Jennifer & Andrew

There are so many surprises and treats at this traditional Scottish wedding. The first being Jennifer in her Mischa Sassi Holford gown. The jewel encrusted detailed waist is simply magical and really brings the clean lines of this gown to life. She looks absolutely stunning. As do her maid in cobalt blue Hobbs dresses. Then of course there are the Groomsmen sporting tartan kilts. But what you might not have been expecting to read and see is that Groom Andrew, his father and brother are all pilots. So it was only fitting there was an air display arranged over their venue Bachilton Barn. I love the picture captured by Fairytale Asylum Photography of them standing on the hill waving to the aircraft. Such a lovely personal touch. Add some gorgeous pink blooms, a plethora of pom poms and balloons, and you have one pretty and sentimental to wedding to enjoy this afternoon.

The Dress

Jennifer the Bride: I thought I knew exactly what I wanted for my wedding dress prior to going wedding dress shopping. After watching ‘Say yes to the dress’ and ‘I found the gown’ religiously for several months I thought I knew what would suit my size, shape and look I was going for- a slinky, beaded 1920’s dress. That was all turned on its head when I actually went shopping with ‘the mums’, my oldest sister and one of my bridesmaids. I went to Rachel Scott Boutique on Dundas St in Edinburgh. Rachel was the perfect person to buy a wedding dress from. She was incredibly friendly without pressurising you into buying and made the whole experience very special. I tried on a number of slinky dresses, all of which I really liked, before my sister made me try on as a joke the biggest dress in the shop- The Mischa dress by Sassi Holford. I fell in love as soon as I put it on- it was fun with a huge train, nipped in detailed waist and a low cut back. I said ‘Yes to the dress’ and left beaming from ear to ear. As we were getting married in a country church followed by a barn reception I wanted to try and make the dress a bit more casual and colourful so I went for flat, bright fuchsia points from Jigsaw. I didn’t wear any other jewellery apart from my engagement ring as the dress had a lot of detail in it. I wore a cathedral length veil and a flower comb in my hair made by my local florist- Casey Cameron, Bloomsbury Avenue, Auchterarder. My hair and make up were done by Kate Elliot-Muir. Kate and her assistant Laura did a brilliant job- making us all look great. She really created that lovely natural look which lasted all day.

The Grooms Fashion and Accessories

Andy really likes his clothes so getting the right look was important to him. His Dad, brother and him all had kilts made for them for his brother’s wedding which was in the ‘Morrison’ Tartan. This was a strange coincidence as this was the Tartan used for my school kilt and was a nice personal touch for both of us. He decided to get a new jacket and waistcoat made for the wedding. This was made by Geoffrey Tailor, Edinburgh. My wedding present for Andy was new personalised cufflinks with our initals and date of our wedding on them. He wore these on the day. They were made by Graham Stewart, Dunblane. I think he looked pretty gorgeous on the day!

The Venue

We wanted the wedding to be as personal and local as possible. I grew up in Perthshire and Andy in St Andrews. As we were moving back to St Andrews we decided to have the wedding close to where I grew up and therefore I could get ready at my parents house. The ceremony was in Fowlis Wester Church which is a lovely small church up on a hill. It was so atomospheric on the day and filled with pot plants which we put in ourselves and a flower arch done by the florist it looked gorgeous. Andy and I really wanted the reception to be as relaxed as possible so a converted barn worked perfectly for us. We chose the lovely Bachilton Barn, Methven which was about a ten minutes drive from the church. It was also personal to me as I used to ride there when I was little. James England and his team were very accommodating allowing us to fill it with nearly a hundred paper pompoms (thanks mum and dad for making those!), attaching a giant bunch of balloons to the gazeebo outside (thanks to The Giant Balloon Company for the 3ft balloons) and even allowing us to put on an air display by Andy’s Dads friend (Thank you Dai!).

Colour scheme/ décor

We went for the ‘more is more’ look with as much colour and textures as possible. We bought a lot of candles on bamboo stakes from ‘The Range’ which we put around the lake. This looked really atmospheric and was really worth the effort for the evening look of the wedding. We got around twenty 3ft balloons from The Giant Balloon Company and attached these to a gazeebo to try and add as much colour as possible. It ended up looking a bit like the house from ‘Up’ which we loved and definitely brightened up the outside space when the weather was pretty grey and wet. The inside of the barn was a blank canvas so we added colour with around 90 giant paper poms poms strung up behind the top table and colourful flowers on the table. In the room where we had the dancing the venue already had white drapes and fairy lights in the eaves. We added colour with paper streamers which we got off amazon and I really loved the final look.

Flowers

I love flowers and wanted as many as we could have. We really wanted the flowers to be colourful and loosely structured. Casey did a great job and really captured the look I wanted. She made a beautiful half flower arch for the church entrance and then filled the mercury glass vases we had bought from The Range with an assortment of peonies, eucalyptus, sweet williams and various other (unknown!) flowers. She also did beautiful bouquets made from the same flowers for myself, the 4 bridesmaids and the two flower girls. We all had flower pieces in our hair and the groom and groomsmen had button holes with sweet Williams and foliage.

Wedding Party Fashion

I had four gorgeous bridemaids with all very different skin and hair tones. To keep in with the colourful, happy theme to the wedding and to suit their different colourings I chose a corn flower blue dress from Hobbs for the bridesmaids dresses. The colour also provided a lovely backdrop to the flowers. The bridesmaids wore their own nude coloured heels. The flower girls wore ivory dresses from John Lewis, silver sandals from Marks and Spencers and flower crowns made by the florist. The page boys had three piece suits from Marks and Spencers. The groomsmen looked very smart and handsome in rented jackets and kilts from Jeffrey Tailor.

The Ceremony

We both said at the end of the day that the ceremony was definitely the best part of the day. It was the most amazing moment of my life walking down the aisle with my Dad seeing Andy at the end of the aisle and all my friends and family around me. It was made extra special by our wonderful minister, David Denniston. He put us both at ease and gave us a really personal service. One of the highlights of the day and our service was my sister writing a reading just for our wedding. She is a brilliant writer and it nearly made the whole room cry! We chose Corinthians chapter 13 as the other reading and ‘For the beauty of the earth’, ‘One more step along the world I go’ and ‘Lord of all hopefulness’ as the hymns.

The Band

Wow what a band! We had ‘Callanish’ who are based in Edinburgh. They were absolutely incredible and nearly everyone was on the dance floor all night. They did everything from the Beatles to Taylor Swift and great Ceilidh music. We and all our guests couldn’t recommend them more!

The Food

We had an outside caterer who was recommended by the venue, Alastair Gourley. Alastair and his team were fantastic. We wanted a fairly rustic but delicious meal that everyone would like and this was definitely delivered. We went for extra canapes as we have found they have ran out at previous weddings we have been too. We chose melon and parma ham to start followed by roast lamb on the centre of each table with a selection of salads for main and then cheesecake with berries for dessert- yum!

The Photographer

What can I say Emma describes herself as a ‘photo ninja’ on her website and she definitely lives up to this description! What a lovely person and she was just like one of the guests on the day. She was never bossy or imposing like other photographers I have seen and she was so flexible on the day. We had horrendous weather and as such everything seemed to run late. She was really happy to just do some photos before the meal and some after. I love the end result- relaxed happy photos which capture the different moments of the day. Thank you Emma!

Final Words

We had the most wonderful day which was just what we wanted- relaxed, colourful, filled with our family and friends and of course each other! Like everyone else I definitely would recommend not sweating the small stuff- try and find the best providers you can, book them, check the week before they are still coming and then forget about it. Enjoy it all and good luck!