Katie & Ben

I think Katie and Ben performed the best first dance routine I have ever seen. Now that's a bold statement, but their moves are literally outrageous, it looked like such fun and we do love a couple who properly throw themselves into things :) The gorgeous pair married in a stunning Scottish wedding venue overlooking Loch Lomond. Boturich Castle looks like a magical place to tie the knot and then party until the small hours. The whole celebration has been captured by the wonderful Tub of Jelly who have totally nailed capturing that soft, hazy, grey Scottish light that seems to come and go in a flash. Enjoy this one lovelies, it's a proper knees up.

The Bride

Katie The Bride: The dress I chose was the first dress I tried on, I had seen it online and ordered it in to a local bridal shop to try on. I loved its simplicity, its fit and style.

 I chose to go with art deco accessories as it is an era that I love.

The Groom

Ben chose a family tartan in the weathered style, it went really well with a green tweed jacket and hand knitted socks from his aunt.

The Venue

The main criteria for our venue was to pick somewhere with a blank canvas to decorate how we wanted, somewhere with stunning views, grounds or surroundings. A venue large enough to host a big wedding. 

Fortunately Ben's youngest sister's had worked at the venue before and recommended it. We googled the venue, loved the photos and booked the venue before we had seen it in real life!

The Decor

The main theme for our wedding was trees. We got engaged under one of our favourite trees in Hertfordshire. It's a huge tree that has featured in many films such as Harry Potter, Sleepy Hollow and Into The Woods.
 
We decided to have different trees for our table plan. Each table had a picture of a tree that we had taken on our travels. It included trees close to the homes we grew up in, trees from Italy, New York, Namibia, and various places around the UK. The place names were slices of wood, each name was engraved by the bride's mum with a wood burner. 

We chose bee friendly seeds in handmade packets for the ladies and homemade sloe gin (made by the bride's dad) for the men (to share with the ladies) as our wedding favours. 

We had a fingerprint tree painted by Ben's mum for our guest book. 

We had an old luggage case lined with old animal printed paper for our cards.

 We displayed pictures of the significant people in our lives who couldn't be there on the day.

 We made our own Photo Booth, decorated the walls with pictures of ourselves together and bought props and had the ushers and bridesmaids man the camera for small stints during the evening. The pictures are brilliant!

The Flowers

We decided that we wanted the flowers to be seasonal and wild as if you had gone into a field and scooped up all the flowers. That theme carried out through all the flower arrangements. 

I chose a natural waterfall bouquet and in it were flowers picked from various relatives gardens. The bridesmaids bouquet had shades of purple to compliment their green dresses, each bouquet was lightly different. The groomsmen each had a buttonhole, again each individual. Along the aisle we had small arrangements in jars tied to chairs. 

There were three different types of centrepieces, watering cans, log vases (handmade by the bride's dad), and arrangements of jars with old fashioned books of Scottish/English authors, Chiropractic books (we are both chiropractors) and places we've visited.

The Wedding Party

Each bridesmaid wore a dress that they chose to suit their style. We voted for long dresses in the same material in different shades of green.

 The groomsmen wore their own kilts and tan shoes, we matched them with green socks, grey tweed jackets and waistcoats and a dark green tie.

The Ceremony

We chose to have a humanist ceremony allowing us to design our own ceremony and vows. We wrote our vows based on our values of being in a relationship, as part of the ceremony we had a hand fasting ceremony.

 One of our very best friends had written his own reading and read it out to us for the first time on the day. 

As we signed the register, we had a friend sing "Is This Love" by Bob Marley and "If I Had A Million Dollars" by The Bare Naked Ladies acoustically on his guitar.

The Entertainment

During the reception we had a piper and a drummer. 

The evening entertainment was a surprise mash up first dance for the guests including songs You & Me, Funk Soul Brother, Happy, Digital Love, Love Never Felt So Good, Beat It, Spice Up Your Life, Uptown Funk & Never Had A Friend Like Me. This was followed by a Ceilidh then a DJ.

The Food

For the canapes we had made a "trail mix" for our guests, a mixed bag of nuts, seeds, popcorn, dried fruit and vegetables. 

We had a three course menu and a choice for our guests. All the food was Paleo - gluten, wheat and dairy free. 

Our cake was made to look like slices of wood. We had a three tier gluten free cake each layer was a different flavour - chocolate orange, lemon and vanilla. It was delicious! 

In the evening we had a cold meat and said buffet.

The Photography

My sister (maid of honour) found our photographer. She told me to look it up as she knew I would love the style. I loved the website, the pictures, blog and the friendliness really showed.

 Fortunately they were available and we booked them right a way! 

We met at an engagement shoot, we were really happy to have done it, we got used to being in front of the camera and got to meet Tub of Jelly; friendly, relaxed and we got on right away. We were so happy with the photos and again were so nice to have around. Tub of Jelly really listened to us, got what we were about and as a result our photos show that.

Advice

If you want to make it personal, write your own vows. It's fun to do and helps you to check in on what the day is really all about. 

Film your ceremony and speeches, it's so nice to have them to look back on as it is so hard to remember it all. 

Invest in a good photographer, preferably Tub of Jelly ;)