Inspiration

The jewel tones at this Autumn wedding are a complete knockout, as is bride Amy, with her perfect porcelain skin and flower crown of dreams. The delicate lace neckline and long sleeved Blake Pronovias gown she dons too is utterly divine and her best girls look like absolute sirens by her side in their floral gowns and faux fur stoles. Together they definitely make up one hell of a stylish bridal party. The gorgeous magenta & purple hued blooms are echoed in the quaint Pollokshields Burgh Hall reception along with sentimental trinkets from the couples past to add a personal touch to the abundance of DIY decor. You literally can't help being drawn in by all the love and beauty captured by The Gibsons Photography. And did I mention the blooms....

The Dress

Amy the Bride: I wasn’t too fazed by dress shopping and I hadn’t really looked at dresses apart some features and pictures from my first SWD copy that my best friend had brought round after I had just got engaged. I knew that I definitively would be wanting something fully laced, high necked and with sleeves as that’s more my style. I just wanted to feel comfortable yet glamourous and quite classic. It was raw lace, high necked, sleeved and was a fishtail / trumpet style. It was by Pronovias and it was called ‘Blake’. I purchased the dress from Anne Priscilla in Glasgow.

Bridal Accessories

I wore a pearl bracelet, diamond pear drops stud earrings, an old blue sapphire ring that belongs to my mum, I had a veil made by Baba C Designs that had tiny crystals on it that were subtle enough to just give a little sparkle. I had amazing shoes by Charlotte Mills. They were ivory leather courts with a stunning gold block heel. The sole of the shoes have a very sweet poem on them. The overall look was made complete with a beautiful floral crown made by my florist Lisa of Floral Menagerie.

The Grooms Attire

Barry wore a kilt from McGregor and Duffs Glasgow. He opted for a light grey tweed jacket to stand out from the other guys in the wedding party.

The Venue

Pollokshields Burgh Hall is simple yet stunning. It is in such a pretty red sandstone building and has the charm of a little castle about it. We loved how it was located near the local park and it was surrounded by beautiful mature trees and greenery. Within the venue itself, the light and original features of stained glass windows, natural wood and exposed stone work is stunning. It was also important for us to have a place where we had the flexibility to set up the space and decorated it with our own style and this venue is perfect for that. The staff there are very helpful and friendly too.

Colour Scheme

We didn’t to start with but it began to evolve. We like the pallet of white, black and copper and so we had elements of this palette through our stationery and on the tables. Once Bridesmaids dresses were chosen and having discussed with my florist, it was decided that flowers of jewels colours would really complement the overall look. It certainly gave me that colour pop that I love! I initially struggled to state our theme, it was more of a creative process! I feel its very much representative of things that we love. It had strong elements of metallic that were enhanced with clean whites and a boost of bright jewel colours of purples and pinks!!! We made it as personal as we could with friend and family pictures on display on stacked crates as you entered the venue and a memory table with old things that belonged to us – my granddads old bag for wedding cards and my great grannies old phone that I used to play with when I was so little. We also had the old broken Nokia mobile that Barry smashed open to retrieve the sim card to get my number so he could get my number) on display in a glass bell jar. So our theme and décor was about ‘Saying thanks to the things and people we love!)

Flowers

Lisa of Floral Menagerie is such a talent. I met her at a wedding fair and instantly fell in love with her style of bouquets and colour combinations. Our flowers were amazing and injected our venue with such beautiful colours. Lisa was a great help on the day with setting up all the amazing flowers that we requested to have to decorate the venue. We had a stunning urn arrangement displayed on stacked wooden crates with small mason jars filled with flowers. Our aisle markers and centrepieces were copper sprayed mason jars jam packed full of vibrant purples and pinks. I had a large wild and whimsical bouqets and the bridemaids all had small versions on my own bouquet. Button holes were all unique to each individual guy and I really liked that. The floweres were a mixture of seasonal, blousy flowers such as garden roses (Baronesse), hydrangea, anemones and dahlias with a good mix of spearheaded flowers, sage green eucalyptus and succulents.

The Wedding Party Fashion

Bridesmaids wore gorgeous dresses from ChiChi London. They were fit and flare style which suited everyone’s shape and they had little pockets which were handy for the mobile phones and lip glosses! The print was a gorgeous pansy print and the colours were lovely. They wore antique gold shoes of their own choice and had their hair styled to reflect their own style. Groomsmen wore kilts in the same tartan as Barry’s, Hibernian Heather and they wore a darker charcoal tweed coat and matching waistcoat. We has the all the guys wearing tartan ties rather than cravats.

Ceremony

We had a humanist wedding as we very much wanted the time invested in us and our ceremony to be as personal as it could be. We chose music and readings that we loved and we shared the story about how we met. Our guests adored our ceremony and we are thankful for Claire Digance as our celebrant for she spent a lot of her time speaking with us to plan our ceremony and getting to know us before our big day. We also had a hand-fasting as part of our ceremony which was lovely. The knot signifies tying us together in marriage and we now have the knot framed at home. The ribbons used were of pieces of fabric that we choose for each other. I was so happy to be walking down the aisle with my dad to Barry. It was a moment I will treasure. When I was half way down the aisle Barry tuned around and he gasped. It was very sweet. We had beautiful music played by an ensemble of a flutist, violinist and a guitarist. We choose some favourite songs to be played before, during and after the ceremony. I walked down the aisle to ‘Blackbird’ by The Beatles and we walked up the aisle to “All You Need is Love’ by The Beatles as Barry is a massive Beatles fan, as am I. We wrote our own vows. We wrote them on our own and then shared them with each other before our wedding day. It was definitely an emotional part of our ceremony as the words we shared were significant and important to us. Holding each other’s hands and smiling helped to get through some teary lines. We had 3 readings during our wedding ceremony. Love by Roy Croft read by Amy’s brother James The Union by Robert Fulghum read by friends Pamela and Lyndsay The Art of Marriage by Wilfred A Peterson read by Mark – one of our groomsmen

Entertainment

We had fizz and various canapés after the ceremony. Our guests were entertained by amazing music from our wedding ensemble. We had our friends band play at our wedding. They are called Band of Gold. Their music is brilliant and we danced nearly all night. Everyone was up and the dance floor was jumping all night. We organised a photo booth from The Bygone Photobooth. This went down a storm and everyone got loved it. It was a good idea to have this in the evening for all our guest. Our guest got 2 strips – one strip for them to keep as a memory of their night and another strip was to stick in our photo album. They stuck in pictures and wrote messages to us. This was a great idea for our wedding guest signing book and we love to look back and giggle at everyone’s silly pictures dressed up in props.

Food

We hired caterers to do out food as this was a requirement because of the venue that we had chosen. The caterers did an amazing job from setting up the tables and providing a very good service and friendly staff. They do so many wedding that their experience and skills were very reassuring as we didn't know where to start with food and drink arrangements. We wanted tasty homely food and opted for a menu that reflected the season. We had butternut and red pepper soup to start and then pate and oatcakes or tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella salad as starters then chicken breast stuffed with haggis or steak and peppercorn sauce both served with season vegetables followed by chocolate tart or berry Eton mess as desserts. The food was delicious. We loved our cake. It was 3 tiers of chocolate fudge, lemon drizzle and fruits. It was decorated with purple iced flowers and black polka dots and ribbon to match with our colours and theme. It was from Special Day Cakes in Uddingston.

Photographer

The Gibsons – Chantal and Scott are amazing. We came across their photographs online and we feel in love with the stunning photographs and moments that they pick up on. They captured such beautiful photographs and were so helpful on the day. They were very much part of our day and we were so thankful for that. They have a really good eye for detail and are so natural with their approach to capturing such beautiful moments.

Help

We had so much help from family and friends. My mum grew lots of winter pansies and other plants to pot up and have around the venue. My mum and dad also helped store all the bits and bobs that I collected to decorate the venue. Their spare room turned into my wedding storage unit of wooden crates, candle holders, mason jars and lots of deportations! My brother helped me to spray a lot of my vases and candle sticks copper. Friends helped to make up my wedding favours of little bags of tablet that I been kindly made by my neighbour. Other family members helped to source old photographs that I had on my memory table and my friend helped me to make all the on-the-day stationery.

DIY

All the on the day stationery had been made by my friend Corrin. The glass mason jars and candle stick holders had been spray painted copper. I had stacked crates with framed pictures of family and friends from our wdding party and old wedding photographs of our parents and grandparents. My table plan was an old antique mirror that my dad had found which was painted with black chalk paint and decorated with bunting made from cut up Scotrail tickets! (Our table names were the train stops between Milngavie and Hamilton – our family homes that we commuted between when we first started dating and were still living with our parents!) The venue was decorated with lots of potted up winter pansies that were grown in my folk’s greenhouse.

Advice

I think you have to both be true to who you are and what you like and how you want your day to feel. Yes, we could have gone anywhere to get married but we chose to be married near our home as we wanted to be close by for us and for our guests. We also wanted a venue that allowed us the freedom to make it and decorate it to our own taste because we wanted to make the day as personal to us. But wherever you plan to get married be it 4 hours away or a plane away, it’s because it is what you want to do as a couple. It’s your day and you should be confident in your own decisions. Keep track on budgets and spending and cut back on little things that really won’t make much difference to your day, if things begin to mount up. Your family and friends are your greatest resource so don’t be afraid to ask for help. Go to wedding fayres to meet up with suppliers and see examples of their work. You instantly know if it’s what you are looking for when you make contact and chat about your ideas. Have fun and enjoy the build up as when the day arrives, it goes so quickly. Have an itinery of your day with arrival times etc., this is helpful to share with all involved with the set up of your day from caterers, florist photographers and hair and make up artists. The list of advice could go I reckon!
Charlotte O'Shea

Written by Charlotte O'Shea

Dress Designer: Pronovias - Blake | Bridal Boutique: Anne Priscilla Bridal | Bridal Shoes: Charlotte Mills | Headpiece: Baba-C designs | Grooms Suit: McGregor and Duffs | Venue: Pollokshields Burgh Hall | Florist: Floral Menagerie | Wedding Stationery: A Little Thing Called Love - Invitations | Corrin Strain - Seating Plan | Entertainment: A Marone Music | Band of Gold | Transport: Ecosse Classic Cars | Bridesmaid Dresses: ChiChi London | Makeup: Cat Robertson | Cake: Special Day Cakes | Photobooth: The Bygone Photo Booth | Light Up Letters: Go2 Event Hire - I Love Letters

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