Casual & Cool Non-Traditional Autumn Budget-Friendly Wedding

Buckle in, it’s time to share WWW readers Kim and Dan’s Arnot Hill House wedding in the Autumn, which was all kinds of casual, cool and non-traditional.

I just know you’re going to love their epic style. Kim looked awesome in her dip-dye gown, painted jacket, flower crown and custom converse, while Dan looked very dapper in a brown tweed suit.

There were autumnal flowers all-round, sweet pom pom decor and a lot of smiles all day long. And would you believe it? All on a £6.5k budget, amaze 🤩.

Gina Fernandes Photography, thank you so much for sharing these incredibly beautiful shots with us. Take it all in below.

Arnot Hill House Wedding

The Proposal

Dan and I had discussed getting married long before he proposed, in fact we even went to visit a potential venue in March 2020 (before the world went nuts!). When it came to it, Dan had planned a surprise trip to Skye in a little AirBnb for November 2020, alas, Boris decided to scupper those plans and Lockdown 2.0 meant we couldn’t make the trip. 
We kept the holidays we’d booked off work and instead spent days going on little adventures locally and building an epic blanket fort in our living room!

On 4th November 2020, we took a trip to Clumber Park, I was dumb and wore my docs which weren’t quite worn in yet, and after several stops to allow me to adjust socks etc, about halfway round we stopped, again, at a little secluded bench overlooking the lake. I was looking out after having taken my docs off to let my feet breathe and turned round to see Dan down on one knee with the most beautiful ring. He asked, I said yes and then we headed home for prosecco and pizza in our fort and video-called our families.

The Vision

We knew we didn’t want anything huge, the pandemic made us realise we just wanted to be married and share the day with our immediate family and close friends (if we could). Casual, small and relaxed, something that felt like us, and done as cheaply as possible! Lots of DIY!

Budget

We think the overall cost was roughly £6.5k

The Venue

The ceremony was at Arnot Hill House Registry Office in Arnot Hill Park, Nottingham. The building is beautiful and inside was just very simple and bright. The park itself has a cute little lake and some stunning colourful murals on a wall in the flower garden which we knew would be a fab spot for pictures!

Afterwards, we headed to Café Roya in Beeston, where we live. It’s a brilliant Vegetarian/Vegan spot, and they were so accommodating and helpful when we approached them to ask. Kept us informed throughout the year, and we gave final menu choices the week before as they do menu’s on a monthly basis so that the ingredients are always seasonal.

Your Outfits

My dress was a custom Lucy Can’t Dance dress. I didn’t want something super traditional, originally had my heart set on a completely different look, but when I went to Lucy’s store, I just loved how comfortable I felt and that I still looked “bridal” but could make it fun and me! I went for a mix of their Blade Runner and Guava dress – gorgeous leaf print lace top (perfect for me as a complete plant lover!), with v neck and back and a light tulle skirt, with a rusty orange dip dye on the slip dress. This then led us to the more autumnal theme we ended up with (also I just really love Autumn!).

I also knew I wanted my “leather” jacket painted and came across Bespoke Chalk and Print on Instagram, instantly loved her jackets! I went for a crescent moon with gorgeous autumnal flowers and the lyrics from a Khruangbin song (Dan and I’s favourite band).

Completing the look with white converse (not a heel girl AT ALL!) which I got friends to write messages on before the big day and a stunning autumnal dried/preserved flower crown by Folkey Dokey who was recommended by Gina, my photographer.

Dan went for a beautiful 3-piece tailored suit from Black Butterfly Tailoring in Nottingham. I gave advice on what I thought would go best with my dress in terms of colour but left the choices up to him. He went for a medium brown herringbone cashmere/wool blend with burgundy silk lining.

The Ceremony & Music

We just had a very simple registry office ceremony, but thankfully by the time our wedding rolled around we could do our own vows and have 1 reading. Our close friend Hannah read All I Know About Love by Neil Gaiman, beautiful, both of us teary after that. Dan’s vows had me teary and vice versa!

We kept music choices as us as possible for the ceremony. My favourite Ghibli film is Howl’s Moving Castle, so I walked in, to a beautiful piano rendition of Merry-go-round of Life. We had Unrequited Love from one of Dan’s favourite games, Final Fantasy IX, and our final choice for the end of the ceremony was Father John Misty – Real Love Baby. We adore FJM and it’s just the perfect song, happy and upbeat but cute and full of love too!

Your Photographer & Filmmaker

Not long after we were engaged, we went straight onto Instagram looking for a photographer. We just did a generic hashtag search, and quickly came across Gina Fernandes Photography. Gina’s style was exactly what we were after – relaxed, natural pictures that just really captured the emotion of the day. Checking out her website she had great package options including by the hour which is exactly what we were after since we were having a smaller day.

After we had our initial consultation call with Gina, we instantly knew we would book with her. We bonded over being fellow Spooky Bitches (RedHanded podcast listeners). Also Gina is just such a warm and genuine person, hilarious too so you instantly feel at ease with her, and she has become a real good friend since we’ve met her, not just our amazing photographer!

The Styling & Decor

Decorations were purchased from Amazon/Etsy and we decorated Café Roya ourselves, they already had beautiful tealights and little Moroccan lantern fairy lights. It’s such a great restaurant, cosy and cool, has lots of Moroccan vibes in its décor, so we just wanted colourful pops – paper lanterns/fans/fluffy type things, pom pom garlands strung around and then some gold moon/star garlands we strung across the ceiling.

My bouquet and the buttonholes and flowers provided for decorating the restaurant were from Wysall Flower Farm in Nottingham. Caroline that runs the farm does things by season, whatever is growing on the farm is what you get. I said autumnal colours and wild and rustic and boy did she deliver! Such delicious colours! My sister and I arranged the flowers for the restaurant after collecting from the farm.

Name cards were done by myself, just some black card and I did a calligraphy course a few years ago. Was a bit out of practice but they were good enough! And finally, we weren’t originally going to do any favours, but then our Spider plant exploded with lil spider plant pups over the summer so we gifted them to our guests!

No wedding cake (much to my mothers’ horror! Haha!).

The Honeymoon

We went to the Isle of Skye to the AirBnb Dan had originally booked for the proposal! It was a beautiful little place called Hannah’s Cottage in Penifiler, just a 10-minute drive from Portree. We had a great time exploring bits of Skye, went to Coral Beach and Dunvegan Castle, walked up to Old Man of Storr, walked along to see the Fairy Pools and visited Talisker Distillery. We had some beautiful meals, first at the Rosewood Hotel and the following night at Dulse and Brose Restaurant, both in Portree. We also enjoyed a few cosy nights in the cottage and chilling out in front of the TV with some wine.

On the way back home, we stopped in Glasgow and treated ourselves to a little luxury and stayed over at the Dakota Hotel in one of their Signature Suites, the beautiful stand-alone bath was incredible and very much needed after so much adventuring!

Memorable Moments

Sadly my elder sister tested positive for COVID the morning of the wedding and couldn’t come, but she did come to our house where I got ready and sat in the car to see me, and my mum asked the registrar if they could open the curtains and window a bit so that she could see the ceremony, which they did and was super lovely of them.

After the ceremony and group shots, a bunch of our friends got some ice creams from the little kiosk in the park, great little break in the day!

Speech from one of Dan’s good friends Taylor, which started with (and repeated throughout) “20 years ago today…” – it was one of those very funny/should he be saying that kind of thing!

Majority of the small party then walked along the road to the Garage Chilwell (which is the old Barton’s Bus Garage that now does events with bands/music/beer/wine etc.), and they had the tennis on, so we all grabbed a drink and a bench and watched the tennis! Great end to the day.

Advice For Other Couples

Do what you want and what feels right for you, regardless of tradition or if you have financial help from family. This is YOUR day, don’t feel pressured to do anything you don’t want to, most importantly HAVE FUN! (Oh and take 5 or 10 mins just for you two at some point during your day!).

Woah! Kim and Dan thanks so much for sharing your incredible Arnot Hill House wedding story with us. Hearts for eyes!