Nick and Kathryn’s charming winter wedding was held at The Cow Shed in Crail, Scotland.
This lovely couple were lucky enough to work with three of our long time, favourite and exceptional recommended wedding suppliers; photographer Caro Weiss, bridal fashion designer Sassi Holford and and the incredible team over at GLOAM, who transformed the space so beautifully over at The Cow Shed, with their inimitable, exceptional styling skills.
This is such a beautiful, joy-filled and effortlessly elegant wedding – I hope you enjoy as much as I do.
Bridal Beauty & Accessories
My hair stylist was Claire Adamson and my makeup artist was Klaudii Beauty. Both were great to get ready with, they had quite a few people to get through on the day but were happy to arrive early and both were positive and calming influences.
As we live in London, I hadn’t been able to do hair or make-up trials, so we had exchanged lots of emails and photos and I was so happy with both my hair and make-up on the day!
Chesca, who helped me find my dress, also makes incredible bridal accessories at Dolecka Bridal. During my dress fitting, I’d tried on one of her pearl headbands and fell in love with the pearly, sparkly Clementine! She makes the headbands bespoke and so was able to incorporate one of my grandmother’s pearl necklaces into the headband, making it even more special.
I adored wearing it on the day and will treasure it forever, I hope it becomes a family heirloom!
I also wore a bespoke birdcage veil by Dolecka Bridal. I always knew I wanted to wear a birdcage veil and adored the veil Chesca made, dotted with pearls to match my headband.
I wore a pair of Arabella boots by LK Bennett.
The Dress
Sassi Holford
My dress was by Sassi Holford and from Sassi’s South Kensington boutique – a beautiful and relaxed space.
I had two non-negotiables when I started looking for my dress, it had to have sleeves and pockets.
Initially I had tried on softer, flowing styles, but as soon as I tried a more structured style, I knew that’s what I wanted. I loved how I felt in Sassi Holford’s dresses, they are feminine and timeless – I knew I’d found the right place, now to find the right dress.
Chesca was positive and encouraging in both appointments and when I asked about trying to combine the bodice of one dress with the skirt of another, she was just as excited as I was to try the combination out.
And so, I landed on a bespoke dress combining the ‘Darcy’ bodice with the ‘Verity’ skirt.
I’m quite an introverted person and not confident in the spotlight, but I felt so confident in the dress.
Bridesmaids
My sibling is an amazing knitter and knitted me and my bridesmaids shawls to keep us cosy on the day. We chose the yarns together (from Skein and the Stitch and Pigment and Ply), to match the autumnal colour scheme of the wedding and the pink, red and burnt orange of the bridesmaids dresses. Each shawl was unique and we could never have planned how well my shawl matched the cliffs of the beach near the wedding venue. The bridesmaids loved their shawls and we’ll all treasure them as memento of the day.
I also bought me and my bridesmaids matching necklaces from Monica Vinander, each had our initial on one side and a heart on the other. Small and simple, I wanted to get them something they would hopefully continue to wear.
My bridesmaids wore multi-way dresses from Victoria Lou. Initially I suggested a colour for each bridesmaid and encouraged them to find a dress they liked and would get more use out of, but in the end we settled on multi-way dresses which would allow each bridesmaid to style it however they liked (although on the day, they ended up styling them in the same way!).
Victoria Lou had a great selection of colours, including a version with a tulle overlay which we chose and you could order a sample dress to try on.
The bridesmaids and Sibling of Honour wore flower crowns, made by the wonderful florists at Gloam. They looked incredible!
The Ceremony
My sibling is non-binary, so instead of being a Maid of Honour, they were my Sibling of Honour. We discussed what they’d like to wear and I suggested they wore a suit to go with their eclectic style.
They loved the idea and we found a gorgeous Me + Em velvet suit and silk blouse and they looked incredible on the day.
We found it hard to find a celebrant we really connected with, and so we asked a friend if he would officiate the ceremony for us.
We were so grateful he agreed, it made the whole ceremony so personal. We all worked together over a few months to draft and refine the ceremony wording. He took his duties very seriously, but still brought humour and levity to the ceremony.
As our friend was unable to legally marry us, we held a small civil ceremony a few months before the wedding, just with our parents and my sibling and their boyfriend.
We asked both our mum’s to do readings. My mum read From Beginning to End, or ‘Union’, by Robert Fulghum, she read it at both the civil ceremony and the wedding – it just really spoke to us as a couple and felt very relevant to our relationship. Nick’s mum’s reading was a surprise on the day, she selected two extracts from Jane Eyre.
Explore all our recommended readings
Photography by Caro Weiss
We adored Caro Weiss’s photography, particularly her candid relaxed style. She also has a way of capturing the colour and drama of the Scottish landscape. We knew, if the weather allowed us, we wanted to take advantage of the landscape surrounding the venue (the beach nearby and Crail’s historic harbour) and we knew Caro would be able to capture it perfectly. And we weren’t disappointed.
Caro was up for an adventure, so as soon as we finished the family photos, we jumped in her car and headed to the beach. We adore the photos she captured, we thought we’d feel awkward knowing we were being photographed, but Caro put us completely at ease. We had such fun with her, and as a result some of my favourite memories of the day are down at the beach.
Feedback we’ve had from guests since sharing the photos is that she captured the joy of the day, she’s captured so many lovely moments we would have missed and it’s been lovely going back through and seeing all our friends and family enjoying the day.
We’d been looking for Nick’s suit for a while and were in Hackett trying suits on when we spotted a green tweed jacket on a mannequin at the back of the shop. He asked if it was for sale and if he could try it on and, with a few minor adjustments, it was perfect (he even found a matching green tweed jacket for our Cockapoo, Penny).
He found navy chinos, a shirt and tie all also from Hackett and brogues from Barkers.
Gloam
We used Gloam for all our styling, signage and floristry. They were WONDERFUL! We didn’t have a fixed idea of the style we wanted for our wedding, except that we wanted lots of foliage, flowers and warm rustic colours. They took our vague ideas and created a gorgeous styling concept. They helped create such a warm and welcoming atmosphere.
We loved the furniture they chose, our guests loved having lots of spaces to sit and catch-up. The table scapes were beautiful, we loved the cascading silk, the coloured candles and bud vases.
In the directoryGLOAM
Listed inFloristsThe signage was perfect and we were so grateful for how accommodating they were with our final little changes. And finally, the flowers – everything I’d hoped for and more
During one of our calls, I mentioned that I liked the idea of bringing ‘the outside in’ and they created an incredible floral installation with foliage and twigs to hang in the space we got married. I adored my bouquet which was wild and asymmetric and tied with a rustic piece of apricot coloured silk ribbon. It was perfect!
Find out more about GLOAM
The Reception
Having good food was really important to us and we wanted warming hearty food. We really liked The Pantry’s ‘family style’ menus which encourage guests to share. My one non-negotiable was dauphinoise potatoes, which we had alongside beef shin and greens, followed by spiced apple and blackberry crumble and custard! For supper we had cheese toasties served with port – no-one went home hungry!
My aunt made our wedding cakes, she made three fruit cakes which she ‘fed’ with whisky for months leading up to the wedding and an incredible spiced pecan marzipan.
I was born and brought up in Wales, so as a nod to my welsh heritage, we had mini welsh love spoons as favours.
Evening & Dancing
We always knew we wanted a ceilidh, it’s a great way to get everyone to together, whether you know the dances or not.
We had lots of guests who had never been to ceilidh before and Ghillie Dhu put on a great show, guiding everyone as best they could through the dances.
Ghillie Dhu did a lovely folk arrangement of ‘Only You’ by The Flying Pickets for our first dance too.
Book entertainment for your wedding
Words of Wedded Wisdom
Although it’s a cliché, try to take a moment to pause and reflect together as a couple. You plan for months, even years, for this day and it goes by in an instant. Look around the room, during the ceremony, the reception or the dinner, you have all your favourite people under one roof, it happens so rarely and they’re there to celebrate with you.
Cherish that moment!
caroweiss.com
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Additional Credits
The below suppliers and venues are featured in this article, but are not part of the Love My Dress Wedding Directory.
Annabel View all Annabel's articles
Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Editor. Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and star gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she's not working on Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip in the running of the family's sustainable flower farm and floral design business, Moonwind Flowers. In 2013, she became a published author.
