Carley & Fraser

Carley and Fraser's wedding is literally a dream from start to finish. I'm in love with the opulent berry tones, the flowers EVERYWHERE, the gold accents, the fabulous fashion choices and the quintessential Scottish estate venue. Honestly, if you were to look in the dictionary under 'Stylish Autumn Wedding In Scotland' this is what you'd find. It makes complete sense then, that Bride Carley is a wedding photographer herself, so she had an eye on what she wanted to create for her own big day for a while. This is clearly the realisation of a beautiful dream! As you'd expect, the photography for this occasion is top notch, with her friends Marc Millar and Julie Tinton both helping to capture the day. Make sure you're sitting comfortably for this one, it's a seriously stunning day and I just know it's going to give you all the seasonal feels...

Our Story

Carley The Bride: Fraser and I got engaged in July 2016 with a ring he had made based on one I had seen a few months before. I was dazzled by it at the time and still am, I absolutely love it! We both knew what type of wedding we wanted and myself being a wedding photographer and with Fraser working in hospitality, between us it was easy to plan a wedding so why wait? We set the date for November that year – just under 5 months from getting engaged!

The Venue

Doing what I do I’ve seen some amazing venues and had always kept Kirknewton Stables in my mind for my own day so it’s the only place we visited, Fraser instantly agreed it was perfect. It’s a beautifully converted stable building set in the grounds of a private estate. The owner, Charles, is a lovely chap and is very relaxed. You simply hire the stables for the weekend and the rest is up to you – perfect for us as we had our own list of suppliers we wanted to use.

The Décor & Styling

I was keen not to have a ‘colour scheme’ as I think it can sometimes limit your decisions and make you go for things you wouldn’t necessarily go for. Being winter in Scotland though I wanted to embrace the deep colours that would be around and decided to add touches of gold and white marble to give everything a bit of a glamourous lift! The venue is beautiful already with fairy lights wrapped around the ceiling beams so we decided to fill it with flowers and greenery and hung 4 giant leafy circular reefs from the ceiling with little tea lights dangling down. We then added giant floral arrangements around the venue on pedestals along with gold spray painted bottles with candles and flowers along each of the window sills. A few guests commented that the scent of greenery and candles when they walked in was gorgeous! We added a marquee to the stables for the bar area and this ended up being my Mum's baby! She went to town filling this with antique furniture and rugs that she got from auction, I’d never seen a marquee look so great inside - it looked incredible, Mum did an amazing job!

The Bride

Being a huge shoe addict, before I had even thought about the dress I had bought the shoes. I’d been lusting after them for some time and this was the perfect opportunity to get them – black and gold Rockstud Valentinos. So comfortable and they look great with jeans so an investment I can enjoy time and again! I was open to a variety of dress styles, the only thing I specified was I didn’t want to look too ‘bridey’ (it the best way I can describe it!) So I was looking for something a bit different. The dress I ended up going for was a boned corseted upper with a full lace skirt in a pale tea-ish colour. I felt a bit bare at the shoulders so Mum and we came up with a gold gathered silk halter neck that my Mum made and it really transformed the dress. Fraser bought Valentino Rockstud earrings that matched my shoes as a gift so I wore these along with a chunky gold wrist cuff from Hobbs and a chunky gold ring from TK MAXX. I don’t really wear delicate jewellery so I wasn’t going to start on my wedding day! In my hair I had a flower crown for the day and a crystal head band for a bit of bling in the evening.

The Groom & Wedding Party

Fraser, his Dad and his best man, brother Graeme all wore matching suits they had made with subtle tartan troos and gold ties. Fraser decided not to have ushers as he wanted his friends to just enjoy the day without any duties! My two gorgeous bridemaids, Johanna & Eileen wore deep rusty purple dresses we had made By Totty Rocks. I was keen for them to feel comfortable so they adapted a design they both liked – Jo went for a long dress with a split to the side and Eileen opted to go shorter. They chose their own shoes and I encouraged them to go wild - they didn’t disappoint!

The Flowers

Bridesmaid Eileen is a florist so we were very lucky to have her in charge of this department! She worked so hard creating the venue flowers which looked incredible. We had Narcissus Flowers do the bouquets, button holes and flower crowns in deep colours with lots of greenery and they were absolutely stunning.

The Ceremony

We had a humanist ceremony which we loved as it was all about being personal to us and telling our story. We felt the relaxed nature of humanist ceremonies really reflected us and our day, and Tim, our humanist was wonderful and injected a bit of humour at just the right moments.

The Transport

One thing we were not too fussed for was big bridal cars, we just felt there was so many other things we would rather spend our budget on plus I had my heart set on arriving in my Dad's van! I’ll always remember my Dad and I in the freezing cold at 8.30am decorating the van with flowers, ribbon and bunting. Everyone thought it was a bonkers idea at first but my Dad was proud as punch to drive us there and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

The Entertainment

We had acoustic guitar from Craig McMorrow before, during and after the ceremony and a live band, Corra, in the evening who were fantastic. We also had a magician, Elliot Bibby during the drinks reception who was incredible.

The Food

Our caterers, Mike & Dave from Mackenzies, were just amazing and ran the whole day for us as well as producing a 4 course meal. It was really special having them run our day as I worked for them from when I was 15 for over 10 years and have had some fantastic times with the team! Being in hospitality, Fraser had his ideas of what he wanted and they delivered everything and more.

The Photography & Video

This was a simple choice as I’m so lucky to have worked with some incredible photographers and videographers. Friends and colleagues Julie Tinton and Marc Millar both documented our day with Julie doing the morning bridal prep images and Marc documenting Fraser before the ceremony and the rest of the day. It was so lovely having them both there and Fraser and I both hugely enjoyed going away and having our photos taken, we all just had a bit of a laugh! Barry from Worldy Nomads did our video and it’s turned out so beautiful, he captured so many lovely details we would never have seen otherwise.