Charlie Brear Gown and a Humanist Ceremony for a Rustic Scottish Wedding in May

Lovelies! Get ready for a wedding full of woodland inspiration, neutral tones, plaits, thoughtful personal details and maybe one of the coolest cars I’ve ever seen.

At Love My Dress we love, love, love when brides inject a massive dose of personality and cool into their days, and Kirsty has done just that. Prepare to be inspired.

The bride and groom are Kirsty and Paul, a support worker caring for elderly people and a project engineer for an oil company. They married in a humanist ceremony at the wonderfully-named Coo Cathedral, a converted cattle shed nestled on the Aboyne Castle Estate, Aberdeenshire, Scotland on 27 May 2017 – the hottest May day in Aboyne for 176 years. The shed is a perfect blank canvas allowing Kirsty, who also runs Etsy shop Red Wolf Creative, to create a rustic, natural, woodland-themed wedding. The pair wanted an informal, relaxed day and this is clear to see in these gorgeous photos by Emma Lawson Photography.

Photography Emma Lawson Photography

It’s always lovely to hear from brides who find Love My Dress a source of inspiration, and Kirsty came across dress designer Charlie Brear here.

“I didn’t want anything too fussy and I liked that Charlie Brear dresses were a bit unusual and even slightly edgy but also elegant with a timeless quality. I knew I wanted something with lace and my favourite thing about my dress was the neckline with the scalloped edge trim. It was the most comfortable dress I tried on by far which was really important to me.”I purchased my dress from the beautiful Lamesley Bridal in Edinburgh. It was the first bridal shop I had visited where I loved absolutely everything. I must have tried on half the dresses in the shop but ended up going for the first dress I tried on as it was, in my mind, perfect.”

“We added a belt with a sash that tied at the back, which I think finished the dress off beautifully.”

I love the subtle vintage feel of the slim-fitting gown and how it frames the tattoo on her back wonderfully. Her Peony laser-cut wedding shoes by Harriet Wilde look super-comfy with their low heel. If you like this then please visit Little Book for Brides where we have more information and gorgeous styles from this amazing designer.

“I didn’t want to tower over Paul who is only a couple of inches taller than me. I loved the laser-cut style of the Peony shoes which were so unusual and different from anything I’d ever seen before. I managed to wear them comfortably all day and got so many compliments about how lovely they were.”

You may have seen other brides rock a leather jacket on their wedding day and Kirsty asked her talented stationery designer Amy Singer of Robin’s Egg to personalise hers, unwittingly starting a trend!

“She painted my new name ‘Mrs Smith’ surrounded by some of the flowers that I had in my bouquet: it looked absolutely stunning. Since posting images of it online, she has taken dozens of orders for brides wanting the same thing! I kept it a surprise from everyone and revealed it after the ceremony when we did our confetti throw. Everyone was so impressed with it, as it was just something a bit different and unusual.”

Both the bride and her bridesmaids kept a fresh, natural look with their hair and makeup. I’m a massive fan of plaits and usually manage to style my hair into one plait style or another throughout the day, so I was so super-happy to see the look that Kirsty chose.

“A good friend of Paul’s brother Sarah West, who owns Meraki in Macduff, did our hair. I was so delighted – she did an amazing job. When I had my trial I got it put up but I wasn’t too sure about it and didn’t think it was really me and decided a fishtail pleat would be more my style. We didn’t actually try it until the morning of the wedding so I was a bit worried but I couldn’t have been happier. It was the perfect hairstyle for me. I wish Sarah was on hand to do my hair for me every day! “

“Cat Robertson who is based in Glasgow did our make up for myself and my bridesmaids. I wanted quite a natural look and I was so pleased with what she did. It was exactly what I was looking for and despite the blistering heat of the day, my make up stayed completely intact all day right through to last thing at night.”

“I wore an antique locket that Paul gave me on the morning of the wedding. My parents gave me pearl earrings as a gift and a Sheila Fleet bracelet that was my ‘something blue’. I wore my great aunt’s watch as my ‘something borrowed’ and my grandmother’s engagement ring as my ‘something old’.”

“I wore a flower garland made up of gypsophila which was produced by XOXO Florist in Peterculter, Aberdeenshire. I had never worn one before and wasn’t sure how comfortable it would be. I imagined I would probably take it off halfway through the day but I literally didn’t take it off my head until I got back to our hotel at two in the morning: I barely even noticed it was there. I was so delighted with it as I felt it really added to the overall look I was trying to create.”

Kirsty and Paul had a lot of suppliers in mind before they got engaged, and Coo Cathedral was top of their list for venue. They worked with wedding stylist Hazel from Robin’s Egg to put together their look and also managed to incorporate their love of film in little details.

“I first saw pictures of it several years ago when my friend from college got married there and I immediately fell in love with it. Every wedding there looks completely different: it is essentially a blank canvas so we had total freedom over how we wanted to present our wedding. I am quite a creative person so I had a lot of ideas when it came to decorating and styling.”

“We met with Hazel not long after we booked our wedding and discussed all our ideas, which Hazel turned into a beautiful, wonderful reality. It’s a bit daunting going into a completely empty venue and not knowing where to start but Hazel had worked at Coo several times before so knew the venue really well and had so many amazing ideas.”

“She put so much work into making the place look incredible, from the rustic crates and flowers at the altar, to our amazing ‘Up’ themed guest book.”

Amy Singer also painted the wonderful flowers on the chalkboard table plan and cocktail menu, whilst Kirsty created the rest of the stationery herself. To complement the woodland theme the tables were named after different lochs and as Kirsty is a keen landscape photographer, she added polaroid-style photographs that she’d taken herself.

For the place settings she stamped the guests’ names onto log slices with moss round the edges and used larger log slices with moss coverings for the centre pieces, creating a real rustic, forest vibe.

The groom’s party looked faultless in their tartan. Paul stood out in a Weathered Smith tartan worn with a blue tweed jacket and waistcoat from Georgian Dress Hire, Aberdeen whilst his groomsmen wore Weathered Graham tartan with brown jackets. He must have really looked the part as he travelled to the ceremony in this incredible classic Delorean car, arranged by his parents.

“It was a total surprise which I was possibly more excited about when I saw it since ‘Back to the Future’ is my all-time favourite film. Paul ended up arriving to the venue a bit later than he wanted because people were so busy taking his picture with it when it picked him up at the hotel. I couldn’t believe it when we pulled up in our Camper van and I saw it sitting there on the grass.”

A cute Volkswagen Camper van brought the bride, her dad and her bridesmaids to the barn, and the driver took her and her new husband for a drive around the grounds after the ceremony, a lovely way for them to escape for a few minutes together.

Kirsty’s maids wore elegant, flowing gowns by Biba at House of Fraser, found on the same day as she ordered her own gown. They wore them with a variety of Dune shoes and sandals, Monsoon earrings and personalised initial necklaces from NotOnTheHighStreet.

“They were a beautiful Champagne colour which seemed to change in the light from a pink to gold colour. I had always wanted pink bridesmaid dresses and I thought the Champagne colour was perfect and in keeping with our neutral colour scheme.”

Kirsty and her dad entered Coo Cathedral as ‘The Wedding’ by the film composer James Horner was played.

“I think I had known since I was about twelve years old that this was the piece of music I would walk down the aisle to. It’s an incredibly beautiful and emotional piece of music. Everyone was in tears! I was impressed that I managed to keep it together myself, I had always imagined myself being a wreck walking down the aisle as I’m normally an extremely emotional person but I just felt so happy and excited.”

“I remember as I was walking, looking around the room at all our guests and then Paul up at the altar, smiling from ear to ear.”

The couple opted for a humanist ceremony and met with their celebrant to decide on informal vows that felt ‘like them’.

“Our humanist celebrant did two readings. First, she read the beautiful lyrics to our first dance song which was ‘Thank You’ by Led Zeppelin and the second reading was an extract from the Neil Gaiman novel and movie of the same name ‘Stardust’ – one of my favourite films.”

“Trying to find a suitable ring was one of the hardest parts of all the wedding planning. My engagement ring is a beautiful antique ring with quite a large setting so I struggled to find something that would sit flush with it. I eventually ordered a curved band from a Scottish jewellery designer I found on Etsy – Sarah Brown. I measured the setting of my ring with callipers and sent her all the details. I definitely took a bit of a risk and was quite anxious about trying it on when it arrived, but to my delight it was completely perfect.”

 

 

“Paul also struggled to find a ring that he really liked. He wanted something a bit unusual and when we were down in Glasgow one weekend to see our wedding band play at one of their gigs, we came across a shop called Blair and Sheridan. We went in without an appointment but they were so happy to speak to us. Paul picked out a hammered ring that he really liked and although we had left it quite last minute, they were able to prepare the ring and send it out to us really quickly.”

“We somehow managed to pick what turned out to be one of the hottest days of the year. It reached a scorching 29 degrees. Apparently on our wedding day Aboyne was the hottest place in the country! We had arranged heaters for the venue as we had heard that it can get really cold but needless to say we definitely didn’t need them.”

I’m smitten with Emma Lawson’s photographs of the newly-weds enjoying the beautiful Scottish countryside, and Kirsty thoroughly enjoyed spending these quiet moments with her new husband.

“I remember walking through a field across from the venue and looking over and everyone just looked like they were having such a wonderful time. People were posing for photos with both the Delorean and the Camper van, kids and grown-ups alike were playing with the lawn games we had laid out while others were chilling out sitting in the sun. It was such a perfect happy day.”

“Our photographer was Emma Lawson who was absolutely fabulous. I had been following Emma’s work online for a long time and had known for years before we even got engaged that I wanted her to be our photographer as her style was exactly what I was looking for.”

“I love her documentary style of shooting where there’s no awkward posing. As soon as we picked a date the first thing I did was make sure Emma was available, as for me, being a keen photographer myself, getting the photography right was one of the most important parts of the day.”

The natural, woodland feel continued with the masses of foliage, flowers and moss that Hazel of Robin’s Egg styled. She also put together the bride and bridesmaids’ wild and natural bouquets.

“Our bouquets were filled with English sweet peas, beautiful scented roses, mint, muscari, jasmine and peonies. When Hazel dropped them off on the morning of the wedding we were all blown away with how beautiful they looked. I chose Hazel as I loved her style of flower arranging and I love the fact she uses a lot of wild flowers which we had for centre pieces arranged in an assortment of vintage jars.”

“Emma made us feel so at ease, and a lot of the time we didn’t even notice she was there. She had her assistant Haley Palmquist with her who was also amazing and really helped us feel relaxed, chatting away to us and making us laugh when we were doing our couples shoot.”

The cake is something very special indeed, decorated with intricate flowers and these cute models of Kirsty and Paul, including a perfect replica of Kirtsy’s tattoo.

“Cakes by Fiona made our wedding cake. I first saw her amazing cakes at a wedding exhibition and she had one on display which was almost exactly what I had in mind. Paul was away offshore at the time but his mum and brother both agreed that it was perfect so we went ahead and booked her. Paul was a bit shocked when I told him but as soon as he saw pictures of the cake he was put totally at ease. On the day people were completely blown away by all the amazing tiny details on the cake: the tattoo on my back was basically identical! I couldn’t believe she was able to put that much detail into it.”

Mojo Switch rocked up to play a set during the evening, keeping the dance floor full until the early hours.

“We selected them after watching videos of them performing online and went down to Glasgow to see one of their gigs. They blew us away and had the most wonderful eclectic mix of music in their repertoire.  On the day of the wedding, we were a bit worried when we got a call from them saying their singer had come down with laryngitis but they arranged a replacement singer and he turned out to be fabulous.”

Aberdeen-based caterers Salt & Sauce provided canapés and the wedding breakfast.

“We always knew we wanted our wedding meal to be a talking point for the guests and to offer them something different from other wedding meals we had experienced ourselves. After meeting with head chef Chris Toner and discussing our favourite foods and restaurants he started putting an amazing menu together on the spot.”

Words of Wedded Wisdom

“It seems almost inevitable that things will never go 100% to plan or you may have to sacrifice certain things that you had perhaps planned for, but on the day you can’t focus on these things. The day will pass in a flash so you really need to be as present as you can and take in and enjoy every single moment.”

“Take time out with your new spouse. Enjoy that time together and don’t worry about what other people are doing. Just focus on each other and making each moment count.”

I hope that you’ve thoroughly enjoyed this DIY wedding as much as I have. I’m off to google Delorean cars and practise my fishtail plait. Thank you so much Kirsty and Paul for sending your wedding in, and thanks also to Emma Lawson for your work.

Ele xx