Real Wedding at The West Mill Venue, Derbyshire
Your Love Story?
We first crossed paths back in 2008 during a mutual friend’s wedding. After some cheeky back and forth banter, numbers were exchanged, and a first date took place the very next day with dinner and a movie. Only a few months later, Kate packed her bags and moved into Jon’s flat and the whirlwind romance began.
13 years later, we have bought our own home, been on many adventures in our caravan and welcomed our beautiful dog Millie into our family. After the perfect New Year in Wales, we were staying in a shepherd’s hut with a private beach, and it is here where Jon finally got down on one knee, with a perfect sunset and popped the question – and Kate said yes!
What was your inspiration and vision for your day?
We did not really have a ‘wedding theme’ we kept our ideas simple and in the theme of the venue itself with coppers and golds. The venue speaks for itself and really does not need much else adding. We just wanted our day to be a celebration of love and laughter with our family and friends. Our vision was to create a colourful relaxed atmosphere which aided everyone to have a great day to remember forever, especially after being separated from each other for so long due to covid restrictions.
Why did you choose The West Mill Venue?
Because it’s quite simply the BEST VENUE EVER!
From the moment we arrived at the West Mill we just knew this was the place we had to get married at. We were absolutely blown away from the moment we stepped through the door. We loved how it was on 4 floors, we loved the industrial feel, we loved the amount of décor in each room, we loved the friendly members of staff. The list is endless, and we could go on and on with reasons why the West Mill is the best venue around! We booked it the same day as we viewed, and this was the only venue we looked at. We just fell in love!!
Did you do any DIY projects?
Yes, we did some DIY projects, however we did not go overboard with this as the venue speaks for itself. We did not want to do overdo it and take anything away the incredible place this is!
We made copper and gold themed glass jars and vases which we filled with bright colourful flowers dotted around the venue.
To incorporate our love of biking we created a copper sprayed rotating bike wheel as our guest book.
Our advice to any couples who are lucky enough to get married here – do not over do it or stress about making endless number of decorations, its honestly not needed!
Tell us about the details…
Flowers – Our long-term friend Joanna kindly made our wedding day flowers. We again did not go traditional here. We decided to go with bright and colourful flowers of all different kinds to set off the blue suits and bridesmaid outfit along with lots of eucalyptus and greenery. Joanna set up the venue on the morning and it looked incredible. Bright was definitely a good choice.
Cheesecake -We chose a 5-tier cheesecake from Hartington Cheese shop accompanied with crackers rather than a traditional wedding cake. We served this as part of our evening food which was a success.
Cake station – was created by The Pink Flamingo. We chose bitesize pieces of Bakewell flapjack, caramel blondies, Malteser brownie, orange chocolate rocky road and old school sprinkle sponge. Our very kind family friend Sue, homemade mars bar crispy cake as a reminder of our childhood memory – this was a massive hit!
Sweets – Our lovely friend Grace kindly organised our extremely popular sweet station. Kate is a huge, sweet fan so she chose 5 of her favourite sweets in different size jars set up in a help yourself style.
What was on the Menu?
Jenkinson’s supplied the catering for the day. Our guests were very complimentary of the standard of food and service they provided. During the drinks reception we had bar snacks of crisps, nuts, popcorn, olives, pork scratchings and nachos which all our guests loved. For the drinks reception we had, Pimm’s, prosecco and gin served from the horse box and beer served in a DIY beer barrow.
For the wedding breakfast we chose mango and brie parcels to start – wow these were incredible!! For the main course we went with a summer style themed host a roast which consisted of ham, salads, new potatoes, cous cous, breads, dips and piccalilli. This created such a fun atmosphere in the room and would highly recommend it to others. Unbeknown to our guests we chose a carver from each table who was presented with a chef’s hat and apron after the starter with no further instructions until the meat came out!
For dessert we chose ‘his’ and ‘hers’ puddings. The men had Jon’s favourite – white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake and the ladies enjoyed Kate’s favourite – sticky toffee pudding and ice cream.
During the meal we had red and wine on each table along with prosecco to toast. There was also a supply of beers and soft drinks including pink lemonade, diet coke and fruit juices.
In the evening we went with a ‘pizza party’ theme. We chose 4 different flavours – all of the food was of high quality, and everyone enjoyed it!
What was your favourite part of the wedding?
This is such a hard question to answer as we loved every single second of our day!
One highlight for us both was when our ‘special guest’ arrived. Our beautiful cocker spaniel dog Millie. To have her with us on our special day was amazing!
Watching our beautiful 2-year-old niece walk down the aisle holding a sign saying ‘here comes Aunty Kate’ was a pretty special moment.
Being in a room full of love and laughter with our favourite people who mean the absolute world to us was something we will always remember and was definitely worth the extra long wait!
Being able to finally have the day we wished and hoped for after a long and emotional build up due to covid. Seeing everyone on the dance floor dancing the night away with our favourite band, Cartoon Kings band was the best feeling ever.
Do you have any advice for future brides & grooms?
Do not over think the little details because on the day you do not even think about them!
Enjoy every single moment and take time to stand back and reflect as it really does fly by! Everyone told us it would, and they were so right.
Have faith and trust in the AMAZING West Mill team they know exactly what they are doing and are the best team ever!
If you’ve been inspired by Jon & Kate’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.