Alexia & Mark

I love how elegantly Alexia & Mark have incorporated both Scottish and Taiwanese influences into their wedding at Errol Park in Perthshire. You can see subtle hints of tartan in the fashion, and the adorable use of the mandarin character 囍’ meaning ‘double happiness’ can be seen on their stationery. They married in a light-filled dining room, then went onto have their reception in the converted barn, covered in fairy lights, complete with a ceilidh dance to finish off. Although the above is all utterly dreamy, the absolute highlight of this wedding for me has to be bride Alexia's Pronovias separates. The frou frou on the skirt is divine, and the picture captured by Jen Owens Images of groom Mark lifting it as she walks downs the steps of Errol Park literally makes my heart swell.

Our Story

Alexia the Bride: Errol Park is the most incredible place and it was great being able to have our ceremony and reception all in one place. Absolutely everyone commented on how beautiful the place is. Leading up to the wedding the two Jamie's were super helpful and on the day ran a very smooth operation. They made us and everyone so relaxed on the day and nothing was too much trouble.

Dress

I didn’t really have an idea of what I wanted my dress to be like but I knew what I didn’t want, which was lace. Also that I didn’t really want to spend a long time searching, in the end only went to a total of 3 stores. But I knew instantly when I saw the dress in Pronovias, it was a two piece dress (bodice that could be worn on its own with the skirt separately attached) that ensemble how I wanted my wedding to be on the day – simple, modern and elegant. As I’m originally from Taiwan I wanted to include the culture into the wedding, so I decided to go back to Taipei to have a traditional Taiwanese dress made. My shoes were by Rachel Simpson, and I wore a pair of Swarovski earrings.

Grooms Attire

Mark wore a winter Herringbone suit from Suit Supply which fitted in with the time of year and with his tartan blackwatch tie from Drakes. For the evening as it was Black Tie he changed to a dark green velvet dinner jacket from Hackett, to keep the winter setting going.

Wedding Party Fashion

I went to a Twobirds sample sale in London for the bridesmaids dresses and loved their dresses. My 3 bridesmaids were different in height and shape and the multi-ways to style the dresses meant they can pick the style that suited them. I wanted them to feel comfortable in their dresses.

Colour scheme/decor

Green, Navy and Red and Elegant, Simple, Modern I didn’t really have a colour scheme till I bought the bridesmaids dresses. It was also very important to me to bring in influences of red from the Taiwanese culture, as well as including elements of Scotland, which didn’t make things easy! I had the wedding word in mandarin character which means ‘Double Happiness 囍’ appear consistently but subtly throughout the day It was the main design on our Invitations, Order of Service cards Our wedding favours were red boxes that made up of the word and inside filled with traditional Taiwanese tea The wedding party had elements of tartan in their outfits. Groom and Groomsmen had tartan ties. Flower girls had blackwatch tartan sash.. Page boys wore blackwatch tartan bowtie and trousers. We also wanted all our guests to enjoy the occasion and for a bit of fun we asked them to have a ‘twist of tartan’ in their outfit. It actually worked out surprisingly well and everyone told us they had a lot of fun searching for something tartan!

Florist

I came across Amy Annand through reading about another Scottish wedding on RMW! We had just one appointment with Amy and it proved that was all that was needed (and to be honest I didn’t have many as I don’t really know much about flowers), months later when she showed me a sample of the bouquet, I couldn’t believe it was exactly how I wanted it to look and thought it was just beautiful. She also beautifully decorated all the tables. In the beginning I was quite hesitant to have red in the flowers but we took her advice (and so pleased we did!) to have a bit of red in the flowers to complement the red wedding favour boxes which worked great.

Cake

Our ‘cheese’ cake from Cheeses from I.J.Mellis in Edinburgh went down a storm. Great recommendations from I.J.Mellis, not a single bit of cheese left at the end of the evening.

Caterer

Nick and the team at Regis Banqueting in Cumbernauld were amazing on the night, very professional and nothing was too much trouble and delivered great food and service.

Canapés Chestnut mushroom pate on a truffle oil crostini Lightly smoked partridge with pancetta served on orange and cranberry chutney topped crostini Serrano ham, crushed broad beans, pearls of cantaloupe melon and manchego cheese (served on spoons) Mini fruit scones Starters Cucumber and smoked salmon twists, rocket with lemon and crème fraiche dressing Or Sweet potato and roast parsnip soup with a chilli essence, fresh artisan bread Main Courses Escalopes of Stirlingshire sirloin beef served with a brandy peppercorn sauce Or Pan seared Cod on a bed of pea Broad Bean Risotto Desserts Individual pots of crème brulee topped with raspberries Or Cranachan with handmade shortbread and raspberry coulis

Stationery

I really liked letterpress printing and after some searching found Stoneberry Press in Edinburgh. They printed all our wedding stationery - Invitation, Order of Service and Thank You cards.

Entertainment

Day - We had 2 violinist (Rosewood String Quartet) and for the ceremony we chose Pachelbel Canon in D, it’s classic and so beautiful when played on string instruments Evening - We wanted to have a ceilidh band and saw Whisky Kiss play live at the Hogmanay in Edinburgh and thought they were absolutely brilliant and emailed them the next day to book them in! They got all of our guests on their feet on the night and were just incredible. They also played a DJ set for the second half of the evening, which meant we got a mix of ceilidh and some disco tunes.

Ceremony

We wanted to have readings in our ceremony and this was a great way to involve some of our close friends and one of the poems was read by Mark’s 10 year old god son which was really special. Each picked the poem they wanted to read Love - from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran (read by my good friend Barry from Edinburgh university) The Blessing of the Apaches (read by Mark’s godson Luka) Love's Philosophy by Percy Bysshe Shelley (read by my good friend Paola)

Photographer

We saw portfolios of a few different photographers and Jen’s work stood out for us. We liked the naturalness and relaxed way her photos portrayed of the people and the surroundings. She was incredibly easy-going and calm on the day and made everyone so relaxed! We loved our photos.