A Relaxed, Rustic and Alternative October Wedding Planned in Just Nine Weeks…

 

“We had a very clear vision of what we both wanted but at the same time our vision was a rustic wedding and a fun wedding with a relaxed vibe, we wanted to actually enjoy our day and it to be all about the people who we love to spend time with!”

 

Every once in a while, a wedding is submitted to Love My Dress that really stands out from the crowd. This is one of them.  Regular reader Sarah & Craig Grant tied the knot on 30 October last year.  Their wedding, held at the stunning outdoor venue Comrie Croft, turned out to also be a joint birthday {Sarah} and Halloween party.

What I adore about this wedding is it’s uniqueness and originality and real sense of ‘community’ – so many friends chipping in to help the DIY element really shine.  And the dress and Primark Cardigan combo? Genius…

I wanted a dress that was unique but also had a ‘bustle’ at the back – and I didn’t want to look like a toilet roll holder!  I loved everything about it!  I wanted a dress I could lift up and dance around with so it was very layered but did not have a ‘frame’ under the skirt.  I also had a cardigan that was gathered at the back and that I could remove if I was too warm but that wouldn’t leave the dress looking bare…”

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2012, Euan Robertson

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“My dress was made by my friend – an independent and absolutely AMAZING seamstress called Jan Hutcheson – she is based in Glasgow. I found some ideas I liked online then went and bought similar materials (much cheaper than the original designs we’d found!) and she created it from a few pictures online! She’s amazing!  My cardigan was a pyjama top from Primark that my seamstress altered (its trim was cut from a scarf of the same colour we also found in Primark).  The beads/chains/flowers on my bodice I picked up here and there or dyed myself and Jan attached for me.

I bought the boots from a budget shoe store – shoe zone or something! They were around £30 but were the perfect colour and had the ‘warn’ almost Western look….”

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 “The Bridesmaid Dresses were bought from H&M – they were fairly simple as we wanted each bridesmaid to accessorize themselves. We stipulated we’d like them to wear boots (also fitted to the ground as we were outside) and thick cardigans to keep them cosy!  The H&M dresses were around £25 each.

My bridesmaids were Elle, Claire, Mel & Kate (we’d like to thank them so much if possible for all hey’re help and support we couldn’t of done it without them!) and they each accessorised their own look with feathers, flowers and headbands…”

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“We wanted a ‘venue’ where we can hire out the whole place and have the wedding more open and not confined to one area.  We also wanted a barn wedding and Comrie had everything.

We got married by the lake, we had an outdoor fire in the courtyard, had our dinner in the barn and dance and there was a hostel, a farmhouse, kata’s and camping for guests to stay.  Its eco friendly which is right up our street.  Also the lovely village of Comrie is only a mile or so away.   It’s rustic, affordable and lovely!

There was no seating plan, no ‘hierarchy’, no queues for dinner – people could go up and get seconds!”

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“Our decor involved LOADS of DIY!! Where do I start?  We used hay bales rented from a local farm for everyone to sit on.  For dinner seating we used the picnic benches that were around the croft.  We bought some curtain liner from Ikea and cut it into table clothes.

One of our best friends Kirsty Fitzgerald made our cakes for us.  I asked Kirsty for three rustic looking cakes of three different kinds – what she came out with was just beautiful (and they tasted superb too!).  We had one Chocolate and Guiness, one Carrot & one Victoria Sponge. Kirsty can be found at The Hidden Lane Tearoom in Glasgow which she owns.  We also made a small Oreo Cookie Tower for the children.

The cake stands we made ourselves with help from the Bruce family – they’re chopped down trees just glued together!”

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“We hired festoon lights with yellow bulbs to make the barn look cosier.  We had a kids corner as we wanted them to feel involved and have fun so we made magic lemonade, bought vintage sweeties, a bubble machine!”

Guest advice slips we made ourselves (designed by Andy Brown) for people to fill out.  We had chalk and slate for people to write us a message and take their own photo which went down a storm!”

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“We decorated with old jam jars we’d collected that we put wire around and filled with sand, shells and stones from a local beach and also acorns and conkers from the local grounds.  Instead of tea lights (because of hay risk) we used battery powered flickering tea lights (really cheap bought from a cash’n’carry!).

Also on the tables we spread some fresh lavender again picked from a friends gardens and Bridesmaid Mel made some glitter covered autumn leaves (with the children at her nursery where she works).  Also our fortune tellers which we had a friend design for us (Andy Brown – graphic designer/Usher!)…”

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“My dad made a rustic looking sign!”

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“We decided that instead of wedding favours we just put a note in our ‘fortune tellers’ on the tables saying that we donated to a charity close to our hearts the money that we would of spent…”

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We painted tins that we had bashed and wrapped twine around and stuck on some fake flowers (some of these were cutlery tins for the dinner tables)…”

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“Craig wore a full kilt dress – the tartan was ‘Holyrood’ and we hired the whole attire.  We wanted more earthy tones in Craig’s kilt.

We asked the three ushers and the best man to wear what they wanted – the whole vibe of the wedding was individual style and people to feel comfortable…”

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“My dad gave me away to the sound of three of our very talented friends on musical instruments playing Sigur Ros.  I knew they had a planned on playing their Harmonium & Glockenspiel but Susie playing the violin was a complete surprise which Craig had organised as I had been enquiring about strings beforehand!  Much love to them!”

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“We made it clear that everyone could wear anything they liked but we were most likely getting married outside by the lake.  We got married under a homemade willow structure and everyone just stood around us!”

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“We didn’t really have any flowers! Our bouquets were vintage brooches and any other flowers were either dried/fake that we’d picked up along the way or loose branches/autumn leaves we found around the croft.  We just knew we wanted earthy colours.

Bridesmaid Elle collected lots of brooches from various sources and then attached them to wires to make bouquets.  I purchased some material to wrap around the stems.  The night before the wedding myself and all the bridesmaid’s sat down and all choose our own brooches to make our bouquets…”

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“We made our own Honey pot (honey pumpkin) for any wedding cards.  Old watering cans, jars, we made our own banners, bought a garden trellis for an arch (in case of rain and we needed to get married inside), we used a white to project our ‘DIY wedding slideshow’ on to for everyone to watch and so we could thank people for all their hard work.

We asked everyone to BYOB (bring your own bottle) and BYOP (bring your own pumpkin) too!

We made our own toffee apples, my auntie made chutneys for the late night cheese board and our friend Vicky made Scottish tablet for the coffee!

Our friends who have a whiskey bottling company let us make our own whiskey blend for the day – never to be made before or again!”

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“We asked everyone who had contributed to helping us DIY our wedding to send us photo’s of them making stuff so after the speeches we played a slideshow with a projector to thank everyone…”

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“We chose Neil Young’s Harvest Moon for our first dance – it seemed fitting and it reminded us both of really good times.

Most of our friends a musicians so we had an open stage so different people hopped up and played some songs and in between Craig and I just played some itunes we’d picked.  The music went on the PA til around 11pm then continued on in the lodges huge kitchen and round the fire in the courtyard!”

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Words of Wedded Wisdom…

“My advice would be to gather hundreds of ideas from blog sites such as this (thank you Love My Dress by the way!) before you even start (we had loads of ideas gathered even before we announced it) that way if you’ve had a good think about it you’re less inclined to sway with your ideas.

…and my other word of advice is MAINLY that weddings can be anything you want don’t feel like you have to conform or do anything just because ‘that’s the way it should be done’ oh and get people to take hundreds of photos!!

The reason I wanted to be featured on Love My Dress was so we can show everyone how proud we are of our DIY wedding but more to thank everyone for how absolutely amazing and helpful they all were…”

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What a stunning day – totally inspired, fun, unique, everything about it is so gorgeous – a beautiful wedding for the bride and groom who love a slightly alternative style.

Huge congrats to you both Sarah and Craig and thanks too to Photographer Euan Robertson

“Euan is a friend of ours and is an absolutely phenomenal photographer with a very unique style.  We met with him before and basically just instructed him to ‘capture the vibe’ and have fun and we’re over the moon with everything he did….”

I’d love your feedback on this beautiful day.

See other budget and outdoor weddings here.

Much love,

Annabel

 

Photographer – Euan Robertson
Venue – Comrie Croft
Brides dress – Independent Seamstress {Jan Hutcheson, Glasgow} + Primark Cardigan
Bride Boots – Shoe Zone 
Groom – A full kilt dress
Bridesmaids – H&M
Cake – A Friend
Brooch bouquets – made by the bride and her bridesmaid
Everything else – DIY!

Annabel

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.

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