Real Wedding at The West Mill Venue, Derbyshire
Your Love Story?
We both met at Derby University in the Library which is where we work. On my first day, during the orientation tour, my then-manager introduced me to Warren, who was working on the help desk, and I remember thinking he was attractive! After a few months of making excuses to come down to talk to him on the desk, Warren asked me out. Our first date was supposed to be a quick drink after work but lasted 5 hours!
Warren proposed on our one-year anniversary. He had upset me the previous week by pretending that anniversaries didn’t count unless you were married, so I wasn’t expecting anything! Then he handed me a jewellery bag, so I started feeling guilty as I hadn’t got him a present. When I opened the bag, it was empty so I turned round to have a go at him and he was down on one knee holding out the ring.
What was your inspiration and vision for your day?
We knew straight away that we wanted the wedding to be personal to us, and how we met, and therefore the obvious choice was to have a library/literary theme. We also knew we wanted navy and white as the colour scheme and books to be a prominent feature of the decor. Our ‘save the date’ cards were from Etsy and looked like library borrower cards – they set the scene for what was to come!
Why did you choose The West Mill Venue?
Darley Abbey has special memories for us as on our third date Warren took me on a walk round Darley Park and this was the night we had our first kiss. Unbeknownst to Warren, once we got engaged, I booked us in for a viewing at the West Mill. The same day, Warren went for a walk with his daughter round Darley Abbey and the Park. In the pub that night he said to me, “What do you think to getting married at The West Mill?” and I said, “Well, funny you should say that…”. Great minds think alike!
As soon as we walked in through the doors for our appointment, we knew it was the venue for us; we didn’t visit any other places. Warren loves vintage and therefore the West Mill décor and style was totally his cup of tea. It also perfectly complimented our library theme. Although we got married in church, we loved the fact that you could get married and have the whole day at the venue. We also loved the four floors and having different parts of your day on each one. The grounds are gorgeous and have some great spots for photos. There is also the added bonus of The Mill House accommodation for the night of the wedding.
Did you do any DIY projects?
We decided to do a lot of the design elements ourselves, again making it more personal, and this was made easier by Warren being an artist. He drew a picture of the two of us surrounded by bookshelves and above the image were the words ‘A Library Love Story’ with the tagline ‘A Hazel and Warren Adventure’. This was used as the basis for all of our wedding stationary, including: the ‘Welcome to the wedding’ sign (designed to look like an invitation to a book launch), place cards, invitations and our orders of service, which featured footnotes and referencing! We used two online companies to print everything: Printed.com and VistaPrint.
I am not quite as creative as Warren but I did spend a Sunday afternoon hole punching all of the bookmark place cards we had designed and threading the tassels through them. I also designed the index cards for the seating plan and created a ‘Literary Couples Quiz’ for guests to play during the drinks reception.
Tell us about the details…
Décor
We wanted books to be a main feature and, as such, our table centrepieces and décor throughout the venue consisted of stacks of hardback books tied with hessian twine. We also had small birdcages with fairy lights in and jam jars, decorated by my lovely colleague Sally, filled with white roses and carnations.
In keeping with the library theme, we used card catalogue drawers and vintage library index cards for the seating plan. Our guests had to locate their name card in the A-Z drawers, which had details of their table number on. Rather than normal table numbers, though, we used the Dewey Decimal system (library classification) with each number representing something that was important to us individually or as a couple. The top table number was 021, which stands for library relationships! Our place cards doubled up as favours and were bookmarks.
The confetti cones were purchased from Etsy and were pages from Pride and Prejudice, which is my favourite book.
Flowers
Cathy at Riverbank Floristry designed the flowers and they were exactly what I had had in mind. I knew that I wanted a compact bouquet rather than cascading and for the flowers to be white – in keeping with our colour scheme. My bouquet contained beautiful David Austin roses along with smaller roses and carnations (my mums favourite flower). Warren had a David Austin rose for his buttonhole, and the groom party and mothers had smaller roses.
Cake
The cake was made by the amazing Lisa at Melbourne Cake Company and was designed to look like a stack of books! It was so realistic that people didn’t realise it was the cake! We had two different flavours: vanilla sponge filled with raspberry conserve and vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream and lemon sponge with zesty lemon filling. The cover of the top book had a replica of the image Warren had designed in edible icing,
Photobooth and Sparklers
Two postponements gave me the perfect opportunity to book additional entertainment! For our photobooth we booked, “Oh Photobooth” and they were a huge hit with guests on the night. A copy of each photo, along with a message, were put in the guestbook and it is an amazing souvenir of our day. The sparklers were one of my favourite parts of the evening do and it brought everyone together. Rain had threatened to disrupt them but luckily it abated long enough for us to go outside and our photographer captured some lovely images.
What was on the Menu?
For the drinks’ reception, we had a choice of prosecco, beer and cider with pink lemonade and apple juice as soft drinks. For the wedding breakfast, we provided red and white wine and elderflower and sparkling raspberry presse. We also had bar snacks including: crisps, nachos, popcorn, peanuts and pork crackling. Jenkinson’s Catering provided the food and there were so many compliments on it – it really was delicious. We had mango and brie parcels to start, followed by chicken wrapped in pancetta filled with goats cheese and spinach, herb potatoes and seasonal vegetables. Dessert was white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake heart with a raspberry liqueur centre. In the evening we had fish and chips, which went down very well!
What was your favourite part of the wedding?
- Getting married! After two postponements, it was amazing to finally do it.
- Sharing our day with our family and friends – after lockdown and not seeing many of them for over a year it was very special and emotional.
- The final dance of the night (September by Earth Wind and Fire) when it was just our family and close friends left.
Do you have any advice for future brides & grooms?
Don’t worry about things you can’t control. It isn’t worth the stress and on the day you honestly won’t notice. Also, savour every single moment as it goes so fast.
If you’ve been inspired by Hazel & Warren’s wedding and would like to know more about The West Mill, we’d love to hear from you! Feel free to download a Wedding Brochure or get in touch.