Old Hollywood Glamour for a Russian Bride and her Medieval Castle Wedding

Morning lovelies,  A lovely little set of photographs to share with you this morning, of Russian born bride Tatiana and her husband Paul, who until recently lived and worked in Scotland.  Tatiana is no stranger to my blog; as well as being an experienced Makeup Artist, she is also a bridal accessories designer with her own brand ‘‘Beretkah‘, that has featured previously on Love My Dress here. Her wedding was an eclectic mix of Russian and Scottish traditions {to reflect the couple’s heritage}, old Hollywood style glamour and medieval feasts – all set amidst the breathtaking 16th century scottish castle venue that is Plane Castle by Airth in Stirlingshire.

Tatiana and Paul met in Russia in 2000, whilst Paul was hitchhiking with his friend, after graduating. Tatiana later decided to move to the UK to study – after Paul was accepted into Glasgow University to study for a PhD. The rest as they say, is history.  Tatiana was actually in the early stages of pregnancy when these images were taken – doesn’t she look radiant? Tatiana’s gorgeous backless wedding dress was made especially for her, a complete bespoke creation by wedding dress designer Joyce Young, for Storm… 

“As I was planning my wedding, I sought a great deal of inspiration from Love My Dress. I have become a huge fan of. It made me think a bit more “British” rather than “traditional Russian”.  I paid more attention to detail and I felt more confident doing things myself because of it. 

As well as being a milliner and accessory designer, I also work for Joyce Young making headpieces. Joyce created a bespoke Hollywood style dress for me and included it in her 2012 Couture Collection under my name ‘Tatiana’, it can’t be more flattering, can it?”

Photography by Ilona Anton and Elena Nevzorova 

“A year ago, I wouldn’t have dreamed of having a dress by Joyce Young made bespoke just for me!   It couldn’t be any perfect to have a bespoke couture vintage inspired dress by the best Scottish wedding designer, who with her experience and creative input made the most perfect dress for me!  I also had an ostrich feather bolero to finish up the vintage inspired outfit.

From a very age, I have wanted to be a florist and so I did all of our wedding flowers myself. I incorporated a lot of floral themes in my millinery making hand made flowers etc, that’s why I  also did all flower arrangements including the bridal bouquet, boutonnieres and bridesmaid’s bouquets.

I wanted the flowers to be as fresh as possible, like pretty field flowers with some lilac and violet accents to match the boy’s thistle boutonnieres…”

“As I am a designer behind my brand, there was no question I’d make something myself to wear in terms of a headpiece. But  I left it till so late that two days before the wedding had to call one of my stockists,. a lovely bridal accessory boutique Melle Cloche to request one of my head pieces (Swarovski crystals embedded hard cap) hoping they still had it.

And how surprised I was when Lisa told me it got sold two days before!!!  The good thing is that they had a mesh crochet headpiece. I had no other option but to get my own design back from Melle Cloche only two days before the wedding! Talk about cutting it fine!”

“I knew I wanted to go more vintage and my dress designer Joyce was very keen to experiment, so we chose an amazing hand beaded fabric in a light dusky pink colour (I knew I didn’t want it white…) and went for quite a simple shape. However an open back was our hit! I decorated it later with swarovski back necklace and ostrich feathers, and my fiancée was left speechless when saw me.

There was an actual necklace attached to the back of my dress that criss-crossed across my back. It was made out of beautiful glass beads and Swarovski crystals. 

Finally, I was wearing my mums’s wedding bracelet and earrings – and she was very touched by my choice. I always knew I would use her set but it was a nice surprise for her to see it on my on my wedding…”

“Since being a little girl I have always dreampt of having my hair styled by my mum, who owns a lovely salon in Moscow.  She had to leave the business to come to visit us for two weeks. She was however slightly afraid of the responsibility of making my head dress, but I cheered her up and she did such a great Hollywood wave.  Therefore, already being an experienced Makeup Artist, I did my own makeup – Mum’s too!”

I am beginning to wonder if there is no end to Tatiana’s creative talents!?

“I went for Kurt Geiger satin dusky pink peep toes shoes. Bought them on ebay without trying them on – fit perfectly and matched my silver and diamonties accessories…”

“When it came to our venue, we were looking for something authentically Scottish as Scotland is the country where we fell in love. I looked up many places and most of them i visited whilst working as a bridal stylist.

However none of those made me fall in love and associate it properly with my understanding of Scotland. I found self-catering Plane Castle by Airth in Stirlingshire and it was the first place we visited and booked it straight away!”

 

“Paul was always fascinated by kilts, especially living in Scotland. He was lucky as he has Welsh blood and he decided to hire a kilt outfit with the Welsh national tartan.

“It was two days before the wedding when the girls got their beautiful long crochet dresses from By Storm. They matched my style perfectly and giving that in the beginning i was against them being in the same dresses (we don’t really have this tradition in Russia), I was pleased with the end result.

With Joyce, one can never get disappointed even when you are a ‘last minute bride accompanied by your last minute bridesmaids and mums’…!”

“My bridesmaids were all wearing my own brand, Beretkah head pieces. Alyona wore a 1920’s inspired floral band, and Anya wore a lilac multi beaded small comb.”

“The main thing about our venue Plane Castle is that my husband loved it – it had it all the required Scottish heritage (it once used to be a place for the famous knight Robert Bruce to stay), a Tower for a bride to be saved from by her groom and most fortunately it offered accommodation for 18 people – exact number of the closest family members from different countries (Russia and England) and friends to stay for six nights!

It has been renovated from scratch by its new owner John Patrick Wright and his wife Nancy. It was more of a family place however since recently they started hosting weddings there it was more than we could wish-Scottish, authentic, self-catering.  John and Nancy were the most caring hosts, they help us with many things and since John is an ex Scottish church minister he also registered our marriage…”

 

“We were engaged on 3rd September and married only three months later.  This, and the fact I was in the early stages of pregnancy meant we couldn’t be hugely organised, but we didn’t feel the need to rush anything…”

“Paul was very keen to have a proper medieval feast. He even had an idea of men moving around the table so there would be more lively engagement among all guests (we had enough moving around anyway though.

The idea was to have big roasted turkeys and other meats etc resembling in a way Christmas dinner so our Russian side could try authentic british food. We went with Central Catering and were very pleased with absolutely amazing quality of food and also the price!”

Words of Wedded Wisdom…

“The one and only suggestion I would like to make is to make this day work for you both only in the first place! When you plan it, don’t get stressed about “guests, relatives etc” you’ve got to enjoy it first!

We did want to share it with our family and friends and we were happy to have 40 guest in total as these were the people who are always here for us and want us to be happy!

Also explore your inner resources – you might be a  talented set designer or stationer  or cook (if you cook your own wedding cake) or a florist (if you make your own bouquet) – this is the day you can get your confidence and who knows maybe it will lead to a  big change in your professional life“

You hit the nail on the head there lady! 😉

What a beautiful bride! to be fair, I don’t think Tatiana would look bad wearing just a bin liner, but she looks extra gorgeous in her glamorous wedding day wardrobe.  Very envious!

Huge thanks to Photographers Ilona Anton and Elena Nevzorova…

“There was no doubt for me whom I wanted to see as our photographers. In the times of working in Moscow I got to know Lena Nevzorova and Ilona Anton, with whom we collaborated a lot and made very good friends. Lena then moved to London and is the main photographer for my brand’s seasonal collections photoshoots. I was so pleased when both of them accepted my wedding invitation and said they would be delighted to photograph my wedding! flew from Moscow and Lena drove from London – the team reunited for two days and produced a wonderful result!”

So readers, is anyone else planning a castle wedding, or to pull off a super-glamorous look just like Tatiana?  I’d love to hear form you if so.

Much love all,

Annabel