Rustic & Brightly Coloured Wedding at an Industrial Victorian Mill

We’re going all industrial today thanks to WWW followers Nicola and Michael who were hitched at The Arches at Dean Clough on the 21st September 2019. The Victorian mill provided the perfect rustic vibe for these two, who hoped to achieve a bright, relaxed and personal celebration. Think multicoloured flowers, rustic wooden signs, a fairy light canopy and lots of bespoke DIY décor. Wow.

At the heart of their wedding plans was a focus though on hosting a day for as many of their loved ones as possible and of course great food and drink. Live music was also key to their party and it’s great to hear that WWW Supplier Love member Entertainment Nation provided their live band, The Level. Their guests must have had such a blast.

Also look out for their super beautiful outfit choices, a striking ceremony arch featuring an Edison light installation and a delicious looking naked cake.

Stevie Jay Photography I cannot thank you enough for sharing with us these utterly wonderful captures. Enjoy folks!

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The Proposal

Michael proposed on 2nd December 2018 at Bolton Abbey. It was a complete surprise and I wasn’t expecting it at all, he had planned the day perfectly! It was nice to spend the day/evening celebrating, just the 2 of us.

The Vision

We wanted a different type of venue having been to so many weddings, something older but with character. In terms of colours, we knew we didn’t want a colour theme, we just wanted it to be bright and relaxed.

We wanted to put in as many handmade touches, with a rustic charm, as possible to make the wedding more ‘us’ and to know we had put the time and effort into making the wedding special- probably the only time we would invest in being creative!

The Planning Process

We always knew we didn’t want to be engaged for long before the wedding, neither of us is into long planning processes! We decided to relax over Christmas and enjoy being engaged for a very little while. We kick started the planning process in January 2019, it was fairly relaxed- we knew we had to make decisions quickly to get it all sorted which really worked for us.

We listed the key things we definitely knew we wanted; a live band, a different type of venue to the norm, bright and fun flowers (and as many as possible), as many of our friends and family there plus really good food and lots of drink on offer! We started with the above and then the smaller bits developed over the course of the 8months we were planning, it was quite easy looking back at it. We had loads of help from friends and family which was brilliant.

We obviously had a spreadsheet for creating and tracking the budget…Michael is in Finance!

Budget

We didn’t want to spend a fortune but given the number of people we wanted to invite it just adds up. That’s why we tried to do as much as possible ourselves, to keep the décor costs down.

The Venue

We got married at The Arches in Halifax. As soon as we saw the venue we knew it was perfect! It has the right mix of older style building, stone flooring, with an industrial feel and the canopy lights inside just look amazing and bring it all together.

The owners of the venue were unbelievably helpful and supportive throughout the planning and were great to work with. The chef deserves a special shout out, his food was amazing, I don’t think we have been to a wedding where so many people have commented on the food… people are still mentioning the belly pork canapé and the trio of desserts! We absolutely loved the food tasting at the venue before the big day… one of the most fun parts of the wedding planning process (except for the wedding dress shopping!)

Your Outfits & Accessories

Brides Dress: I wanted something relaxed, floaty and yet undeniably a wedding dress. I went to around 4-5 shops and only stumbled on the Bridal Emporium after googling stockists of a certain brand in Leeds. It wasn’t this brand I ended up with, but as soon as I put this dress on I knew it was perfect, it hit the relaxed vibe but with subtle detail (something I didn’t realise I wanted as I’d been trying on fairly plain dresses until that point!). The style just fit exactly to how I would, and my friends would, describe my type of dress! The low back, which I’d been looking for, just ticked that final box

I added a belt to the dress to change it slightly and add that final bit of detail, and picked a shorter veil which matched perfectly. The women in the store were brilliant throughout and made it a really special experience, and not just for me but my mum and sister too! They really took the time to help with picking the belt and veil which I very much appreciated, nothing was too much!

Shoes were from Kurt Geiger outlet at York Designer Outlet.

Groom: Suit was Fellini from Slaters. It was grey but chequered so not too boring! The buttonholes were a variety of colours to match the different flowers we had at the wedding.

The Readings & Music

We really wanted the readings to be a surprise, so asked two friends to come up with them. One was an anonymous reading by Nicola’s school friend Sarah, which had romantic charm without being soppy. The other reading was a poem called To My Valentine by Ogden Nash, which was read by Michael’s friend from university Sam, but the words had been changed up to fit the day, and us as a couple. It was really personalised, and also very funny.

The music was a mix of some of our favourite songs, a wonderful post-ceremony acoustic guitar performance from family friend Richard, orchestral covers of modern songs, and our brilliant live band ‘The Level’ who we booked through Entertainment Nation.

Your Photographer

Stevie Jay. Stevie was relaxed, friendly and caught some amazing natural moments throughout the day which we love, whilst also putting up with our group shot requests- our families took some organising!

Beauty

My hair and the bridesmaids was done by Jodie Bloomer. Jodie had previously done the hair at my sister-in-laws wedding so it wasn’t a hard decision to choose her. She also did my make-up on the day. Jodie was brilliant at the hair and make-up trial, taking your ideas and putting it together brilliantly. She was so relaxed and nothing was too much trouble, she was brilliant.

For the make-up of the bridesmaids and mum of the bride it was Mairaed who works out of Heritage Suites, Heritage Mill in Huddersfield. Mairaed again was brilliant, and tailored the make-up as to what each person wanted.

The Flowers

Finishing Touches Florist, Huddersfield for the main bouquets, the décor for the wedding arch and lots of loose flowers.

Our family friend braved a 5am flower market to get the table runners and plenty more bright flowers for the tables and venue.

Groomsmen

The suits were Fellini from Slaters – Michael had previously used them as an Usher at a friend’s wedding. He wanted to go grey, but not too boring, hence the chequered pattern. The accessories were from a variety of sources.

Bridesmaids

Outfits were off ASOS.

The Details & Décor

We made a lot of the décor ourselves with lots of help from family and friends! We also made use of Etsy for some of the vinyl lettering, Typical Type for the brilliant light fitting at the top of the aisle and Add Vintage to hire crates, boxes etc.

We wanted to bring a lot of personalisation into the décor, hence references to places we had lived and travelled to. We put together a little memory lane photo wall and managed to embarrass the bridal party through displaying pictures of them! Our table names were numbers linked to either memorable dates or things to note, with an explanation of what the number meant to us!

The favours were homemade flavoured vodka shots!

The Cake

We really wanted a cake to fit our rustic charm feel, it was made by a friend from Nicola’s work (Nic Thurstan). It was 3 layers, all different flavours and really tied in with the theme of the day.

She definitely needs to start her own cake making business!

The Honeymoon

South Africa and Mauritius – a mix of city sightseeing, safari, and beach time – a great way to unwind post-wedding.

Highlights included going up Table Mountain in Cape Town, a long day of drinking at the Vineyards of Franshoek, driving the stunning Garden Route through South Africa, seeing Lions, Elephants, Rhino and many other animals on Safari, and the beautiful nature of Mauritius.

Memorable Moments

The whole day was amazing and it really is true what they say, it is the best day from start to finish. Key bits were the speeches, getting to see all our family and friends in one place, and the evening party. The guests drinking the bar out of Jägermeister by 8pm was also impressive!

Advice For Other Couples

Enjoy every moment, do not stress too much in the planning, it goes as quick as a flash so take it all in. Do what you want to do, not what people say you should do.

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Simply gorgeous! If you love an industrial wedding style, we have many more in our archives for you to enjoy too.

Nicola and Michael thanks ever so much for sharing your epic wedding celebrations today xo Lou