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The Bride
Patricia The Bride: I was spoilt for choice in
Hope & Harlequin, there were so many dresses that I loved! In the end I went for the Nova because it had the relaxed 70s vibe I was looking for, and the lace was amazing. I borrowed my sister's veil and wore a dried flower crown which made my always messy hair look a bit better!
The Groom
Leigh went for a slim-fit, dark blue, three-piece suit from
Walker Slater. He teamed it with a paisley print bow tie and oxblood brogues. The staff at Walker Slater were really helpful and knew their stuff!
The Venue
We loved
Windmill Barn from the first visit. It has a great outside space as well as the barn, and isn't too big so didn't feel overwhelming to fill and decorate - it looks great as it is! Clare and Alan, who own the barn, were really helpful, especially the day before with setting up and on the day, making sure things went smoothly.
The Styling
We didn't really have a colour scheme! We wanted everything to be quite casual and just picked up a few bits that we thought looked fun. My favourites were the gold foil balloons spelling BEVWOOD - an amalgamation of our surnames, and a gold "Til death do us party" banner. My mum sourced some fake flamingos that we put round the pond and we used peg letter boards to display the seating plan and timings for the day. Quite a mix but we think it worked out well!
The Flowers
We had the lovely Rachael at
Hedgerow do a bouquet for me and the bridesmaids, button holes for the boys, and a eucalyptus arrangement for the top of the seating plan. For my bouquet I wanted something with greenery and blush tones that was a bit wild looking. I was so happy with it! The button holes looked great with a thistle and eucalyptus in them. We used cacti and succulents for the table decorations - my family raided the plant section of Ikea on many occasions in the run up!
The Wedding Party
Originally my bridesmaids were all going to choose different dresses in the same colour, but after a few purchases and returns we settled on a midi dress from
ASOS that came in both a plain grey and print. They all looked amazing and accessorised with their own shoes and jewellery. The groomsmen wore their own suits with matching ties, tie pins and pocket squares. They looked great, and the different suits meant they weren't matching too much!
The Ceremony
Neither of us are religious so we decided to go for a humanist ceremony. We found Candice, our celebrant, through the Humanist Society Scotland website. She was lovely! We met her a few times before the ceremony and she asked us lots of questions and even gave us some homework to get to know us better, so the ceremony was really personal, funny and relaxed. I walked down the aisle with my Dad to the beautiful "I'll Try Anything Once" by The Strokes and my bridesmaid Charlotte read the poem "I Wanna Be Yours" by John Cooper Clarke.
The Entertainment
We love a club night in Edinburgh called Magic Nostalgic, where a spinning wheel decides what category of music will be played for the next 30 minutes. We decided we could recreate this idea, so my dad's friend very kindly made us the stand and another friend of his printed the massive wheel which my sister designed. Very much a joint effort! It was really fun to come up with the categories and make the playlists. It got everyone involved on the night too - I barely left the dance floor and got changed into my trainers for optimal dancing!
The Food
Windmill Barn has an approved list of caterers, which is where we found
King Boar. We went for canapes (haggis bon-bons were a firm favourite), followed by a great BBQ so it was a bit more informal than a sit down dinner. The food was really tasty and the staff on the day were so friendly and helpful. For dessert we had three wedding cakes! We went for carrot cake, white chocolate with raspberry and red velvet - so there was something for everyone. We had a free bar so our dads and Leigh stocked up on wine during a booze run to France and my bridesmaid, Paula, hooked us up with lots of Innis & Gunn!
The Images & Film
Betty and David of
Tub of Jelly are amazing, basically. We met them for a pre-wedding shoot in Edinburgh which was really good to get to know them and to not feel so awkward getting our photo taken. On the day they totally blended into the background (in a good way!), taking lots of snaps of everyone mingling and having fun which is exactly what we wanted. They made us a wee video to remember the day, which I've probably watched about a million times.
Advice
My advice would be - don't stress! It's hard not to let things bother you when they don't go to plan but when you're drinking, dancing and celebrating with everyone you love, the little details really don't matter. The things that go wrong are just funny stories to tell later!