alternative wedding dried flowers west mill derby

I’ve wanted to write this blog for quite a while because I’ve worked at this lovely venue many times, creating so many different wedding backdrops and ceremony spaces. I thought it would be a wonderful thing to share with you a few different ideas that you could use to be inspired for your wedding. You could apply these styling and floral designs for any venue, any ceremony backdrop or any event but they do work beautifully well in this particular space. When you’re planning your wedding, spending hours scrolling Pinterest, there are endless different options that you could do and it can get a little overwhelming. With flowers you can either go all in and have a really dramatic space or you can go quite simple and keep your costs down. It’s totally depends on the final look you really try to achieve but here I will show you six varying cost ceremony spaces that you could use as a base for your own wedding ideas.

We’ve created so many different wedding vibes at The West Mill ranging from whites, soft and pretty all the way to graphic bold-black and deep beautiful tones. All these ideas work incredibly well at this wedding venue which in an amazing blank canvas, so let us share our years of expertise and give you some ideas about how you can style your ceremony space. The ceremony space at The West Mill is very simple and there’s no specific focal detail at the end of the aisle so it can be really nice to maximise your floral impact and use the flowers at the end of the aisle to create a focal space for you to get married in front of. We always reuse our arrangements in many different places to give you the most out of your floral budget and we will talk more about that as we move into the designs.

The Venue

The West Mill is located in Darley Abbey in Derbyshire just a mile or two from the centre of Derby but it feels like a 1,000 miles away being set on a beautiful riverbank in an old cotton mill which has a very historic feeling. There is tonnes of character and loads of atmosphere in the venue alone. Often couples who are getting married at this venue reach out to me and say that they want to get a few things, but they don’t need a lot of florals as the venue already looks so beautiful as it is. We can always make the venue look super special by concentrating our florals on the ceremony floor and then reusing for the wedding breakfast. The West Mill has three floors of wedding ceremony and reception space plus an entrance floor level so there’s a lot of areas to fill. It’s a really good idea to focus your flowers in certain areas to get the most out of them. You can’t possibly decorate the entire space as its far too large so we focus our flowers in a few different areas such as the entrance floor welcome-sign area and the ceremony space, which is on the top floor with beautiful views reaching out across the riverbank.

Bear in mind that all the flowers you use on the ceremony floor can be repositioned and moved the breakfast wedding breakfast. We can use registrar pieces again on the top table, bud vases on the tables or table plan area and large installation pieces can be moved behind the top table or onto the dance floor.

1. Alternative vibes, graphic and boho pampas wedding

For this wedding we went all out on boho vibes but paired them with a twist. The colour palette was a stunning selection of inky deep tones that resembled the colours of the brides tattoos. We used lots of black and natural pampas grasses for lashings of drama. To complement the fluffy drama, we used delicate preserved roses and lots of preserved foliage in deep dark colours. A stunning and dramatic combination.

For the ceremony space we used a square arch at the end of the aisle. This was then draped with fabric and had a neon sign hanging from it- all this gorgeous styling was done by the incredible Tara Knott who transformed the space with this styling alongside her pillar candles. We had one large floral piece on the corner which had lots of pampas grasses and lots of drama and we then had another medium sized floral piece on the lower right side of the arch. The registrars table, which is a beautiful wooden oak table with lots of character itself, was styled by Tara with black fabric draping and candles and we had a large floor standing arrangement at the foot of the table, the whole look was really beautiful and super cool. After the wedding ceremony the archway and the rest of the floral pieces moved to the dancefloor. We created an additional flower cloud for behind the top table along with bud vases for the rest of the tables. Whilst this was a MAX floral vibe, you could also reuse the arch behind the top table as a more cost effective option.

2. Dramatic pink and red floral extravaganza aisle inspiration.

For this wedding set up we worked again with Tara Knott on the styling and she styled the space so beautifully. We really wanted to make a dramatic look at the end of the aisle so we used large floral arrangements and then amplified them by having the arrangements sit on top of brightly coloured plinths. These wooden plinths added height, colour and drama. We had three large arrangements placed at different heights on different size plinths with disco balls and candles and Tara styled everything up with stunning, dramatic maroon fabric draping and festoon lighting. This made for a really stunning, beautiful backdrop with just three floral arrangements. These floral arrangements were then moved to be used at the foot of the sweetheart table. We also styled up the registrar table with a long registrar table floral arrangement, a couple of little bud vases and candles. These were then moved to the sweetheart table after the ceremony for a really dramatic cluster of floral arrangements. This was a really sumptuous end of aisle with lots of romance, lots of drama and beautiful colours with a selection of preserved flowers, foliage and pops of bright colour.

3. Pretty spring vibes with candles and draping.

This wedding was a really beautiful example how to create a really sumptuous end of ceremony area with very few floral arrangements. Working again alongside Tara Knott we we created an end of aisle backdrop with draping, neon lights and candles. Simply arranged candles and flowers at the foot of the backdrop is a really beautiful look using just a couple of bud vases and a medium sized table centrepiece, creating total romance vibes. We also styled the registrar table with a little fabric, a gorgeous registrars floral arrangement and candles. This set up shows how a really simple amount of decor can really elevate your space. All the flowers were moved from the ceremony floor to the wedding breakfast tables after the ceremony so all floral pieces was used multiple times.

4. Autumn florals with roses and pampas grass.

For this Autumnal wedding we created a really gorgeous end of aisle ceremony space using metal stands to place our table centrepieces on. There were 11 centrepieces for the tables so we used 9 at the end of the aisle for the ceremony- 2 on stands, 6 on the floor and 2 on the windowsills with a further 2 on the floor at the last row of chairs at the end of the aisle. We also used candles and a neon light at the end of the aisle, this made a really pretty backdrop. We styled the registrars tables with a long floral arrangement and candles. The flowers in these arrangements were a selection of peach and sand roses along with autumnal coloured dried flowers and foliage with touches of pampas grass. All the floral arrangements were then moved down to the wedding breakfast floor and used as centrepieces on the tables, this was a really stunning look for the wedding breakfast.

5. Hanging floral cloud dramatic focal installation

This end of aisle idea shows you how to create something really dramatic that will really wow your guests. So at the end of the aisle we created a large hanging installation made dried flowers and foliage in an autumnal colour palette. This flower cloud was primarily made with green and brown preserved foliage but to match the season we added touches of dried flowers in burnt orange and yellow to really amplify the colour palette. This large hanging installation looked absolutely stunning and was then reused behind the top table where there are also hooks to hang a floral flower cloud. We also created a gorgeous long registrar table arrangement for this wedding made with matching dried flowers and foliage, with a little more colour and drama but complementing the cloud design. We placed the registrar table on the right side of the aisle and we added fabric draping to bring out the colour in the floral arrangement. This floral arrangement was also moved to the top table after the ceremony.

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6. Disco dream Pink and white pretty ceremony

Finally I want to show you a really cool way to make a wedding ceremony space using pink and white. We get asked for pink and white arrangements a lot, but this we wanted to create something a little different within that colour scheme. Pink and white are obviously a very common colour combination for weddings, it’s such a pretty colour story for romantic fairytale-style weddings, but I always want to inject something to make the arrangements look a little different and little less ordinary. Make your wedding stand out slightly by thinking outside the box even with a classic colour palette. We used all flowers with no foliage so the famished look was very graphic with a focus on the blooms. We also decided to colour block this combination so we had one arrangement on one side of the aisle in all-pink and another arrangement on the other side of the aisle in all-white. To amplify our message even further we used one white and one pink plinth either side of the ceremony space. These were adorned with large bows in matching pink or white. Tara styled the space with candles and disco balls. In addition to the floral arrangements on the stands we also have two floral circle ball arrangements hanging with disco balls from a wooden pole hanging down from the ceiling at various different heights. This created a really cool backdrop that was really original, really interesting and added a lot of fun to this wedding set up. This just goes to show how you can create an EPIC backdrop with two medium sized floral arrangements and two hanging ball floral arrangements.

So there we have it we’ve shown you six different yet beautiful end of aisle set ups for the stunning West Mill in Darley Abbey, Derby. All these different ideas show you how you can do varying different designs with different floral arrangements ranging from simple bud vases and small arrangements all the way to table centrepieces or even large floral installations like hanging clouds and arches. When you’re planning your wedding think of different styling props that you can use so either wooden plinths, which you can make yourself, metal stands easily available online or fabric draping, candles and all the additional extras which will take your wedding up to the next level. All these designs vary in budget so think about how much you want to spend on your wedding flowers but here we show you can create something really beautiful quite inexpensively with the right styling additions and a whole load of creativity.