Nicola & Chris

So if I said Game of Thrones-inspired wedding in a Scottish castle to you, you'd probably be like 'uhhh whattt??!?' But seriously, this wedding is the perfect example of how to have a theme to your wedding day, without looking like you're in fancy dress. Nicola looks like some sort of beautiful elfin Princess and Chris is her beardy Scottish warrior. The whole day is sumptuous, opulent and full of joy from start to finish. As always Tub of Jelly have captured proceedings in still and in motion to perfection - I defy you to not have goosebumps while watching the film. Oh, and who knew Scottish water could be so turquoise??! And finally, I feel like I can't let this feature pass by without mentioning that Nicola walked down the aisle to the Jurassic Park theme tune. Genius idea. Who doesn't love those strings?!

The Bride

Nicola the Bride: I wanted to have a classic, elegant look for my big day, but with an option to take off the sleeves for the evening portion so I could have some fun with the look. I worked with designer Matthew Christopher to create a custom gown to allow me to do so! I also wanted to do a headpiece that gave me a "Lord of the Rings" elvish princess feel, because, why not! I found it at Bridals by Lori and have never found a piece anything like it out there! In fact, I can't find it anywhere online, but it really pulled the feel of the look together. But yeah, we have a show on TV over here called Say Yes to the Dress and my sisters were begging me to let us look at dresses at the venue. Well, we did, and we actually found everything there! They were gaga overseeing everyone from the show and I was just happy I was going to get the dress of my dreams!

The Groom

Coming from America where the guys NEVER get a chance to wear kilts, we thought it was only appropriate we have him wear a kilt in my dad's tartan! Plus it will always be fun to look back on the day we BOTH looked awesome in skirts :)

The Venue

I knew we wanted to get married in a castle, but planning the entire wedding from the states I really just had to use the power of the internet to help me come to the right one! Culzean Castle is what we finally decided on. My parents took me there when I was a baby, and they both loved it so much, so I knew it had to be the right one. It was more than breathtaking, and I can't even begin to brag on how great everyone there was to work with! The setting was beautiful and perfect for pictures and to really feel like a king and queen on the big day! They blew us away, and they happened to bring the best weather Scotland had seen in months for us! I love the idea we can stay at the castle on our anniversaries for many, many years to come!

The Decor

Honestly, I put all my trust into Linzi Deprez from Jack Fleuriste to come up with our colour scheme. Since she was in charge of the flowers, she pulled from colours in the room to make a palette out of this world! I can't thank her and her eye for colour enough! She had a vision and I trusted her with every move! From the centrepieces to the flower crowns, every detail was covered and seeing it come together was breathtaking.

The Wedding Party

I hate when the bridesmaids are all wearing the same boring colour or even worse, the same dress! I wanted them to feel like princesses as well on this day! They chose dresses that made them feel beautiful, and by gosh they sure did look gorgeous! Flower girls dress was handmaid by my mother in law and the tiny kilt for the ring bearer was too!

The Ceremony

Coming from America again, I had no idea about Humanist weddings or what they involved. I found Ken Eadie through the directory and fell in love with him. He walked us through every step and made our ceremony incredibly personal and special for us. He had us write secret answers to questions beforehand, and read them during the ceremony so we heard what each other had to say for the first time. It was wonderful, and couldn't have done it without him, literally!

The Entertainment

SO! Sooooo when I was a little girl, I learned how to play the violin, and my favourite song to play was the Jurassic Park theme song. I always wanted to walk down the aisle to it when I got married, don't ask me why, but the more I thought about it, the more I said, what the heck, let's surprise my hubby-to-be with a great song! Finding a string band to go along with my crazy idea was another story! I searched high and low and finally found Amarone Music and Siobhán said they would be up for the challenge! Everyone loved it! I also hired the Maybole Pipe Band which were AMAZING and duh, made everyone cry. The Empire Band at night was amazing. I like to say there are like the band at the end of the movie "10 things I hate about you" because they are just so much energy and a joy to work with! I mean, I got to dance in a big white dress to Rage Against the Machine.

The Food

Wilde Thyme Catering was recommended by Culzean Castle, and I am so glad they did! The food was 5 star with presentation, and service, and it was DELISH! They even accommodated myself and some other vegetarians to a meal fit for a queen! The timing of everything when off without a hitch and the meal was just flawless. Kandy Bar Bakery out of Saltcoats made us a BEAUTIFUL wedding cake with these adorable little vintage Scottish dolls I found on Etsy! Cutting the cake with a sword was pretty epic too!

The Photography

To say none of this would have been possible without Betty and David from Tub of Jelly, is an understatement. I still don't know how I found them deep in the googles, but I am so happy I did. They are over the top talented, as you can see by their work, but more than that, they are hilarious, incredibly helpful and pretty much like the coolest couple you could ever meet! They gave advice on vendors to use, places to go, just about everything. As soon as I saw their work, I knew I had to base my entire wedding off their availability because they have the vision to pull of something so beautiful. I hope one day we can be as cool as them, but for now, I just have amazing pictures to drool over, knowing I found the perfect people to help me pull off the most perfect day of my life :)

Special Details

I would say my most favourite DIY thing I did was, well every night of the 5 days building up to the wedding, I did a pillow present for each of our guests. Let me rewind a bit...The whole reason we chose to have a destination wedding in Scotland is because my dad is from there and it has always been a special part of our lives. I wanted to show 70 of our closest family members and friends from America how absolutely magical Scotland truly is and boy did they see it. We showed them Glasgow, the highlands, the pubs, and more pubs! But back to the pillow presents - every night my dad wrote all of our guests a letter, with a theme of Scotland and our family. Each night was a theme of the past, the present, today and the future, all talking about how Scotland has changed so much in his life and now into all of ours. It was a wonderful thing to share with everyone. We found someone one Etsy who created a seal with my husband and my initials on it, so we wax stamped them all in a very Game of Thrones kind of way. We also gave everyone an old fairy tale book on the night before the wedding, to really pull together how special this whole fairy tale was, being in a castle and all, and how they were now apart of our story. I guess since we came thousands of miles we really couldn't come bearing suitcases full of records and fun mid century stuff that represents us, that you see in so many weddings decorations, but instead we could bring paper full memories, history, and a gift to everyone that was this new chapter in all of our story.... Plus I had wonderful vendors, a beautiful setting and the DIY Scottish weather gods on my side to make this the best day of our lives...whole dang thing.