Your Wedding Day Dream Team
Photographer: Bloom (https://bloomweddings.co.uk/)
Videographer: Bloom (https://bloomweddings.co.uk/)
Florist: Mandy Moss (Bride’s Mother)
Band/DJ: Posh (https://poshweddingdiscos.com/)
Mini-Golf: Rustic & Vintage Carts (https://www.rustic-vintageminigolfandgameshire.com/)
Make up and Hair: Lilly Monrose (https://www.facebook.com/lillymonroes/)Dress shop: Jaynes Bridalwear (https://www.instagram.com/jaynesbridalwearlincoln/)
Tell Us About Your Incredible Outfits What and who did you wear?
My dress was Stella York 7831 purchased from Jaynes Bridalwear in Lincoln (my hometown). My shoes were from Next (a much cheaper alternative to the designer pair they look like!). My jewellery was made up of family heirlooms, purchases for myself and gifts from my new husband – all doubling up as my something old and new. My something blue was two blue buttons from both of our late Grandmothers collections.
What and who did your partner wear?
Andrew wore a three piece wool suit from Moss Bros – thank heavens it wasn’t too warm for a June day!
What and who did your wedding party wear?
My bridesmaids wore sage green dresses from ASOS design – after a trying on session of several dresses!
Your Love Story – how did you meet, was it love at first sight? Tell us about the proposal!
We met in a bar in Lincoln whilst Andrew was at university there. Although, it was our second date when Andrew jokes that he knew Charlotte was the one – when he came back from the loo and a fresh beer was waiting for him. That was probably the last time Charlotte went up to a bar though!
For the proposal, Andrew planned a dinner out on a random Friday night, nothing out of the ordinary (or so Charlotte thought!). When we got to the bus stop, the bus was 20 minutes late, and then as soon as we got on, it started pouring with rain. Before the meal, Andrew suggested a little walk around a park we go to a lot. Charlotte thought it was strange – it was raining, and we had a reservation! But right at the end of the walk, he got down on one knee and proposed. Afterwards, we went for our meal and decided not to tell our parents or family until we got home. But then we headed to one of our favourite pubs, and to Charlotte’s surprise, all our family were there waiting for us! Andrew had secretly arranged for everyone to be there to celebrate.
Your Wedding Day Vision & Inspiration What was your inspiration and vision for your day?
We wanted a day that felt relaxed and captured “us” and our personalities and what we liked, for example little touches like mini-golf, craft beer kegs, table names as pubs, football matchday programme style order of services, blondies, brownies and rocky road as the wedding cake!
Why did you choose The West Mill Venue?
The West Mill was the first wedding venue we looked at, we had another one booked to visit after, but to be honest as soon as we’d been around The West Mill it was clear this was where we were going to have our wedding! We loved how relaxed it felt, how open and bright it was, and it felt like everything had been thought out – with things like the on-site accommodation, the bridal suite to get ready in and the caterers. Not to mention the no corkage! We came out of the venue thinking it just felt like somewhere where we’d spend our weekend. We lasted about 10 minutes at the second venue viewing, because it simply just wasn’t The West Mill.
Did you do any DIY projects?
Yes, a lot! Charlotte is quite into crafting, so she was put to work! We did our own signage, stationary, order of services (designed as football matchday programmes), table names, place names and Charlotte’s mum did all the flowers, including the hanging display on the ceremony floor. It was a lot of work, but in the long run we saved a lot of money by doing it ourselves, and it was much easier for us to add our own personal touches. Top tip: Canva is your best friend! Make sure you note down your colour and font too so you can make everything match.
Tell us about the details – Flowers, Cake, Decor, Stationery….
Fortunately for us, Charlotte’s mum is a florist! So we definitely made use of her skills. We had around 50 small bud vases with stocks, gypsophila, eucalyptus and astilbe. This then matched what we had in the bouquets, button-holes and corsages.
For the cake, we went down the non-traditional route and had the brownie and blondie tower from Jenkinsons. At an open evening, they had some brownies and blondies out to taste, and from the moment we had them we were definitely having them on the day. In addition to this, a family friend of ours makes an incredible rocky road! So we asked her to make a rocky road cake for us that we cut in the evening. We were still finishing off the cake on our Honeymoon!
Alcohol. Because No Great Story Started With A Salad (…or did it?) What was on your food & drinks menu?
Andrew’s a craft beer fan, so we had some beers from a local Nottingham brewery we like, as well as some mini 5L kegs from a brewery in Lincoln (where Charlotte’s from), a brewery in Nottingham (where Andrew’s from) and from a brewery in Munich (where Andrew had his stag do). Charlotte’s a gin fan, so we had the horsebox open, and had 3 different gins served there, we then had soft drinks (squash, cans of lemonade and coke, J2Os etc), prosecco and wine. Top tip: get a Costco membership for the soft drinks, and get your wine when supermarkets have an offer, we saved about £100 by bulk buying when Tesco had their clubcard offer on!
For the food, again we went for dishes that we felt were very “us”:
Canapes: mac and cheese bites, mini yorkshire puddings and mini naans with balti on them
Breakfast: chorizo and red pepper arancini, pulled beef rib and white chocolate cheesecake
Evening: bacon and sausage cobs, nachos and pizzas
The Hangover Only Lasts A Day But The Memories Last A Lifetime Can you sum up your wedding day in 3 words?
Charlotte: Best Day Ever.
Andrew: Us. Family. Memories.
What are your favourite memories or highlights of your day?
Too many to include! But as a shortlist:
- Extending the day by having our immediate family stay with us at The Mill House and having breakfast together the next day – it made the event longer, and we got to spend more time with those closest to us.
- The hen party organising a surprise ABBA flash mob for Charlotte in the evening.
- Seeing all our friends and family mingle with each other, having everyone we love in one place for one day was so special.
Do you have any advice for future Brides & Grooms?
- Start early! Give yourself more time than you think, it’s really difficult organising a wedding whilst working, keeping on top of jobs, seeing family and friends etc. We made every Wednesday “Wedding Wednesday” to give us some regular time to plan!
- Track everything! We set up a spreadsheet for this in a shared google doc and it was so handy for us both to be able to view it. It also meant we had one source of truth! Alongside that, setting up a wedding email was so helpful as we both got any information or queries at the same time so we could share the tasks between us.
- Make sure to try and relax (I know it’s a difficult ask!) but we got married on Thursday, and made sure to have from the Monday off work, just so we could take in the week, finish up final tasks and have some time together before the day.
- Enjoy the day. Everything you have worked so hard for has paid off, and now it’s time to enjoy it!
Loved reading about Andrew & Charlotte’s day? Read more real wedding stories here.