Susie & Frazer

Whenever a wedding from Tub Of Jelly lands in our submissions platform, we always know it's going to be an absolute riot. Husband and wife duo Betty & David just attract the most fun loving, party loving, stylish couples. This afternoon's gorgeous bride and groom Susie and Frazer even changed their original photographer to bag these guys! And it was most definitely the right decision...these images and film well and truly capture the free spirited nature of their wedding day. Make sure you're sitting comfortably, this is definitely one you'll want to savour. Oh and the film is killer too, so if you're at work, headphones at the ready!

{Watch The Film}

The Bride

Susie The Bride: I knew what I wanted from the start and it was a high necked, long sleeved dress. I was never swayed and that's what I came away with (one even better than I'd originally imagined) I went on my own to visit Emily at Unbridaled in Ayr. Emily stocks really unique dresses, most of which are only held in the U.K. by her. The dress I chose wasn't the one I'd gone to try but I did have my 'this is the one' moment. The decider being if I could change the neckline, the back and add a split! Emily never said no and amazingly got my vision. With so much going on with the dress we added a really simple veil. She contacted the designer in Romania armed with some dodgy sketches I'd made and they were happy to make the changes. Shoes were hard. I'd wanted a metallic ankle boot. These proved to be elusive and so I went for a block heeled grey Senso shoe I'd spotted on Instagram. I didn't want anything obvious and I wanted to have shoes I would wear again and again. My old, new, borrowed and blue were all present. My grans gold locket with her and I inside tied around my bouquet. My new shoes, I borrowed my sister in law, Tanya's fine gold necklace and had blue topaz's in my gold hoop earrings. A wedding present from my mum and dad. The only other jewellery I wore was a fine gold bracelet on my wrist, a present from my bridesmaid Jo. Makeup and hair completely changed on the day but it was an easy task for Ann Marie and Donna from AMM. I went with a trusty messy top knot. Frazers only stipulation was that I wore my hair up. Make-up wise the one thing I new I had to have was a red (ish) lip and I wore my trusty favourite from MAC, 'so chaud' perfectly matched to my nails by Jen at Buff Concepts in Edinburgh.

The Groom

One of the ladies I work alongside, Claire is married to Dan, the owner and managing director at Stuart Christie & Co Edinburgh. Our luck was in. We knew the very man to make the perfect suit in Edinburgh. Frazer knew what he wanted and went for a blue tweed suit with a cream and blue checked waistcoat. He wore a pocket watch and a rose gold pinkie ring engraved with the number 27 I'd given him in the morning for his gift. 27 is 'our' number. We were both born on that date and it was the date of our wedding. Frazer wore shoes from Reiss. He should have worn a Reiss shirt but it was delivered to the wrong address in Moffat and he didn't manage to get it back 'til weeks after the wedding. So it was an M&S shirt from our master of ceremonies, Ross that he donned on the day.

The Venue

We were married at Dyke Farm. Frazers brother and his new wife had married there the previous year and when they announced it as their venue we reconsidered having it as ours. But they had their reception in gorgeous TeePee marquees down in one of the fields so we knew we could have a completely different wedding. We were married and had the reception in the 'Atlas Shed' right at the end of George's (Frazer's dads) busiest time of the year, lambing time! We're sure this pleased him no end. If it did, he didn't let it show through his 'jolly disposition' and he worked really hard on what he called his 'labour of love'. We'll never be able to thank Frazer's parents enough for all the help in getting the venue ready. We knew the shed itself wouldn't be enough space to hold the wedding and get married in so we contacted Lowland Marquees who live at the top of the farm road. They erected a marquee outside for the bar area, and in case it rained to have the ceremony in. Boy did it rain! They also put a marquee shell inside to hide the barn roof and side walls and give us a blank canvas to work with.

The Decor

White, green and gold. To sum up the style in a theme I would say industrial bohemian?! We painted the back barn wall white to give us a blank canvas behind the top table. I loved the wall with the crisp greenery falling down it. I got great clean white plain chairs from Get Knotted. We were getting married on a farm but I didn't want a typical county twee wedding. We used vintage gold candlesticks and contrasted these with simple brown bottles holding candles and flowers and crisp white table clothes. We decided not to put flooring down and stuck with the concrete, expertly power washed by myself, Frazer and his mum & dad in the weeks leading up. Our chill out corner was more bohemian. I pretty much uprooted my living room and brought it to the farm! With the gold picture frames, lanterns, cushions and mirrors. We hired the rugs from Carnival Chaos in Edinburgh. They also sent us the beige cushions (which should have been white) one of the very few 'disasters' on the day. The wicker chairs we used to sit on to sign the register and during the meal were bought for £10 on gumtree. We also used gumtree for the gorgeous gold table that held our cocktails for the ceremony. The 2 Moroccan pouffes in the chill out area and the little trolley for our doughnuts. Various other things were sourced from our parents and relatives. The peacock chair belonged to the auntie of one of my bridesmaids. We had lengths of festoon lights above the tables, wrapped in vines made by my 'aunties'. Again the green looked great against the white, but this time it was twinking! One of my brighter ideas was the balloon banner that read 'til death do us party' & ended up being an engineering nightmare for the groomsmen the day before, one burst 'T', a bridal strop & numerous hours later it was up and looking amazing. My sister in law Seonaid saved the day and got us a new 'T' from Dumfries on the morning of the wedding. By keeping each end of the internal marquee open we were able to show off the beautiful white painted stone wall at one end and make a real feature of it with the greenery behind the top table. At the other open end we had the gangway. Normally used to feed the cattle from, it was now a stage! We filled the trough in front with hay and flowers and put pallets with more flowers and candles at either end. With the 'til death do us party' banner behind and the disco ball chandelier hanging from the ceiling in front. The band had the perfect space to perform.

The Flowers

Originally the plan was for my mum's best friends, Auntie Jean, Ann & Margaret to do all our flowers. I then worried that it was a bit much and not very fair to expect that all from them so they concentrated on the venue and what a job they did. My favourite part was the greenery behind the top table and the vines on the festoon lights. Both of which I was inspired to do from good ol Pinterest! They made us a gorgeous archway and did our top table flowers, the also scoured the roadside for cow parsley or Queen Anne's lace for the brown bottles. They were Wonder Women and were such an important part of our wedding. They also sang the loudest and went a bit accapella during the ceremony! So what was I going to do? I know! I'd go with the florist I'd been perving on before I'd decided maybe I needed someone else to do my bridal party flowers hmmmmm, funny that! I met with Linzi (Jack Fleuriste) and bored her completely with all my wedding ideas, so much that she had to put more money in her car. I let Linzi know what flowers I liked (most of which my mum had in her garden) The brief was white, wild and messy! And she delivered the flowers of dreams. Linzi sent me pictures the night before and I loved them. The pictures didn't do them justice. The flowers were out of this world. They looked and smelt divine. My flower crown was exactly the subtle at the front, party at the back headdress we'd spoken of. Bursting with beautiful peonies. My bouquet was breathtaking and exactly what I'd asked for, it smelt divine and had poppies weaving away in all directions. My bridesmaids looked amazing with their green wreath in their hair and stunning bouquets that tied in beautifully with mine. My nieces who were junior bridesmaids had two handfuls of white flowers ands a beautiful simple headdress with gold ribbon at the back.

The Wedding Party

Bridesmaids were all really easy to sort out. They're all babes so it was easy to find a style to suit and they ended up with a simple little ASOS number that reminded me of a Reformation dress I'd been eyeing up for them on Instagram! The plan was to have them all in something different but when they all kept saying, can I have that one then? All were in the same. The pleats in their skirts went so well with the way my dress fell. The rose gold necklaces they wore were their gifts, along with a little Jo Malone perfume to wear on the day and beyond. Shoes were from Pretty Little Thing and were plain and rose gold, although maybe a little high! They wore plain green crowns. All were mouldable and Ann Marie styled them differently on each bridesmaid. They're all so different and that was where hair and makeup came in. Allowing all of them to be their own amazing selves on the day. Ann Marie and Donna from AMM saw them all as individuals and styled them in that way. They all looked so beautiful. My junior bridesmaids were my nieces Amy and Jane. They wore tulle skirts from Boohoo and little lace crops from H&M over a River Island bodysuit. The high street did us proud and I had a wee tear when I saw them both with their hair and makeup done. They were absolutely beautiful. Groomsmen all wore their own kilts to keep them a little different. With the same blue tweed jackets from Nicholson Kilt Hire that tied in beautifully with Frazer's blue tweed suit. They had white shirts as a gift and a Molten Brown aftershave.

The Ceremony

The ceremony was my favourite part of our day. When I arrived (finally, I was a poor show and 45 mins late) I could've run down the aisle I was so excited. We were married by Moira Heatly from the independent humanist society. Our ceremony was full of fun and laughter. It was really personal and Moira did such a wonderful, warm job. At the start we lit a candle for all those who weren't there. We passed around our rings so everyone could hold them and send us wishes...we weren't sure we were going to get them back! My cousin Claire did a reading. John Cooper Clarke - I Wanna Be Yours (also used by Alex Turner in the Arctic Monkeys song - I Wanna Be Yours). I had Frazer sold on the poem before he knew it was an Arctic Monkeys song. I'm a huge fan. Him not so much, ever since the time I got so drunk at their concert I ended up in a wheelchair wearing a tin foil coat! Kinda ruined his night! We had everyone singing The Beatles - 'All You Need is Love' some sang louder than others but I'm sure everyone joined in. Andy, the lead singer from our band lead the way playing it on his acoustic guitar. It was really special. We signed the register and then sealed the marriage by shaking up a cocktail. A pina colada! As Moira spoke of how this created warmth and visions of blue skies and sunshine the heavens opened and there was the most amazing thunderstorm! The groomsmen had the sides of the marquee down before we knew it. It was incredible and made our marriage even more special. We drank our cocktails and made our was up the aisle to Stevie Wonder's Signed Sealed Delivered underneath a shower of gold from the confetti cannons (the ones that people held the correct way & didn't discharge at their feet!)

The Entertainment

Entertainment was simple. A band, Superhouse. We both love our music and had trawled the internet trying not to find a typical wedding band! Superhouse were just that and played zero cheese. We were so lucky and grateful for Andy who helped with sound throughout the day and sang and played for us at the ceremony. He also built a playlist for during drinks and the meal of all our favourite songs.

The Food

Our caterer was Caterbirds. Peter was amazing and completely unfazed by anything I though was a problem. The small river running through the middle of his catering tent was a minor blip! The canapés were delicious and they just kept coming, we had an unlimited supply of mini fish finger sandwiches, cheese (& quince) toasties, prawn, beef and chicken skewers and other mini delights. The drinks throughout, whether they were cocktails, champagne, wine, beers or spirits were all thanks to my mum and dad who much to everyone's delight on the day supplied a free bar. We were so grateful (as were the guests!) the caterers mixed us cocktails into huge Kilner jars so everyone could help themselves from the bar. For our main meal we went family style and served it to the middle of the table for everyone to share. It's the way we like to eat and the kind of thing we both love to eat. There was roast shoulder of pork, macaroni cheese, rosemary & sea salt roast potatoes, garlicky sweet potato mash, minted and chillied greens and slaw. For dessert we served our wedding cake. A beautiful double layer chocolate drop cake, made by Frazer's mum. Our sister in law Seonaid makes cakes for a living in her tea room Nona Lou's in Dumfries. She made at our request an amazing caramel popcorn drip cake. We called in many favours from friends and family. We had fruit cake, frangipani tarts (rhubarb for me, raspberry for Frazer) carrot cake, pavlova, lime & coconut ring, chocolate brownies, elderflower and banana cake. We had a donut disaster just weeks before the wedding and were let down by two separate suppliers. The bearded baker came to the rescue and made us the most amazing donuts, we had pina colada, rhubarb and ginger, peanut butter and raspberry jam. For the evening our caterer sorted us out with the most delicious burgers & veggie burgers from 'BJ's' burger van!

The Photography

Choosing our and booking our photographer was the first thing we did. Something I came to regret. His work was gorgeous. But after following so many blogs and seeing so many other styles I realised his style just wasn't 'us.' After WEEKS of 'toing' & 'froing' We decided to contact Tub Of Jelly. Our favourites from all the other photographers & videographers I'd been torturing myself looking at. If they weren't available we were going to stick with our original photographer. I emailed Betty & David, we filled out their online dating style application form, to see if we were compatible with them (luckily we were!) and we had our dream photographers and videographers all rolled up in a neat lil cool cats husband and wife package. It was the best decision we made. The photographs were completely relaxed and unposed. The video we still can't get over. How Betty & David managed to condense our entire day into 6 mins and still capture everything about our day and about us as a couple I'll never know. But they did!

Advice

Our whole wedding was a huge DIY project. As I'm sure everyone says...it was a bigger project than I ever imagined it to be! But I LOVED styling it. I couldn't believe that the image I had in my head completely came to life and it looked exactly as I had imagined. I genuinely didn’t think it was possible. I discovered some hidden skills & I worked hard to source stuff. We’ve decided if we can drum up enough interest and build on everything we have then hiring it out could be an option, an option that will go well alongside my newly developed calligraphy skills! My advice would be to know you can’t control everything and on the day, roll with it! Your Dad might stand on your dress but that’ll be the least of your worries, by the end of the night your dress may look tie died with mud from the floor up! You might stand in a cow pat at the end of the night. A small river could begin to flow through your reception! Don’t sweat the small stuff. It’ll be the best day of your life no matter what. (& take your time, research & choose great suppliers, they make all the difference. Well they did for us!)