The Lovettes – Introducing you to Jaclyn and Stuart and Their Intimate, Outdoor Wedding in Scotland

How you doing Saturday lovers? Have you seen our honeymoon inspiration post of this morning yet? Those of you who are regular visitors to Love My Dress will be aware that we have a community of real blogging brides who we affectionately refer to as The Lovettes.  We’ve been introducing you to our new Lovettes members over the past few weeks. I love how the many different ladies who are writing for us bring with them such a variety of life experiences and perspectives on the task of planning a wedding and becoming married.  Todays Lovettes feature is that of Jacylyn Craig, a lady for whom blogging is already a regular fixture. She also joins our growing list of brides to be who met their fiance online.

Over to you Jaclyn, and welcome to Love My Dress!

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Like most of my fellow Lovettes I’m sure, the act of writing words to appear on my favourite wedding blog is somewhat surreal. 

Ever since getting engaged to my other half Stu and riding the tricky terrain of wedding planning, Love my Dress has been a constant source of inspiration and help, even easing my stress during those first few difficult months (tell me I’m not alone?) and leading us towards a venue, photographer and florist.

(still taken from a short engagement video we made the weekend Stu proposed)

When I first told people I had been chosen as a Lovette (to say I was excited would be putting it extremely mildly so I told a LOT of people), their first reaction (after the congrats of course) was to ask whether Stu was ok with me sharing the ins and outs of our relationship, wedding plans and finally our own wedding pictures on the internet.  A question that always made me chuckle as I didn’t even ask him – it was already a given.

You see I’ve been documenting our little life on the interweb ever since we met. Stu’s a cameraman and I’m a freelance writer and consultant but when we first met we were both just at the very early stages of our careers, and kind of helped each other grow along the way. Stu quickly became a firm fixture within the posts of my own personal lifestyle blog, even gaining his own affectionate blog alter ego (Ginger Boy) and our many adventures together ended up being retold through my various writing endeavours from the word go.

Now, spending our free time making short videos, taking photos of our moments and telling our stories online seems completely normal (although has perhaps made finding wedding suppliers to trust that much more difficult as in an ideal world we’d do it all ourselves) so much so that actually, not sharing such an important part of our lives together – the ins and outs of our wedding – would be much more a question mark than doing so.

By the time we get married (5 months and nervously/excitedly counting) we will have been together for over six years, which although wonderful also feels a little mind boggling. It only feels like yesterday that we met up on a random Thursday evening in London and ended up staying out until 4am, drunk on mojitos and high on life. I knew Stu was the guy for me pretty much immediately. I wouldn’t say it was love at first sight (his fashion sense left a lot to be desired and at that time he had some rather suspect looking piercings at the top of his ear, although despite all that I did still get butterflies when I clapped eyes on him) but rather love at first laugh.

Stu made me laugh within about ten seconds of meeting, and didn’t stop making me laugh all the way through our crazy first date where we traipsed through torrential rain with holes in our shoes and giggled nonsensically at the idea of sausage rolls being served in a pint glass (maybe they ran out of plates that evening?). If I’m honest he hasn’t stopped making me laugh ever since and if there’s one thing I love most about our relationship together, it’s how much fun we have even in the ordinary of everyday. I only have to look at that silly ginger beard of his to feel warm and happy inside and some nights the slightest thing will have us both in a fit of belly aching laughs that we can’t stop unless we go into separate rooms to calm down.

By the time we said goodbye at the end of that first date I knew I was on to something special, and after waking up the next morning to a text that read ‘Hey crazy mojito girl, how you doing?’ I was smitten. After seeing each other almost every day consecutively for the space of three weeks, I was in love.

To many our relationship progressed very quickly (we celebrated our one week anniversary – who does that?) but to us it just felt right, as if once we’d met there was no other scenario that would do other than being together. When you know, you know right?

As I mentioned I knew within about three weeks (or at least that’s when I allowed myself to admit it) and unable to keep it to myself any longer I admitted it to my best friend too, who simply replied ‘well, we all knew that. But he hasn’t said it yet so just hold fire’. I held fire for the next 6 weeks, until Stu was asked to join a team last minute to assist on a documentary in Ethiopia. A trip that was supposed to last ten days, turned into three weeks and having never been apart that long, upon his return we both just blurted out ‘I love you’ the second we saw each other which is a moment I’ll never forget.

Of course our adventure began a little before that first date, as we are (like many nowadays) a success story of online dating, officially meeting through the dating website My Single Friend (we may need to extend a wedding invite to founder Sarah Beeny to say thanks). I’m not sure how many people other than close family and friends actually know that fact so I may have just outed us on the internet (eek) but although I might have been keen to keep it a little under wraps at the beginning of our relationship, now I actually couldn’t be happier to tell you that’s how our story began.

There’s a little more to it than a simple exchange of emails, but I’ll let you read more on that through my application at the bottom of this post. It’s a tale that warrants a lot of ‘it’s fate’ and ‘meant to be’ reactions from all we now tell it to, but for me I guess it’s so difficult to imagine a life without Stu in it now, that my brain can’t comprehend those ‘imagine ifs’ that might of meant us not meeting.

We got engaged in October of last year, when Stu surprised me with a trip to Hampton Court Palace and special entry into the maze for just the two of us before it opened to the public. After getting lost amongst the hedges for perhaps longer than planned I reached the clearing in the middle to be greeted with a beautiful arch decorated in photographs of us, a bottle of champagne and a pair of shiny metallic trainers (I always wanted to design my own ring and I’m a shoe fiend). Before I could figure out what was going on, I turned around to find Stu on one knee, trainer in hand asking me to marry him. It was a perfect Autumn morning, a perfect moment, and perfectly us.

(can you tell we love a jumping photo?)

After excitement initially getting the better of us and penciling in a date for the wedding that has now been and gone (ahem), venue availability and a gentle thud back to reality led us to our November 2015 date. Although at first set on a Spring wedding, I’m now really excited about our Winter Wedding Weekend and everything we have in store. After all, we’re getting married in Scotland where Winter can appear all year round so at least this way we don’t have to hedge our bets on the weather.

So in just under 150 days I’ll be saying my I-do’s to the silly ginger bearded guy who makes me laugh every single day, and I can’t wait!

Jac x

A little background on Jaclyn

As this is Jaclyn’s first post for Love My Dress,  we thought it would be nice to share some of her original Lovettes application with you all – to help you get to know her a little better.  We’ll be doing the same for all our new Lovettes when it comes to sharing their first posts.

Jaclyn Craig is marrying Stuart Watt on 21st November 2015
You can find Jaclyn via her blog and on Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest
Amy Shore will be taking their wedding photographs

How They Met:

Stu and I actually met on My Single Friend, the dating website where your friend is charged with writing your profile and describing you in around 200 words, so I guess we have three people to thank for our union; My childhood friend Laura (now one of my best women), Stu’s childhood friend Pete (now his best man) and Sarah Beeny, the house proud business mogul who set the website up. Nowadays of course, online dating is the norm but this was almost six years ago when Tinder wasn’t even invented and dating websites were still fairly traditional, so I guess you could say at the time it was a little unconventional. The story isn’t quite as simple as I make out of course, and we often get a lot of oohs and aahs when we tell it in full, as there were a few slightly unusual steps which brought us together.

After two months on the site, a few so-so dates and nothing to really write home about, I was nearing the end of my subscription when Stu’s face popped up in my ‘new members’ feed one morning. Despite my friend Laura telling to avoid men with only one profile photo at all costs, something about that silly ginger bearded face made me smile and so, with a ‘why not?’ confidence that came with only having a week left on the site, I reached out with as witty a first message as I could manage. His profile didn’t give me much to go on, I think Pete had chosen to fill about 20 of that 200 word quota with something about washing regularly and liking polar bears – it still makes me laugh that such little information intrigued me. However that final week went by with no reply from Stu, my subscription ended and I chose not to re-new, putting it down as one of those ‘try anything once’ experiences with which living in London for the first time had provided. After around a month, I’d almost forgotten completely about the whole thing so it was quite a surprise when I received an email telling me there was a new message in my My Single Friend inbox from that same silly ginger bearded fella. Of course, I was defiant that anyone who took an entire month to reply to my message wasn’t worth renewing a subscription for, and so that message went unread for another month or so.

Then a funny little thing happened, something my friends call fate, but I guess for us will always just be a ‘imagine if’ kind of crazy occurrence that brought us together. In a marketing ploy to bring those who hadn’t found love on the site back into the fold, I was offered a month’s subscription free by My Single Friend and suddenly that little unread email was able to be read. I guess you could say it was love at first laugh, as as soon as I’d read the silly retort that had come back to my witty first email I was in bits, and I haven’t really stopped laughing since. We met up pretty quickly after those first few emails and had THE best first date of my life. It was an instant connection, we bonded over sausage rolls in pint glasses and one too many mojitos, laughed, talked, danced and kissed (ooh er) and when we parted that evening there was somehow never any question for either of us that we were going to be boyfriend and girlfriend from that point on.

The five and a half years that have followed since I can only describe as – the most fun. We’ve laughed through good times and bad times and often speak about what would’ve been had events not played out the way they did because we can’t imagine our lives without each other now. Stu proposed last year in the middle of the maze at Hampton Court Palace one Thursday morning. He’d created a ruse about taking photos there for my blog (I write a lifestyle blog and am often asked to review places so this worked incredibly well in making sure I got up early and wasn’t phased about travelling to a new spot for breakfast).

Little did I know that he’d been planning the day for months, and had persuaded the staff at the Palace to open the maze early for us so that we would have the place to ourselves when I stumbled into the clearing and saw an arch decorated with photos of us and a bottle of champagne waiting. It was a wonderful surprise, and such an amazing moment. I could have never prepared myself for the emotions that would follow seeing the man I love down on one knee in the middle of a maze on a random Thursday morning – it was utterly perfect!

About their wedding:

We’d always said that when we got married, we would want the day to be a reflection of how we are as a couple and we’ve never really been the traditional sorts so that type of wedding just wouldn’t suit us. Instead we want something relaxed, informal, warm and welcoming and with a real emphasis on fun – basically a royally good shindig. We don’t have a huge budget but we’re not letting that stop us, after all the best weddings aren’t necessarily the most lavish, and all you need is love right?

When we first got engaged we came up with three words to describe the type of day we wanted to plan, and those were; simple, stylish and homemade. Many more words have been thrown into the mix since, but at the heart we are still aiming for that wedding. We are both quite creative as a couple and I’ve really been relishing the idea of coming up with creative details and making the day unique to us. We are also really keen on involving all of our friends and family as much as possible, one because we know we’ll need the help, but two because we know so many talented and creative people and think it will be lovely for everyone to feel like they are part of the day when it rolls around.

We’re getting married in Scotland (my motherland) in November and have chosen a really unique venue near the Borders, half way between my family in the North East coast of Scotland and Stu’s family in Shropshire. We’re organising an intimate and heartfelt outdoor ceremony (in Scotland, I know, are we mad?) followed by a full weekend of music, food, celebrations and hopefully plenty of laughter. We’re going for a rustic, woodland theme with a touch of winter wonderland and are praying that Scotland will play ball and keep the rain away for at least one day.

Food will be informal, music will be eclectic, and the day will hopefully be full of little bits of ‘us’.

What does marriage mean?

As excited as I am about the wedding, it’s really the marriage I’m most looking forward to. Our initial idea when we got engaged was to plan the wedding as quickly as possible (the first date we threw out was 12 weeks from our engagement!). People kept asking us why we wanted to rush it, or why on earth we would do that to ourselves, but there was no reason other than we simply couldn’t wait to be husband and wife. We’ve now set a November date and are giving ourselves a little more time, as we quickly realised that wedding planning wasn’t as plain sailing as we (ok I) had first imagined, but we still have that same feeling.

We know that really, although the wedding day will be lovely, it’s being married to each other that we are most excited about. Even talking about being a wife now, is giving me butterflies and making me giddy. Although we will have been together six years by the time we get married, it feels as if a whole new chapter of our lives is just beginning, and that is all kinds of crazy wonderful to imagine. I have to admit that when I was younger I wasn’t overly fussed about the act of marriage, I didn’t think that it was necessary in order to commit to someone.

But as soon as I met Stu it all made sense, and the thought of marrying him made marriage have a completely different and much more important meaning. For me it means solidifying the love and affection we have for each other, making it even more monumental and rock steady than it already is, it means bringing together our two crazy families and making them one, it means being able to laugh and cry with my favourite person for the rest of my life and know that no matter what, I’ll always have him by my side.

Favourite Hollywood Icon?

This is a really tough question, as Hollywood starlets are somewhat of an adoration of mine. I even wrote my University dissertation on fashion from the golden age of Hollywood, discussing stars such as Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo. If I had to choose one to sum up my style and look for the day, I’d say Audrey Hepburn. Not because I’m planning an off the shoulder 1950’s dress but simply because she has and always will be one of my icons, she was effortless and chic yet still girly and feminine and that’s exactly the look I want to evoke on my wedding day.

As far as the day itself I’d choose Bridgette Bardot, I think that laid back, bohemian feel with a touch of rock and roll is how we see our day panning out – without too much structure or formality, a little rough around the edges and with the potential to go slightly crazy, but that’s ok. If I was picking a modern day Starlet however I’d choose Jennifer Lawrence, not only is she beautiful but she is funny and cool, she doesn’t take herself too seriously (which in my opinion is a quality every wedding needs) and most importantly she has the ability to laugh at herself when it all goes wrong. Case in point – tripping over her dress on her way to picking up an Oscar, surely the equivalent to falling down the aisle – you’ve got to laugh right?

I want our day to be as stress free as possible and we definitely aren’t striving for perfection so if things go wrong, I want us to be able to laugh and move on, without too much worry.

Favourite Love My Dress wedding:

Another VERY tough question as I’ve been inspired by so many in different ways. I guess one of my favourites was Laura and Neil at The Byre at Inchyra, one because it was in Scotland, two because it made me realise how important good photography is and made me fall hard for the Kitcheners Photography (who unfortunately weren’t available for our day – boo), and three because I loved the rustic outdoorsy nature of it all, and it solidified the type of venue we wanted to look for.

I also love Sammy and Joel, because I adore a quirky bride and she looked fantastic yet really different from the norm.