Phoebe & Holt

Sound the klaxon - incredible wedding venue alert! Somehow I've never come across the Log Cabin at Ravensheugh before and let's just say - I like what I see! A total blank canvas space, with incredible sea views, surrounded by woodland and the option to camp onsite, or at an amazing local campsite, it really is a unique wedding venue with charm and rustic vibes by the bucket load. Phoebe and Holt's big day is full of fun, vintage fashion, home made cakes and Kilts, natch, and I think you're going to love it. Images come from Joanna Nicole, who this gorgeous couple are lucky enough to call a friend.

The Bride

Phoebe the Bride: My mum made my dress out of silk dupion, from a vintage Butterick pattern. My red shoes were from ASOS, my pompom headband was made by Gilly at Ekawear via Etsy. My fox fur is a family heirloom, bought by my granddad for my grandma as a wedding present in 1950, and my big fur coat was from New Look. I bought secondhand earrings and necklace from Etsy, and my handbag belonged to my best woman because I forgot mine!  

The Groom

Holt wore his kilt suit that he already owned, but bought his fly plaid to match, from The Edinburgh Old Town Weaving Company.  

The Venue

Our Venue was Ravensheugh Log Cabin which we had for the whole weekend, with a marquee from Myreton Marquees. The venue was a dry hire so we rented furniture from Virginia’s Vintage.  

The Décor

We didn’t really have a strong colour theme but we went for a lot of gold/jewel toned stuff to go with the greenery, but we also had stripy paper plates and some other colourful bits, so it was a bit of a mish mash. Table settings/backdrops/fairy lights were mostly cheap bits picked up from eBay.  

The Flowers

My flowers came wholesale from Triangle nursery. My bouquet and the buttonholes were made by my Best Woman with help from my mum, my mum and sister-in-law did the table settings, and the foliage garlands were made by my friend and amazing florist/designer Leila Watts. Our friends and our local pub collected bottles to put candles in and jam jars for flowers that all went in the recycling afterwards. All the candles were from London Candle Company, who did a big swap for me when I realized I didn’t like the colour of my original order!  

The Wedding Party

Holt had two Best Men and I had one Best Woman and one Best Man, so our wedding party wasn’t huge and we let everyone wear what they want. All three best men wore suits/kilts they owned already. We bought a fantastic gold suit for my Best Woman Kim, but after a minor mix up it got left on a train! Kim wore a vintage turquoise dress that she happened to have in her bag which she bought on eBay for £11, so it worked out pretty well.  

The Ceremony

We had a Humanist ceremony – one of the benefits of living in Scotland is that humanist ceremonies are legal here. Our ceremony was quite informal and cosy, just forty family and close friends in the log cabin, with the fire lit. We walked in together to Jens Lekman’s Your Arms Around Me. We had a ring warming – our wedding rings got passed around our families and friends and they imbued them with nice thoughts and good luck (I hope). Our rings were made for us in Orkney by Sheila Fleet Jewellery. We had three readings; a poem by Wendy Cope, a short story by Richard Brautigan (both read by our friends), then the highlight for me was Holt’s dad reading from Dr Seuss’s Oh, The Places You’ll Go! We wrote our owns vows (both on the morning of the wedding!) and read them to each other. Holt’s were lovely and serious; mine were sillier and I quoted Julia Child. Our two friends who introduced us to each other acted as our witnesses. We walked out to Range life by Pavement. I loved our ceremony!

 

The Entertainment

We basically just treated our evening like a massive house party, but in the woods, so we roped in our friends to do DJ shifts which was brilliant. Holt and I DJed the first shift together, skipping the first dance to play our first song instead (we played Come And Get Your Love, everyone filled up the floor for the first dance, I’m really glad we didn’t do the first dance thing!)  

The Food

Our canapés and dinner were by the gorgeous Food By Feast who we are lucky enough to call friends. They made our very specific requests of devilled eggs and macaroni pies as canapés, then we had a big family style dinner of roast porchetta stuffed with haggis, crackling, roast potatoes and veg, after we asked for something like a massive Sunday roast. Afterwards we had cake – I made our wedding cake (coconut milk cake topped with pineapple upside down cake), spiced apple and almond cake made by me, fruit cake made by my mum on special request – Holt loves my mum’s fruit cake! We had piles of Tunnocks teacakes and caramel wafers. All the cake got demolished, I never even tasted it! We had gorgeous cheese from IJ Mellis in Edinburgh with homemade chutney made by us.  

The Drinks

Our ‘cocktail hour’ was toasting bubbly with our families on the picnic benches outside the cabin, from vintage glassware from The Green Cockatoo. We had a free bar of mostly local ale in the marquee and ended up with about six different kinds as we kept finishing the kegs and having to change the blackboard. We filled the tables with bottles of wine and set up a byob cocktail bar with mixers and ice and fruit, and asked everyone to bring a bottle. They stocked the bar so well, and did an even better job of trying to drink it all. We also had some really nice whisky at our whisky bar inside the log cabin, by the fire, which also got demolished!  

The Photographer

I’m lucky enough to know Joanna Yates, who is not only a wonderful human but an exceptional wedding photographer. We were really happy to just let her get on with it and guide us on the best way to take photos, and she made the process easy and relaxing, even our couples portraits which I thought might be awkward, but I actually enjoyed! Her photos totally capture what a joyous party it was, and we will treasure them always.  

Other Details

Many of our friends and family stayed at Harvest Moon Holidays, a wonderful site with cabins and tents near our venue. It was great to be able to offer people an affordable accommodation option within walking distance of the wedding, and they also had baby chicks and lambs which went down well! We didn’t have any official wedding transport, just a series of taxis and lifts from pals – my friend Anna drove me and my wedding party to the wedding in her hire car while all singing along to Backstreet Boys, which was so much more fun than being in a fancy car!