Sarah & Samuel

I love the decor in this afternoon's wedding. Sarah has Iraqi heritage and Sam is an Environmentalist, so they went with a total mish-mash of influences when it came to the styling. Colourful wild flowers in glass bottles, illustrations of birds, metallic tealights and Moroccan lanterns just look totally gorgeous in the rustic barns at Wedderburn Castle (which FYI contains endless amazing backdrops for photographs, as you'll see...) I'm also loving Sarah's make up, she looks totally flawless and her eyebrow game is strong - Anna Millington is a talented lady. Images come from Emma at Fairytale Asylum, who has captured the emotions of the day beautifully, so many proud smiles, loving looks and happy faces.

The Bride

Sarah The Bride: For my dress, I wanted something that had some wow factor but was also classic. After trying all sorts of styles, I decided something figure-hugging was the most flattering on my short frame, and I went for a lace fishtail dress from Pronovias with short lacy sleeves. I think the ‘wow’ factor came along with having quite an impressive train. When we had hypothetically talked about wedding dresses prior to me purchasing it, Sam had insisted that long trains were ‘ridiculous’, but I think he liked it on the day!! I chose a floor length veil, which had an eyelash lace edge and in the evening I threw on a sparkly belt, which I purchased from Lily Bella. I wore some round diamond earrings with matching necklace, purchased as a wedding gift from my mum!

The Groom

The grooms’ outfit was a simpler process. He chose a classic slim fit navy blue three-piece suit from Reiss, with pale pink silk tie and hankerchief, also from Reiss.

The Venue

Sam and I met at Edinburgh University and I grew up in Scotland, so we decided getting married up there would be a nice idea! We wanted a relaxed outdoorsy atmosphere so decided on a Barn wedding and came across the lovely Wedderburn Castle and Barns. They provide the option of using the castle and/or the barns for your wedding and we loved the combination of the two. We had our civil ceremony in the amazing and impressive Ballroom at the Castle and started off the drinks reception at the Castle, before guests milled over to the Barns’ courtyard, to continue the drinks reception there. It was lovely to have everything on one site, and the contrast of the grandeur of the Castle with the laidback atmosphere at the Barns. The Barns are effectively a blank canvas and it was really fun having the option to incorporate our own personal touches, which Cat from Wedderburn Castle was incredibly helpful with. They set up a fire pit for us in the evening and we had lots of fun around that with some sparklers!

The Decor

Because I am Iraqi and Sam is an Environmentalist, we decided on a mish mash of exotic touches, vibrancy and nature! The result was a lot of colour, gold/bronzes and random bits and bobs. I collected a mixture of Moroccan lanterns as centrepieces, surrounded by metallic tealights and jam jars/bottles packed with wildflowers. We chose ‘Birds’ as our theme for table names, given Sam’s keen interest in them, using postcards illustrated by Christine Berrie. We decorated the beams in the Barns with ivy and flower garlands, and lots of twinkly lights including a fairy light canopy, fairy light curtain and festoon lights. We made the table place names ourselves using luggage tags and a stamp kit and ordered a bunch of selfie sticks on Amazon to put on every table, because everyone enjoys a good group selfie.

The Flowers

Our flowers were supplied by the amazing Amanda Fawzi from The Country Garden Company, based in Fife. We wanted a mixture of wildflowers and loved working with her, as she grows them in her own flower garden and offers anything between completely decorating your venue, to supplying buckets of flowers and foliage so that you can do it yourself. She made the vibrant bouquets, buttonholes and flower arrangements for the Castle ballroom. For decorating the Barns, she supplied us with buckets of ivy, and a mixture of wildflowers (included larkspur, cornflowers, love-in-a-mist, snapdragons, peonies, roses, scabious, sweet peas, ammi, phlox, stocks, didiscus), which we arranged into jars and bottles. For the ballroom, I purchased hessian pew ends, which we stuffed with gypsophila and decorated with white ribbon.

The Wedding Party

For my six bridesmaids, I chose a lovely floor length navy blue dress from ASOS. This was so easy as I could order them online and send them directly to them! They are standard sizes and come in normal/petite/tall so they fit really well! We had lovely half-up, half-down hair do’s, styled by Sam Kerr and decorated with gypsophila at the back. For the two best men, we ordered them three-piece suits in grey from Next. Easy!

The Ceremony

We left the civil ceremony a bit last minute to organise, therefore we were pleasantly surprised by how moving it turned out to be! We really struggled to find readings that we liked, but came across the cute ‘A Lovely Love Story’ by Edward Monkton, which is about dinosaurs in love. For the other reading, Sam decided to write a poem and the writing process provided us with hours of entertainment. My best friend and bridesmaid sang ‘At Last’ by Etta James acapella, and it was incredible. We wrote our own vows, which was sounds really cheesy but I am so glad we did because it made the ceremony really meaningful and personal – plenty of tears!

The Entertainment

Before, during and after our ceremony, we had music played by the Erskine String Quartet who were absolutely brilliant. They play a mixture of contemporary and classic. The evening music was from First Class, who were equally brilliant and played a long set which lasted all night! They were great at incorporating songs that we wanted and even learnt a few especially for us.

The Food

For the food, we wanted a Middle Eastern theme and were lucky to come across The Great Northumberland Bread Company, one of the approved caterers as Wedderburn Castle. Owned by Matthew and Zoe Rawlings, their business is predominantly baking delicious bread but they also cater for weddings and were able to provide us with an incredible tailored service, incorporating all of our ideas. They provided wonderful Scottish-inspired canapés which included Roe Deer, Scottish Smoked Salmon and Haggis Bonbons, and we went for a Middle Eastern banquet-style reception meal which included a mixture of mezze starters following by sharing platters for dinner, which our guests really enjoyed. Our beautiful cake was supplied by Big Bear Bakery, who created a gorgeous three tiered cake decorated with gold foil and macaroons. Each tier was a different delicious flavour.

The Photography

We chose an amazing photographer, Fairy Tale Asylum, who travelled all the way from Aberdeenshire to capture our day. I found her on Rock My Wedding and we were delighted with the service we received and the results. She captured so many happy moments beautifully from start to finish which we will treasure.