Eilidh and Cristian were married on 20th July at the breathtaking Cluny Castle in Aberdeenshire – a venue with grandeur, warmth and a chapel that provided the perfect setting for their Christian Protestant ceremony with Romanian Orthodox traditions.
Their day was a beautiful blend of cultures, with moments that honoured family heritage alongside classic Scottish touches. The styling was timeless, with a palette of whites and soft neutral tones, gold accents, pearls and seasonal flowers. From the elegant chapel ceremony to a lively evening of ceilidh dancing and Romanian music, every part of the celebration reflected the couple’s story and the people they love most.
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Venue & Location
We got married at the beautiful Cluny Castle in Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. We fell in love with both its exterior and interior. We thought the chapel was perfect for our religious ceremony and loved the fact that everything was all in one place. The accommodation, chapel and reception area.
Natalie from Cluny Castle, our venue, was our wedding event planner on our big day and helped to coordinate it so well. She made the day go smoothly and worked so well with all our suppliers.
We were inspired by a traditional style. I love neutral shades and white together. We had ribbons, white caper candles, gold accessories, pearls, white roses, baby breath.
The Dress
Ronald Royce
My dress was purchased from Blush Bridal in Fraserburgh.
We had a great experience from both of our suppliers. They were so friendly and helped ease us into making a good decision for our special day.
I loved the lace throughout the dress and the embellishment in the torso area. It gave me that wow factor I was looking for and loved it instantly the moment I put it on.
I had a custom bespoke veil made from a lady called Clair in Manchester. She was recommended to me, and she did an amazing job. It was as long as the train of the dress and had little pearls embroidered across it. This tied in with my late Nannie’s pearl necklace. I chose not to wear any accessories in my hair apart from my veil.
My shoes were a satin ivory heel with a sparkly embellishment front from ASOS. Comfort was key for me. I knew they would look worse for wear after the wedding, and they sure did.
Jo Malone is one of my favourite fragrant shops. I was lucky to receive a Jo Malone Bridal experience from my best friend Ashley in the run up to the wedding. I chose their classic scent, Peony and Blush. It was floral and smelt so lovely. I love putting it on today and for it to be a lovely reminder of our special day.
I wore only sentimental jewellery on my wedding day. I wore my late Nannie’s earrings and matching pearl necklace with a bespoke custom-made blue stone ring that holds my late Granny’s ashes as my something blue. Both very special to me.
My special accessory was my something blue. My beautiful Granny Madge heartbreakingly suddenly passed away the year before the wedding. My family and I got jewellery made with her ashes. I got a blue pendant ring made with an engravement of Granny inside.
It meant so much to me to know she was nearby on our special day. My other special accessory was my late Nannie’s matching pearl earrings and necklace.
Hair was by Jelena Karpenko from Avant Garde Studio, Aberdeen. She was amazing and so friendly. She gave me a mermaid wave and it lasted all day long. Would highly recommend her.
Make up was by the lovely Tracey Cepeda. She was incredible and made me feel so beautiful. She listened to my soft blush and dewy request. She used very high quality make up brands.
Cristian’s suit was from Slaters in Aberdeen. He wanted to go for a traditional 3-piece black suit. This is also a Romanian custom outfit for grooms back in his homeland and he wanted to honour this. For scent, Cristian wore Valentino – one of his favourites.
My champagne halter neck bridesmaid dresses were from Pretty Lavish. I loved this dress on my girls, it suited all of their body types and was a beautiful colour.
I encouraged them to wear their own choice of heels as I wanted them to feel comfortable as possible.
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The Ceremony
My Grandad accompanied me down the aisle – he is a special person in my life that stands by me and is there for me every day. We were accompanied by the sound of ‘Highland Cathedral’ – a sentimental tune in memory of my late Granny Madge who loved the bagpipes and this track.
We had a minster called Rev Mark Rodgers. He is now retired from being a chaplain at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. We had a reading about love from the bible; 1 Corinthians 13:1-8.
During our ceremony, we performed a ‘candle lighting’. This was to incorporate Cristian’s heritage of Romania. In a traditional Romanian wedding ceremony, candle lighting is practiced so we wanted to acknowledge this as we had lots of Romanian family and friends join us.
Our wedding rings were from Finnies the Jeweller in Aberdeen. They are a well-known family run business so we knew we would be getting quality rings from them. Cristian chose a solid silver platinum band and I went for a 2 tier tiara diamond wishbone silver platinum band. We love our rings.
Photography
We choose Julieanne Whyte Photography for our wedding day. I first seen Julieanne and her work on Tiktok, she made me laugh with all her stories and I loved the way she edits her photos.
On our Wedding Day, Julieanne brought the banter and made us feel so comfortable whilst getting our photographs taken. Her photos were delivered four months later and were beautiful.
We choose Dean Johnstone Films to capture our special day. He is very talented and had produced wedding films at our venue, Cluny Castle prior to ours so we knew he was going to be able to create something amazing for us. His film was beautiful and something we will treasure forever.
The Reception
We loved our sit down meal, it was our first opportunity to properly soak in our wedding and it was beautiful to be able to look around at all our family and friends and celebrate with them.
As I am an Art and Design Teacher, I designed my own order of service, table plans, place cards and menus. Some of these were done using Canva.
Our flowers were from Flower Vogue. They were professional and were good value for your money. They were able to source all my favourite flowers and add a touch of pampas grass which I love.
We provided two wedding favours. The first were handmade personalised Mr and Mrs Gabureanu butter biscuits. I made them with my mother in law and packed them in a plastic seal with a white bow.
The second wedding favour was personalised sparklers. We really wanted sparklers at the end of the night and I am so glad we did.
Our three tier wedding cake was by Celebration Cake Shop in Aberdeen. They were able to take my designs and create a cake exactly the same. Each tier had a different flavor. White Chocolate and Raspberry, Chocolate and GF Victoria Sponge. I asked for little handcrafted edible flowers scattered down the cake as a centre piece. All in white with white ribbon.
Evening & Dancing
For our first dance we chose Alicia Keys ‘If I Ain’t Got You’. This was a song we loved and knew we could choreograph our first dance to well.
For entertainment we spent a while deciding on a good band. We used Coast Entertainment to find our band. We went for Platinum Band. They were amazing. The vocalist had a fantastic voice. They were able to sing and play live our requested first dance song. Throughout the night they played Ceilidh dancing music and Romanian music to incorporate both our cultures. Would highly recommend them, everyone was on the dance floor from the moment they started till they finished.
Throughout our wedding we used Thistle Piping.
During the ceremony we also had Rococo the Quartet String Band. They produced beautiful music as our guests waited for the wedding to begin.
We used Callum Massie Music as our organist for our religious ceremony hymns. He is a fantastic renowned piano player in Aberdeen and Music Teacher.
After the ceremony, we had a magician called Pheonix Magician. He was great at entertaining our guests whilst we got our photographs taken.
We had a caricaturist called Deidre Varley. She was fantastic at also entertaining our guests during the drink’s reception.
Lastly, during the party in the evening, on the dance floor we had a selfie booth that printed personalised photos. The company we used for this were called Silly Snapz. Our guests loved this. We used Lombardi Events for a pampas grass backdrop for our photobooth. This was in the open marquee in the evening.
Words of Wedded Wisdom
Enjoy every moment, this is the biggest day of your life. Don’t miss out anything you would like to have/do. We waited many years to get married so we could save up for every detail that we dreamed of and don’t have any regrets.
Time flew by so fast, we would have moved the wedding ceremony earlier to 1pm instead of 2pm.
I also loved reading all the weddings on Love my Dress. It gave me inspiration and ideas of what I would like for my big day. It was great to read other bride’s experiences.
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