Your Wedding Day Dream Team
Photographer: Katherine Ashdown Photography – katherineashdown.co.uk – well known in her industry in Norfolk. She is my aunty and it was extra special having her with us throughout the day. Her photos are all about light, true colour, laughter and capturing natural moments.
Florist: Maria’s Flowers – mariasflowers.online – not only did she bring our floral hopes to life, Maria also provided cheesecloths, napkins and candles for our wedding breakfast and styled them beautifully
Band/DJ: During the day, we had the pleasure of Bianca Jade serenading us with her souful R&B tunes. Biancajademusic.co.uk
In the evening, The Burgundys (who are absolute gentlemen) brought the party to the dancefloor – theburgundys.co.uk
Magician: Duncan Williams – magicduncan.co.uk – a wizard! He was incredible, everyone truly was amazed by his magic
Photo booth: Liam at the Booth Guys – the-boothguys.co.uk – having a professional photographer to expertly capture your guests’ silliness in the photobooth is a must. Liam has an incredible array of unique and hilarious props. He also very kindly managed our photo guestbook with the photos, inserting them so there was some sort of order and encouraging people to sign the page – we have come away with a very special physical memory of our day.
Hair and make up: Saskia and her team – all of the ladies were an absolute dream. Great fun, made us all look beautiful, all our hair and make up lasted right through to bedtime.
vinyl for signage and our wedding banner – Daydreamer_Creative_Studio on insta. Tanya was a dream to work with. She created the most beautiful hanging banner for us to display at our wedding, but has also created us a timeless piece of personal art that we will treasure forever and look forward to displaying in our home. Sprig and Press – sprigandpress.co.uk – Beth at Sprig and Press is in the process of pressing and framing my bouquet, which I hope to receive in early 2026. How special that my bouquet will be preserved as a keepsake for me for many years to come.
Tell Us About Your Incredible Outfits What and who did you wear?
What and who did you wear? A beautiful, classic, off the shoulder number ‘Harper’ by Justin Alexander, purchased from Beau Belles in Borrowash
Accessories: My shoes were from the Next Bridal range
Pearl earrings and bracelet were from Lily and Roo
My pearl veil was from Lace and Favour
What and who did your partner wear? Andy and the groomsmen were dressed in navy suits hired from Brigdens, Derby
What and who did your wedding party wear? The bridesmaids wore the satin champagne gold dresses from Six Stories. Our son was our ring bearer and he was in a similar navy suit from Next and he had a gold satin tie from Six Stories. Our flower girl wore a beautiful white ivory dress from Next.
Your Love Story – How did you meet, was it love at first sight? Tell us about the proposal!
It all began in late summer 2018 with a swipe right on Tinder. What started as an exchange of messages, to first drinks on 28.09.2018 at the Final Whistle in Southwell, quickly turned into something very special and ultimately the start of the rest of our lives together!
Our family grew quickly with our children and cocker spaniel already by our sides, and we added our cavapoo in 2021.
Fast forward to Christmas Day 2023, ever the romantic, Andy pulled out an engagement ring he’d been keeping safe for 2 years (!) after a family game of Enchanted Forest with the kids. Cara laughed hysterically… before saying yes!
We decided to plan our wedding for 18 months’ time on the anniversary of our first date.
Without Tinder and fate intervening, our paths wouldn’t have crossed! Thank goodness we both swiped right!
Your Wedding Day Vision & Inspiration What was your inspiration and vision for your day?
I hoped for late summer vibes, to bring out pops of colour through in our flowers, but with neutral undertones of champagne golds to tie in with the beautiful creams and woods that The West Mill has to offer.
We manifested sunshine – and the bridesmaids and I buried sausages (if you know, you know) the night before! We had great fun doing silly dances and chanting while we did so. We weren’t taking any chances, and it seems it paid off as the sun shone for us all day. It was magical!
Why did you choose The West Mill Venue?
We weren’t sure what kind of venue we wanted, and our initial thoughts were that we wanted something quite small and intimate. We had a look online and arranged to look around a few places. As soon as we walked up to the West Mill and were shown around by the lovely Hannah, we had fallen in love with the magic of the place. Not so small, but definitely still intimate.
I love historic buildings, especially ones that have been repurposed (I hate to see old buildings go unloved!). I love what the owners have achieved with The West Mill. It is beautifully refurbished but with many original features. Having the 4 floors to accommodate different aspects of the day was perfect; no being confined to a room/area and at no point did we see staff change the rooms over. The views over the river are stunning. We loved that we could hire accommodation the night before and the night of the wedding. We liked the no corkage offer. Everyone we knew who had attended weddings at The West Mill before sung its praises.
It was also very apparent to us that the event managers are absolute professionals in supporting couples in the planning stages and ensuring a smooth operation on the day. Charlotte was our events manager, and she is so friendly, calm and efficient making our day go to plan, but really taking into consideration our hopes and wishes for the day. She was like our wedding day fairy godmother!
It became clear to us that there was no other choice – The West Mill would be the perfect place for us to marry.
Did you do any DIY projects?
We made our invites using Vistaprint.
I also made our signage (welcome board, order of the day and table plan). I had some leftover MDF boards from a panelling project which we cut down to size and shaped before painting.
Tanya at Daydreamer Creative Studios made the vinyl for us to stick on – it was perfectly matched to our colours and fonts on our invitations.
I created bar signs for our no corkage offer using Canva.
One of my bridesmaids and I made biscuit table favours using the M&S biscuit hack! They were perfect, came to about £15 in total, took under 2 hours to do and were very well received by guests.
I also made some activity packs for the children attending which included some colouring sheets and pens, sweets, chocolate, a small toy for each child and a pack of playing cards. This kept them occupied during the wedding breakfast.
Tell us about the details – Flowers, Cake, Decor, Stationery….
A lovely work friend made a simple Victorian inspired cream heart cake (as well as some traybakes to feed the masses) – and Tanya at Daydreamer Creative Studios made us a beautiful cake topper to compliment the cake.
We wanted our flowers to primarily be our décor – I LOVE flowers! We saw that Maria is a regular supplier at The West Mill and once I pored over her Insta page I had confidence she would be the dream florist of us – I wasn’t wrong. Maria did an incredible job of bringing together our flowers, including creating our stunning floral column to go next to our welcome and order of the day signs, preparing a hanging installation to go above our ceremony (which was then moved to above our sweetheart table for our wedding breakfast).
Maria’s work didn’t stop there – she also supplied some beautiful candles, cheesecloths and napkins for our wedding breakfast and styled them beautifully.
Alcohol. Because No Great Story Started With A Salad (…or did it?) What was on your food & drinks menu?
We chose Aperol Spritz and Spiced Rum and Coke as our signature drinks. But also provided a vast selection of alcoholic and soft drinks. We went a bit mad with the drinks for the day wanting to ensure our guests didn’t go thirsty – which has meant we’ve brought quite a bit of booze home with us. No complaints, it will go down a treat over Christmas!
For our food, we had a selection of canapes during the reception but our wedding breakfast stole the show. The guests loved the prosciutto and bruschetta starter and sticky pudding dessert, but were blown away by our steak grazers. Honestly, the food was just out of this world. We knew it would be good from our tasting night the year before, but this was just something else.
The Hangover Only Lasts A Day But The Memories Last A Lifetime Can you sum up your wedding day in 3 words?
Perfection, Love, Elation.
What are your favourite memories or highlights of your day?
There were so many standout moments! Waking up at the Mill Cottage with my bridesmaids, getting ready with the dream team, moving to The West Mill and seeing Charlotte and our suppliers working to set it all up, coming out to a room full of our loved ones and seeing my groom grinning back at me, our confetti walk, surprising Andy with some icing on his nose during our cutting of the cake, are some of many!
Other highlights include…
Our suppliers were incredible, they were professional, friendly, communicative and reliable at all times in the run up to the wedding, and on the day, filled it perfectly!
Duncan the magician blew minds and wowed people. We hired him to do small group magic through the drinks reception and then a performance to all the guests after the wedding breakfast while they remained seated. This was superb, a perfect way to avoid any lull between eating and the evening reception, and was well received by everyone.
Bianca Jade was the perfect soulful vocalist for our ceremony and reception drinks.
The Burgundy’s are the nicest people you could meet and will go out of their way to make their part in your dance as special as possible. They also brought the party to the dancefloor and did an amazing job of singing our first dance song.
We adored our food, it was so tasty and Jenkinsons were excellent at catering for both children and adults and dietary requirements.
I could go on!
Do you have any advice for future Brides & Grooms?
Allow as much time for each part of the day as possible and try to soak it up as much as you can. It really is the best day of your life, but it will whiz by. While you will have this in mind, you can’t prepare yourself for just how quickly the day goes. Try to enjoy every moment with your bride/groom.
Really think about your suppliers and how they fit into your vision and your day. Don’t feel you have to fill every moment, but do prioritise ensuring your guests are well fed, watered and entertained – happy guests guarantee a happy day. It filled me with joy looking around and seeing everyone enjoying themselves.
Loved reading about Cara & Andy’s day? Read more real wedding stories here.