Glamorous Prohibition Style 1920s Wedding

Oh boy do we have a real wedding today to make you swoon. Think prohibition 1920s vintage Gatstby vibes, all held at the stunning industrial venue; The West Mill in Derbyshire. WWW readers Renna and Ben chose the 3rd February 2018 to hold their celebrations, which gave them two years to plan the wintry day of their dreams. I have to say it all looked so perfect and the incredible images by HBA Photography really gave me goosebumps, they are just so atmospheric (thanks for sharing guys!).

Glamour all the way with bridesmaids donning silver sequin frocks, the gents in formal tuxedos and bride Renna rocking not one but two beautiful gowns. I think they all looked utterly gorgeous! I really love the paired back but abundant greenery and foliage used throughout, it made the perfect trendy contrast to their glam décor. Live music was key for these two, so I was super chuffed to see WWW faves Warble Entertainment providing the evening band. It sounds as though guests were dancing even before the dinner was served. Brilliant.

Such a fun, meaningful and remarkable wedding day.

THE PROPOSAL

Ben actually had a bespoke ring made for me but got his timings mixed up and ended up proposing with a haribo ring in the living room with my family surrounding us on Christmas day. In the panic of the moment I ended up eating the ring before I said yes.

THE VISION

A glamorous winter affair with a 1920’s twist.

THE PLANNING PROCESS

Most people told me that two years was such a long time to plan a wedding and they were right, however I was not warned how much the last 6 months it would take over my life, from late night confetti packing and hours spent spraying bottles and painting wood. I was quite lucky because my mum has retired so she basically became my wedding planner I would tell her my vision and send her some ideas and she would spend hours knocking together wood, bidding on websites and buying things in shops while I sat at my desk at work!

My dream job has always been to be a wedding planner so my wedding was basically my first chance to show people what I could do! I had endless lists and spread sheets. It was actually quite easy to spend hours of the day doing wedmin and forget about the real world.

Enjoy the planning process, you probably won’t ever experience again and it is truly amazing to see it all come together at the end.

BUDGET

I think I would rather forget this part but well well well over what we planned.

THE VENUE

The West Mill – probably the most amazing venue I’ve ever been to, from the second I walked in I shed a tear because I knew INSTANTLY this was the place I was going to marry Ben.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES

Dress from Ivory & Pearl Belfast – Flora Bridal and evening dress WED2B West Brom.

My belt was also WED2B, my colbalt shoes were Manolo Blahnik, my bespoke head piece was made by Bebop Boutique, my veil was by TDR Bridal in Birmingham and my earrings were diamonds hand cut and placed by Marcello Monsellato in Hatton Garden. Marcello also hand made our wedding rings, Ben’s wedding ring has his nan’s wedding ring melted inside.

FINDING THE DRESS

STRESSFUL yet funny story. I originally bought a dress from Ivory & Pearl in Belfast by a designer called Flora. I used it as my goal to lose weight, however 18months later when I had lost the weight and I put the dress on it no longer looked the same. I then had 3 and a half weeks to find a new dress! I popped into WED2B in West Bromwich and managed to pick up a stunning appliqué crepe and lace dress that didn’t break the bank, as I had already spent so much on my original dress. I spent a few days gutted about the fact that I couldn’t wear my original dress. Luckily Ben’s Auntie Pam who is a seamstress came up with idea to combine BOTH!!! She created my old dress into a glamorous detachable skirt with a huge train and a tulle belt, and walah! I had my day dress with my huge train and my evening dress to cut some shapes in!

GROOM’S ATTIRE

Ben wore a DKNY suit from Moss Bro and a waist coat hand made by Auntie Pam, all the groomsmen were in Moss Bro 1851, dicky bows and pocket squares were all Moss Bro, my nephew was my page boy and he wore a tuxedo baby grow from baby Gap!

THE READINGS & MUSIC

I walked down the aisle to Tale As Old As Time played by Cam Gow Pianist. My bridesmaid Charlotte read a Disney related poem called Tale As Old As Time, my mother read a poem called What Is Love. Music is a massive part of my life with Ben, we actually spend hours at home with our vinyl player on drinking wine and its one of the biggest ways in which we bonded, so obviously it was such a huge part of our day and I tried to make sure there was live music at all points of the day. We had Cam the pianist welcome the guests into the ceremony room with lots of modern classics and then continue with us down to the drinks reception to play some uplifting classics, which actually had some of our guests dancing even before dinner. At dinner we had Mango Acoustic Duo who were fantastic, I actually danced for about 10 minutes next to them before our desserts came out as did many other guests. In the evening we used Warble Entertainment to hire The Jumping 5 who were a 5 piece swing band, and we finished the evening off with Digi Sounds DJ Scott Hicklin from Chesterfield and Luke Sax! (On the Sax!) We were a bit untraditional and my two best friends and maid of honours Alex and Mary both did a speech, it was commented on many times how the women really out did the men at the wedding! Go on girls!

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS

All nine dresses were hand made to fit by Pam Ben’s auntie, shoes were from ASOS and hair was by The Look Salon in Chesterfield. Make up was Leena Leigh Makeup Artistry. The flower girls dress and shoes were Monsoon.

THE FLOWERS

Maria’s Flowers Derby. My original florist went AWOL four weeks before the wedding and Maria literally came and saved the day and helped mop up my tears, her work was incredible.

My flowers were mainly green and ivory, the bridesmaid’s bouquets were simple and elegant whereas mine hung down and was loosely hand tied. We had a floral arrangement across the top table and the register signing table, which floated on to the floor surrounded by candles.

THE CAKE

Debbie’s Cakes Mansfield

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER

The photography gods that are, HBA Photography and lets not forget Nick Armstrong Videographer – our film.

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR

Chair backs and sequin table cloths were from Helen at Pudding Bridge. Vase centrepieces and the wooden shutters were Save The Date Event Stylist. All calligraphy including the one of a kind scroll, table plan and welcome sign were from Allie at Polly & Me. Sprayed bottles by mother! Hanging faux floral backdrop with hanging lightbulbs was hand made by my mom and dad! We had a table of photos all of our friends and family who are passed and we framed them all with candles surrounding them. We also had our immediate families wedding photos surrounding our wedding cake. Our order of the day was a stunning newspaper made by Georgia-May Wedding Stationery she also made our menus which fitted in line with the prohibition theme as well as various signs. We had gold beaded charger plates and my mom handmade gold and ivory ribbons for the backs of half of the chairs to match the beads. We used church candles, dinner candles and tea lights literally everywhere as it was a winter evening so it got dark very quickly. My mum sprayed tea light holders with champagne glitter and scattered them around the venue, while my florist put in single ferns into sprayed bottles. I also used tall candles in candle stick holders.

The scent of the room was really important to me as I always remember when I worked at Disney World that all the best hotels smelt like vanilla and cake! So I actually purchased around 70 vanilla scented Airwick candles for the ceremony room and the ground floor so that when guests arrived they felt transported into a romantic 1920’s wedding.

In line with the prohibition theme we swapped out all champagne glasses for coupes thanks to Tipples Bar Hire, and we had Prosecco free flowing via the Jenkinson’s staff. We also had a flower display draped across a vintage wooden shutter with a scroll that said “you and me no one else, nothing else but us right now”. This is the song that Ben said was our song after about four months of dating, it’s by the Crystal Fighters and Ben isn’t romantic at all so it actually meant so much on our one year anniversary when he bought me a pillow with the lyrics written on, from then on it had always been our song. Me and Ben wrote our own vows. His were a bit more serious and romantic than mine whereas I used as it as an opportunity to explain to everyone how ridiculous our relationship really is, and involved our guests in a lot of our personal jokes.

THE HONEYMOON

Ten days in Maui and six days in San Francisco, we go on May 19th! I AM SO EXCITED.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS

I will never ever forget my dad’s face when he walked into the room to see me, I felt like I had been transported back into my childhood days, we both sobbed. I’m 100% a Daddy’s girl

When I walked down the aisle and I thought I was holding it all together but I took one look at Ben who was crying his eyes out and I was gone!

When we were in the middle of our “civilised dinner” and my uncle started beating an Arabic drum really loudly and then my aunties all got up and were dancing and people were chanting and the poor old acoustic band were trying to sing over it.

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES

Everything you worry about leading up to the wedding seems so important, and on the day you literally don’t care! It rained all day, one of my button’s popped off my dress right before the ceremony, my veil got stuck in a chair and ripped, the registrar said my name wrong and then called Ben his Dad’s name!!! However we just didn’t care, me and Ben in a little newly married love bubble surrounded by all of our most cherished friends and family, nothing could have ruined my day.

Also get ready for the post wedding depression, I cried various times after the wedding because I had no idea what I was going to do now it was over!

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Wow, Renna and Ben, I really cannot thank you enough for sharing your epic wedding day with us. It’s been an utter pleasure xo Lou