A Suzanne Neville gown for a Colourful, Handmade and Woodland-Inspired Wedding

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Every time I open the folder of photos for Love My Dress wedding features for the first time I get a little tingle of anticipation for the joys hidden within, and oh my, does this wedding justify that feeling?

Come with me north of the border for a countryside delight of a wedding. If you are captivated by the idea of hand-crafted wedding styling that brings the outdoors in, then read on for lots of lovely ideas and inspiration.

On 18 August 2017 Laura, a health researcher wed Jay, a firefighter, in a humanist ceremony at Boswell’s Coach House, Auchinleck Estate, Ayrshire. Having lived together for 12 years, the couple felt it was time to cement their relationship and chose the woodland estate to host their celebrations whilst it was still being transformed into the glorious venue we see in these photos. For the couple it offered a glorious backdrop for them to surround themselves with the love and laughter of their friends and family, and they took inspiration from the natural beauty of the woodland and countryside surrounding the Estate to style a laid-back and personal day. The natural, woodland theme evolved with the addition of super-luxe touches and a colour palette of gold, yellow and soft greens.

Photography The Hendrys

33 Suzanne Neville from Eleganza Sposa bridal boutique in Edinburgh

The Hendrys, whose work we’ve featured many times on these pages, detail the wedding and all of those special touches in these photographs. I think those of the newly-weds in the woodland are so magical and timeless.  Worldly Nomads recorded the day on film for the couple.

The Hendrys are excellent and amazingly talented photographers, so great to have around, we hardly knew they were there. They were so friendly and understood our vision perfectly.”

“Barry of Worldly Nomads was absolutely excellent, totally non-intrusive and captured the real feeling and essence of our day, also a really lovely guy!”

A combination of sunshiny yellow and orange blooms with soft green foliage adds to the natural, woodland feel of the day.

“We used an amazing florist, Myrtle & Bracken, who is situated in the countryside in deepest Ayrshire, has her own cutting garden and forages lots of pieces from the venue itself, borrowing from the natural beauty surrounding it. We never chose or planned our flowers, instead trusting Di who explained that she would use flowers in season at the time and mix this with foraged materials to give a really wild and rustic feel.”

1 Orange and yellow wedding bouquet

“The installation she did in our ceremony room truly looked like trees and flowers had grown in through the window, it was natural and wild and truly stunning. We wanted to mix this wild and natural feel with touches of luxe, and so the tables had large leafy tall centre-pieces, golden candle holders, deep green jars of flowers and glass and gold boxes filled with succulents. She also made beautiful wild installations for the top table which completely transformed the space in the marquee.”

2 Orange and yelow wedding flowers 001 Orange and yellow floral crown for a bride

With simple antique pearl earrings given to her by her parents and covetable Kurt Geiger Carvela shoes, Laura looks simply wonderful. I love that her long dark hair has been left down in a natural style; in the woodland photographs she looks every inch the natural and boho but super-glam bride.

3 Carvela high heel bridal shoes 5 Rustic wedding stationery

Cherry Cherry Hair by Loredana was recommended to me by a friend. She was excellent.”

6 Bride with long dark lose hair having her makeup applied

Laura chose an elegant, full-skirted Suzanne Neville gown, adding her own boho twist with a wild, organic headpiece. I really love the simplicity of the gown’s design, and hurrah for our Little Book for Brides members – both the gown and the flowing, delicate veil were found at Glasgow boutique Eleganza Spoza.

“As soon as I put it on I knew it was for me – I loved it from the moment I saw it and couldn’t stop thinking about it! The delicate silk made it feel really natural and flowing.”

22 Bridesmaids in Ghost and bride in Suzanne Neville

Long, elegant silk gowns by Ghost London, bought at bridal boutique Melle Cloche (check out their Little Book for Brides listing here), were dyed to order in a soft green, which really lets the yellow of the bouquets sing. They added simple gold Pandora drop earrings and wore delicate, fresh flower clips in their hair.

23 Orange wedding party bouquets21 Wooden pallet wedding sign

Jay proposed to Laura on their ten year anniversary whilst on a European tour.

“Jay and I have been living together for 12 years, best friends and we felt it was the right time to celebrate our long and strong love. For our 10th anniversary we decided to go travelling in Europe. We went to Berlin, Budapest and then Rome. In Berlin we saw one of our favourite bands The Charlatans, in Budapest we visited the amazing ruin pubs and in Rome we fell in love all over again (cheesy but true!) – it was such a beautiful setting.”

“In true Jay style, his bag was chosen for checking in every single airport, little did I know he had a ring in it. Luckily it wasn’t revealed during airport checks and on our anniversary Jay took me to a flower market on a cobbled square where there were artists painting and musicians playing called Campo De’ Fiori (meaning Field of Flowers). He took me to a beautiful restaurant on the square and got down on one knee and proposed, I was so happy and of course said yes.”

7 Groom and mother of the groom 8 Conetti here champagne there love everywhere 9 Confetti cones made from musical score sheets

Boswell Coach House was still basically a big area of woodland when Laura and Jay chose it, and they roped in their talented family members to dress the Coach House, marquee and grounds.

“Aly and Rory Boswell and Sue their event co-ordinator gave us free reign. They helped us so much, and really joined in on the celebrations – they were an absolute joy to work with. We designed or handmade much of the décor with the help of my brother (who helpfully is a fine art student) and dad (who can make anything) and worked with some of Ayrshire and Glasgow’s most amazing suppliers in order to make our visions a reality.”

“We were in no rush to get married until we found a venue that really reflected our personality. When we found Boswell’s Coach House we knew it was perfect for us. We were one of the very first couples to have our wedding day here; it is a brand new concept for the estate. It is such a unique place, in the middle of nowhere with vast woodland, a working farm, brewery, a huge landmark building peeking through the trees, barns and a converted stable, Highland cows (!), a huge treehouse and the most beautiful converted coach house with large windows which we used for our ceremony.”

10 Boswells Coach House wedding venue

“We booked it when the reception venue and marquee was but a huge area of woodland. It unfolded over the year into a beautiful setting amongst the trees, a hidden gem! Our venue is steeped in history; the Boswell family, who still run the venue, have a rich history brimming with Scottish folklore, including sorcery, enchantments and wizardry back to 1591!

Our wedding party and friends stayed in Auchinleck House, an 18th century stately home located on Auchinleck Estate. We were married in the converted coach house, myself and my bridesmaids stayed the night before in a converted stables apartment at the venue amongst the tree canopies.”

11 Bride wearing Suzanne Neville being walked down the aisle with her father

After a morning of getting ready in the Estate’s converted stables, it was time for the humanist ceremony in the incredible space of the coach house. Whilst the guests waited, harpist Meredith McCrindle played with a violin accompaniment, moving on to ‘Here Comes The Sun’ by the Beatles as Laura walked down the aisle with her dad.

“Meredith is super-talented and her music complemented our day perfectly. My dad walked me down the aisle – it’s a memory I’ll always treasure. He kept the nerves away by being his usual silly and funny self.”

12 Bridemaids in pale green Ghost gowns

“We had a humanist ceremony as we wanted a non-traditional ceremony that would be very personal to us. We wrote our own ceremony and vows with our celebrant’s guidance. She advised us to send our own favourite memories about each other and the things we loved about each other separately to her so it was a surprise on the day to hear, which was really nice. We included a hand-fasting in our ceremony which was a lovely symbol of the bond we had made official.”

“My youngest brother Michael did a reading for us of a poem called ‘The Rose’ which my gran had written for me for my 18th birthday. Our friend and usher Scott read a poem we loved called ‘Friends’.”

Laura and Jay visited Argyll Arcade in Glasgow to design their wedding bands; such a wonderfully personal touch. Have you considered this option?

13 Suzanne Neville wedding dress

The groom chose to wear a traditional kilt in a smart tweed design, adding Doc Martens and a bespoke tie from Etsy to personalise his look.

“Jay decided on tweed kilts for a modern take on the traditional Scottish garment.”

15 Bridesmaid under an umbrella wearing pale green Ghost dress

After the ceremony, the guests moved across from the coach house to the beautifully-decorated marquee for fizz, canapés and more classical and modern music from the string duo.

We have to talk about the marquee, which the couple and their families worked so hard to style. I really love the wild, countryside feel of it, especially the fronds of foliage and the joy of the blooms. Over to Laura to describe how they achieved this look.

14 Suzanne Neville wedding dress

“A really important aspect of the day for us were the personal touches. We had fun sourcing 125 vintage tea sets for our guests to use on the day, regularly visiting Mews arcade in Glasgow’s West End and other vintage and oddity shops in and around Ayrshire to look for treasures”

” Our musical influences were woven throughout, with our favourite song lyrics on boards in the marquee, The ‘One Love, One Heart, One Soul’ arrow was made by Jay at my dad’s garage with spray paint and a glue gun. I made the table place tags and folded each of the napkins so that our personalised menus would fit snugly in the napkin and tied these with twine. Individual leaves foraged from the grounds by our florist were a finishing touch.”

25 Boswells Coach House wedding venue

“We found an old pair of ladders in my dad’s garage which Jay sanded and varnished, and I decorated this with lavender and candles and put photos of our loved ones who are no longer with us on each of the steps. We sourced a wooden pallet which Jay, my dad and my uncle transformed to display the running order of the day. I painted the lettering on the ‘All You Need Is Love’ crate; it captured the feeling of the day, and our attitude toward each other and our friends and family. My mum and brother made up boards with our favourite lyrics on them; it was great to have so many personal touches all around.”

“We made confetti cones out of my old violin and piano music books and my dad made confetti cone holders out of sheets of wood and glued them to crates. The cones were filled with real rose petals for guests to shower us with following the ‘I dos’!”

26 Suzanne Neville from Eleganza Sposa bridal boutique in Edinburgh 27 Bride looking lovingly at her groom  29 Barn used as a wedding venue 32 Groom wearing a Kilt and grey jacketOrage oversized bouquet by Myrtle and Bracken

On the tables, some really lovely homemade favours awaited the guests, and they were entertained by magician Michael Neto.

“I made all of our favours and designed stamps with an L&J monogram for our favour boxes, which held personalised guitar plectrums.”

16 Myrtle and Bracken flowers

“They reflected us and our interest in music as a couple perfectly. We have shared a love of music since the very beginning and travel all over to see our favourite bands play. We had mini bottles of Buckfast wine (a Scottish touch) for the boys which I sourced from Buckfast Abbey direct and Jägermeister miniatures for the girls. I made the ‘Drink me’ tags for the bottle necks.”

19 Hexagonal glass trinkets and jewellery box with moss inside used as a ring

“We had so many positive comments about Michael, he absolutely amazed our guests and us with his magic and was such a lovely guy.”

 18 Vintage tea cup and saucer wedding decor 17 Fern table decor

The newly-weds entered the marquee as a piper played the bagpipes – adding a really traditional Scottish feel to the day. The wedding breakfast was provided by Passion Caterers, and the beautiful, foliage-adorned cake created by Happyhills Cakes.

“Emily discussed our vision for the day and sketched a cake which fitted perfectly. We had three tiers with different flavours, lemon and poppyseed, raspberry and white chocolate and red velvet. She is so talented and makes the most natural and real-looking sugar flowers. We asked for a dusty finish to fit with our rustic venue.”

33 Three tier cake by Happyhills Cakes34 Simple and fuss free 3 tirer wedding cake36 Marquee outside Boswells Coach House wedding venue24 Light up LOVE sign

And then it was time to get the party started! As you may have realised, music is intrinsic to the couple’s relationship so played a big part in their celebrations.

“We have always had and connected through a shared love of music. We love Indie and Funk&Soul so we chose an amazing band called The Dawn Patrol from Glasgow who we know through friends and they played all the music that we loved. They were amazing and played our first dance ‘Sonnet’ by The Verve beautifully with all the little details that are so important to us.”

“After the wedding party were invited onto the dancefloor, the band got the crowd going and the dancefloor was absolutely packed for the rest of the night which was important to us as we love a boogie. After the band finished we had our good friend DJ for us into the wee hours, he played all our favourites and the night just flew by as we were having so much fun. One of our favourite parts was the dance-off which happened spontaneously – everyone gathered round in a circle taking turns at being centre stage to the funky music played by our amazing band. Loch Lomond at the end of the night was wild and we will never forget it.”

“The whole day was so amazing. The feeling of love and excitement from our amazing family and friends is impossible to describe. Walking down the aisle to meet Jay after all the preparation was amazing. The speeches were so funny, a real highlight. Taking a moment to ourselves to just be in the moment together and reflect on our day and being Mr and Mrs after so long was so worthwhile.”

35 Black and white shot of the first dance

Words of Wedded Wisdom

“My advice would be to start early, look at what is important to you and your partner and put your heart and soul into it. Also – enjoy the prep and don’t stress about a thing. It is all the making and creating and family and friends time leading up to the wedding that you will remember fondly as well as the day itself.”

“Don’t sweat the small stuff: if it runs late it runs late, if things are missed, no one will notice.”

“Most of all take five minutes out in the evening with your new husband to enjoy each other and reflect, stand back and watch all of your favourite people enjoying themselves and take in the atmosphere on your special day. I am so glad we did, and it is a memory we will treasure. It goes so fast, and you will want to go back and do it all over again!”

30 Bride and groom kissing during golden hour

Laura and Jay, I’m absolutely in awe of your creativity and how you’ve transformed Boswell’s Coach House into this magical, natural delight. Thank you so much for sharing your marriage celebrations on Love My Dress, and for the insight into how you styled the venue so beautifully. Sending many thanks to The Hendrys as always for their glorious work.

Ele xx

Credits & Thanks

Eleanor Crossland

Eleanor Crossland View all Eleanor's articles

Ele lives in the Lincolnshire countryside, close to the beautiful coast. A qualified Pilates teacher, she loves fitness, yoga, Pilates and has a healthy addiction to baking, writing and travel.

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