A Laidback and Rustic Style Humanist Wedding in Scotland

Good morning lovely, lovely readers, I hope this day turns out to be a good, productive and rewarding one for you. I’m attempting a ‘get to bed early, get up earlier’ thing at the moment, involving a 5am alarm call. Sounds ghastly, but I’m actually loving it. I love to slip out of bed before the rest of my family has risen to get some work done – it’s my most productive part of the day!

This lovely Scottish wedding was sent in by photographer Lauren McGlynn.  I love it for its home-spun and sweet rustic appeal. Those purple Phase Eight dresses are a bit of a winner too!

Pensions Consultant Ali married her beau Chris, a financial advisor on 24 August last year at Kirknewton in West Lothian just south of Edinburgh.

“We knew we wanted a laid back day in a venue that allowed us to book all our own suppliers, Kirknewton fit this perfectly.  It was only through using wedding blogs and Pinterest that the rustic theme really came to light.  Once we came to the realisation of this theme my world became kraft card, raffia, wooden hearts and stamps! ”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Lauren McGlynn

“Chris and I met at University in Glasgow and our friend groups merged.  After a few years of friendship we finally became a couple much to the expectation of our friends!  Chris proposed when we were on holiday in Portugal in 2010.  Chris took his opportunity and proposed overlooking the sea on a walk along the cliffs.   He had chosen the most beautiful ring and brought it on holiday but it was too small for me so I carried the ring around showing it to everyone it in its box!

We originally wanted to get married in 2011 but we couldn’t find a venue that we could see ourselves getting married in!  Apparently when it comes to wedding venues I am a diva…even the ceiling of the venues were either too high or too low!  After a few years of one-off searching I stumbled across Kirknewton Stables just outside of Edinburgh, during one of my wedding blog sessions!  We loved that you could hire the stables for exclusive use and that it really was a (beautiful) blank canvas to work from.  It meant we had to think about everything, but it was worth it to be able to have the day that we wanted.”  

“We did all the wedding stationery ourselves – I bought a personalised printable design from Etsy for the invitations and RSVPs.  I was then able to print the invitations on Kraft card.  The menus were written on the large blackboards that we made, and I printed the order of service, table plans on kraft paper to continue the rustic theme.”

“The bridesmaid dresses were probably the second thing we managed to organise, after the venue.  We spotted the Phase Eight dresses, both the girls and I loved them so we got them straight away.

Chris was very much of the thinking that there is no better excuse for a Northern Irish man to wear a kilt than marrying a Scottish girl in her native country!  I was more than happy he embraced it as I thought he looked great in a kilt.”

“Finding the dress was probably the toughest task for me during the wedding preparation. I knew I wanted something simple, vintage and lace.  However, I could not find it anywhere in the shops.  It either had too much detail on it or it was way out of our budget.

I had a conversation with the owner of a Fabric Store in London and she suggested I should consider getting a dress made.  I had never even considered this as an option as I thought it would be too expensive.  However, she put me in touch with Sylvia from Beau Monde London.  Sylvia was amazing and worked with me to get my ideas on paper.  I ended up with the exact dress I wanted, made just for me, and it ended up being better value than anything I had previously tried on in the shops.  So what started off quite stressful ended up being one of the most enjoyable things.” 

“I think my most favourite part of the day was the Humanist ceremony as it was completely personal to us.  We also loved seeing everyone we love happy and enjoying the day we had created. 

There is nothing major we would have done differently but I guess it is always good to take a step back and remember why you are organising the day and to try to not get too bogged down by all the details.  Instead take a deep breath, relax and embrace the challenge of organising the day exactly how you want it.” 

Our florist was Narcissus Flowers. For the bouquets, buttonholes and my hairslide Erin, from Narcissus flowers, did a fabulous job.  Erin worked to the theme ‘seasonal flowers that look like they have been picked out of a country garden’ absolutely perfectly.  It was one of the easiest and quickest consultations we had as Erin knew exactly what we wanted from the beginning.

For decorating the venue we went along to the flower market in Edinburgh a couple of days before the wedding and picked up lots of pretty, seasonal, cheap flowers to fill the jam jars and vases my mum had kindly collected.  We really were so pleased with the end results and it ended up being the bargain of the wedding budget.”

“The décor of the venue really was a DIY team effort.  My stepfather is a carpenter so he kindly agreed to make us a selection of blackboards, table numbers and wooden wedding signboards.  I bought lots of raffia online which was used on pretty much everything from the invitations, the favours, the table decorations to the cakes…I discovered a strong love for raffia! My mum sourced as many wooden hearts and hanging birds as possible to decorate the venue and gardens.

I made homemade organic, raspberry vodka for the favours.  We sourced the raspberries from Chris’ mum’s garden, I found some cute little bottles online and we had a personalised stamp made from Etsy which read ‘Tweed’s homemade raspberry vodka’.

The girls helped me make bunting with the lace cuttings from my wedding dress, the name tags, seating plan and general decoration of the venue the day before.  We were so touched by everyones help and we will always look back fondly on the DIY days leading up to the wedding.”   

“Our photographer was Lauren McGlynn – as soon as we went on Lauren’s website we knew if she photographed our wedding we would have some amazing photos to look back on.  Her style was exactly what we were looking for.  Instead of all the posed shots, she specialises in and captures those natural moments of happiness, which are so rare to get on camera.

Lauren was amazing, she had such a laidback and relaxed style that complimented our day perfectly and we would recommend her to anyone.  I have even said to her to accept that she will be photographing Chris and me at any milestone events for years to come.”

“My dad walked me down the aisle to an instrumental version of ‘The Look of Love’ by Burt Bacharach, performed by Chris’ family. 

Unfortunately I’m highly emotional and not a very pretty crier – so we decided it was best not to write our own vows!  However we did draft the ceremony with the Humanist so it was personalised throughout.  The Humanist asked us to provide ‘three things we love about the other’ to her in secret and she would read them out at the ceremony.  This was such a great addition to the ceremony and created a lot of laughs.”

“One of my bestfriends, Calum gave a reading on friendship and love at the ceremony and Chris’ mum gave the reading below, called ‘Listen’ by Ann Gray”.

‘Let’s love, listen, take time
when time is all we have.
Let’s be unafraid to be kind,
learn to disregard the bad
if the good outweighs it daily.
Let’s make a gift of silence,
the day’s hushing into dark,
and when we hold each other
let’s always be astonished
we are where we want to be.
Let’s hope to age together,
but if we can’t, let’s promise now
to remember how we shone
when we were at our best,
when we were most ourselves.’“

“Chris’ gran gifted his late granddads wedding ring to him.  Chris’ gran and granddad were married for over 50 years, so it is a pretty special and symbolic gesture of marriage to us.” 

“From the beginning we knew we wanted a cake table in place of a desert and that Chris’ mum would gift us her amazing baking talent.  She made a selection of cakes. all using as much of her home-grown ingredients as possible.  There were a selection of Victoria Sponge cakes decorated with rose petals, violet cakes, lemon drizzle cake, a selection of chocolate cakes, and a white chocolate ganache wedding cake so we would have something special to cut.

The cakes looked great and tasted amazing.  It was a lot of hardwork for Chris’ mum, she spent the three days before the wedding working on a cake production line to decorate the cakes!  However, the end result was better than anything that we could have imagined.  She enjoyed it so much and people were so complimentary about the cakes that she is in the process of setting up her own business so keep a look out for ‘Alison Makes Cakes’!”

“We were very lucky that we have some very talented professional musician family members and friends at our wedding.  Our friend played the bagpipes for guests arriving.  Chris’ uncle, aunty and  two cousins played music during the ceremony, and a family friend played the accordion before the meal.  It was lovely to be able to incorporate our family and friends talent into the day.In the evening we had a fab band from Glasgow called Daytura.  It was great having some live music to end the day and Daytura kept everyone up dancing all night.

Our first dance track was ‘Stand By Me’ by John Lennon.  However, we had an unofficial first dance later on in the evening.  We had’ Lovesong’ by The Cure played for us, which the band kindly learned to play 2 weeks before the wedding!  Everybody was up dancing, but it was nice to know that to Chris and me it was our secret first dance.”

Words of Wedded Wisdom…

“Pinterest and wedding blogs!  It really was only by using Pinterest that we realised there was a theme emerging to our thoughts!  Wedding blogs are full of useful, practical advice and you can get so many ideas from the ‘Real Wedding’ section of Love My Dress – a perfect way to spend a rainy afternoon.

I love wedding blogs – I think they are so helpful for brides-to-be, to have other weddings and advice in one place.”

What a wonderful day, so laid back, so honest, I just love it.  Thank you so much, Ali and Chris, for sharing your lovely wedding day with us all, I hope the first year of marriage has been a good one for you and that you are looking forward to celebrating your first anniversary in the summer.

Readers – you can see more from photographer Lauren McGlynn on Love My Dress here.

Have a lovely morning all,

Love Annabel

 

Photographer – Lauren McGlynn
Venue – Kirknewton in West Lothian
Brides Dress – Sylvia from Beau Monde
Brides Hair Accessories – Hairslide from Narcissus Flowers
Brides Shoes – Rachel Simpson’s Mimosas in Ivory
Bridesmaids – Phase Eight
Florist – Narcissus Flowers
Cake – Family
Entertainment – Big Shed Music + Daytura
Rings – heirloom
Catering Company – Town House
Stationery – the bride + groom using free downloadable printables
Hair + Make-up – Rachel Solley

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