Hello loves, whilst we’re taking a well earned rest this week, we do have one or two very special weddings to inspire you and help us complete another year of sharing real weddings, on a most beautiful high.
I’ve been sharing weddings since the latter part of 2009, and it will never not feel very special to me, when a bride submits her own wedding for publication on Love My Dress. For me, there’s a deep and meaningful connection, when I learn that the bride hasn’t only used Love My Dress to find her own wedding inspiration, but discovered her own wedding suppliers through these pages too. It thrills me.
Today, I’m so delighted to share with you the magical wedding of John and Yuko, who tied the knot on 30th September 2023. Their day was impeccably documented by The Kitcheners, whose reputation for capturing the most breathtakingly beautiful and atmospheric storytelling-style wedding photography is evident in these exquisite images.
Yuko discovered her dress designer, Kate Beaumont, through these beloved wedding blog pages which brings me so much joy. Kate is an incredible designer and I want the world and certainly all you newly engaged brides to be to know about her. Enjoy this beautiful wedding – it’s our pleasure to share it with you.
The Venue & Location
I looked at so many venues across the UK, initially we were thinking about a bigger wedding but as time went on during Covid I fell in love with the idea of an intimate wedding in the Scottish highlands with just our close families and I’m so glad we did. It’s really lovely you can get married anywhere in Scotland with just a celebrant and witnesses.
We wanted the day to be romantic, relaxed and fun where everyone could come together and wind down – it’s really rare for both our families to get together as we all live so far away from each other, some further than others with John’s younger brother living in the US and my dad living in Japan.
The Dress
I did a lot of browsing online and the one designer I kept coming back to was Kate Beaumont who I’d found through Love My Dress.
I loved her modern, relaxed style so I made an appointment with her a couple of weeks after we had our first pregnancy scan and told her about our situation.
Visit Kate Beaumont’s website
Kate made me feel at ease from the start, she was so easy going. I had no idea what my body would look like and how I’d even look so soon after giving birth but Kate was so accommodating with the timeline, making my dress as close to the wedding date as possible. I’d definitely recommend her to everyone.
I was vibing a bohemian look for my dress so I chose the Lunaria dress in ivory with a lace trimmed cape veil which we collected on our way to Scotland.
Explore more Kate Beaumont dresses
Bridal Beauty & Accessories
I didn’t wear any hair accessories as I wanted the focus to be on my beautiful dress. John bought me a Edge of Amber necklace of my Zodiac sign and a pair of Wolf & Moon mini lilac hoops to add a pop of colour.
I wore a pair of Lanx boots which I got on sale. I wore blue boot socks as my ‘something blue’.
I also wore a beige white wool shawl which I got as a Christmas present from my brother a while ago to keep me warm.
Bonny’s Wonderland who were booked by our venue owner, Charlotte, did my make up and hair on the wedding day and it was lovely to have our daughter get ready with both of us. I kept my make up very natural and soft with a blushy coral colour for my lips.
Buy your own wedding shawl
Flowers
Barbara from the Wild Flower Workshop created an exquisite bouquet and buttonhole and also supplied some flowers for the table. I’d seen her creations on Instagram and knew that I wanted her to be the florist for the wedding.
The bouquet was made up of blush coloured seasonal flowers which really complemented the autumnal landscape of the highlands. Upon her recommendation I sent my flowers to be preserved to Katy at Imprint Cast and am currently waiting for it to be dry and painted!
The Ceremony
We really wanted to have our ceremony outside by the river across the venue but Scotland weather being so changeable we only decided on the morning of the wedding and my husband texted everyone to bring their hiking boots and coats.
My dad and our friend, who we’ll forever be grateful for (she collected our wedding rings, flowers and wedding cake), walked me down from the cabin to the river where everyone was waiting to Still by Seinabo Sey.
Gail Brack was our humanist and she conducted a beautiful ceremony. We both enjoyed the whole process of helping her write our story as it allowed us to take time out and remember all those moments from our relationship (even the silly ones).
We incorporated traditions from both Scottish and my Japanese culture. For the handfasting Gail suggested an extra tie to symbolise the family we have created with our daughter.
John’s mum made his family scarf, I used a yukata obi belt to represent my Japanese background and we used our first scarves that we bought for each other to represent Aya and our family.
We also performed the San San Kudo ceremony with a sakazuki set my dad brought from Japan.
We both wrote our own vows which we hadn’t shared beforehand and thought it was funny that some of our more light-hearted promises were so similar… We have a frame in our kitchen which says ‘Dance like nobody’s watching’ and coincidentally we both promised to never stop dancing through life.
Our celebrant also suggested adding an old Celtic well-wishing at the end of the ceremony which was also read in Japanese for my parents.
We had our daughter as our ring bearer. We picked a dungaree outfit from Next for her which she could wear again with a blue knitted cardigan which was sewn by John’s grandma’s knitting group and passed down by John’s nephews.
My partner initially proposed to me with a Missoma signet ring as he always knew I wanted to design my own ring so I wore that together with my engagement and wedding rings.
Our rings were by Michelle Oh whose alternative style of combining classical shapes with colourful gemstones appealed to me. Being pregnant, we actually left the wedding rings until after we had our daughter but her team there were fantastic in making sure that our wedding rings were ready by our wedding date.
Find your Ceremony Readings
How They Met
We met at university in London in student halls and finally found ourselves settling in St Albans. For our engagement, my partner planned a surprise proposal at the Secret Garden located in Cambridgeshire back in April 2019 where we stayed in an earth covered hobbit hut and relaxed in a wood fire burning hot but we were in no rush to get married (it’s how our relationship has always rolled).
John wore a forest green suit from Beggars Run, a white shirt from TM Lewin and a pair of Barbour boots.
Wedding Photography by The Kitcheners
We were drawn to the raw, natural style of the Kitcheners and the tone really suited the autumnal scenery. We’ve never done a photoshoot of any kind but Dylan’s approach and direction made us very comfortable and relaxed.
We also did a post wedding shoot the following day in Glencoe as we didn’t want to be away too long from our families on the day of the wedding. Dylan did a fantastic job and really captured the atmosphere of the day.
John’s favourite part of the day, was when we had a moment to ourselves in the afternoon doing the photos outside, it was really nice to spend that time just ourselves.
The Reception
I made a couple of items like bride and groom champagne corks and made some napkins which I gave to Charlotte after the wedding to use for other future weddings.
Since our initial visit to St Mary’s Space, Jamie had built a bar inside so we supplied the drinks and John made old fashioneds from the Dishoom cookbook.
The food was all prepared by Jamie and it was delicious! He created an Ottolenghi style menu for us where everyone could pick and choose what they wanted.
John is very crafty on Inkscape so we used this tool to design our save the date and invitations and had them printed by Printed.com.
For favours, we wrapped a bag of Japanese and English sweets which included some homemade chai flavoured fudge made by John.
Evening & Dancing
In the evening we had a ceilidh band as a fun way of getting everyone on the dance floor – and we unexpectedly had a first dance at the beginning of the ceilidh.
I think most of our friends and family thought we were crazy to have a wedding 3 months after having a baby, let alone all the way in Scotland! At the time we found out we were pregnant it did cross both our minds whether it was a good idea and looking back we wouldn’t change the decision but I also wouldn’t do it again!
We were lucky we had a lot of big stuff booked before we were pregnant but the lead up and especially the night before as we were packing the car was very stressful whilst trying to get our daughter down to sleep. Everything does take ten times longer with a baby, but the wedding also felt extra special by having our daughter there.
Words of Wedded Wisdom
It’s worthwhile investing in a really good photographer. The day goes by so quickly, once it is over, the photographs are the special souvenirs that transport you back.
Take some time out for you and your partner before the wedding to reflect on your love story. We had an opportunity to do this when we wrote our vows and created our ceremony with our celebrant. Remembering all the parts of our relationship and then sharing that with our guests was one of the best parts of the experience.
You will have ideas of what your wedding will look like but let your ideas evolve, that’s what makes planning your wedding fun and enjoyable! Our 11 week old daughter ended up being the guest of honour at our wedding. When we booked the date a baby was never on the cards but we drove over 500 miles to Scotland with our daughter and we did it! Our wedding wasn’t how we initially envisioned it but in the end it was perfect for us.
Love My Dress Wedding Directory Members
The below suppliers and venues featured in this article are part of the Love My Dress Wedding Directory.
Kate Beaumont
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.
