Month: December 2023
Getting to Know – Made with Grace
Meet Grace! She’s been a Millbridge Court partner for just over a year now and every time she is here at the venue, we are in absolute awe of her floral gorgeousness. The rustic designs, use of natural foliage and our shared love for Autumnal floral installations – we just had to share some of Grace’s recent work – simply stunning!
How would you describe your style of floristry?
Romantic, feminine, elegantly wild, unconventional and artistic.
What first made you fall in love with flowers?
Having always had a deep love of craftsmanship and the arts, combined with a joy of admiring the beauty of the countryside when we got our dog, I began to explore the world of floristry, and I simply fell head over heels. I found the ability to transform space and evoke awe and wonder through floral artistry totally addictive and I feel so grateful to now be the artist behind creating this source of great pleasure for the beholder.
What made you decide to work in the wedding industry?
A love of the variety of wedding designing, the bespoke nature of the work and the personal connections formed throughout the experience of the design service.
What top tips and advice do you give to couples ahead of their wedding day?
You don’t have to have it all figured out from the beginning, follow trends and traditions or have a perfect pinterest board. By choosing suppliers that you love, trust and ignite your excitement, they will be able to take inspiration from what means the most to you and create really special work, perfectly reflective of you.
But, above all, enjoy it, every moment, from the planning right through to when you head home as newlyweds. Cherish the time and memories of celebrating the greatest power of all with those you hold closest.
What do you love most about Millbridge Court?
One, the light. The way it streams in through the huge windows, bathing everything in its path so elegantly. Flowers especially are best appreciated in natural light, so the abundance of this throughout the venue is perfect.
Second, the Millbridge team. Always kind, helpful and supportive, these qualities truly make all the difference to the comfort of you and your guests.
Can you share some of your favourite floristry from your Millbridge Court couples?
On a warm October day I had the pleasure of flowering at Millbridge Court with a relaxed style, autumnal and romantic brief. Amongst other designs, we created a textural and abundant floral runner framing the ceremony which then was moved to style the top table. The way the light framed and illuminated the floral details and shone through the amber leaves was stunning and created a warm and graceful ambience. The brides bouquet was also a favourite of mine, in elegant shades of rust, blush and burgundy, which she went on to press, preserving such a precious momento.
What floristry trends are you seeing for 2024?
More of a value than a trend I suppose, but I’m finding that couples are becoming increasingly conscious in their choices with regard to sustainability. Seasonality, celebrating British grown where possible and creating without floral foam are becoming commonly desired from their floral design service. Fortunately I strongly share these values and am always striving for green practices and happy to provide discussion and education on these aspects to those curious.
Photography: Catherine Carter, Philippa Sian, Jonny MP
Details Date Night at Millbridge Court
Our Details Date Nights here at Millbridge Court are fabulous evenings we always look forward to.
Once our couples have booked their wedding day with us, it is their first opportunity to come back and see the venue, not only dressed for the first time, but to speak to a handful of our partners and start getting inspired! Excitingly, we got to showcase our brand new wood fired pizza this year, with Kalm Kitchen firing up the oven for our couples to enjoy a slice. It is safe to say, they are delicious!
Having hosted the last one of 2023 just a couple of weeks ago, we wanted to look back at the fun we had along with thanking the amazing talent that helped make the evenings a success!
T – Eden Blooms, Sarah Legge; R – Philippa Sian Photography; L – Kalm Kitchen, Philippa Sian Photography
L – Camilla Creations, Philippa Sian Photography; R – Kalm Kitchen, Sarah Legge; B – Hannah Berry Flowers, Lucca Studios, Jonny MP
L – Le Papillon, Sarah Legge; R – Lulu’s Cake Kitchen, Sarah Legge; B – Gable & Grain, Sarah Legge
T – Kalm Kitchen, Philippa Sian Photography; L – Anna Lewis Cakes, Poppy Wild Floral, Philippa Sian Photography; R – Kitty Joyas, Catherine Carter Weddings
T & L – Sarah Legge, Gable and Grain, Topiary Tree by Carrie Macey; R – Poppy Wild Floral, Lou Paper, Philippa Sian Photography
L – AV Entertainment, Sarah Legge; T – Kalm Kitchen, Catherine Carter Weddings; B – Sarah Legge, Eden Blooms
T – Kalm Kitchen, Sophie Duckworth Photography; L – Kalm Kitchen, Sarah Legge; R – Kalm Kitchen, Sophie Duckworth Photography
L – Bridal Indulgence, Philippa Sian Photography; R – Creative Spark, Philippa Sian Photography; B – Laura Paper Hearts, Sophie Duckworth Photography
T – Little Steps, Sarah Legge; L – Lucca Studios, Jonny MP; R – Poppy Wild Floral, Lou Paper, Philippa Sian Photography
L – Kalm Kitchen, Sophie Duckworth Photography; R – Love from Lila, Sophie Duckworth Photography B – Hannah Berry Flowers, Lucca Studios, Jonny MP
Married at Millbridge – A&A
The warm, sunny days seem like a distant memory after the frosts and teeniest sprinkling of snow we had yesterday! But as we cosy up by the log burner with a cup of hot chocolate for the next few months, we just had to share details of Alex and Alex’s August celebrations to take us back to those summer evenings.
Tell us a bit about yourselves – how did you meet and what’s the proposal story?
We met at New Year’s Eve party 12 years ago when we were both at school – for the proposal, we went on a long weekend for Lex’s birthday back in March last year to Bourton-on-the-Water in the Cotswolds. The proposal wasn’t without a few attempts – the initial plan was to propose to her whilst on an early Sunday morning walk but the opportunity didn’t arise, and after an activity packed day, I eventually popped out the ring and the question whilst we were enjoying a bottle of champagne on the terrace of our Airbnb before dinner!
Why did you choose Millbridge Court?
Millbridge Court was the first venue we looked at in person and we fell in love with it straight away. We weren’t really interested in a traditional wedding in a Church and whilst we both loved the barn style, we also wanted something with a modern touch.
From the outside, Millbridge is quite understated – it looks like an extremely well presented house from the road. However, once you walk down the steps into the main area, you’re struck by the most amazing layout – two wings with extremely high ceilings and enormous glass windows that really fill the venue with light. The flow of the wedding venue also works incredible well and with a summer wedding in mind, we absolutely fell in love with the outside courtyard, garden and ceremony area!
We did see a number of other venues (predominantly in the Cotswolds following our engagement) but none of them could match the wow factor that we experienced when first visiting Millbridge
What did you love about having a summer wedding?
We loved the idea of having a summer wedding as we felt we could really utilise all the amazing space that Millbridge has to offer – the main building and the outdoors areas allowed the wedding day to flow so naturally. The ceremony area in garden was also a special place to get to say our vows, and we received so many compliments about how stunning the ceremony was.
Aside from the venue, it goes without saying that we both love summer and so having the opportunity to celebrate our day with family and close friends in the sun outside with some Aperol Spritz seemed like the perfect situation!
Tell us more about your suppliers and why you chose them.
As soon as we came across Eloise & Mitch’s Instagram and website (including their portfolios) with their natural and candid style, we immediately knew that we wanted to have them photograph our wedding and we feel incredibly lucky that they were available! The way Eloise captures photos is so special – she is so incredibly talented and made us feel so comfortable. We absolutely cherish the memories that she has been able to capture for us and will continue to do so – we’ve received so many comments on our photos and how she interacted with our guests, and we will definitely be using her again when an opportunity arises!
We chose Adam Sayer (London Piano Man) as our musician after being invited to a close friend’s wedding the previous year and watching him perform his sets there. He just knew how to read the room and what to play to get the guests up on the dance floor, which is exactly what we wanted for our wedding! During his sets, he also welcomes loads of song requests from guests and is able to play them flawlessly!
For our wedding flowers, we wanted quite a simple theme. We went with Holly and the Dragonfly (Holly and Laura) as our florist as throughout the whole planning process, they made everything so incredibly easy. When we talked about our ideas, they always considered our budget and made sure we kept within it, especially with ideas about how we could reuse arrangements throughout the day. When we finally saw them come to life in the day, the arrangements completely wowed us, especially the set up in the outside ceremony area and the bridal bouquet!
Did your vision for the wedding change over the planning process?
Not really, we always chose Millbridge Court with the intention of a summer outdoor wedding and we were lucky enough with the weather to be able to capitalise on this! The one thing that we did change was our view of the late night food during the planning process. In-between us choosing the venue and our wedding day, Millbridge decided to install an outdoor pizza oven. As self-confessed pizza lovers, once we saw this, we immediately knew that we had to have pizza as our food option in the evening and it’s safe to say it did not disappoint!
Are there any memorable anecdotes from the day you could share?
Seeing Lex for the first time before she made her way down the aisle was both an emotional but incredibly happy experience and one that I will never forget for the rest of my life. I remember us both being quite nervous throughout the ceremony as we both don’t massively tend to enjoy being the centre of attention, however once we were pronounced husband and wife, it felt like we were suddenly able to relax. Walking back past all our close friends and family with confetti was such a special occasion.
On a funnier note, we had some welcome drinks in Farnham the day before the wedding with close friends and family. Lex, as the bride, was naturally allowed to escape relatively early on to ‘rest’ before her big day but I was unfortunately cornered and stopped from leaving by some of her family and friends. I woke up feeling absolutely terrible but miraculously recovered well before the ceremony. Somehow, rumours had gotten back to Lex, who quizzed me when signing the marriage certificate!
Tell us something that we wouldn’t know about your day from the pictures.
Being England and peak summer, it is obviously natural for the weather to not be straightforward and for it to be the biggest unknown factor. Despite the glorious sunshine displayed in our photos, there were some incredibly nervous moments throughout the week building up to the big day as it was pretty much torrential rain until Saturday evening. We therefore thought our dreams would be scuppered for the Sunday but fortunately, we got so incredibly lucky with the sun.
Favourite part of your wedding journey?
For us, it was amazing to see how everything that we had been planned over the previous 12 months culminated into a truly magical set up on the day – from the floral arrangements, to the food and from the outdoor ceremony to the evening dancing. It was especially memorable to see the venue we fell in love with filled with all our closest friends and family enjoying themselves.
Any words of wisdom for future couples?
The day itself is such an unbelievable day and will forever be one of the best days of our lives, but in contrast to the year of planning, it does go by so quickly! In the lead up to ours, people had given us advice to make sure that, at some point during the day, we took some time to ourselves to just absorb everything and spend some together away from socialising with all your family and guests. It was such great advice that I would wholeheartedly recommend every couple do the same!
