International Women's Day 2020

Today isn’t just another Sunday, it also isn’t just the 8th of March. Today is International Women’s Day 2020. Why is that important to us? Haarlem Mill isn’t just a wedding venue, the original Arkwright cotton mill is home to a wedding venue (that’s us), an award-winning florist (Tineke Floral Designs) and a bespoke dress designer (Haarlem Bridal). And that is just the wedding industry specific businesses, we also have Haarlem Artspace, RGI and Curiousa & Curiousa. But what does this have to do with International Women’s Day? Well we are a group of amazing businesses run by a group of even more amazing women! 

That’s right. All of these business ran by women. If that isn’t inspiring then I don’t know what is.

Today we wanted to talk to you a little more about our wedding industry friends. Since, we imagine you’re here to plan a wedding, they’ll probably be the most relevant to you.

Kerry has worked in the floristry industry since the age of 11 and from her love of flowers, Tineke Floral Designs was born in 2001. Kerry was running Tineke full time by 2010. Stems by Tineke (a letterbox flower subscription service) was launched in 2018 and Kerry’s newest venture Tineke Prop Hire is launching this year. Needless to say Kerry is an absolute female boss! But what else do you need to know about Tineke? Well they are multi-award winners, having won East Midlands Best Wedding Florist for 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017. They also won the UK Best Wedding Florist in 2015. WOW. Kerry is now a judge for these awards, helping to pick the future finalists and winners alongside a panel of other judges. Not only is Kerry a florist extraordinaire, she is mummy to the gorgeous Leo and manages to run her floral empire whilst still raising her baby alongside her husband Andy.

It goes without saying that creating floral masterpieces for so many stunning weddings requires more than one set of hands, so working alongside Kerry is Ellie, she joined Tineke in February 2019 and the first ever wedding she worked was right here at Haarlem Mill. Now we get the pleasure of working alongside Ellie on a regular basis as she helps our couples create their dream weddings and helps us dress the venue for open days, tasting evenings and viewing days. Ellie is also mama to little fur baby Winnie, a teeny tiny sausage dog who definitely brightens up a day in the office.

Next door to Tineke is the amazing Haarlem Bridal, owned by Astra who not only runs the business, but designs and makes all of the beautiful bespoke weddings gowns. Having studied fashion at university and worked for a number of other wedding boutiques, Astra took the plunge to open her own shop and boy are we happy about it! Our brides love the chance to have something designed especially for them, and with Astra based just downstairs they also get the opportunity to be dressed professionally on the morning of their wedding. Another female boss, Astra is mum to wonderful Hendrix and just (literally just) added the gorgeous and tiny Grayson to her tribe. He heard Astra was getting super organised for his arrival so decided to surprise her and arrived a month early. Astra was literally in work a week later to do a final fitting for one of our gorgeous brides. You’re awesome.

And what about us? Well, Haarlem Mill Weddings & Events is owned by business partners Helen Maycock and Natalie Poynton. Helen started her business journey with the Kiwi Coffee Company in 2004, then being joined by Natalie and opening Zest4Events (our inhouse catering company) in 2012. Now as a team running Haarlem Mill, which after extensive renovations, obtained it’s wedding licence in August 2018.

Helen is amazing at balancing her job as owner/boss lady and as mum of two, Alex her 14 year old son and Grace her 19 year old daughter who is currently using the incredible independence, no doubt taught by her mum, to travel the world. And Natalie should be an inspiration to us all as she is now business partner to Helen, meaning she is joint managing director and owner to two businesses and she isn’t even 30 yet… (keep your eyes peeled for her 30th celebrations in August).

The strong females at Haarlem Mill don’t stop at the top, our management team also consists of some awesome women. Kirsty the venue manager who manages all of our bar and waiting staff is experienced in managing big teams as at home she looks after her 2 sons, Logan (18) and Conor (16), plus 6 dogs (4 border collies, 1 pug and 1 Jack Russell – 3 of which are rescues) and 6 Guinea pigs (all rescues) alongside her partner of 23 years’, Dave. Wow. Abby our Events & Marketing manager started with us just 5 months after the birth of her first little boy, George, and thanks to the awesome team she works with manages to juggle motherhood and work with flexible hours and bosses that don’t mind a really small extra employee from time to time.

So, if you’re ever looking for a female powerhouse of businesses you know where to come. Women empowering women! We’re here for it. Girls, we love ya!

P.s. quick shout out to Anthony, our head chef and main man here in this sea of women!