Bianca & Gylen

Beautiful bride Bianca envisioned a great party with loads of laughter, music, Prosecco and happy faces and that's exactly what she got. Throw in some traditional tartan kilts, bridesmaids in delicate blue chiffon Jenny Yoo gowns, sumptuous blooms and gorgeous woodland theme decor, and you have the perfect mix of style and substance. Of course Bianca looks an absolute vision in her Modeca princess gown with the all the atmospheric images captured by Zoe Alexandra Photography of the adorable couple amongst the Scottish countryside leaving your spine tingling to say the least. Shall we get stuck in...?

Our Story

Bianca the Bride: With my family roots in Germany, a Scottish fiancée, and friends all over the world, it was clear to us that we wanted to get married at a location in Scotland (where Gylen and I actually met at a wedding years ago) that could be a wonderful home to all our friends and family for a full weekend. We were envisioning a great party with loads of laughter, music, Prosecco and happy faces. As we both love the outdoors it was important to us that we get married in a beautiful landscape…. We decided to have a woodland themed wedding for which we decorated the ballroom with gorgeous flowers and trees. We love to give things our own touch so did a lot ourselves and with the help of our amazing & talented friends and family…

The Bride

As many brides to be, finding THE dress was one of the things I was most looking forward to when starting the wedding planning. However, it was not as easy as I thought it would be. With me, my mum, my sister and my bridesmaids being in different countries it was a fun yet challenging decision process through video camera and Skype...eventually we found what we were looking for: A stunning A-shaped ball gown from the Dutch designer label Modeca at Ann Priscilla in Glasgow. This gown made me feel every inch the bride I’d imagined being in the surrounding of this beautiful location when I walked down the aisle next to my dad towards my future husband. I especially loved my train with its beautiful embroidery reflecting the late summer sun… Going with the classic tradition of something new, something old, something borrowed, something blue, the dress was the new addition being handmade for the day of the wedding while I used my future mother in law’s wedding veil as “something old” and borrowed my cousin’s garter that she actually wore at the very wedding my groom and I first met each other. My “something blue” also had a very special meaning to me – I have always worn my grandmother’s engagement ring which has a stone of Blue Topaz. On one of my husband’s and mine first dates, the ring slid off my finger whilst we were crossing a road and was run over by a truck! My husband recued what was left of it and as a birthday surprise, had it remade from a photo of the original by the very talented Anna Marion at Oui Designs – I was thrilled! It made so much sense to then use her for our engagement and wedding rings after that. All my other accessories like my golden Jimmy Choo shoes and the delicate pearl necklace I found during my travels in different parts of the world and again, it was my mum and my bridesmaids who often helped making these choices.

The Groom

My husband’s outfit was pretty traditional but with a modern flair. He is a great fan of Andrew Brookes tailoring and he and Andrew worked together to design a modern kilt jacket and waistcoat that looked the part whilst still being wearable at other occasion, settling on a petrol blue colour that matched the family tartan. His grandfather wore a kilt every day of his life and my husband felt it would be a fitting tribute to use the last role of tartan that he had made just before he died to have a new kilt made for the wedding – it exceeded both of our expectations and he was thrilled with how smart the outfit looked. He paired it with some brogues from Barker and a plain navy tie for a simple but smart feel.

The Venue

We chose Achnagairn Castle near Inverness (my husband’s home town) for our venue. We wanted somewhere we could hire for the whole weekend to accommodate our guests from all over Europe without them having to leave early to find hotels elsewhere. The Germans and the Scots both love a party – carriages at 12 was never an option! Achnagairn was the perfect mix of dramatic location, incredibly helpful staff and privacy to dance and sing into the wee small hours.

Colour Scheme/Décor

As we both love the outdoors it was important to us that we get married in a beautiful landscape….As you can never rely on the weather in Scotland, we decided to bring the Great Outdoors, indoors. We decided to have a woodland themed wedding and decorated the ballroom with gorgeous flowers and trees. The colour scheme incorporated loads of woodland greens and berry colours.

Flowers

I simply adore flowers! It was out of question that I would have loads of them decorating our wedding day. This was also another way to bring a personal touch to this special day. Together with my lovely bridesmaids, friends and the tips and tricks of the amazing Amanda we spend the day before the wedding filling the grand hall with white, burgundy and pink hydrangeas...together with many other wild flowers, foliage and grasses. Amanda provided matching bouquets and button holes that were praised by everyone!

Bridal party

Together with my bridesmaids, I selected sky blue dresses from Jenny Yoo that I purchased from the wonderful BHLDN shop in Boston, Chestnut hill. The fairy like dresses had a multi-tie option what allowed each bridesmaid to wear the dress how they liked it best. The beautiful bridesmaids could only have been put out the spotlight by our cute flower girl who wore a 30ies style dress from Monsoon. The groomsman and page boy all looked very handsome in their traditional kilts and kilt jackets.

Ceremony

We were lucky enough to have a friend who is a Minister so it seemed a natural choice to ask him to perform the service for us. We went with quite traditional vows as it seemed to fit the feel of the wedding and there’s something quite nice about them! We didn’t want a super-serious ceremony though, so Gordon, our Minister, put together something that suited us brilliantly. He told some funny stories which got everyone smiling and hit just the right tone between formal and fun. Music is a huge part of our lives so we decided to sing a mixture of German and Scottish music throughout the service (with translations for guests!). We were also lucky enough to have the wonderful talented Hilgrove Kenrick and his daughter Evelyn, singing and playing piano for us during the signing of the registrar and our friend Iona Brodie giving us a grand exit with traditional Scottish bagpipes.

Entertainment

My husband plays in a band so was adamant that we needed a good party in the evening! He wanted to play a few songs with his own band but we called in the services of the superb Rhythm and Reel to play a mix of ceilidh dancing and rock and pop classics to keep everyone on their toes all night. During the interval, his own band (Easy Tiger) did a special set, just for me! During the day, we had various bits and pieces to keep everyone amused, including a photo booth by Greig Gallagher and a sweetie trolley for the kids (and big kids!)…

Food

We had an awful lot of guests to feed but wanted to still leave them with something special that they would remember for a while. We worked with Taste of Moray to put together a menu made up of Mediterranean sharing platters to start followed by a delicious beef fillet for the main. We had ice cream in brandy baskets with fresh strawberries for dessert and since we LOVE cheese, the lovely folks at the Conach Dairy made us up a many-tiered wedding cake of cheese to enjoy afterwards. The wedding cake itself was a wonderful creation made by my own cousin Selina Rennie as a special gift for us.

Photographer

Having long been a fan of her work, Zoe Alexandra Photography was a no brainer for us. We could not have asked for better. Zoe and Sam were fantastic all day I’ve genuinely never seen two people fit in and become part of the celebrations so easily - by the end of the day we thought of them as friends rather than photographers and the quality of their work speaks for itself - just superb! We didn’t book a videographer as my husband works in video production and decided he would spend too much time worrying about it on the day so we were absolutely delighted to find that Zoe and Sam had secretly been taking video footage throughout the day and presented us with an absolutely beautiful wedding video a few weeks later. It was a complete surprise and was the perfect antidote to the ‘back to reality blues’ - thanks guys!