Inspiration

I always love featuring weddings that take place outside, especially when the couple are lucky with the weather. Heather and Bruce's big day, held next to a Scottish loch was bathed in glorious sunshine - or at least it looks that way in the images by Weddings Vintage ;) We're always so envious of our Scottish couples who can legally marry in the great outdoors. The day was so lovely that the couple headed out on the water in a boat, which made for the most gorgeous images. Enjoy this one, it's full of gorgeous flowers and fashion too...

The Bride

Heather The Bride: I always knew that I wanted a backless lace dress with a long train that I could feel comfortable dancing around in, yet elegant at the same time. After a long search, I finally came across this Martina Liana dress (style 794) that was adapted from 2 designs to create my perfect style. It was from Pan Pan Bridal in Edinburgh. My something old was a leaf and diamante tiara that I found in a vintage shop before I’d even bought my dress! It was the perfect touch of whimsical and a little ‘Titania’ from a Midsummer Night’s dream. I added shoes from Jimmy Choo (style Evelyn) for a cheeky bit of glamour.

The Groom

Bruce opted for a modern tailor-made kilt suit, with matching waistcoat and jacket in a blue herringbone tweed, worn with his family's tartan, 'Mackenzie', tie. All sourced from The Kilt Store in Edinburgh. Sadly, Bruce’s Mum and my Dad are no longer with us, so on the morning of our wedding I gave him a silver locket containing a picture of his Mum to wear inside the jacket.

The Venue

We got married on Saturday 18th June at Altskeith Country House on Loch Ard in Scotland. This was the perfect venue for us because it allowed us to have a relaxed, informal day surrounded by beautiful scenery. I loved the large garden and pretty stream that ran through it and all the trees were lit up at night which made the whole space look really magical. The big draw was that we could rent out the whole house for the weekend, spending quality time with both our families. We spent Friday decorating and setting up the venue, and the day after nursing a few hangovers and sharing stories from the wedding over a meal and drinks. Because most of our friends and family had travelled from Yorkshire and London, it was a nice way to extend the mini break for guests too.

The Décor

We didn’t consciously chose a specific theme but found ourselves drawn to colours and props that reflected the scenery around us including the loch, forest and natural fauna. We collected pine cones from the forest to use in the table centrepieces, and cut endless strips of ivy from our garden to decorate the ceiling. We made most of the decorations ourselves, including the sign posts, chairs backs and wall back drop made from natural strips of fabric such as lace, hessian and chiffon. I found two 5 metre pieces of doweling in our garage and secured strips of fabric to each piece. We used Command clips to stick to the wall (they don't damage the walls) and secured with some fishing wire. I bought some hollow wooden letters and filled them with florist foam and flowers from the supermarket which ended up costing around £7 per letter to spell out the word LOVE. We made the whisky favours ourselves and I designed and printed the favour labels, table plan and place settings at home. We couldn't have done any of this without the help from our friends and family who baked cakes, collected jam jars and helped us to decorate the venue for the big day.

The Flowers

Our florist, Elaine, from Pretty Little Flowers was from the neighbouring town of Callander and made my bridal and bridesmaid bouquets, button holes, a floral garland for the cast iron archway and provided a selection or fresh flowers for us to decorate the tables ourselves. My bouquet was made up of lilac roses, daisies, veronica, sweetpea, purple heather and clematis tied together with long flowing ribbons. The bridesmaids had slightly smaller versions of the same. The groom and groomsmen’s button holes included heather, a white rose and Scottish thistle to represent our Yorkshire and Scottish roots. My Mum gave me ‘something borrowed’ which was her locket with a picture of my Dad in it. I tied it around my bouquet as a way of him walking me down the aisle. Our centrepieces were made of old jam jars which friends and family had collected for us over the year. I used three per table and purchased enough flowers from Elaine to fill each one for around £5 per jar. I bought some wooden fairies and fabric butterflies from Hobbycraft to decorate each centrepiece.

The Wedding Party

The bridesmaids wore soft peachy-nude dresses from Debenhams and metallic silver shoes from ASOS. My niece, the flower fairy, wore a matching colour tutu dress and flower headband from Accessorize and carried a personalised wand from Not On The High Street. My nephews and the groomsmen wore blue suits with matching Mackenzie tartan ties and the best man’s kilt suit was also from The Kilt Store in Edinburgh.

The Ceremony

We had a humanist ceremony under the tree in the garden with stunning views of Ben Lomond in the background. Bruce’s sister did a lovely reading for us during the ceremony and we finished with a traditional ‘tying the knot’ ritual which had everyone going ‘a-ha’ at the end.

The Entertainment

Our band Daytura were incredible and had everyone up dancing from start to finish. We wanted a real party and a band that had lots of energy so when we found these guys we were so happy. They played everything from rock, blues and indie and even took to the time to learn our favourite song, Everlong by the Foo Fighters. We also had an acoustic set in the afternoon that played in the garden whilst everyone enjoyed garden games in the sun.

The Food

We wanted an informal meal for the wedding breakfast, so instead of the usual 3 course dinner we had a BBQ of steak burgers, king prawns and a variety of seasonal salads all served to the tables. We created a ‘cake table’ where everyone could help themselves to deserts made by family and friends. We had chocolate cakes, fairy buns, Victoria sponges and a beautiful rainbow cake made by a friend of a friend who we have never even met which I thought was really touching. Our canapes included mini Yorkshire puddings, langoustine tempura, goats cheese with heather honey and wild mushroom aranchini.

The Photographer

We had the wonderful Harriet from Weddings Vintage do our wedding photography. She was brilliant throughout the day and we felt very relaxed around her all-day long.
Fern Godfrey

Written by Fern Godfrey

Bride: Martina Liana | Boutique: Pan Pan Bridal | Shoes: Jimmy Choo | Kilt: The Kilt Store | Venue: Altskeith Country House | Flowers: Pretty Little Flowers | Bridesmaids: Debenhams | Shoes: ASOS | Band: Daytura

Inspirational articles you may also find useful