A Colourful, Musical, Floral, Fiesta Style Scottish Wedding

Good morning beautiful, oh how I cannot wait to get sharing today's wedding with you. It's one of those that makes my heart truly skip a beat faster, but then any submission from the gorgeous Caro Weiss usually does. She's one damn fine photographer if ever there was one – with a hilarious sense of humour :)  And I always happen to think it's rather fascinating to see how an actual wedding/planner stylist goes about styling their own day, like Claire did here!

Claire and John tied the knot on 5th May 2013 at The
Bunkhouse in Aberfeldy, Scotland. I could jump up and down with glee
about these wonderful photographs, everything about them makes me
smile…

"
We're not 'theme-y' people.  Nor are we fancy people.  If anything,
we're on the scruffy side!  But we love to cook.  We love to dance. I
love to decorate.  And we love playing host.
  So we knew we wanted a DIY
day, pulling a mish mash of elements together from our home, our style
and my wee noggin. 

We like colour and pattern and a wee bit of
clutter.  And we like food.  And music.  So we took it from there.
  We
weren't always entirely sure how exactly it would all come together,
with random colours, ideas, flowers and the DIY décor we conjured up,
but it ended up rather fiesta-like on the day – perfect!"

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2013, Caro Weiss

 

"My lovely big blister of a sister and I, actually run our
own wedding business, 'Be Eventful' (see our
currently-being-worked-upon-soon-to-be-relaunched-website here). 

So, in a control-freakish,  natural-wedding-elf kind of way, we just
had to do all the work ourselves.  
John and I planned everything, made
everything, cooked most things, printed everything, collected
everything, chose everything. (eh, etc) 
And the sister, she coordinated
it all.  
With another Be helper, Jen, and a load of amazingly lovely
helpful family folks and friends on the day.  It was the perfect team.
 Sheesh. 
The fun was rife!"

"Our décor was made up, mainly, of hand-sewn paper
garlands.  Handmade wooden signs.  Handmade wool pompoms (which, Mum, we
will be forever grateful and a wee bit in awe of you for).  Hessian
runners.  Bits of string.  Some rope. Really just a random array of
stuff.  
The festoon lighting we hired from Northern Lighting was one of our main wants for the marquee, and ooft, it looked amazing!"

 

 "My dress was a bespoke number, designed by myself and the uber-talented, little seamstress wizard, Rowanjoy.  Rowan and I met through The Glasgow Wedding Collective,
which Be Eventful are (merrily) a part of.  And lucks for me, the lady
was keen to help me with the dress I could find nowhere but in my own
wee head! 

I'm not a really girly girl, and didnt really like the idea
of going dress shopping.  So, I told Rowan my wants, my likes, my
ideas, asked if they would work,  and there it was, from my noggin to
hers, to paper, to fabric.  As easy as that.  It was perfect.  It fit me
like a really lovely glove and was exactly what I'd been imagining.  

I
LOVE MY DRESS!"

Amen to that lady!

"How did we meet. Ahh, it was 2009. It was Christmas, and we were
drunk. 
The first time we met (and I use that term loosely) I was having
a gin-fuelled dance party (with myself) at the local club ( I use the
term 'club' loosely also), with friends.  
We, John and I, knew OF each
other through the cafe I worked, but had never locked eyes nor said
words.  Nor did I remember doing either THAT night, but the next day my
friend told me, my solo dance party ways had intrigued 'that Dawson
lad'.

And so I wondered. 


Then, it was Christmas Eve 2009, (a week or
so later). And we were drunk.
  The second time we met, I was having a
gin-fuelled dance party (with my equally merry friend this time) in our
local pub.  He was there.  He was merry (quite possibly more so than the
merry-I).  
We had a wee christmas dance party together.  In the pub,
with a friend (and many a random person) and a lot, a lot of gin.
  And
that was it.  
And it was, from then on."

"Our Florist was Sophie of I Heart Flowers – yet another Glasgow Wedding Collective supplier.  We
had worked with Sophie on a few projects and knowing her ways with all
things floral were pretty amazing, had her do our bouquets and noggin
flowers.


She created exactly what I had imagined, got our ideas
perfectly and is lovely to work with.  A gem of a lady!"

"Our favours were the plates. 
Each guest had their name
handwritten by us, on their plate, which was then used as a place name, a
plate, plate, and a favour.  Tada. We called it the 3-in-1 wedding
prop."

"Our cakes were handmade efforts by friends and family and on the
day, we had a crowning of the cake (without the crown…oops).  Cutting
our favourite and stuffing our merry faces with the rest."

"John and I walked down the aisle together.  
 This was a big one
for me.  One of the most important parts of our day.  My Dad, you see,
the loveliest man, passed away five years ago, and I knew I would never
ask anyone else to give me away.  And so, I said to John, since it was
us getting married, and us making the decision to do so, and us choosing
to do so together, would he walk in to it all with me.  And it was the
loveliest feeling.
  We spent the morning of the wedding together, John
cooking, me decorating, and then separated (about half an hour before
the wedding!!) to get ready.

We had our first look
around the front of the farm house.  We had wanted to get some of the
emotions out early, and have a wee time together before it all started
happening and we saw all the guests, and we're so glad we did.  It was
emotional but calming, just what I needed it to be.  And then walking in
together was just lovely (although apparently, we walked too fast. But,
eh, never-mind).  We walked in to the sound of 'You and Me', by Penny
and the Quarters."

"The whole day was absolute perfect, in a lovely, chaotic sort of way, but our favourite part of all was the ceremony.  We
had put so much into writing it, jumbling it up, making it just ours. 
Adding bits, changing the format, making it funny, and making wee
moments for greeting.
That is the wonderful thing about having a
Humanist wedding – it can be as personal, as different, as un-traditional
or traditional as you like.
  We wrote our story, we wrote our vows, we
penned secret bits about each other, we had a surprise sing along, we
even had a whisky toast with each other.


Jane, our celebrant, was amazing, and let us write and plan
whatever we wanted, tieing it all together perfectly. 
Jings it was
lovely!"

"John got his suit from all over.  His trousers from a wee shop called Hendersons, in Stirling
, his jacket from from ASOS, his shirt from H&M (moons ago!), his waistcoat from ASOS, and his kilt (worn later in evening) from Armstrongs Vintage, in Edinburgh."

"We did all the stationery and table plan ourselves, with help on our
invites from our good friend, who designed an amazing geometric pattern
for us."

Oh I absolutely adore this clever DIY string/craft table plan! Very clever indeed!

"The flowergirls wore Zara Kids (customised with mint and lace peter pan collars made by me, and a mint belt from h&m kids.)"

"Our photographer was Caro Weiss – ooft what can I say about this little lady. Not enough nice things, thats what!  Again, we met through The Glasgow Wedding Collective, worked together on a project or two, introduced husbands/husbands-to-be, choose her for her genius picture-taking ways and became dear dear friends. What a cracker.

I would recommend her HIGHLY. As a bride AND a fellow wedding supplier.  She's the cats pyjamas. ;)  And we couldn't be happier with our pictures."

"On the hunting down of a self catering venue with a barn or
space for a rather giant old tent, we stumbled across this wee cracker
of a farm called The
Bunkhouse in Aberfeldy.  On a hill.  With a bunkhouse.  Two kitchens.  A field.  And a laid back owner.
  (Whoop!! We had the run of the place.  For a whole weekend!!)"

"My make-up (and that of my sister the bridesmaid and my
lovely mum) was done by my beautiful buddy Lara.
  And the shiny
barnets, styled by the gorgeous Anne Marie McElroy, another fellow Glasgow Wedding Collective supplier,
and all round amazing lady (who understood my need for a hairdo that
moved and didn't try and hairspray me within an inch of my life.  Oh
aye, that lady can work magic on the ol' barnet."

"We wrote our own vows.  And I'm so glad we did.  Completely
secretly from one another, with as many unromantic, funny bits as each
other!  They were perfect.  And we both ended up saying one thing the
same (you are my person) that was a nice wee surprise!

Johns little cousin read the words of the Barry Louis Polisar
song, All I Want is You.
And our friend read a slightly shortened
version of Dr Seuss', Oh The Places You'll Go."

"The table and decoration flowers were bought and put together
ourselves (big smooches and thanks to oor wee makeshift florists that
day!), in jam jars and tins and the odd vase and glass thing."  


"We did all the catering ourselves, with a team of sisters
and bros-in-law contributing, apart from our hog-roast maincourse,
supplied by the ever lovely, laid back and helpful, Ben of Sizzling Piggy.  And in the evening we had Johns homemade stovies (in little chinese takeaway cartons…hmhm)"

"Our first dance wasn't what I thought it was going to be, but I had
given John, as a wedding present that afternoon, an old, hard to find,
Kinks record which featured our favourite song, and he had it played on
the record player! Too nice, I tell you."

"With a love for music and quite a strong aversion to most
modern pop and dance stuff, we decided to do our own thing.  We made up
all our playlists on Spotify, had our friend (a talented music man) to
coordinate it all, hired in some speakers and danced to ALL our
favourites, ALL night.
Not to mention an hour long dj set from oor
beloved photographer, who spun some retro records for us, later in the
evening!



The funniest moment, entertainment wise, being during the
ceremony, Johns cousin, Lauren, and our music-man friend, Jamie,
collaborated for our surprise mid-ceremony sing along! Guests were given
envelopes with lyrics inside, and towards the end of the service,
Lauren (a classically trained singer) got up and sang Bonnie Tylers',
Total Eclipse of the Heart, with Jamie on keyboard. When the chorus
came in, everyone opened their envelope and joined in! It was sheer
sing-along hilarity.  Perfect, fun, (and weirdly emotional) banter!"

Words of Wedded Wisdom…

"The main thing, most definitely for us, is don't
listen to anyone! Well OK, within reason.  But don't doubt yourselves,
and don't try and please anyone, bar you!  That's when things get
stressful.  Genuinely the only time the planning was stressful, was when
other  people got into our heads.  We wavered a few times, before
realising that our wedding was about us, for us, and we were inviting
our favourite people to come and share OUR day, no one elses. 

Those
people, your favourite people, they will come along and be happy for
you, regardless of venue or food or type of ceremony or rain.  Anyone
who doesnt? Doesnt matter!! (harsh? no.)
 We had our day, our way, and
it was perfect.  You should do the same.
  (Oh, and the other thing I
would say is, if your having a DIY wedding, hire some helpers! We were
rather busy, John and I at our own wedding! We couldn't have pulled it
off without our amazing family and some friends. But if you want to save
yours the trouble, then hire in some elves for sure! 

Oh how I love love love love lurrrrve this wedding. Bright and colourful, relaxed and full of person statements that reflect this couple and their love for one another, a beautiful personalised ceremony – ahhhh, almost wish I could have been there.

A HUGE big dose of love and thanks to the gorgeous Caro Weiss for submitting these images, and many, many congratulations to Claire and John too. 

What do you love most about this wedding?

You know I can't ruddy WAIT to attend the next Glasgow Wedding Collective so that I can meet all the amazing suppliers involved, including my friend Caro Weiss. I'm especially looking forward to meeting I Heart Flowers and Rowanjoy too.

I'd love to hear what you think.  Also, if you like brides in cardigans – you need to go here!

Have a super duper Thursday morning all,

Annabel

Photographer – Caro Weiss
Venue – The
Bunkhouse in Aberfeldy
Brides Dress – Rowanjoy
Floral Crown – Flower crown by Sophie at I Heart Flowers
Brides Shoes – Red or Dead boots via Schu
Groom's Attire – Hendersons, in Stirling
 + ASOS + H&M + Armstrongs Vintage, in Edinburgh
Bridesmaids Dresses – Ted Baker
Bridesmaids Hair Accessories – Flowers by Sophie at I Heart Flowers
Flowergirl Dresses -  Zara Kids (+ mint and lace peter pan collar made by the bride + mint belt from h&m kids)
Flowers – I Heart Flowers
Cake – Friends
Favours – Personalised plates
Hair Stylist – Anne Marie McElroy