A Peach Toned Flower Crown and Essense of Australia Gown

Happy Friday everyone! I’ve got such a sweet treat for you to wrap up the week. Allow me to introduce you to the lovely Arleen, a lawyer at an international law firm, and the equally lovely Scott, who works for GE Oil & Gas. Mr and Mrs Triolo are about to embark on their next big adventure when they move to Singapore, so it’s my very great pleasure to be sharing perhaps their biggest adventure of all, their journey into married life. The couple wed at Christ Church, Kincardine O’Neill on 23rd April 2016 (congratulations on recently celebrating your first wedding anniversary you two!), followed by a party at Coo Cathedral in Aberdeenshire.

“Our wedding had a rustic feel with a bike themed twist, because we both love cycling and we got engaged on a bike ride in London’s Richmond park when I was training for a cycle from London to Paris.”

Photography by Jessica Reeve Photography

Arleen chose an Essense of Australia gown, purchased from Perfect Bridal Rooms in Aberdeen, set off beautifully by a simple veil studded with shimmering gems. Topped off with a gorgeous flower crown of blousy peach blooms, gypsophila and clusters of white hydrangeas, this is one seriously beautiful, feminine, soft look.

“I tried on many dresses but none of them were as beautiful as the one I wore on my wedding day. I loved everything about it; the lace, the sparkle, the capped sleeves, the fishtail shape and the keyhole back. I have never seen anyone wear this dress before and fell in love with it when I tried it on. My mum, sister and auntie were all with me when I tried it on and were also in love when they saw me in it. I knew Scott would love it too.”Arleen’s lovely ladies wore House of Fraser dresses and were also responsible for helping our bride and her mother craft a suite of rustic stationery with a bicycle theme.

Hair stylist Chelsea Georgia of Salon 70 coiffed Arleen’s flaxen locks into tumbling curls, while Aberdeen based Simone Saint took care of her make-up. Our girl touchingly chose to wear Scott’s favourite perfume, Princess by Vera Wang, and accessorised with an array of high street jewellery finds.

“We came across this quaint little church in the beautiful vicinity of Deeside while hunting for our wedding venue and fell in love with it straight away. It was beautiful inside and out and seated about 100 people – perfect for the size of our wedding. Although the physical space of where our ceremony took place was never that important to either of us, our marriage was more important, we both felt that this was a lovely setting to tie the knot both before God and our friends and family.”

“We are both born again Christians and our faith was also very much a part of our wedding.”

Arleen’s father drove over from Germany in his Mercedes to walk his little girl down the aisle of Christ Church in Kincardine O’Neill, his very shiny car doubling up nicely as some very stylish wedding transportation.

Here Comes the Sun by George Harrison, played on piano by one of the couples’ friends, serenaded Arleen and her dad as they entered the church, a song our bride has loved since childhood.

“We each wrote our own vows and chose several Bible readings; 1 John 4: 7-19, Colossians 3: 1-4, and 12-19. We also had one funny poem, Yes, I Will Marry You by Pam Ayres. We chose these Bible readings because they depicted God’s love for us and we chose the poem to make everyone laugh and because it has elements of truth in it.”

The couple exchanged rings purchased from James Allen, the same place Scott also chose his bride’s engagement ring. After a jubilant exit from the church, the newlyweds braved the Scottish weather with their bridesmaids and groomsmen to capture some gorgeous images with their photographer, Jessica Reeve.

“Our photographer, Jessica Reeve, is not only an amazing photographer, her fun and lovely manner also makes her a joy to be around, it was almost like having another friend with us. I loved the candid style photographs she shoots and the beautiful light she captures in her pictures.”

“I felt she captured our day perfectly and even put an awesome slideshow of highlights into our photo package, completely unexpectedly – what a lovely touch. She was fantastic and I would definitely recommend her.”

“The weather was very cold and it was probably one of the only days we had snow in Aberdeen in the whole of 2016 (at the end of April!). Thankfully the snow cleared up by the time we got married at 2pm, but it was still a cold day and I would have loved to have a drinks reception outside. But that’s what Scotland is like, you just can’t predict the weather.”

“Scott’s best man is a life-long friend, who together with his groomsmen came over from America to be by his side on this very special occasion. We pieced together Scott’s and their outfits; jackets and waistcoats were from Slaters, the trousers from Banana Republic, the shoes from Topman and the shirt and tie from TM Lewin. Scott also wore bike cufflinks to match our theme.”

We so love it when we get an insight into the groom’s experience, and Scott’s account of meeting and falling in love with Arleen is so heart-warming. He just knew when Arleen moved to London for six months, that if they made it through the next half year, they’d make it through anything together.

“We met in January 2014. I had just returned to Aberdeen from four months of globetrotting in southeast Asia when a friend, Sheila, invited me her fundraiser breakfast. When I got to the venue early, the room was empty apart from three strangers standing chatting; Scott was one of them. I immediately thought ‘who is this handsome fellow?'”

“The same night Sheila invited me to her leaving party at Scott’s flat where Scott and I got chatting. For the next few weeks we spoke every day over email and he soon asked me out. Knowing that I was going back out to Southeast Asia, I very reluctantly declined. However, a few days later I broke my arm which meant that I had to delay my travels for six weeks and this was our opportunity to get to know each other.”

“A month later, when I was on my travels again, Scott happened to go to Singapore for work and we ended up meeting there and had our first proper date on top of the Marina Bay Sands hotel by night. Now, almost four years later, we are moving to Singapore.”

“I noticed Arleen walking in the room, and wondered why I had never met this one of Sheila’s friends before. I was awestruck by her smile. I asked Arleen to marry me after just over three months after she moved to London, in May 2015. Arleen was training for a three-day, 300-mile charity cycle event from London to Paris. So the weekend I visited her she was desperate to go out and train. I brought the ring with me out on our training ride on Saturday morning and as we were riding through Richmond Park on a beautiful sunny day, I tempted her with a picnic in the sun. We sat,surrounded by trees and blue skies, and I asked her to marry me.”

Scott and Alreen transformed Coo Cathedral into a welcoming haven, twinkling with festooned fairy lights, peachy blooms and a plethora of rustic, handmade decorations. Its high ceilings and quaint alcoves were draped with swathes of billowing white fabric, and its chandeliers dripping with ribbon and fragrant eucalyptus.

“Our primary criteria for finding a wedding venue was a place that we could make our own. We wanted a venue that was a blank canvas to allow us to create our wedding based on our own ideas without the influence, restrictions and the decorations of a hotel or castle. Coo Cathedral offered us this opportunity. It’s a beautiful converted cow barn with nothing in the way of decoration other than a rustic stone walls.”

“It brought with it obvious challenges. We had to hire in everything from chairs, to ovens to heaters. We also bought, made and hired a lot of decorations (hessian jam jars, white crates as tables, chalkboards, bunting and pompoms) to bring into the venue and set these up ourselves a couple of days before the wedding with the help of our florist, Val Morrison.”

Rather than gift their guests with favours, the newlyweds donated money to a charity very close to their hearts. The Lighthouse Support Centre is a Christian charity that helps vulnerable, impoverished and at risk adults and children in Aberdeen.

Florist and caterer Val Morrison arranged and decorated a mouth-watering stack of cheeses, which the couple sourced locally, and cake pops put together by Arleen’s lovely mum and bridesmaids were the perfect sweet treat.

“We found out about Val purely through word of mouth. A friend of mine had her as a caterer and another as a florist. She doesn’t have a website nor did she have photos of her previous work that she could show us so we chose her purely based on recommendations and her reputation, which she certainly lived up to.”

“Val did a fantastic job with both the food and the flowers, so much so that I had people come up to me months after the wedding to say how much they enjoyed the food and how gorgeous the flowers were. The room was breath-taking and the flowers lasted all day, all night and a week or so after.”

“We were over the moon with the absolutely outstanding results she and her team delivered. I have since recommended her to my friends and would do so again in a heartbeat.”

Band, Kickback entertained guests in the evening, Arleen and Scott kicking off proceedings with a choreographed first dance to Happy Together by The Turtles. It’s a track they love, especially for its sweet lyrics.

“The whole day was so special that I couldn’t pick out one part of it to be honest. I loved every single bit of it. We were both recounting our favourite moments for weeks afterwards.”

Words of Wedded Wisdom

“Be clear what kind of venue you want to go for and how much help from others you will get to organise everything in the time that you have. I was very thankful that Scott took a very hands on approach to organising all of the practical things, such as the hiring of chairs, ovens and crockery, so that I could take care of the decorations and bridal party stuff. Hiring things and organising decorations was fun but, if you’d prefer not to spend a lot of your free time on wedding stuff, I would recommend going for a hotel where someone can take care of you.”

“Arranging a wedding can be stressful at times but try to relax, even if you can’t make all your dreams a reality. It is one of the most special and exciting days of your life, even if not everything goes 100% perfectly. Your guests won’t even notice! Remember that your wedding day is only the first day of your marriage and not the end but the beginning of your journey as husband and wife. Make sure you invest just as much effort into your marriage as you do planning the wedding.”

That just leaves me to say a huge thank you to Arleen and Scott for allowing us to share their beautiful day, and of course a massive thanks also goes to Jessica Reeve Photography for these sweet, love-filled images.

We’ve oodles more peach-hued inspiration for you right here if you’ve been tempted by this sugar-sweet colour scheme.

Love, Em x