How do I develop a nice lawn

[whatabeautifulwedding]

Our lawn is patchy and covered in moss, mushrooms, clover and weeds.

I am a complete and utter novice at anything garden related.

How would I start getting it into better condition?

Thank you

It does depend what you mean by a 'nice lawn' ...

Moss and mushrooms suggests the drainage may not be good and/or it's quite shaded.

It's not really the right time of year for lawn regeneration but keep the lawn cut regularly and if you are not in a drought area put on a multi purpose feed and weed. Brush up the dead moss.
From around September:
Cut the lawn.
Hire a hollow tine aerator.
Remove all the plugs from the lawn, bag these up in old compost bags turned inside out and store somewhere out of the way. After they have broken down you can top dress your lawn with them.
Brush sand/sieved compost and grass seed into the holes.
Top dress any bumps.
Sprinkle grass seed where there are patches and/or get lawn offcuts from Gumtree. Water these in well.
Keep cutting the lawn - at least weekly, little and often, and maybe apply another Autumn feed treatment.
Next year, top dress with the now broken down plugs.

It's a bit of effort but it's worth it. My application of feed and weed was decidedly dodgy earlier this year but the patches that got it are noticeably longer and greener than neighbouring patches that didn't. Use a spreader.

I’ve just done mine 2 weeks ago and it looks amazing and very green. This is what I did:
Cut grass
rake all the moss out using scarifying rake
pierce holes all over using garden fork
sprinkle a lot of grass seed all over
sprinkle a lot of compost over the top
keep watered unless it rains
in 2 weeks there was a lot of new grass growth and could be cut again

Thanks for all these tips!

Will definitely give these a go.

@whatabeautifulwedding Might I suggest you buy a very handy book called 'The Lawn Expert' by DG Hessayon (actual books are so useful for gardening) - there are many cheap copies in places such as eBay, second-hand bookshops, car boot sales and the like. Easy to follow instructions, and talks you through how to look after a lawn all year round, including renovating a tired, patchy, weedy sad expanse of grass such as yours!

Thank you so much for this recommendation- I will definitely look for a copy