Inspiration

There are so many cool things about Kayleigh and Bernies Spring wedding. let's start with Amal by Maggie Sottero, such an elegant and sleek beaded wedding gown. The Carriage Hall in Nottingham was the perfect location for this stylish and intimate celebration and the food looked amazing! Everything has been beautifully documented by the fantastically talented photographer Ed Godden, you are in for a visual treat!
Kayleigh the Bride: We were engaged in the Summer of 2015 and planned to get married a year later in the following Summer. After quickly realising that all of the venues we had in mind were already booked up we settled on a Spring wedding in 2017! This gave us almost 20 months to plan the wedding, which meant it was an enjoyable and relatively stress-free experience! We had a few key areas that were important to us that we tried to stick to throughout the planning process; getting married in Nottingham (where we met and settled), a relatively small guest list of family and close friends, lots of personal touches and using the expertise of our friends and family wherever possible and GREAT FOOD!

The Carriage Hall

We choose The Carriage Hall and knew instantly we had made the right decision. The exposed brickwork and high ceilings is a great blank canvas and the staff were extremely accommodating in discussing and putting in place all of our ideas! We hired tables and chairs to create long banquet-style tables and decorated the tables with oil-lamps (collected over the year from ebay and charity shops) and glass bottles filled with flowers in white, blush and greens. Bernie’s mum made reams of lace bunting for us and we created a photo-board filled with photos from our childhood, life together and old family snaps. We were extremely blessed with the weather (a scorching 24 degrees in April!) so we were able to make the most of the outside areas at the Carriage Hall. In the evening, the staff moved the oil lamps to the tables outside to create a beautiful evening glow.

Amal by Maggie Sottero

Other than knowing that I didn’t want a large ‘princess’ dress – I really had no idea what I wanted and found the whole shopping experience quite daunting! I definitely didn’t have a ‘this is the dress’ moment but I kept coming back to Amal by Maggie Sottero. I tried it on in several different shops and felt great every time I put it on! It was incredibly comfy (important for dancing!) and I adored the delicate beading.

Ed Godden Photography

We wanted the photos to reflect the true atmosphere of the day. This meant that a candid, relaxed style photographer was needed. We wanted to keep our suppliers local and when we stumbled upon the work of Ed Godden, we were blown away. As soon as we met up with him over a coffee, we knew he was exactly what we were looking for. Ed put everyone at ease straight away and felt more like one of our guests on the day rather than our photographer! His eye for detail and ability to capture ‘moments’ is incredible. Our friends and family spoke so highly of how great he was on the day – he comes very highly recommended!

Beauty

I have Wendy (make-up) and Helen (hair) to thank for making me feel amazing on the day! Both of these ladies are incredibly talented at what they do and were such a calming influence on the morning of the wedding. I cannot recommend enough!

The Florist & Cake

Lovingly, my mum made the cake; she took inspiration from various Pinterest boards I sent her. It was a lemon sponge filled with lemon curd and butter icing – delicious! My Grandmother also decorated the cake in sugar flowers, which she replicated the flowers in the bouquet. Wanting to stick with local suppliers, I found Helen from the Flower Mill to create some stunning flowers for us. She painstakingly filled over 100 individual glass bottles with a gorgeous selection of blooms and created stunning hand-tied bouquets that completely matched the botanical, organic ideas we had discussed.

Vintage Wedding Transport

As many of our guests were coming from around the country, we wanted to make transport to the venues as easy as possible. We hired a wonderful vintage London bus, which took guests to the church and onto the Carriage Hall. Kayleigh and her bridesmaids travelled in style to the church in a 1966 Mustang convertible. The drive to the Carriage Hall as husband and wife with the roof down in the warm spring sunshine was incredible!

ASOS WAREHOUSE Bridesmaid Dress

Our bridesmaids all wore a dove grey dress, which I found on ASOS, made by Warehouse. After almost a year of searching, I was relieved to find these! They were the perfect colour and suited each of the bridesmaids who were all very different.

Food & Drink

The Carriage Hall are renowned for their food and they did not disappoint on the day – the food was exceptional! Many of our guests said it was the best wedding food they had ever eaten! Our evening food was also amazing. We didn’t want to go for the usual buffet that many venues offer so we sourced the incredible Rustic Crust – a Land Rover pizza van! We chose several different types of pizzas for the evening (after enjoying possibly the best food-tasting session ever!). We felt this really added something special for our evening guests and was great for soaking up the alcohol later in the evening!
Rawnet Rawneter

Written by Rawnet Rawneter

Wedding Gown: Amal by Maggie Sottero | Boutique: Beautiful Brides (Nottingham) | Florist: The Flower Mill | Hair: Helen Sutcliffe | Make up: Wendy Hemmings | Evening Food: The Rustic Crust | Bridesmaid Dresses: Warehouse from ASOS | Groom Suit: Paul Smith | Stationery: Papier | Transport: Mustang | Transport: Vintage London Bus

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