A Wonderful Elopement at Kilchurn Castle in the Scottish Highlands…

A couple of weeks ago, I featured a beautiful little film during the lunch period, which employed a technique called 'stop motion'.  If you haven't seen the film yet, either click here, or wait until the end of this wedding feature.  The film was a huge hit and featured the elopement of Sarah and Ben, who tied the knot at the stunning backdrop that is Kilchurn Castle in Oban Scotland. I'm going to let Sarah tell us more about this magical wedding, one of my favourites to ever have been featured… 

"We chose to elope from Australia to Oban in Scotland as Ben and I met in Edinburgh whilst living there in 2006.  Ben left Scotland only a few months after we left and so we never got to travel around Scotland together, and we both had a strong love for the country. 

We knew we wanted to go back to travel there and thought it would be a perfect place to elope!  Oban was chosen as Ben lived there for quite some time and it was his favourite place in Scotland.  He chose Kilchurn Castle and after seeing it on the internet I fell in love with it as well.  It was my dream come true of a venue once I actually saw it the day before the wedding…"

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2011, Bayly & Moore

 

"We had a bag piper who played down our 1km aisle and my entrance into the castle.  He played a mix of traditional Scottish and wedding songs…"

 

"My necklace was a gift from my Nanna (who was in attendance) on her 60th birthday.  It has been passed on through the family and is a clear topaz…"

Sarah's beautiful dress was from Saja Wedding… 

"I loved the simplicity of all the Saja wedding dresses.  I wanted a dress that was elegant yet understated and which I was comfortable in.  I’m not a ‘bride dress’ type person so the Saja dresses were just perfect!  Dress enough to be a bride yet was also able to travel with it!"

"Ben and I met in 2006 in Edinburgh, whilst we were both on working holidays.  Ben was at the end of his time there and I had just arrived, we thought we were having a fun travel romance that had a definite end date!  Instead we developed a relationship over the phone for nearly a year, calling each other at ridiculous hours to catch each others time zones, and basically annoying everyone around us gushing about a person living on the other side of the world.  I finally came home to see if it would work face to face and we have been living together ever since…" 

"When we first discussed marriage, the concept of eloping to Scotland was the easiest decision we made.  It was absolutely perfect for us.  Whilst both of us love weddings, neither of us enjoy being centre of attention or had a desire for many of the traditional aspects that comes with planning a wedding. 

We envisaged just us, amongst the green hills of Scotland, and if we were lucky, have our families attend with us.  (In the end only my mum, dad, brother and 84 year old Nanna were able to come over, Nanna and my brother then came on our honeymoon with us touring Scotland for a week!) 

All the planning of the day just fell together and we enjoyed every minute of it…"

"We received a call from Historic Scotland suggesting that we have a back up plan due to the access to Kilchurn Castle being flooded by recent rains.  As there was NO back up plan the solution came easily – gum boots!"

Words of Wedded Wisdom…

"Elope!  Or plan a small destinational wedding with a small number of guests.  Or even more simply – cut out all the bits and pieces that you wouldn’t normally worry about.  Sometimes there is so much pressure out there to create a beautiful ceremony and party, to have a wow factor, to plan so much of the little details that you can forget about the actual meaning of the wedding.  Oh, and do have a good photographer.  When the day is over and sometimes it is over in a blur, it is so meaningful to have that important moment with your ‘soul mate’ documented and to share together when you get a moment to take a breath and remember it all.

Also, I hired a wedding consultant, Kirsty Musset, to assist with the little details on the day, just in case anything went wrong or if I needed help organising something whilst I was still in Australia.

I also used Love My Dress to assist with inspiration, photography and local options when I was planning my wedding…"

Oh my, this is just something magical isn't it? The look of love! Immense thanks to Bayly & Moore for submitting these incredibly beautiful images…

"I had seen one of Bayly & Moore's earlier stop motion videos on Design Sponge and then set out looking for a photographer based in the UK who was doing something similar, or who was willing to experiment and give stop motion a go. 

After lots of unsuccessful emails with UK photographers I emailed Bayly & Moore on a whim to compliment them on their work and also to see if maybe they had any contacts in the UK and jokingly see if they would be near Scotland in May.  And unbelievably…. they were!!"

One word.  Amazing!

I mean, isn't it?  How often does something so flukey like that happen?  And given that the video actually is incredibly amazing, I'm going to share it with you all over again.

Enjoy…

Do we have any other readers planning to elope when they get married, or get married in the Scottish Highlands? I would absolutely love to hear from you and what your plans are…

Much love all,

Annabel xXx

♥

Photographers – Bayly & Moore
Venue – Kilchurn Castle
Brides dress – Saja Wedding
Brides accessories – The Bride's Nanna's necklace
Brides shoes – Ruche
Groom – his own suit
Florist – Local Oban Florist
Wedding Consultant – Kirsty Musset