfect for rainy days, adding to the atmosphere of a wedding. On viewing The West Mill it was also nice seeing both of our Dads walking around studying the architecture, and it gives a nod to Alex’s family’s textiles background.
Did you do any DIY projects?
Alex designed all the stationery, from the invites to the table plan, name cards, menus, agendas and swing tags for our wedding favours, all featuring either love-themed photography or images of the venue, with a gold foil finish. We chose to write the names cards by hand once they’d been printed.
Along with the design work, Alex also made up our wedding favours, creating mini bottles of 10 year old rum (to celebrate 10 years together), with a gorgeous swing tag featuring a gold foil ‘K&A’. We made up little chocolate packs for non-drinkers and little activity packs for the children.
I personally love cake (Alex not so much, he is more of a savoury man), but we found the cost of wedding cakes very expensive, therefore we enlisted the help of Alex’s mum, who bakes the most delicious cakes. With a few suggestions of the flavours we wanted (beetroot, lemon drizzle and fruit), and ideas of a naked cake, she went away and designed the most exquisite cake, so much so, that the moment I saw it, I burst into tears.
We also collected a variety of glass jars and ramekins (working on the impossible task of getting labels off them!) which we put tea lights in and asked the florist to fill with flowers and foliage. On top of this we added flowers to empty rum bottles which became our table names. Alex’s brother cut us log sections to use as part of the table centre decorations. We also created our own little sweet table, which was very easy to do and was a very last minute addition.
Tell us about the details…
I decided on the dress in Oct 2018, a good year and a bit before the wedding, and I went with something completely different than I thought I would. With it being a winter wedding, I was thinking of a high neck and long sleeves in a silhouette style, however the dress I picked was open backed with spaghetti straps. I was a bit worried that I would be cold, but I didn’t feel this on the day with all the excitement. I would say be open minded when it comes to trying on dresses, as something will surprise you. You will know what’s right and if you choose the right bridal boutique, they will also give you guidance. I felt so comfortable with the fabulous ladies at Emily Bridal Wear.
We used a local florist for our flowers, we asked for lots of foliage to give the winter feel and kept our colours neutral, with lots of cream/ivory flowers, the main flower being roses (as a reference to Hyde Park’s rose garden). With the button holes, we had simple foliage and thistles for the groomsmen with an extra rose for the groom. We had minimal flowers around the venue, mostly foliage to compliment our table plan and some lovely foliage hoops, that were moved throughout the day.
The cake was designed and baked by Alex’s mum – we knew we wanted her delicious beetroot cake and then opted for the classic fruit cake and lemon drizzle. We also knew we wanted a naked cake, but this was as much guidance as we gave. I love that she designed something completely different than the usual tiering, instead opting for three separate tiers placed on logs of differing height, with fairy lights, eucalyptus and handmade flower decorations. I couldn’t have asked for anything more, it was perfect.
So many of our guests complimented us on the small details we’d gone to, which on the day we’d forgotten to even look at, so it was such a nice feeling to hear this. We’d gone to the effort of giving all babies their own little namecards, and all our stationery matched our original invites. We kept our theme of winter vibes, nods to the venue and rum throughout the wedding.
When choosing a photographer, think about what is important to you – our photographer prefers to tell a story with his photos, rather than focusing on staged group shots. We are not the posing type so this was perfect for us, and he captured so much of the guest reactions and the general fun vibe of the day.
What was on the Menu?
During the drinks reception, we had free flowing prosecco, Camden pale ale and Camden hells lager. We’re not ones for canapes, and had instead decided on having pork pies, cheese rolls and sausage rolls to be served during reception drinks – these went down a treat with our guests!
For the wedding breakfast we offered our guests a choice of starters and mains. Starter choices included; chicken liver brandy and herb pate served with melba toast with red onion chutney, or braised ox cheek with a leek and potato rosti or a baked flat mushroom with butternut squash asparagus and smoked cheddar with rapeseed oil dressing.
Main choices included; slow roasted pork belly with a pork jus or slow cooked blade of beef served with a dijon cream sauce or a creamy mediterranean vegetable filo tart with feta. All mains served with dauphinoise potatoes, stem broccoli, root vegetables and red cabbage. (Vegan options were also available).
Finally followed by our winter favourite, sticky toffee pudding and custard. The food was absolutely delicious, and we received many compliments from our guests, Jenkinson’s did a great job.
We also used Darley Abbey wines for our wines during the meal, we chose red, white and rose. They were very helpful at the tasting day.
What was your favourite part of the wedding?
There are so many amazing memories but we do have some ultimate favourites. We absolutely loved reading our vows, we had written our own which made the moment more magical and very personal. The first dance is also up there, it had taken us ages to pick a song, we wanted something different that was personal to us, which after a long debate we found – Angel by Shaggy. The band learned the song for us in such a short space of time, and played an acoustic version of it on the day. It’s one of my happiest memories listening to it. All of the readings and speeches were fantastic too. One final memory is just bringing all of our friends and family together to celebrate with us, it makes us smile thinking about the day and watching our wedding video (over and over again!).
Do you have any advice for future brides & grooms?
Firstly, remember it is your day, so don’t worry about pleasing everyone, do what feels right for you. Secondly, we would highly recommend getting a videographer. The day does go by so quickly and it is nice to watch back and see reactions from your family and friends. We opened a bottle of bubbly on a Friday evening to watch it the first time, and have lost count of the amount of times we’ve re-watched it already.