Bringing a little bit of Scotland to you this afternoon with the wedding of Samantha and Niall who tied the knot on 29 January at Howies Restaurant at 29 Waterloo Place in Edinburgh.
I love Samantha's style – I'm a sucker for the bird cage veil which works so well with this 1950's style gown – called 'Jet Set' and from the Paramount Collection by Ian Stuart, which Bride Samantha purchased from Eleganza Sposa in Glasgow…
"Once we booked the venue, it became easier to picture what sort of dress would be appropriate for a city wedding. As the civil ceremony was being held within the restaurant, I thought that I could get away with raising the hemline. A 1950s style dress had great appeal, easy to wear but elegant allowing you to get a pair of fab heels to match. I saw Ian Stuart's Paramount collection which featured the Jet Set dress, it was a modern take on an old classic and I loved the big corsage on the bolero jacket. The dress was the only one I tried on.
I also thought that after the wedding I could dye the dress black so it could be worn again, however I can't quite bring myself to do it at the moment.
A shorter hemline for me resulted in looking for shorter dresses for the bridesmaids. In keeping with the city wedding theme, the bridesmaids wore glamorous black cocktail dresses and looked absolutely stunning on the day…"
Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2011, Elemental Weddings
I love these dress shots…
I love these peep toes with the squarer end – from Dune…
Samantha's lovely bird cage veil was the flower feather bridcage veil from Lilybella…
Samantha's clutch bag was from Ben di Lisi at Debenhams…
"Earrings were passed onto me by my stepmother, the pearls had originally belonged to my dad's mum…"
Samantha's necklace and bracelet were by Cherry Chau, at Harvey Nichols. She also wore a bracelet on her left wrist that was her 'something borrowed' from Niall's sister, Emma…
"Our Florist Williamson Design provided cream roses, something very simple, partly to fit in with the dresses and also only decided to have flowers about 3 weeks before the wedding as up until that point I thought we would all just carry clutch bags. Very glad that we got flowers in the end!"
Samantha's Bridesmaids wore dresses from Coast…
The Groom wore a jacket, waistcoat, shirt and tie and sporren from Keith Scott Kilts…
The couple chose at Howies Restaurant as their wedding venue…
"We both love Edinburgh. I grew up just outside of Edinburgh and we both attended Uni and worked in the city. A lot of our friends stay in and around Edinburgh and whilst we do not live there at the moment, we both love the city want to return to it in the future.
We got the inspiration for our venue after browsing through our photographers website, they had previously photographed a wedding there. We knew the food in Howies was great and their premises at Waterloo Place is gorgeous. It is situated at the east end of Princes Street and is a 200 year old Georgian, listed building.
It was important that the atmosphere at the venue was relaxed and that it was a place where would have great food, good wine and a big party afterwards. Our guests ranged from babies to grandparents and we wanted to ensure that everyone was catered for and felt comfortable and included on the day. Howies Waterloo Place is a beautiful venue and ticked all the boxes."
"Wedding cake by Marks and Spencer – vanilla sponge withcream royal icing and cream roses, wanted to appeal to the majority of guests, particularly as we had quite a few children there too…"
"We were lucky in that the venue itself did not require a lot of additional décor and wanted to keep it simple and modern. The tables were quite small and by the time they were set and the favours (Cancer Research donation pins) and kids party bags were out, there was not much room left.
The venue provided fairy lights and candles. We provided more pillar candles to place on the fireplaces which are dotted around the venue…"
"Niall only dances at Ceilidhs so our first dance was an Orcadian Strip the Willow. The music was provided by the fantastic band, Sporran Again, who had the dance floor filled all night.
To try and include all of our guests, we asked them to advise us of their favourite song so we could make playlists to play before the ceremony, during the meal and during the band's break…."
"Research your suppliers before booking – All of our suppliers were fantastic, it was reassuring to know that we could rely on them on the day itself, they helped everything come together. Niall and I were able to completely relax and enjoy every minute.
Discuss arrangements, ask for help and for opinions but don't feel pressurised into something if you are not completely happy about it. We tried to be open with our families about our expectations and arrangements for the wedding, particularly for things like guest invitation lists and seating plans.
What, if anything, inspired you to style your wedding the way you did? Eg, a particular era, muse, colour, place, etc The venue and city location influenced the choice of dress and the style for the rest of the wedding was inspired by the dress.
SATC is a guilty pleasure and if I am being honest, was something of an inspiration. A city wedding seemed like the perfect opportunity to channel the inner Carrie Bradshaw by dressing up in a gorgeous dress, donning a fab pair of shoes and marrying my own Mr Big – I know, completely cringeworthy and cliched!
I was quite anxious in the run up the day itself. We had guests travelling from all over the globe in order to attend the wedding and we wanted to make sure they had a great time and that they knew how much we appreciated their participation in the day. It was important that the day catered for and included everybody.
We tried to make the day personal with as much participation from our guests as possible. However, we needn't have worried as our guests joined in the celebrations and embraced the party atmosphere wholeheartedly. Niall and I had a fantastic time and we have our family and friends to thank for that. We have have been left with beautiful memories and fabulous photographs (courtesy of the very talented Christina and Jay at Elemental Weddings) to remember it by. We really are very lucky…."
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Brides dress - Ian Stuart
Brides shoes – Dune
Brides veil - Lilybella
Groom - Keith Scott Kilts
Bridesmaid - Coast
Hair & Makeup - Be-Ba-Boom + Eyecandy
Flowers – Williamson Design
Clutch Bag – Ben di Lisi at Debenhams
Accessories + Cherry Chau, at Harvey Nichols + something borrowed
Entertainment – Sporran Again
Photography - Elemental Weddings
♥ ♥ ♥
Congrats Samantha and Niall on tieing the knot 🙂 Big love too, to Scottish Wedding Photographers Elemental Weddings…
"Christina and Jay at Elemental Weddings are fantastic. When we began planning our wedding, we were incredibly impressed with their work which is both unusual, beautiful and striking and we booked them before we even booked our venue. When we received our photos we were blown away, they had real "wow" factor and captured the day perfectly.
Not only are Christina and Jay talented and creative, they are an absolute pleasure to deal with and have been so helpful offering advice and tips in the run up to the wedding. Above all they are clearly a brilliant team who complement and respect one another and this shows in the standard of their work. We can't recommend them highly enough."
Much love,
Annabel xXx
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Annabel View all Annabel's articles
Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Editor. Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and star gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she's not working on Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip in the running of the family's sustainable flower farm and floral design business, Moonwind Flowers. In 2013, she became a published author.
