Industrial Mill Wedding With Metallic & Soft Purple Hues: Sam & Helen

Helen & Sam wanted a modern wedding with a timeless feel. The decor they chose was inspired by the venue, a very simple colour scheme using soft purples and metallic hues. The gold tones complemented the industrial feel of their wedding venue.

Helen chose a fishtail sweetheart neckline wedding dress, a plain veil and white satin shoes. For a touch of sparkle – she chose separates for her bridesmaids – sequinned metallic tops and purple tulle skirts. The looks complemented each other perfectly!

Words by Helen. Photography by Gareth Morton Photography.

I booked appointments in all of the top bridal boutiques in Manchester and the week before they were scheduled I popped into a small local shop. The Cheshire Bridal Room. The women were so lovely and accommodating and their dresses were gorgeous. I cancelled all of my other appointments and just went there the following weekend.

I tried over 10 different dress types on and the last dress they pulled out was the one; I did not look at the brand name or price tag but it fit like a glove and was exactly what I wanted. The dress was by Eternity Bride and only cost £650! what a winner!

One of my closest friends bought me a Tiffany necklace with a small blue heart for my wedding day as my something blue and My father gave me small blue droplet earrings from Jenny Jones in Manchester. They were both wonderful ‘something blue’ gifts especially as I don’t usually wear jewellery they were pretty but understated.

I also wore a warm nude lipstick by ‘Love Honour and Be True’ called ‘I Do’.

Sam had an ivory tie and an ivory paisley pocket square. He also wore a brown pair of Kurt Geiger Brogues to finish the look.

His two best men, Tom and Harry, wore matching woollen suits to Sam’s but they had purple knitted ties and purple and blue paisley pocket squares.

The Westmill has 4 different floors which are all different parts of the day. The 3rd floor is where you get married – on this floor, the aisle was decorated with copper lanterns and milk bottles with lavender and roses in.

We used Yankee lemon and lavender scented candles for this floor so that every time we smell that scent it is the smell of us saying ‘I Do’ – at the end of the aisle we had a calligraphy banner which said ‘I’m kinda looking forward to spending the rest of my life with you’ – it’s a geeky quote from a detective show Sam and I love called Castle.

My father gave me away. My sisters walked ahead of me and Kitty my eldest sister held her son’s Zack’s hand down the aisle, Jennifer followed.

I walked down the aisle to ‘I’m Kissing You’ by Des’ree. Romeo and Juliet was the first film Sam and I watched together, and the song is so moving when it’s performed by a string quartet; I even saw one of the best men tearing up.

Sam and I met over 8 years ago when we were at university in Leeds. We both worked in the same bar; when we met I had a boyfriend but every shift together Sam used to joke that one day I would wake up and be in love with him. A year later I was no longer with my boyfriend and I was in love with Sam.

When we finished university we moved back to my hometown of Stockport and in December 2014 we travelled out to Kerela, India for NYE to meet our friends who were travelling.

On 03/01/15 we went to see two large waterfalls. Sam and I split off from the group and went for a wander; here we sat down on a tree root to take in the views when Sam asked me to marry him. It was beautiful and it was great to celebrate that evening with our close friends.

As soon as we got back to England we started to look for venues and we found the ‘West Mill’.

Gareth Morton was our wedding photographer, we found him as he shot our friend’s wedding which was in Lake Garda. Their pictures were so beautiful we needed him to shoot our wedding too. Gareth has a really relaxed style where the images are beautiful and contemporary.

On the second floor where we had our wedding breakfast we had jars and milk bottles filled with flowers, hessian table runners and confetti hearts.

On the first floor where the evening reception was the tables had candles and milk bottles with flowers, the cake stand was on wooden crates and next to our cake we had pictures of our grandparents on their wedding days.

The bottom floor was where the drinks reception was; on this floor, there was no need for decorations as the venue provides all the props for this floor; we just added candles (I think I had over 140 candles on the day).

I found Green Kitchen Cakes online as I was researching ‘Naked Cakes’ and they were the first to come up. We had three tiers – the top and bottom was lemon with lemon curd buttercream and the middle tiers were vanilla and vanilla buttercream.

The cake was so delicious. Laura from Green Kitchen Cakes even decorated our cake with lavender to go with our flowers.

For our wedding favours, we had Alzheimer’s charity badges where we donated towards the charity and each guest received a ‘forget me not’ flower badge.

Both Sam’s grandparents died from Alzheimer’s so it is a charity which is close to our hearts. It was lovely in the evening seeing guests wearing the badges too.

I have a couple of bits of advice for future brides and grooms;

Be organised, but don’t sweat the little things; I obsessed about little things which I don’t even think people noticed on the day.

Get a videographer; videos make your wedding come to life, I think I have watched our wedding showreel over 10 times and it’s amazing to go back to the day and see people having lots of fun.

Our wedding video is here…

Our wedding day was the happiest day of our lives; every moment was special. My most memorable moment was hearing ‘I’m Kissing You’ start playing, my sisters and nephew setting off down the aisle and entering the room with my father; the smell of lavender candles, seeing all of my dearest friends and then seeing Sam at the end of the aisle waiting for me.

When I got to the end, Sam told me I looked incredible and suddenly all the nerves and emotions disappeared as I was going to marry my true love. It will be a memory which will last forever.