Real Wedding at The West Mill Venue, Derbyshire
Your Love Story?
We met at work with Ollie asking “alright, duck?”. We were friends for a couple of years; however, this was characterised by Ollie regularly deleting me on Facebook due to having a clear out. This happened again in 2014 for him to then send me another friend request. I sent a light-hearted private message saying if he deleted me again, he’d be in trouble. Ollie’s response was to offer to take me for a drink to make amends and the rest is history.
The proposal was a complete surprise for me!! I came home from work and spent about an hour watching TV and chatting with my Dad and Brother. When I finally made the trip upstairs, I found my bedroom door covered in pieces of paper. Each piece of paper stated a reason why Ollie loves me – I was very confused at this point. When I opened my bedroom door, I found Ollie inside, on one knee, holding the most beautiful ring. When Ollie asked me to marry him, I answered “of course I will”, which he still tells me off for to this day because I didn’t say the word “yes” until he asked again! There were lots of happy tears that day!
What was your inspiration and vision for your day?
The theme for our big day changed a few times as we booked almost three years in advance. We finally landed on the theme of Bees and Hexagons – I really love bees and we all know what an important role they play in the world. Lots of searching Pinterest and wedding blogs and we started to build our ideas of how we would like this to look.
Why did you choose The West Mill Venue?
Who wouldn’t! The West Mill Venue is out of this world. There is nowhere else like it and as soon as we pulled into the car park for our first viewing, we knew it was the venue for us. From the industrial feels to the big comfy Chesterfield’s, the attention to details is astounding and it flows so nicely. We loved that each part of the day was held in a different room and how they are all so different. Every time we visited, we got that goose bump/butterflies in your stomach feelings and I’m sure that will continue should we have the opportunity to visit again in the future for another wedding. It’s the perfect venue!
Did you do any DIY projects?
The favours were homemade shortbread biscuits which contained local honey. My Bridesmaid Lydia baked these for us – I tried to help but as she will tell you, I’m not a natural baker!
Tell us about the details…
Flowers – The flowers were created by my lovely friend and netball buddy, Eleanor Holt at Hoods Florist, Chesterfield. Eleanor’s work is sensational. Everything she creates is just so beautiful and so different to anything you have seen before. We met with Elle a couple of months before the big day, discussed the colour scheme and a flower we would like included and then let her do her thing – the result was breathtaking!! I would recommend Elle to all future Brides and Grooms.
Cake – The cake was made by Emma at Hello Cake. After following Emma on Instagram and trying some of her samples, we knew she was the person to make our cake – the flavours so delicious and her ideas are amazing!
We decided to tie this into the hexagon part of the theme and therefore the bottom layer was a hexagon shape, this was covered in pale grey fondant icing. The next two layers were round and semi-naked with natural colour buttercream. All three layers were decorated with fondant hexagons which were white, pale pink, rose gold and grey in colour. We had four cakes in total as we had a separate cutting cake also. The flavours we chose were, Victoria sponge (Ollie’s favourite), chocolate, lemon and poppyseed and cherry Bakewell for the cutting cake.
Décor – As previously said, we had a Bees and Hexagons theme. We had a vision of having a honeycomb structure made of wood at the top of the aisle and behind the top table and we asked a family friend – Paul – to design and build this for us. It was everything we had dreamed of. Elle added some foliage to this also and the effect was so striking; it really tied everything together.
All the save the dates, invitations and stationery were designed and created by Ollie’s Mum, Jane. We gave Jane our ideas and as with Elle, we let her do her thing. Jane created the most beautiful, unique and special invitations we have ever seen; they were just unbelievable and so many people got in touch to say how special they were. This then continued with all the stationary on the big day too. From name tags to table number to the seating plan, there was something magical about it all.
What was on the Menu?
Reception Drinks: Prosecco, Bottled Beer which included beer from Away Days Beer – Owned by Groomsman Josh Bartlett. Fruit Shoots and J2O’s and Wine.
Wedding Breakfast: Red, white and rose wine on each table. Sparkling White and Shloer (non-alcoholic) for the toasts and speeches.
What was your favourite part of the wedding?
The whole day was amazing, but walking down the aisle with my Dad, and seeing Ollie waiting for me – looking very handsome, I might add – and being announced as Mr and Mrs Fell were the best feelings in the world.
Our last dance really stands out for us. Ollie chose the theme song from The Greatest Showman. As we danced, all of our family and friends stood in a circle around us singing, clapping and cheering. That was a really special moment.
Do you have any advice for future brides & grooms?
Enjoy every second. Brides – try not to get too stressed and overwhelmed with it all: what will be, will be and it will be perfect. Grooms – don’t be nervous, just enjoy it, when you see your Bride walking down the aisle, it will all be worth it.
The day will go by so quickly, so make sure you make time to spend with each other as a couple and talk about your day.
If you’ve been inspired by Rebecca & Oliver’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.