Hollie & Grant

Proving that rain most definitely doesn't spoil a wedding day, we bring you the lovely Hollie and Grant. This pair had charcoal grey skies and torrential downpours to contend with, but they had massive smiles on their faces for the whole day. Because ultimately - it's just the weather and there's nothing you can do about it. Luckily they also had amazing suppliers on hand to make sure their wedding went without a hitch, despite having to opt for plan B for the ceremony. Hollie's wedding dress by Gemma Sargent will stop you in your tracks, the level of detail is just astonishing and I can't stop looking at it! Such a special piece and one that I'm sure she'll treasure forever. For the Scottish brides to be reading this, team RMW and The Wedding Shop will be in Edinburgh on 17th May for a wedding planning event at the Dundas Street showroom - tickets are free and we'd LOVE to see you there! You just need to register here, after enjoying this gorgeous wedding of course!

The Venue

Hollie The Bride: The ceremony and reception were both held at The Coach House at Kinross House. The Kinross House grounds offered loads of unique ceremony locations. Initially, an outside ceremony in the picturesque vast gardens was our preferred choice, however, the weather had other menacing ideas. The responsive House staff were wonderful and waited until the last possible moment to give us every likely chance of an outside ceremony. However, not to be, and with great haste the staff bounced into action and set up within the very aesthetic Coach House main hall where our ceremony was held by Humanist, Graham Duff. Our wedding breakfast & evening reception was held within a Tipi marquee, erected at the front of The Coach House building. When first engaged we loosely spoke about each other’s ideal wedding venue and day. Somewhat naturally we both agreed from the very start that we would love to have Tipi marquees by Papakata. Our theme flowed on with a rustic style which was just perfect for us. Such striking assemblies merited a similar venue which would accompany the Tipi’s, that is when we discovered Kinross Coach House. It was beyond perfect. As soon as we turned the corner on arrival we fell in love with the building’s façade which was home to first class service down to the smallest detail. The venue kept on ‘ticking the boxes’ by offering 10 luxury bedrooms, meaning our wedding party could relax in luxury with use of the Coach House Spa facilities the entire weekend. Not to mention, the unbelievable scenery around the Coach house and incredible views from the gardens made for the most incredible photos. Papakata offered many different options based on our wishes and numbers. After having much fun exploring their fab website, we chose 3 tipis joined together with solid wood tables, bare chivari chairs, copper lanterns and simple foliage up the tables. The tipis are so unique themselves and filled with such beautiful fairy lights that we kept the decor simple with scatterings of wild flowers by Bramble and Thyme Florist. The setting alone at the Coach house with tipi marquess in the grounds was a truly magical sight to see.

The Flowers

Fiona Wallace, of Bramble and Thyme, was fantastic and often in contact to exchange exciting ideas and ensure our theme was brought to life. Fiona arranged elegant and natural seasonal wild flowers to compliment both us and the tipis. Both mums were also thrilled with the gorgeous bouquets received on the day. Fiona’s work was truly bespoke to us and created a wonderful feel to the wedding day.

The Entertainment

It didn’t take long to find our band, Edinburgh Sounds, as we were so impressed by their professionalism and extensive song catalogue. They played a stunning rendition of “Wings” by Birdy for our first dance (a song that played shortly after Grant proposed!). Our favours for day and evening guests were indoor sparklers with instructions to light them for the first dance, all of our friends and family circled the dance floor and lit the night for our first dance together, we loved it. Our guests loved the band just as much as us as the dance floor was packed the entire night and compliments followed days after. They even incorporated a couple of ceilidh songs as well, which went down brilliantly. What a fantastic live band! The final 90 minutes of the night ended with a silent disco by 'Haud yer Wheesht'. To be honest, quite a few of our guests were undecided about this when it appeared on our order of service, but the moment it started they and everyone there loved it! Everyone is given their own headsets with 3 different stations of music to choose between. Each station would light up the headsets in a different colour and play different eras/genres, so you can openly dance to whatever music you like the best! And dance they did! It finished the night off brilliantly, to the point no one wanted it to end with chants of “One more song!”

The Bride

The dress was beyond anything I could imagine. I had the dress designed and made by the extremely talented designer, Gemma Sargent of Edinburgh. I had searched bridal shops for months looking for the perfect dress that I could envisage in my head but just couldn't find. I came across some of Gemma's work on Facebook and decided perhaps she could make my vision a reality. Gemma designed the dress from my initial brief then took the finishing result to the next level. My mum and I found that working with Gemma to create the dream wedding dress was the most enjoyable part for us during the planning of the day. It was completely couture, with layers of tulle over mocha satin for the skirt and 3 types of lace hand stitched over the bodice and full length sleeves and finished with embellished buttons down the back. I just wish I could wear it again!

The Groom

Grant and his groomsmen took a trip to Glasgow in order to find their traditional kilts. MacGregor and MacDuff offered a great service and relaxed atmosphere. The boys decided upon an Oban Mist tartan kilt (grey and brown) with charcoal jacket to match for the Groom. The groomsmen wore Glen Orchy tartan kilt (black and charcoal) with charcoal jacket to match. The look was complete with wild flower button holes - made by Bramble and Thyme Florist – and personal custom-made clan kilt pins as a gift to the three groomsmen.

The Wedding Party

The bridesmaids dresses wore Kelsey Rose dresses in rose gold sequin. The neutral tones with a touch of sparkle suited the colour scheme perfectly. It was from Loretta’s in Perth we found these beautiful dresses. It was also Loretta who helped the mother of the Groom find her perfect outfit. The 4 flower girls wore sweet, rose gold dresses from Monsoon and nephew who was page boy looked dashingly handsome in his tweed suit to match the Groomsmen.

The Food

Our caterers, Scott Catering Services, were brilliant from the early planning stages to the last drink poured. They started their service on the Friday night as we arranged for Scott’s to host a BBQ for our family and bridal party, a treat and big thank you for taking the time to help us decorate the coach house and tipi. For the Wedding Breakfast Scott’s put on a family style feast for us all. After the groom ‘forgot to pay the bill’, one guest per table was summoned to the kitchen with a chef’s hat and apron to serve their table, it made for such a laid-back meal and had us all laughing at our guest waiter’s culinary skills. They eventually managed to serve up the most amazing slow cooked Morrocan Lamb which was finished on the BBQ. Deserts were a combination of our two favourite dishes, apple crumble and Crème Brulee. Both were served in mini dishes to each guest. In the evening we were treated to a ‘Street-Food Style’ set up in the Coach House courtyard. All our guests were over the moon with their burgers, taco’s and nachos. Papakata also supplied us with a fire pit inside the tipi and we couldn’t resist in having gourmet flavoured marshmallows made by 'The Marshmallow Lady' of Edinburgh, for toasting on the open fire. We are very fortunate that the Mother of the Bride is a fabulous baker and our Wedding Cake was made by Barbara. She baked a 3-tier naked Victoria Sponge decorated with fresh seasonal fruits and wild flowers. We loved having a little ‘piece’ of home on our day.

The Photography

We just loved Zoe! She was nothing short of fantastic from our very first skype session right up to braving the unpredictable Scottish weather to get the most astonishing pictures of our day. Zoe made it her mission to get to know us personally and understand the informal and candid photos we wanted. We greatly appreciated her calming influence and relaxed timetable, but always on the lookout for any opportunities that may arise. It is for this reason we now have a magical and treasured double rainbow photograph! Zoe also carried an original instant polaroid camera with very limited film. We feel very honoured to have our day captured this way.

Special Touches

We had a few little special touches over the weekend to make the wedding our own. Grant had a surprise up his sleeve and arrange for our little Lhasa Apso/Shitzu, Maddi, to attend for the photographs complete with her very own handmade collar, by Skyefrog Designs, which matched the bridesmaids dresses. She was adorable and I was so happy she could spend some of the day with us. We love our poochie!