Tessa and Andy married in early May at Ballintaggart Farm in Pitlochry. The Perthshire landscape gave them a peaceful, open setting for a weekend that was all about good food, family and flowers.
Three Love My Dress recommended suppliers played a huge part in shaping the day. The immensely talented floral designer, Ange, of Fauna Flower Folk, filled the spaces with pastel flowers in soft, painterly tones. Tessa’s Lola Varma gown came from the super stylish and welcoming Mrs W Bridal in Newcastle, where she found the experience warm, calm and personal. And the photographs by wonderful Caro Weiss capture everything exactly as it was, joyful, relaxed and full of life.
This was a day built on connection, creativity and care, made all the more special by the talented people who helped bring it together and the couple’s adorable little dog, Winnie, who stole the show on more than one occasion in her sweet, pink bow!
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Ballintaggart Farm
When looking for the perfect wedding venue we knew we wanted it to be small & all about the food. When scrolling through Instagram, I was super excited to come across Ballintaggart Farm.
The maximum amount of people it can hold is 38 and with our guest list at 34, we knew it would be perfect.
We wanted an intimate, laid back day – no pressure and no set structure. There was accommodation on site or at the sister company The Grandtully Hotel which would mean everyone could stay within a 5 minute drive of one another & we could make a full weekend of it.
Ballintaggart is known for being a cookschool; so it wouldn’t be a surprise when I say the food is just unbelievable. Myself and Andy are massive foodies so this was a major part of why we choose the venue.
The ceremony options were outside or in the main steading – we were being positive and hoping for an outdoors ceremony (which for Scotland, a dry day is pretty rare!) Luckily for us, on the 10th May it was a beautiful sunny Scottish day and we got to marry in front of the beautiful Perthshire landscape.
The Dress
Lola Varma
When it came to start looking for ‘the dress’ I went to a few bridal shops in Glasgow, but nothing stood out. I knew I didn’t want a typical ‘bride look’ and remembered the brand I had stumbled across before even getting engaged. This was Lola Varma and I was obsessed with all of the dress designs – I found out the nearest stockist to Scotland was Mrs W Bridal in Newcastle.
We made a weekend of it (myself, mum and aunty) and I LOVED the appointment. All 5 Lola Varma dresses I tried on I loved, it was going to be a hard decision but Lauren at Mrs W was the friendliest person ever and gave me good advise by saying ‘go away and have a coffee and keep looking at all the images and videos you have taken today – believe me, you will KNOW when you keep going back to that one video’. I was skeptical, but as advised, within half an hour of leaving, one video kept drawing me in – and this is when I knew this was ‘the one’.
I then had another appointment with Lauren to confirm the dress and then the collection appointment and she always made me feel at ease – would highly recommend Mrs W for some beautiful dress designers and 10/10 customer service.
I wanted more of a look that reflected my style. After choosing my dress I quickly decided I wanted to wear big chunky gold heels and gold hoop earrings. The main thing I wanted in my look was to feel comfy whilst looking chic and effortless.
My perfume was ‘The Noir’, by Le Labo and my shoes were by Topshop.
I wore a pair of gold chunky COS earrings. I wanted to reflect my own personal style when choosing wedding jewellery. I knew I didn’t want to go with the usual pearls or silver delicate jewellery.
Every day I wear gold hoops so thought why shouldn’t I wear some on my wedding day? I choose ones from COS as they were a bit more of a statement to my every day ones, but I know I will definitely get my wear out of them after the wedding.
Ange at Fauna Flower Folk was the first supplier I booked a few months after getting engaged. I can’t even describe how in awe I was of all of her past work that she had posted on her Instagram. I knew I wanted most of the styling to just be an abundance of flowers so I knew I had made the right decision with going for fauna.
On the day, Ange and the team were amazing – my bouquet was everything I had dreamed of and more – I gave her the palette of pastels with pops of colour and without discussing much more, it was exactly what I would have chosen.
The use of specific flowers like Amaranthus (which I was growing at home; and had a slight obsession with), bright fuchsia Peonies and soft lilac sweet peas – it was like she had read my mind of what I would have wanted. After the wedding, the next day, Ange came back to the venue and sorted all of the flowers in to buckets – I then took them all home and myself and my mum got to work to make up posie bouquets to deliver to all of my family and friends as a reminder of the day.
The Ceremony
I walked down the aisle with my dad. The photographs of this make me so happy to look back on, my smile says it all – he was super emotional but I kept things cheery, and you can definitely tell that from the photos. We entered the ceremony to the sound of ‘Linger’, by The Cranberries.
Paul, aka, The Scottish Celebrant, was brilliant! The main goal was for it to be laidback, not lovey dovey but just a laugh – and that he did. The guests were in fits of laughter and he really was amazing. He made us feel super at ease and tailored it to us. I would highly recommend Paul if you are looking for a bit of banter – he even lets you choose what tartan kilt he wears on the day!
We both wrote our own vows – again, this was around one week before the ceremony, as we are the most laidback people ever. We made sure to give each other a rough word count so we could make sure we were both saying around the same amount to create an equal balance. It was nice to personalise them and maybe say things you wouldn’t normally get to say. The perfect time to showcase the little things you love about your partner.
My gran is amazing at writing poems so I knew I wanted to ask her to write one to be read out at our ceremony. She was a bit too shy to stand up to read it so my aunty Jennifer did the honors of this. It was light hearted, funny and not gushy in the slightest (she knows I’m not the most affectionate person!)
Our little dog Winnie (yorkiepoo) being there for the ceremony and photo’s. We knew from the get-go that we wanted her to be there on the day as she is a major part of our lives; my two nephews walked her down the aisle & then the photos Caro took of us with her are just amazing; something we will cherish forever.
We designed our own rings at a local workshop in Glasgow; Harkness are a small family owned jewellers and workshop, they were great through out the full process. I went for a chunky gold band with a slight asymmetrical shape to it and added in a little green peridot pear and a pink sapphire round gemstone to symbolise both myself and Andy’s birth stones. I wanted something a little bit different and I just love it! Andy wanted something super simple so opted for a brushed sterling silver band.
After this, I think it has to be the meal – everyone was gathered around one long table, all of our favourite people enjoying super good food and having the loveliest of times.
Photography & Video
Our photographer was Caro Weiss. When researching photographers online and on Instagram I kept coming across Caro’s work. The style was exactly what we were looking for & I loved how on her website she explicitly said she loved weddings with beautiful flowers & dogs – these were the two things we were passionate about too!
Caro was amazing on the day, she instantly made us feel at ease and there was no ‘posey’ style photos, she was more about the candid style shots which we were happy about (both of us are not great in front of the camera!) All of the guests got on so well with her & we are so happy with the final images – couldn’t recommend her enough!
Our videographer was Wedlock Films. I didn’t want to get a full on videographer as wanted to keep the day as laidback as possible. Two weeks before the wedding I saw a post on Instagram marketing a hamper that gets sent out to you with 3 old style camcorders and the guests video your day.
This was perfect for us as we love the old style camcorder look and thought it was a great way to involve the guests and knew my two nephews would love to get in about it too!
How They Met
We like to have a laugh about how we met. Andy basically added me on Facebook back in August 2015 after seeing me on tinder (I obviously hadn’t swiped the right way!) We starting dating whilst we were both at university, a few years later we reserved our first flat together – which led to a two year delay thanks to covid!
After living with each other for a year, Andy then proposed in 2022 and we were both ok on waiting a few years before getting married so we booked it two and a half years in advance. Without realising, we had booked in for 2025 which turns out to be our 10th anniversary year, which makes it super special.
The Reception
We decided to go with the venue supplying our cake. We went for a lemon and poppyseed flavour and our florist added some flowers to it for decoration. One special thing we also added was a little mesh butterfly that my gran had saved from my mum and dads wedding cake 39 years ago – this was super sentimental.
The only stationery we got made were our ‘save the dates’ and invites. My dad owns an art gallery so we have gotten to know lots of artists through this. One of my favourites is Jack Sutton – he drew out the wedding venue for us to then use on our stationary. It was simple black and white stationary, but super effective with the intricate detailing of the art work. We now have the original piece of art up on our wall.
For the men we left two cans of ‘Tully Beer’ (Ballintaggarts own brand) in everyone’s room when they arrived.
For the women, I went to my local lifestyle/gift shop Sorores and we came up with the idea of putting a little box of goodies together – Domi makes all of her own aromatherapy items so we went with a lip balm, pulse point oil, pillow spray & personalized candle (we used the Jack Sutton drawing on the label and I choose which scent to go for).
Evening & Dancing
Music was the last thing we discussed during the planning process. We ended up choosing our ceremony and first dance songs a few days before the wedding.
We choose ‘Angels’ by The XX. It was a song that I had always loved and we had also went to see The XX when they came to Glasgow in 2017, so felt it had some meaning behind it. (Fun fact: absolutely no one at our wedding had heard of the song before, but we didn’t care as we knew it meant something to us!)
Words of Wedded Wisdom
It is what it is – don’t get stressed over the small stuff. Remember what the day is actually about; being able to have all of your loved ones in one place & having the most special day celebrating you and your partner.
We were both the most laidback people ever when it came to organizing our wedding but it all works out in the end, enjoy it, don’t overthink it and have fun!
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