Rustic & Autumnal Industrial The Engine Works Wedding

Welcome to The Engine Works wedding of Mikey and Victoria in Glasgow which was divine. Their day was an autumn dream with seasonal flowers, rust-orange tones and lots of beautiful lighting. Their venue had a sensational industrial feel, which was really accentuated by their choice of rustic wedding decor.

I totally love their stylish outfit choices, the rustic cake, as well as the confetti and sparkler moments. So beautiful!

Thanks ever so much to Emma Lawson Photography for sharing with us these tremendous shots at The Engine Works. Wow.

The Engine Works Wedding

The Proposal

We decided at the start of 2020 that we would perhaps get engaged that year and we didn’t want a long engagement. Victoria is pretty organised and we thought we could do it in 2020. We had looked at venues and spoken to our photographer to try and coordinate a date where both were available.

We bought a ring and decided that mothers day weekend 2020 would be the perfect weekend as Victoria’s family were visiting from Aberdeen. So we thought we could tell our families together at mothers day lunch.

However, Covid had other plans and Victoria’s family could no longer visit. So we drove up to the Falls of Falloch on the afternoon of Saturday the 21st of March and Mikey got down on one knee overlooking the waterfall. We drove home, desperate to tell our friends and family.

Eventually, after having dinner, we video-called our parents and siblings as well as our best friends. We then shared the news with everyone else the next day, it was so lovely to have some happy news to share with everyone at the time.

The Vision

Our vision was a relaxed, informal wedding. With a rich autumnal palette and rustic red brick backdrop.

We knew we wanted to get married in the autumn season, our original date was the 16th of October 2020, so we wanted the theme to be quite rustic with autumn colours. We wanted an array of lighting, as The Engine Works just looked amazing with its architecture and unique setting. Our ultimate goal was to celebrate with all of our loved ones.

Budget

Our budget was around £20,000 but it wasn’t set in stone. We balanced some more expensive ‘must haves’, with quite a bit of shopping around, and even looking for the odd freebie. Our total cost came to £24,000.

The Venue

When we were looking at venues we wanted something that reflected us as a couple and that would allow us to put our own stamp on our wedding day and have a bit of creative freedom. We wanted to have a venue that was close to the west end of Glasgow so that a lot of our guests didn’t have to travel too far.

I had been following The Engine Works from early on in their redevelopment stages and loved the idea of it being our venue. At the time, our flat was in an old, converted factory on the south side with exposed beams and brickwork and the venue reflected that.

We had been back in 2019 for a market and I had hinted at Mikey that it might be a good venue for a wedding. We then viewed it in February 2020 and knew it was the one.

It allowed us to have our wedding in one place and use the different spaces as we wanted. Isla the venue coordinator was brilliant in giving us suggestions and helping us create our vision.

Your Outfits

Victoria – Dress – Madi Lane from Aimee Bridal Couture

My dress was from Aimee Bridal Couture. We had been in Aberdeen searching for dresses and had worked out the neckline and style but everything we had seen was too plain or didn’t fit with what we wanted. We then booked a day of dress shopping in Glasgow at a few shops that I liked the look of.

I had been following different Instagram pages for inspiration and saw they had a Madi Lane trunk show coming up and had spied a dress I really liked. I didn’t show anyone. And then both my mum and one of my bridesmaids sent me it, I knew it had to be the one.

I went with my mum and bridesmaid Anna on the day and tried it on and fell in love with it. It was exactly what I was looking for in a dress. Originally the lining was mocha in colour but we decided to change it to ivory instead.

I decided very early on that I didn’t want a veil, but wanted something in my hair to stand out. I had bought a lot of pearly hairbands and headpieces but couldn’t settle on one of them. I had always wanted a flower crown but couldn’t commit to it after getting my dress. The plan was to wear one of the pearl headbands and switch to another one at night.

But for my hen party my bridesmaids had organized for our florist to do a flower crown making workshop and about 4 weeks before the wedding I changed my mind and went for the flower crown. Best decision I made. I had my handy £10 Asos hairband to change into in the evening and for dinner and dancing once my flowers started to wilt.

With shoes, I had always wanted something colourful and originally had green heels which my mum hated every time I would bring them to dress shops. After several colour choices and returns I settled on a rust-coloured pair of heels from Esska. They were so comfy and I have worn them several times since. I knew I wanted to be able to wear them again after the wedding.

Jewellery wise I wanted something simple and went for some hooped pearl earrings and a simple drop pearl necklace. As well as a pearly silver bracelet.

Mikey – Kilt Maple Leaf Tartan from Slanj

With our autumnal colours, we searched high and low for a kilt that would combine our colour theme as well as our bridesmaid colours. We settled on the Maple Leaf Tartan with a peat brown jacket and socks. All of our groomsmen and dads and brothers had the green tie with leather sporran and Mikey had the matching tartan tie and fluffy sporran.

The Ceremony & Music

Our ceremony was conducted by Mary Docherty from Fulcrum Foundation. We had met over Zoom a while before the wedding and just clicked. She kept in touch in the run-up to the wedding and wrote a beautiful ceremony script for us. And allowed us to write our own personal vows and have our friends and family do readings throughout. It was intimate yet lighthearted.

Our friend Fiona read a poem, Mikey’s dad gave us some words of wisdom and our mum’s were our witnesses.

We have an eclectic music taste, with artists like James Bay and Natalie Cole for the ceremony. Then a mix of Motown, 90’s – 00’s pop and rock for the rest of the day.

Our music throughout the day and for our reception was put together by Stephen J Elliott – DJ. He curated the best selection of music for each stage of our day and listened carefully to our musical influences and ideas. He even got the conga going in the evening.

Your Photographer & Filmmaker

Photographer – Emma Lawson, Leanne Heron (second shooter)

It was always going to be Emma, I had followed her for years on Instagram and knew it had to be her for our wedding, Mikey wasn’t getting a say in it. She takes the most candid, effortless photographs and the most stunning confetti shots, there was absolutely no question in who we were choosing.

When we initially booked back in 2020 I contacted her to try and coordinate dates with her and our venue so that we could have her. She also brought along a second shooter Leanne who was so lovely and did the guys photos at the venue beforehand. They both captured so much of the day, so many bits we didn’t even notice and think they would get, there was so much love and laughter captured and that’s what we loved.

We struggled to choose our favourite photos because there were so many, so we just printed them all! She even spotted my mum and I holding hands under the table during my dad’s speech at dinner, one of my favourite photos.

Filmmaker – Keiran I Do Videos

This was a last-minute addition kindly gifted to us by Victoria’s parents. I had always wanted one and loved watching people’s videos when I was younger but we didn’t have much room in the budget. One of our friends was married a few months before us and her video was great and made us realise how much we wanted one and I am so glad that we did. It has allowed us to look back and watch the day again and again.

Evening Photo booth/guest book – We had a corner of the venue set up in the evening which was for a funky little photo booth for people to take silly pictures in. These pictures were then stuck in our guestbook. A very novel idea to combine our photo booth with our guestbook. We received lots of silly photos and lovely messages.

Photo booth – Bygone booth were a great addition to our evening and allowed our guests the create photo strip memories of our wedding which in turn were put into our guest book. It has allowed us to have a great keepsake from all of our guests.

The Styling & Decor

Décor – Make Believe did our lights and our archway which we loved in the venue, our florist added the flowers. They also created our seating spaces for our loved ones to chill and relax.

Cake – Lily made us the most incredible wedding table of treats and goodies. We loved a wide selection of cakes and treats so we thought a mini cake with a table of treats would be great to have. Everyone loved it, and it was gone very quickly!

Flowers – Lisa got our inspiration right away. We had seen lots of ideas online of trailing eucalyptus and with our long banquette-style tables we wanted something simple but effective. The smell in the venue was amazing and at the end of the night everyone took the euc away, most of our friends and family still have the bunch from our wedding dried out.

She was able to suggest flowers that would work with our colour theme and created beautiful sprawling bouquets for myself and my bridesmaids.

She also hosted the most incredible flower crown workshop for my hen party which was the highlight of the day, and made me change my mind about having a crown for the wedding. It was just the perfect size for what I wanted and was full of rich autumnal flowers.

Confetti – Emma recommended the confetti company and they were able to curate a selection of colours for us that fit our colour scheme. Make sure you order plenty of it. I’m still finding it months on!

DIY – Us! We made all of our signage, menus, vow cards, and invites ourselves. Our poor family spent the morning of the wedding colouring in scratches on our welcome sign archway! But it was worth it! We also sourced our own log slices and bottles for the centrepieces.

The Honeymoon

We went away for a wee mini-moon to Paris for 48 hours the day after the wedding. It was lovely but very rainy, a fleeting visit. We are hoping to do some more travelling and celebrating this year.

Memorable Moments

Mikey sobbing as I walked down the aisle! He’s not much of a crier and he just went as soon as the music started, defiantly wasn’t expected at all.
Watching our loved ones have so much fun and joy when dancing the night away together, the dance floor was never empty.
Nearly getting set alight by Mikey’s mum with sparklers in the evening as she ran towards us with lit ones as ours had ran out!

Advice For Other Couples

People are there to celebrate you and your love for each other. Make sure you have good food, great music and plenty to drink and you’ll be grand!