Photos by Petra Mingneau
Milton Street Substation is a venue I just love. Not only is it centrally located making it super easy for guests to get to, but it's full of industrial character and provides a blank canvas for you to create a wedding in your own unique style.
From the exterior the raw rough concrete and old brick doesn't give much away, yet once you step through the tiny hidden door within the mammoth high gloss green doors, you'll experience the soaring height of the foyer where the light seems to filter in from the heavens! This place is a dream for those looking for something different and edgy. The mezzanine level with open rafters, to the basement room provides a myriad of options for dining or cocktail style events, and the sheltered rear courtyard is an unexpected bonus with festoons providing a magical ambience in the evening.
As this is a bare venue you do need to bring in everything from tables and chairs, to a bar and furniture, lighting and all your decor. The beauty of this is that you aren't limited by the style of furniture some venues provide and you really can create a look that is all about what you love. And of course this is what we specialise in...creating utterly beautiful bespoke weddings to suit each couple.
We'll do this by discussing all your ideas, viewing your Pinterest board, then creating a styling concept and recommending all the furniture, decor and any design items and florals, to bring your wedding to life. We can take care of everything, selecting items from our hire collection and other hire companies, offering suggestions and creating floor plan options all to suit you.
We've designed a few weddings at Milton and none of them have ever been the same. That's the beauty of having so much space, is we can talk through ideas for where your ceremony location will be setup and held, to creating floor plan options to show how seated dining or a cocktail style event would work in the different spaces.
When Keren and Matt came to talk about their wedding, Keren had a definite vision for the look and feel of her day, but needed help to bring it all together. We talked through all the options and after creating a number of floor plan layouts and considering the options, decided on having the bar, lounge and cocktail area in the entrance foyer, with the ceremony in the basement in a circular setting, and dining on the mezzanine level. Flick through to see the final floor plans below.
Keren had organised a fair amount of her decor, and also hired items from us. We arranged for everything to be delivered the day before the wedding and we setup the entire venue. As they'd also booked us for wedding co-ordination, I attended the rehearsal to help talk through how the circular ceremony would work best, how the entrance would work (with me opening the door to reveal the bride) to where and how the couple would stand, where the signing table would be located, and important locations for the family to be seated on the day. It's really important to have a rehearsal to run through the ceremony and practice the entrance timings to your music, and mainly so that everyone knows and feels comfortable with what's happening, and when. Plus when you're doing something different to the norm, this is absolutely crucial as there will be decisions that need to be finalised during the rehearsal.
Opting for a circular ceremony with all their guests surrounding them, we'd installed a suspended pendant light above where they would stand as a focal point. At the rehearsal we adjusted the room lighting until it provided just the perfect and intimate ambience. On the wedding day the main room lighting was kept on while guests arrived, then switched off just before the bride was due to enter. The ceremony held only by candle-light and feature up-lights created an absolutely magical setting.
To create a cosy home-away-from-home feel, lounging areas were created and styled with large plants we hired to provide height, and finished with rugs, plants, candles, printed cushions and plush velvet emerald green cushions to include the emerald green.
The couple wanted a sustainable wedding and supplied a huge selection of plants, with the smaller ones used to style the dining tables given to guests at the end of the night as gifts. The black theme continued through the table-scapes with the seating plan, table numbers, napkins, menus , plants and black bentwood chairs all creating the strong look. And feature lighting programmed to a stunning emerald green slowly became more dramatic and spectacular as evening fell.
Milton Street Substation is a favourite we absolutely love working with couples to design and style as there is so much scope for what can be created. To give you an idea of how totally different weddings in the exact same venue can be, take a look at another wedding we designed, that in contrast is soft and romantic.
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