Inspiration

The St Andrews coastal dunes, the rustic wedding venue at Kinkell Byre, and bride Yvonne's blush Elizabeth Stewart Rosemary gown are all simply breathtaking. As you can imagine I've been in a bit of a frenzy putting this together for you lovely lot. Just wait until you see the canopy of fairy lights framing the barn, and the layers and layers of tulle that make up the skirt of Yvonne's wedding dress, as they are both heavenly. The couple portraits captured by Rooftop Mosaic show off the frock beautifully. I love the one of Yvonne sitting on the floor with her skirt fluffed out around her. What gorgeous, romantic memories for the incredibly stylish newlyweds to treasure. Then there are the maids in their fabulous ASOS frocks, topped of with gorgeous gypsophila flower crowns. And last but no means least all the delicious rustic decor and details, including wooden crates, barrels, vintage step ladders and more, and all adorned with the prettiest of blooms. I must have wetted your appetite enough now. Lets take a look...

The Dress

Yvonne the Bride: Before I started dress shopping, I had told myself that I should go with the flow and try on every style of dress to see what would fit better on my body. I went to a few wedding shops and found some gorgeous dresses, but it wasn’t until I saw a picture of a two piece skirt and top online that I decided to visit a small boutique dress shop in Ayr, Glasgow. This shop is known for selling dresses for the untraditional bride and automatically I was intrigued. I went to ‘Unbridaled’ and tried on many of their stunning dresses however when I put on the dress ‘Rosemary’ designed by Elizabeth Stuart I knew I had found the one. I loved the floaty aspect of the tulle skirt and of course the blush colour was completely different to anything I had seen before. I loved how the dress felt on and I knew it would match our venue perfectly and of course wow my husband to be. This dress was definitely the one. I had a beautiful blush veil made to match the dress that fitted perfectly with my dress. I enjoyed planning various aspects of the wedding with my family in particular my mum Fiona. She travelled with me through to Edinburgh to go shoe shopping for the perfect shoes to match my dress. After trying many on that day we found the perfect Jimmy Choos and celebrated with some champagne in Harvey Nichols champagne bar. As my dress was so delicate and simple I did not want to over complicate things with lots of jewellery. I wore a pair of gorgeous blush pearl drop earrings and my engagement ring. My mum gave me my ‘something borrowed, something old, something new’ in the form of a pendant that belonged to her grandmother and I clipped this onto the inside of my skirt.

Beauty

Choosing my makeup artist for my wedding day was very easy. I have only ever had my makeup done by Rachael from Onyx Glasgow and she had done absolutely flawless makeup every time, so I knew I had to choose her. I was lucky when she agreed as she is based in Glasgow and travelled out to St Andrews for our wedding morning. Rachael created a stunning bridal look that lasted beautifully all day and I felt amazing. She was a great person to have around on the morning and would recommend any bride to go and see her. Hair was also an easy option. I had to have Paolo, a friend and hairdresser of my husband. He worked perfectly with me for months before to create the perfect wedding colour I was looking for. We had a few wedding trials and decided on the most perfect up do on the day. I was supposed to wear a crown of flowers but Paolo had done such a good job I didn’t want to hide the style!

The Grooms Attire

Lewis wore a grey tweed style suit that suited perfectly with our rustic barn theme. His best man and brother David was also wearing the same suit from Walker Slater in Edinburgh. Lewis wore brown Russell and Bromley shoes. The Ushers wore blue tweed effect suits from Next with a brown tweed effect waistcoat again from Next.

The Venue

We only visited a few venues before we found the perfect one for us. We had visited a few hotels and quickly realised that this type of wedding was not for us, we wanted something different. Lewis’ mum Anne had recommended we visit a barn just outside St. Andrews called the Kinkell Byre. It was absolutely what we were looking for. A blank shell that we could literally dress up in any way we wished. It was also perfect because St. Andrews is where Lewis’ family live and a very special place for us as a couple. We fell in love with it the minute we stepped inside and visited it on numerous occasions during planning trips. The views of St. Andrews town and the sea were unbelievable and did not disappoint on our big day. We hired the St. Andrews Bar company on this day and they were brilliant at organising the whole day. We also hired the infamous ice-cream bike of Janettas Ice Cream shop in St. Andrews to come up and be part of our big day. Our guests loved it and they did a fantastic job serving and refreshing our guests after the ceremony.

Colour Scheme/Décor

Our wedding had a little bit of everything in it, from a ‘Pimp your Prosecco’ bar to a pass the parcel game during our meal. We even provided some beef jerky from the wonderful Hide and Knife, who had created some personalised sample bags specifically for us and our guests. It tasted amazing and the guests loved having something different to try. We wanted our wedding to be rustic and fun with lots of attention paid to the small details. The colour scheme was based around pink and grey pastels. I loved looking through Pinterest for ideas and inspiration. My family helped a lot with making the many centre pieces we had on the tables and my brother cut the wooden log centre pieces. The barn was filled with hundreds of twinkling lights and we added some extra paper lanterns in the reception room and entrance way. We made our own chalk boards and welcome signs. We ordered some last minute things from The Wedding of my Dreams. My sister also surprised us after the meal with an amazing photo booth with the guys from OddBox. They were really friendly and brilliant fun. Our stationery was fabulous and fitted the theme perfectly. We found Daisybelle through going to a wedding planning event called Braw Brides. She worked closely with us to help us design our perfect invites and table plan.

Florist

Phyllis and her team at Pathhead Nursery in Fife were absolutely amazing. We had a quick meeting with her a few months before the wedding and from this she was able to create a spectacular barn filled with flowers and decorations just as I had asked. She matched all the flowers into our colour scheme perfectly. She created flower crowns made from gypsophila for my bridesmaids and the most beautiful bouquet I have ever seen. She matched my bouquet to Lewis’s button hole with green thistles.

Bridesmaids

I looked around at many styles for bridesmaids dresses and eventually found the perfect one on ASOS bridal. As my sister is a fashion designer, I had to make sure she was happy with what I had chosen for her to wear. I chose a simple light grey coloured dress that changed style so both of my sisters could have a slightly different look. The girls wore the beautiful gypsophila crowns and sandals for comfort also from ASOS.

Ceremony

Because the venue was so beautiful and had so many amazing rooms we chose to get married in the Byre. We chose a humanist ceremony and Joan our celebrant was brilliant. We got to choose everything we wanted in the ceremony from the songs, tying the knot and having family members playing the guitar. We loved how personal it was to us. The room itself was stunning and covered in twinkling fairy lights with buckets filled with flowers lining the aisle. It looked absolutely magical. The room was covered in fresh flowers and candle lit. We walked out of the ceremony once we were married to Stevie Wonders ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered.’

Entertainment

During the reception drinks and meal David Lewis’s brother had created a great chilled playlist for us to listen to. I found our band ‘The Black Ties’ at The Scottish Wedding Show in Glasgow early on during the planning process. I loved their sound and the boys were very friendly. It later turned out Lewis and his brother used to play football with some of the boys. They set the mood for the evening and created lots of fun for our guests. The dance floor was packed the whole night and their songs were amazing!

Food

We chose a catering company called Wild Rover to be our food suppliers on the day. We knew from the minute we found out they served food out of an old Land Rover defender we had to have them. Cat and Robb were amazing. We enjoyed a fantastic food tasting evening with them in their home and chose our wedding menu. All of the food was freshly prepared and locally sourced which we loved. It was a sharing platter style meal which provided a light hearted vibe during the meal. The best part of it was having our guests as the food servers for our tables. I loved the look on our guest’s faces as they were asked to work at our wedding, haha! We got all of our wine and Prosecco from ‘St. Andrews Fine Wine’ a local shop in St. Andrews. What a great wee shop, we would highly recommend a visit in there. My cake for absolutely amazing and everyone was commenting on just how delicious it was. I chose my sister in law Pamela Cupples to create and make my wedding cake and she did a fabulous job setting it up on the day. We went for a basic naked cake with lots of fresh fruit and icing sugar. The best part of planning the cake with Pam was being able to sample all of her amazing cakes.

Photographer

This was actually one of the jobs I left for Lewis to investigate and book and he did an awesome job. He managed to find a photographer through someone he plays football with on a Wednesday night. I thought he was kidding when he told me it was a ‘footie pal.’ Rooftop Mosaic are an amazing team and I cannot imagine having anyone else be part of our day the way they were. Gail and David were so friendly and had some great ideas for pictures. It helped that we met them for a wee engagement shoot to settle our nerves and get used to the camera before our big day. Their style was absolutely spot on and exactly what we wanted from them. We loved how they captured every moment of happiness that was happening around us and in a low key way. Our favourite pictures were the ones when we didn’t know they were being taken. Gail and David love an adventure and took us out on to the sand dunes overlooking the sea and the beautiful sunset. These are the most breath-taking pictures I have ever seen.

Extras

Our wedding would not have been the amazing day it was if we did not have the help of all of the friends and family involved in not only the wedding planning process but setting up and clearing down our venue. We really are blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives.
Lorna Shaw

Written by Lorna Shaw

Dress Designer: Elizabeth Stuart - Rosemary | Bridal Boutique: Unbridaled | Bridal Shoes: Jimmy Choo | Makeup : Rachael Hunter Makeup | Hair: Paolo | Grooms Suit: Walker Slater | Grooms Shoes: Russell Bromley | Ushers Suit: Next | Bridesmaid Dresses: ASOS | Venue: Kinkell Byre | Bar: St Andrews Bar Company | Ice Cream: Jannettas Ice Cream | Beef Jerky: Hide and Knife | Decor: The Wedding of My Dreams | Photo Booth: OddBox | Florist: Pathhead Nursery | Band: The Black Ties | Catering: Wild Rover Food | Drink: St Andrew Wine Company

Inspirational articles you may also find useful