A Raimon Bundo Gown For A Floral Scottish Spring Wedding

I don’t know what it is about Scottish weddings, but they’ve well and truly earned their place in my wedding-filled little heart. Today’s beautiful union is that of Catriona, who works for a charity helpline, and Maitiu, a management consultant.

They wed on 15th April 2017 at Colstoun Coach House, near Haddington in Scotland and were inspired by their love of food and fresh blooms.

“We only visited four venues but Colstoun was the one we were most excited about. They’d only had a couple of weddings there before we visited and as soon as we saw the place in person and met the family there, we knew it was perfect for us.”

Photography by Fiona Higgins 

“We live in London now but are both from Edinburgh originally and it was important to us both to get married close to home. Colstoun is an easy drive from Edinburgh and I guess the venue inspired us along with the season and our love of food. We weren’t hung up on having particular colours or flowers and just went with what suited the space and us.”

The couple had free reign of the main house, coach house and grounds for the weekend of their wedding, and had a number of their loved ones stay with them the night before the ceremony. It felt special to be getting married in a place that none of their guests had been to before.

“There were so many options for how to use the spaces. We were also asked to put on our ‘imagination hats’ as Lynn talked us through their plans to build a polytunnel in the walled garden which they would have as an outdoor/indoor space for wedding ceremonies – we were intrigued and given the difficulty with outdoor weddings in Scotland we could see how it could work!”

“I wore my usual Tom Ford Noir Pour Femme and my granny Jean gifted me the ruby and diamond earrings my grandpa had given her for their ruby wedding anniversary. They are remarkably similar to my engagement ring. I also wore a gold Omega watch I’d been given by my great aunty Dolly; she died last year so I liked wearing something that reminded me of her on the day.”

“When it came to flowers we booked Adelaide’s Secret Garden. Adelaide had worked with Colstoun before and did the flowers for their launch last autumn. Her boyfriend Ror was also our caterer (total coincidence) and they made a great team. Adelaide was very open to experimenting with new ideas, I had an album of pictures of flowers that I shared with her and she quickly picked up on my love of hanging arrangements.”

“There weren’t particular flowers I wanted, it was much more important to us that the flowers were seasonal and as local as possible. As it was spring this meant lots of tulips, which worked really well in the hanging arrangements.”

“I ummed and awed over what to do with my hair. Then one day a pic came up on Love My Dress’ Instagram feed, where the bride had her hair in a partial up-do with a beautiful hair piece from Lovely Bridal. I loved it and instantly sent a screenshot to my hairdresser Carla to see if we could do something similar. I looked at so many hair pieces but always came back to the one from Lovely Bridal. I ended up doing a mail order of the almond blossom crown (the same as the one I’d seen on Love My Dress) and was so pleased.”

Seeing her wedding shoes as an excuse to splash out, Catriona opted for sparkling Jimmy Choo heels, further emphasising the glimmer of her pretty Lovely Bridal hair piece. Our bride’s gorgeous auburn locks were styled into a half-up style by Carla from Brian Drumm and her beautifully natural make-up was taken care of by Lindsay Lingard.

Catriona chose an oh-so-pretty Raimon Bundo gown from Angelica Bridal in London, which ticked all of her bridal boxes; long, boho, with pretty detailing. However after the initial elation of finding a dress that seemed perfect for her venue, doubts, confusion, guilt and regret plagued our lovely bride.

“I had looked at a lot of dresses but only tried a few on before buying my dress. I had booked two days of appointments in London but had to cancel them as my mum had to stay in Edinburgh at short notice. I’d had an appointment booked at Angelica Bridal and saw they had a sample sale the following weekend. I decided to pop along for a look and my brother’s partner, Sarah, offered to come along. She’s known for her honesty so when I tried the second dress and she loved it I knew I was onto a good thing.”

“That evening the doubts started to set in and I realised I’d missed out on that mother/daughter moment. Maitiu could tell something was wrong, I felt awful crying to him about a dress that he couldn’t see. I told my mum how I was feeling about the dress and after speaking to her I pulled myself together and realised that I was maybe experiencing an irrational bride moment. She came to visit a few weeks later and saw the dress in person – she loved it and concluded Sarah and I had done very well.”

Catriona’s lovely bridesmaids wore their own shoes from Office and New Look and a mixture of gorgeous navy gowns from Whistles, accessorised with fern stud earrings created by jeweller Moira and gifted to them by the bride on the day of the wedding.

Maitiu donned a kilt from Geoffrey Tailor Kiltmakers, which he paired with a jacket and waistcoat from McCalls Highlander, tie from Suit Supply and shirt from Charles Tyrwitt. The couple met at Glasgow University when they were nineteen and are both originally from Edinburgh so it’s so lovely to see so many traditional Scottish details running throughout their day, including the bride’s three nephews in their sweet tweed and tartan ensembles.

“After nine and a bit years together Maitiu proposed on a trip to Edinburgh. He had been working with Moira at Patience to design my engagement ring for a couple of months and was able to collect the finished ring from her on the Thursday. On the Friday night before we went to bed, he’d hidden it within reach, meaning I woke up to a proposal on the Saturday morning. It was the best way to wake up imaginable and we had the whole day to celebrate.”

“I’d always said I wanted a ruby engagement ring as both my mum and her mum had ruby engagement rings and long and happy marriages. Maitiu had chosen a beautiful pigeon blood ruby and the design incorporated different sizes of marquise diamonds, to look slightly like my favourite flower – the sunflower.”

Catriona was firmly against the idea of being ‘given away,’ but knowing that her dad didn’t see it that way, she was very happy to walk down the aisle with him at her side to the sounds of Maitiu’s cousin Aiofe playing the opening song from the film Inside Out.

“Our celebrant Candice helped us with our vows. It was important to us both that they showed us as equals. We included a few of the traditional vows but added in our own parts to make them personal to us. We didn’t have any favourite readings or specific ideas so decided we would ask the people doing the readings to pick something that meant something to them.”

The couple’s loved ones chose some lovely passages for their ceremony, including words from Winnie the Pooh, a reading from The Alchemist delivered by Maitiu’s mum, and a speech given by Maitiu’s dad. Given how much she adored her bespoke wedding ring, there was really only ever one option for the couple when it came to choosing their wedding bands.

Moira of Patience Jewellery (whose own wedding we very recently featured here) created Catriona a subtle leaf design, which hugged her flower-shaped engagement ring, and Maitiu a gold band, both forged from old family rings owned by the bride’s mum.

Photographer Fiona Higgins has captured such raw joy in these images, just look at the beaming smiles on the newlyweds faces as they emerge from their ceremony space as husband and wife. There’s also such careful consideration given to documenting the beautiful floral details and sweet intimate exchanges between guests and loved ones.

“I looked at a lot of photographers and didn’t really know where to start. I actually came across Fiona when I was looking at florists and found myself admiring the photos rather than the flowers. I loved the candid relaxed feel of her pictures as they really conveyed the energy and feel of the day. I got in touch with her and we arranged to chat on the phone, she was so easy to talk to and I felt so comfortable chatting to her. We met the week of the wedding and went for a walk near Maitiu’s parents house and she took lots of pictures.”

“I’m not great at having my picture taken, I get very self conscious, which often results in some interesting facial expressions. With a bit of help from Maitiu, Fiona somehow managed to put me at ease. On the day she was amazing. She struck the perfect balance of wrangling us all when needed and hiding in the shadows capturing the candid moments. She sent over the final edit of the photos the day after we got home from our honeymoon – it was the perfect welcome home present.”

The couple’s illustrator friend Weeam Sperink designed both the wedding invites and website, starting with a beautiful wreath design, while Gabrielle Corbett, Maitiu’s sister, created the menus, table plan and table names. The couple named their tables after their favourite London markets, the talented Gabi illustrating some of their favourites things, ice-cream sandwiches, tacos and sunflowers.

“Flowers were our main decoration for the coach house – the hanging flowers had huge impact. They hung in delicate rows from the underside of a hay loft. We then just had little accents with my favourite Anthropologie candles and little prism tea light holders. My mum’s friend is a framemaker and he made up a big beautiful frame for the table plan to go in.”

“We are both very into our food, as are our families, so Colstoun’s cook school, kitchen garden and ethos when it comes to food and the environment really impressed us. Our caterer’s were Ror’s Kitchen – Maitiu works with Ror’s brother who suggested we have a chat with him. It turned out he knew Colstoun well and could pull off exactly the feel and style of food we wanted. We love brunch and agreed it would be fun to have brunch inspired canapés to reflect this.”

Catriona and Maitiu chose sharing platters for the tables and had a close friend or family member pop on an apron to carve and serve lamb, accompanied by three different salads and plenties of delicious roasties.

“Ror was so flexible and happy to do what he could to fit with our vision. He was happy to serve my mum’s wedding cake and pudding, and her baking for the petit fours with the tea and coffee. He wasn’t precious about doing everything himself and wasn’t afraid to experiment to find something new.”

“When your mum’s business is making wedding cakes, you find yourself discussing your wedding cake a lot. Even long before you are engaged. My ideas had changed a lot over the years but when it came down to it I wanted a cake that looked as delicious as it tasted. I follow a lot of bakers online and found Tome, a bakery based in Australia. Every time I see pictures of their cakes I want to eat the screen. They use fresh flowers, drizzles and tasty bits to decorate their cakes. Maitiu was sold.”

“When I showed my mum the pictures and talked about what we wanted she was on board. I loved that she was doing a cake unlike anything she’d done before so it was very much ours!

We decided on a rich chocolate cake with salted caramel buttercream and salted caramel drizzle. To make sure everyone got a slice we had the cake as the pudding served with creme fraiche and raspberries. I was so proud of my mum.”

The newlyweds just knew that they had to have some of Catriona’s mum’s wonderful macarons too, and she obligingly whipped up a tower of raspberry and dark chocolate, limoncello and crème brûlée. YUM!

“Maitiu’s mum and dad are big on traditional music and do lots of Irish set dancing. We were confident when we asked for their help with finding a ceilidh band they’d be up to the job. Straight away they thought of Stan and The Robert Fish Band. Neither of us were keen on a traditional first dance as it all felt quite cringe. Instead we opted for my favourite ceilidh dance, the Orcadian Strip the Willow. It is the ultimate dance to get everyone up. I loved having everyone involved – even Maitiu’s octogenarian grandpa was up!”

“I really loved every moment of the weekend and was constantly surprised about how well everything was going. It was also lovely to see all our guests mingling, making friends and dancing together.”

Words of Wedded Wisdom

“Reading about other spring and Scottish weddings on Love My Dress, and couple’s experiences and what their favourite moments were, helped us to know where to focus our efforts and keep things in perspective. It can be easy to get carried away with wedding planning – looking at the blog helped me to get a clear idea in my mind about what I wanted before talking with suppliers.”

“It can be hard not to feel the pressure when wedding planning and it would be silly to say there aren’t going to be moments when you feel overwhelmed or worry about the decisions you’ve already made. Ultimately you have to trust the people around you when they tell you it’s going to be ok. We are very lucky to have such supportive and talented friends and family around. They were all keen to help out in whatever ways they could.”

“Lastly, at the beginning work out which details are important to you and keep hold of what they are. Give yourself permission to compromise on some other things.”

I feel like I’ve said this before, but our bride’s truly are such oracles! Huge huge thanks to Catriona, Maitiu and Fiona Higgins Photography for sharing this beautiful day with us all.

@cathosie & @maitiucorbett

With love,

Em x