A Karen Willis Holmes Bride & her Aussie, Boho, Nordic Vibes Wedding in Scotland

I love, love, love sharing weddings photographed by Scottish wedding photography talent, and fully signed up Little Book Wedding Directory member, Caro Weiss.

Caro in fact was one of the first wedding photographer’s whose work I did share almost a decade ago now, when I first started out with Love My Dress. Ten years. In that time, I’ve watched her business grow and her style evolve into the beautiful, evocative aesthetic that it is today.

Caro was chosen to capture the wedding of Primary School teacher Ivory and her GP-in-training husband Iain, who tied the knot on 13th July at the Errol Park Estate in Perthshire, Scotland and what a truly beautiful job she has done. From the cake and decor to the fashion and style and then the couple’s loved-up smiles. It was difficult to shortlist the images for this article because they were all so lovely. Ivory shares more below.

“The style inspiration for the day was very heavily influenced by a very Aussie/boho/Nordic vibe with touches of Scotland. We also wanted subtle references to the places we have both travelled in our 7 years together. I have been to 50 countries and Iain has been to about 30 and as we met whilst travelling we thought it only appropriate to have a subtle nod.”

Photography by Caro Weiss.

We really didn’t want to have a ‘theme’ for the day though and wanted to keep it as relaxed and authentic as possible. This meant we incorporated lots of different textiles, foliage and even chose the wines and beers from countries we had spent a lot of time in.”

“Our photographer Caro Weiss was absolutely incredible from start to finish. She is such a lovely and welcoming person and she has the ability to make you feel at ease immediately. On our wedding day she slotted in seamlessly and just let us do our thing, effortlessly capturing the details of the day with her incredible eye. What a legend! The images turned out beautifully.”

“Iain is Scottish and I am Australian, but I always knew we would get married in Scotland as it meant so much to Iain. I also come from a family with Scottish heritage so it was really exciting for my side of the family to come to Scotland.”

When we got engaged we were still living in Australia and would not be moving to Glasgow until just before the prospective date for the wedding. This meant we had to choose our venue based solely on Instagram, blogs and websites. We narrowed it down to a working farm by Loch Lomond or Errol park Estate and asked our wonderful parents in law to view both for us.”

“After their visits they could not stop raving about Errol Park and we loved the laid back vibe of the place and all the opportunities for photo’s surrounding the venue.”

“We thought that it had a really Scottish feel that would make it a little more worthwhile for our Australian Contingent, as well as having the relaxed feel of the stables area which felt more like us. We ended up moving to Scotland a year before schedule and could have potentially visited the venues ourselves but as they tend to book up so far in advance (We nabbed the last summer weekend and we booked 14 months in advance), It was a good thing to have done it earlier.”

“Iain and I met a little over seven years ago whilst backpacking through Central America. We met in a hostel in Nicaragua and after spotting each other at various hostels along the trip we exchanged facebook details. Iain went back the UK at the end of the summer and I continued travelling for another 3 months through South America.”

“We occasionally chatted when Iain was trying to avoid studying, and when I went to the UK for a few months for my sister’s (who lived in Manchester) wedding, Iain and I began seeing each other.””

“When it came time for me to leave the UK and head back to Australia Iain and I said goodbye to one another as neither of us were interested in doing a long distance relationship. Once back in Australia we continued chatting and facetiming regularly despite being adamant it wasn’t a ‘thing’.”

“After many visits back during school holidays and over a year of continued chatting we finally admitted that we were in fact in a long distance relationship and Iain managed to apply for and be granted an exchange year in New Zealand. We both moved to Wellington for 18 months and then decided to move to Australia to be closer to my family.”

“In May 2018 Iain proposed on a stunning secluded beach just near Byron Bay. He had secretly packed the car the night before with a beautiful picnic which he set up for us just after the proposal. It was the perfect setting. We were engaged for 14 months before the big day arrived.”

“We asked Blooms Glasgow to do our bouquets and button holes and could not have been more delighted! I chose the flowers and foliage in my bouquet as they had quite an Australian feel (especially the Eucalyptus). I showed Rachael an inspiration pic and just told her I didn’t mind what she did, as long as it didn’t look like a typical round, structured wedding bouquet. She did a wonderful job of making the effortless, flowing bouquet I envisaged.”

“I sourced the silk habotai ribbon on Etsy along with the leather to bind the button hole flowers.”

“We booked our hairstylist through AMM Hair & Makeup and the lovely Heather Robertson did the hair on the day. She did a wonderful job, and more than that she was just such a warm, positive presence to have in the room whilst we were getting ready. Cannot recommend her highly enough.”

“I used to do wedding makeup for weddings and events before I was a teacher so I am fairly discerning when it comes to makeup. I found it quite difficult to find a really natural makeup artist here in Glasgow so decided to do mine and the girls makeup myself. I’m so pleased I did, as it meant my makeup was exactly what I wanted – and it also gave me an outlet for my nerves.”

Ivory wore a beaut of a gown by Australian based designer Karen Willis Holmes.

“I found my dress at the Karen Willis Holmes shop in Brisbane Australia. I wanted to go shopping for my dress with my bridesmaids and mother so needed to find it before moving to Scotland. It was a little difficult as I was moving quite soon after becoming engaged so needed to think about the logistics of ordering the dress and getting it before I left.”

“I did contact Olive Jones bridal in Edinburgh, who stock the dress, but due to import taxes it was going to be much more expensive to order it in Scotland. As fate would have it, we ended up finding a brand new, unworn (don’t worry the couple hadn’t broken up!) correctly sized version of my dress on still white for almost half the price of buying it in store and it meant that I could also take it straight over to Scotland with me. It could not have worked out more perfectly.”

“I knew I wanted something with long sleeves which automatically narrows down your choices (particularly in Australia!) and when I saw the Celine dress I just knew it was the one. I absolutely love the intricate sequins and the fitted silhouette. Karen Willis Holmes really knows how to cut fabric in such a flattering way. The dress has subtle art deco references but still has a very modern/boho look which I absolutely adore.”

“My veil was made for me by my sister Ebony who studied fashion design. She actually made her own wedding dress a few years ago but didn’t want the pressure of making mine! I really loved that I had something made by her though. It wasn’t finished until the evening before the wedding but it was perfect.”

“Our three page boys were super cute in their Lamont kilts – I’m unsure where they all came from as they’ve been handed down and along through the family for various weddings.”

“My parents have been divorced since I was very young so I really felt that I wanted both of them to walk me down the aisle. It was very special to have them both accompanying me and it meant so much to my mum especially.”

“I walked down the aisle to a beautiful instrumental interlude from a very unconventional artist. It is actually a beautiful orchestral breakdown in the middle of a One Republic song called ‘Waking Up’. I can’t even remember how I stumbled across it, but you would never guess it was from a pop band.”

“We had originally booked the local minister but unfortunately a couple of weeks before the wedding he realised he had double booked himself and was headed on holidays over the weekend of our wedding! Luckily a family friend had just been ordained as a minister and stepped in to save the day. I think it was actually very fortuitous as it meant so much to us to have someone who knew Iain and his family so well conduct the ceremony. He did a wonderful job.”

“We knew from the very beginning that we wanted to do some sort of version of our own vows. Whilst writing the whole thing from scratch was a little too nerve wracking, we ended up trawling through blogs and finding all the sentences we loved then combing them together to each write our own version of what we wanted to say. So with a little help from those that went before us we wrote our own vows.”

“We said the same first and last vow but chose 3 or 4 of our own for the middle. Both our vows can be found below.”

Iain’s Vows

Today I take you to be my wife and vow to help create a life for us of honesty, fidelity, trust, and love.
I promise to encourage and inspire you, to laugh with you and comfort you in times of sorrow and struggle.
I promise to be the shield for your back, as you are mine.
I promise to keep myself open to you, encourage your dreams and help shoulder our challenges. To support your own fulfilment as an individual through all the changes in our lives.
I promise to cherish, value and protect the families that we have, the family that we are becoming and the family that we have yet to come.
All I have in this world I give to you, I promise to love you without hesitation or boundaries from this day forward, for the rest of my life.

Ivory’s Vows

Today I take you to be my husband and vow to help create a life for us of honesty, fidelity, trust, and love.
I promise to love you not only in the good times, but in the learning experiences too. When our love is simple, and when it is an effort.
I promise to cherish you and always hold you in the highest regard.
To trust and respect you as your own person, and to realise that your interests, desires and needs are no less important than my own.
I promise to choose our love every single day.
I promise to grow with you, learn with you, and to live out our days hand in hand.
All I have in this world I give to you, I promise to love you without hesitation or boundaries from this day forward, for the rest of my life.

“As we weren’t 100% sure what the weather was going to do on the big day (It was in Scotland after all!) we wanted to keep the ceremony quite short. We just chose the one biblical reading which was 1 Corinthians 13.” 

“Neither of us love being the sole centre of attention (Iain less so than me!) so we didn’t do a traditional first dance, but we did get up and demonstrate the steps of the first Ceilidh dance which was the Gay Gordons.”

“Iain wore his kilt that he has had since he turned 21 but he paired it with a shirt from Pink, his kilt jacket was bought from 9 yard kilts, Tie and shoes were bought from Macgregor and McDuff

“Iain’s sporran and kilt pin were both borrowed from his dad. Groomsmen’s outfits were hired from MacGregor and MacDuff.”

“We got Iain’s wedding ring from Chisholme & Hunter and chose a Gold D shaped ring. As my engagement band is so dainty and thin I really didn’t want a thick wedding band to detract from it. I had to do a lot of shopping around to find a store that was willing to make a band thin enough to match the engagement band.”

“In the end Ernest Jones agreed to get one shaved down for me. I will just need to make sure I get it checked often for signs of wear as the bands will rub against one another over time.”

“During the wedding ceremony we had Iain’s father sing a couple of traditional Gaelic songs with his award winning choir quartet. It was very special to have him perform at the ceremony.”

“Our caterers, Wild Rover, did such an incredible job with the food and our guests could not stop raving about it. We chose to do a grazing table during the drinks reception in place of canapes and starters. This was really important to me as they are so popular in Australia and I wanted to have that subtle nod to home. It was really hard to find a supplier who got the vision and understood what a grazing table was.”

“The guests were blown away by the job Wild Rover did on the grazing table and it was a major talking point of the day. Thankfully we had the beautiful weather to have it set up outside too! Dinner was family style service of the most wonderful Porchetta and seasonal veggies. The crackling was unbelievable. The Haggis and mash for the evening meal was a massive hit!”

“Bridesmaids dresses were both just sourced and bought on the high street. I wanted the girls to wear something they loved, felt comfortable in, and would wear again so I just left it up to them, with a brief to stay within the ‘pinks/blush’.”

“Ebony found hers on Anthropologie first and then Shannon ended up finding one in almost the exact same material on The Iconic.”

“I was quite conscious throughout the wedding planning and process of not having too many unnecessary elements that may end up going to waste. GLOAM did a wonderful job of doing signage throughout the venue and one large order of the day rather than handing out booklets.”

“The menus were printed by our caterers and the place cards and calligraphy were all hand done by me. I also hand wrote the seating plan and it was styled beautifully by GLOAM. I also made our wedding vows booklets as Iain and I chose to write our own.”

 

“I enlisted the help of GLOAM for the styling and I could not have been more pleased. They were so, so wonderful to deal with and nailed my vision completely. They made the most perfect picnic area which was a lovely reference to the picnic that Iain had set up on the beach the day he proposed and thankfully we had the weather to use it!”

“Inside the venue itself was a very big space and GLOAM filled it beautifully with comfy couches, boho/travel touches, rugs and lots of greenery.”

“Iain and I specifically wanted to have a mix of Eucalyptus and thistles on the tables to represent both Australia and Scotland.”

“I really didn’t want to have favours on our tables as I’ve seen so many go to waste at the end of an evening, however my mother in Law and Iain’s Aunty Jill were very keen on making some Sloe gin favours for the day. As a compromise I decided to do just twenty-five 250mL bottles with 3 flavours of home made gin. In the end they went so quickly I almost wish I had made more – but I’m very pleased to say that I didn’t find one stray bottle the next day so none went to waste.”

“I sourced the bottles on world of bottles and I designed and printed the labels myself.”

“As Iain and I were not fussed on the idea of cutting a cake at the wedding we had a bit of freedom to play around. We decided to order 3 cakes from Big Bear Bakery in Glasgow and 100 filled doughnuts from Rowan at The Bearded Baker in Edinburgh.”

“Big bear made 1 fully iced, 1 semi naked, and 1 naked cake which my sister then dressed at the venue using fresh figs and berries from Gloagburn farm shop and Eucalyptus and foraged leaves from the garden. It fitted in so well with the boho vibe of everything else. My mum is a caeliac so we made sure one of the cakes was gluten free.”

“The doughnuts were a massive hit and it was such fun choosing the flavours. Rowan told us he could make any flavour we wished, but in the end we decided on chocolate honeycomb, salted caramel and good old raspberry.

The cake table also included fresh cream and strawberries to go along side the cakes.”

“As we were having a ceilidh in the evening and my dress had such beautifully detailed beading on the sleeves I needed a second dress to change into. After ordering about five different dresses online from Needle & Thread,  I found my perfect evening dress to change into.”

“For our evening Ceilidh we had the Drams Ceilidh Band playing and we could not recommend them highly enough! They were unbelievable. Really wonderful musicians and the caller did a wonderful job of keeping the party going despite having a number of English and Australian guests who had no idea what they were doing!”

Words of Wedded Wisdom

“Pick a few things that you really care about and do them to the highest standard possible, then choose a handful of things that you just don’t care about and wipe them off your list of worries (for us that was a first dance, the order of service and a live act for the drinks reception and a few others), and then you will be left with a more reasonable list of choices to make but they are not make or break. This helped my stress levels immensely. The people around you will have their own ideas about what is important but just stick to what you and your partner decided means the most to you.”

“If you have friends and family coming from overseas to spend time with you prior to the big day the best advice I can give to you is to hire a styling company. Hiring GLOAM to do the full set up was by far the best decision I made as it allowed me to know they had all the details I cared about under control and I was not spending the precious moments I had with my family running around looking for matching baskets or affordable décor items.”

“Originally I wanted to be one of those couples that has a super relaxed BBQ in the backyard. Very quickly those ideas escalated and I set a tentative budget of around 20,000 GBP. This budget was definitely exceeded and we ended up spending about 29,000 including the honeymoon.”

What an incredibly beautiful and inspiring wedding. Ivory and Iain, thank you so much for so kindly allowing us to share your day.

You can find more from Caro Weiss Photography here and more Karen Willis Holmes brides here.

Love Annabel x