Some weddings take me hours to publish – I read through all the details, check out the couples’ favourite suppliers, and make sure I do everything so the blog post is discoverable for other couples planning their weddings. And I love it. Other blogs don’t spend hours on every post – it sets English Wedding apart. Wedding features aren’t meant to be rushed, and this morning it’s been amazing to spend so much time (virtually) with gorgeous couple Ella & Will, and their incredible photos and supplier recommendations from Papplewick Pumping Station. And honestly, they’ve written the loveliest reviews for so many brilliant suppliers: UK documentary wedding photographer Simon Dewey, florists Monica F Hewitt and Hollow Meadows, Juno Bridal and The Twisted Veil, Moss, Knot & Bloom coordinators and their fabulous caterers. I’ve tumbled down so many alternative wedding rabbit holes this morning – it’s been the BEST. Ella & Will – your wedding is insanely beautiful. Oh, and FAR too many images to share on one blog, so I’ve kept some of my favourites for instagram later. @englishweddingblog – Enjoy!

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Wedding photography

Our Papplewick Pumping House wedding photographer’s website

Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire & UK documentary wedding photographer Simon Dewey

Wedding photographer review

We could not be more happy with our choice of wedding photographer. Simon’s photos are absolutely incredible and exactly what we wanted (a laidback approach, with stunning results!) – everyone has commented on how amazing our photographs are.

Simon himself was very easy to work with at all points – in the booking and planning phases, during the wedding and after. He was lovely to have around, leaving us to enjoy the day whilst being a positive influence.

You can really tell that Simon really cares about the people he works with and the photos that are produced – he is very passionate and his work reflects that. His blog post – Documentary wedding photography at Papplewick Pumping Station – and instagram posts also really captured the day well probably better than we can here!

Wedding Story

Best wedding moment or memory

Will: my favourite memory was when Ella came up the stairs at the top of the ‘aisle’ laughing saying “well that went awfully” (for context, she had had to rush her veil back on as she went to the loo beforehand, her dad kept stepping on her dress and so did she as she walked up the stairs!) as it brought everything back down to earth and was just a funny silly little moment in what is generally regarded as a very serious affair! It didn’t matter as everything was perfect.

Ella: my favourite memory was when I saw my nan standing in the aisle clapping and dancing along to the song Just Like Heaven by The Cure (my favourite song which I had tattooed on me at 18!). None of us were sure she would be able to come or how she’d fare – she is 86 and has dementia, – but my best friend’s parents brought her and my first spot of her was then, where she was clearly having the time of her life! So I decided to have a dance with her from the entrance which birthed one of our favourite wedding pics.

We both also really enjoyed having our walk around the lake mid reception, and just being able to walk around that gorgeous venue after the ceremony for pictures when we had been imagining the moment for so long and being able to soak it in.

Trying to gather all our family and friends after was chaotic and joyous also! Our DJ Luna Tunes also did a fantastic amazing job at our reception – where everyone had a blast to emo and mashups all night (despite our first dance being I wanna dance with somebody which was a bit of a different vibe, but perfectly fitting as it was our actual first dance 8.5 years ago).

Tell us anything you did differently – any NEW traditions (or if you had none at all!)

• We had a BBQ at our accommodation the night before rather than a rehearsal dinner etc., Ella’s step-mom made lots of food and one of our wedding party Joe was on BBQ duty as always (our accommodation was Fairview Farm who were excellent, incredibly peaceful setting with our closest friends and family nearby). It was lovely to get both sides of the family together and our closest friends.
• We had a shared wedding party of our closest friends (lovingly referred to as maids and men haha), which resulted in some of the boys walking arm in arm down the aisle together, as well as having Ella’s sisters as bridesmaids and Will’s brother as best man (we decided we did not care how many people there were!).
• We stayed together the night before the wedding and got ready together in the morning in our lodge with some of our wedding party.
• I had a pink dress and floral veil.
• We made lots of the decorations and all the stationery and invites.
• Ella’s Mom and Dad walked her down the aisle, and Will also had an entrance with his Mom walking him down.
• We had very limited posed photos as we hired a fantastic documentary photographer.
• We had hot dogs and a grazing table with no formal sitdown meal or seating plan, ending in brownies instead of cake which went down a treat (plus all the food was vegan).
• Ella did a four word speech after Will.
• And hilariously, though no one asked them to, two of Ella’s sisters hired an Etsy witch (the same one! they are from different sides of her family and did not discuss this) to ask for no rain on the wedding day – it did work!
• Our venue was obviously very quirky also.
• We did a first dance etc but tried to keep the traditions to a minimum!

Wedding suppliers

Videographer name + review

N/A – though our friend Jade took some lovely videos and edited them together!

Wedding venue name + review

Papplewick Pumping Station, Ravenshead, Nottingham

This venue is truly a unique hidden gem; every one of our guests commented on how stunning the venue is – both the engine house in which we got married and the grounds which were a gorgeous setting for our tipi reception. Ashley and the team were incredibly accommodating and supportive, and the whole day ran without a hitch. We could not have made a better choice for our big day.

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Florists names + reviews

Bridal bouquet: Monica F Hewitt – Sheffield Wedding Florist

I had a fantastic experience with April and the team in commissioning my bridal bouquet. Despite being short notice and me not having much of a clue – April worked with me to create a bouquet that I was very happy with, met my budget and fit well with the rest of our theme and flowers we had DIY’d. I would highly recommend!

Sustainably grown, seasonal cut flowers from Hollow Meadows Flowers

Rachel provided 2 buckets of flowers for our wedding – they were of a great quality and variety and she was very helpful in giving us some tips on how to make our own bouquets. A fantastic and very reasonably priced service with great communication throughout – I would highly recommend!

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Hair + makeup name + review

I did my own hair and makeup, but had my amazing bridal nails done by Caitlin at Lily’s Nail Studio which were everything I wanted and complemented my dress perfectly.

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Wedding cake maker name + review

Plant based wedding brownies from The Adventurous Cakebook

We have been getting brownies from Alex for many years – and it was the best decision to have brownies for our wedding! These are the best brownies you will ever eat, all our guests loved them – there were none left at the end of the night – and we definitely converted some people who thought vegan treats would not be as good.

Alex himself is an absolute diamond of a person – we love seeing him at vegan markets and he was, as expected, a pleasure to work with for supplying the wedding. We could not recommend him enough.

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Wedding wear

Tell us a little about your outfits – both of you!

Ella – I wore an amazing bright satin look pink floor length dress with a long train that was hooked up later on, and detachable sleeves (though they were detached quickly as apparently I can’t help throwing my hands in the air all the time!). I got my platform sandals from Vinted (originally from & Other Stories) that happened to match the colour of the dress perfectly for £13.

My veil from The Twisted Veil was embroidered with red and pink flowers and green leaves at finger-tip length (which also didn’t last long as again I’m a fidgeter!) which looked fab over my plain dress (plain in terms of being a solid colour!). I also wore a silver and opal Haath Phool / Hath Panja that my nan bought for me when I was 18, a gold nose ring and septum piercing with a red gem from Regal Rose and Guess gold small hoop earings that my Dad and step-mom Komal bought me from Vegas.

Will – I wore an emerald green suit from Moss, and ‘rub off’ ox blood Solovair shoes. My tie had a embroidered flower pattern similar to Ella’s dress attached by Ella the day before.

I wore a watch from my 21st birthday from Tissot, and penny cufflinks. I wore my silver chain necklace that Ella bought me for my birthday years ago under everything!

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Dress or suit shop name + review

Dress: I went to Juno Bridal in Leeds 6 months before our wedding after having bought a white vintage dress off of eBay and basically waking up in the middle of the night and realising that I still wanted the bright pink wedding dress and white was not for me! Jess and Cloudy were absolutely fantastic. At my first appointment, Jess made me feel so at ease and I had so much fun even though I decided to go alone. Going to a small business meant that I was able to ask for changes and talk through every detail with them, so it really was the perfect dress tailored to me! Cloudy was meticulous with making sure that was so, and they were both so friendly and clearly invested in your day. I would recommend them over and over again. (plus because it is in two parts – I actually wore the top part on our honeymoon out for dinner!)

Suit: Our friend Adam works at Moss and generously styled me and a lot of our wedding party for the wedding. The suit is incredibly comfortable and light weight, and will be used for years to come.

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Styling and personal touches

We did basically all of our own decor bar things like the physical tables and the actual pumping station which we left completely untouched. We must have visited about 30+ different charity shops and made 20+ Vinted purchases of things like fabrics, candlestick holders, vases etc.,

We grew a lot of the flowers that we put in the bud vases in our own garden, the bridesmaids all made their own bouquets with Ella, and Will made the boutonnieres with some of the men in the wedding party (with massive help from our friend Mikey for both!). Unfortunately some of this actually happened the morning of woops.

Ella learned how to lino cut and print to make both the save the dates and the invitations, as well as designing the latter on Canva.

We also made fabric banners for the top table and the DJ table.

We made a little photo area, which contained our favourite piece of decor which were two little cupid props that Ella made from scratch from cardboard glue and pens!

Ella also designed and made a faux stained glass welcome side based on our invitation design – that despite cracking just before the wedding (!) looked gorgeous.

Our second favourite thing was probably our napkins which we had our cat Fluffy’s face printed on.

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Wedding ceremony and readings

Not too much to say here that is not already covered! We had no readings and just a normal ceremony, but we did have fantastic speeches from Ella’s dad and step-mom, Will, Will’s brother Matt, and our friends Helena and Dan. As well as a lovely hand written speech/letter from Ella’s mom privately. We did vows on our honeymoon!

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Wedding coordinator name + review

Day of Coordinator – Knot & Bloom

Alexis provided on the day wedding coordination service. She is an absolute pleasure to work with, a lovely human being and very qualified and capable wedding coordinator! She was incredibly thorough in the booking and planning phases, ensuring to get to know us and the details of our day. On the day she was both proactive and reactive to whatever was required, which allowed us to enjoy our day without worry about things going smoothly or having to coordinate vendors etc., Nothing was too small or too big, and we felt very comfortable working with her. We would highly recommmend her!

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Special mentions for more of our wedding suppliers

Food Truck and Grazing Table – Icarus and Apollo

We hired both the food-truck (serving hot dogs) and their grazing tables. The food was fantastic, many of our guests have commented on how much they enjoyed it (which is particularly great as most of our guests weren’t vegan but the food was!). The food-truck itself was gorgeous and a great addition to the setting, and the grazing tables looked amazing aswell. We would highly recommend!

Down the Hatch Events – Mobile Bar

They provided an excellent outdoor horsebox bar service. The selection of drinks was fantastic, service was quick and personable, and prices were very reasonable. Gemma and Mike were a pleasure to work with and made the booking and planning stages very easy with regular contact and clear information. The horsebox itself was a lovely addition to our venue and we could not recommend them more!