Emily and Steffan’s romantic July wedding at the majestic Cluny Castle in Aberdeenshire, was a black-tie affair filled with elegance, love, and personal touches.
Both doctors, the couple chose Cluny Castle for its grandeur and intimate setting, perfect for their celebration. Emily wore a stunning Rosa Clara wedding dress that she paired with delicate and sophisticated accessories, and Steffan, along with his groomsmen, donned dark blue tuxedos and bow ties, complementing the elegant black-tie theme beautifully.
From a meaningful humanist ceremony to a joyful reception, this Scottish wedding was a true reflection of love and laid back elegance. Enjoy!
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Venue & Location
Our venue was Cluny Castle in Aberdeenshire. I’m from Scotland and Steffan is from Wales so we knew we wanted to get married in either of these countries as somewhere close to our hear. I had my mum and aunt view Cluny first as we both live in London and they were absolutely gushing about it.
The venue was perfect for us – so beautiful, very much a Scottish venue, with a chapel on site so guests didn’t have to travel between venues. We also loved that you could stay on site. We had our close family and bridal party stay the night before and night of, and organised an informal dinner before the wedding day, which was really special.
Cluny organised a semi-permanent marquee for the courtyard of the castle, which meant we could have a larger number of guests. This was an ideal arrangement as we could have our wedding breakfast in the marquee but use the Castle for the band and dancing.
We didn’t have an event planner, but Natalie at Cluny Castle was amazing at keeping us on track and ensuring everything was getting organised for the day. She was absolutely amazing on the weekend of our wedding – the picture of calm – and kept everything running so smoothly.
Bridal Beauty & Accessories
I knew I wanted a veil to finish the dress but something simple given the lace detail on my train and dress. I therefore went for a plain veil that was long enough to match the train (cathedral length). I went to a local bridal accessory store in London, The Boutique & Co. , and had a great experience there – I ended up buying my hair accessories here too as the owner was so accommodating.
I wanted something simple and classy and bought shoes from the Rainbow Club – they were so reasonably priced.
My perfume was Van Cleef and Arpels Bois Dorée – I love this scent, it’s my signature and makes me feel like me.
My mother-in-law lent me her nan’s gold bracelet with a blue gemstone for the day which was very special, and I had my gran’s locket with a picture of my granddad and dad inside to wrap around my bouquet.
Our hair and makeup artists were AMM Hair & Makeup – they were so organised, so accommodating and fantastic on the day.
The Dress
Rosa Clara
I wore the Natasha dress, by Rosa Clara. I knew I wanted to try Rosa Clara as I loved their style through seeing the dresses in magazines.
I was lucky enough that I lived close to the Rosa Clara store in London. The whole experience was amazing, from start to finish. They were so accommodating and excited about the wedding, and really listened to me in terms of what I liked and didn’t – but also encouraged me to try dresses I hadn’t originally thought of! I ended up going for a dress suggested by Alessandra at Rosa Clara, and was so pleased.
She could not have been more enthusiastic and I loved the experience – I would highly recommend.
I tried on so many dresses that were ‘nice’ but none that felt truly ‘wow’ until this dress. It also was the only one that gave my maid of honour Leo ‘the feels’ as she put it, which was definitely a green flag. I loved that the dress was so beautifully detailed and fitted me like a glove. The train was also amazing – definitely not something I’d have thought I’d go for but I felt great in it and that was pretty unique.
The Ceremony
My mum took me down the aisle – this was really important to me and my dad is no longer with us.
This was to the sound of Ludovico Einaudi’s ‘Due Tramonti’ – one of my favourite songs to play myself on the piano and so beautiful. It’s a piano duet with a cello and one of our groomsmen Trys is a talented cellist who kindly agreed to play!
We knew we wanted a humanist celebrant as we are not religious but wanted the ceremony to be personal to us. We went through the Humanist Society and Michelle Robertson was our celebrant. We worked with her to make sure the ceremony had a lot about us and our story, which made it unique.
Steffan’s brother Rhys did a reading in Welsh which was meaningful – plus as a Welsh-speaking family it felt important to include Welsh elements in the day. I chose an excerpt from a Catlin Moran book about what love really is – it was a bit controversial but definitely reflected me and Steffan well so we went with it!
My brother Robert helped us to tie the knot with family tartans.
My engagement and wedding ring are absolutely beautiful – the engagement ring is called ‘Willow’, and it’s from Brilliant Earth. I love that they use ethical diamonds, and you can customise your ring and wedding band.
My band fits together nicely with the engagement ring despite the intertwining gold bands. Steffan went for a Welsh company for his ring, Clogau, for an emotional connection.
The Reception
Our florist was Wild Blossom who we went with for their more informal look. I loved their bouquets on Instagram- and they went above and beyond.
I wanted some hanging wisteria for the marquee which could have been a huge and expensive undertaking, and they managed to create something beautiful at such a good price.
I left it up to Caroline and Bev to create the finished flowers after giving them a short brief and loved the surprise of seeing them on the day.
We went with Cakes by Kirsty and again gave her a short brief to let her do her thing. We loved our cake – especially the little model of our family dog Kona that came with it! Our florists gave us some flowers that Kirsty could then decorate the cake with, which was a nice touch.
My mum made tablet for everyone to take home a piece of Scotland!
Our hugely talented friend and my bridesmaid Lara designed the stationary with me, including drawing Cluny Castle for the invite. It meant such a lot.
Evening & Dancing
The band we hired for the evening were ‘Slinky‘ – they were amazing! One of our main goals was to have everyone on the dance floor all night, and Slinky absolutely delivered. I also asked them if I could surprise Steffan with switching up our first dance song halfway through to one of his favourites, and they were more than happy to.
We also had a Piper for a lot of the day which led a really lovely Scottish accent to the day, through Alba Bagpipes.
One of our favourite elements was the Welsh vocal quartet that sung during the ceremony and drinks/canapés – Steff’s mum works in Welsh TV and managed to arrange them for our wedding. They were so brilliant and special.
There were so many amazing parts of this day – everything from getting ready with my best friends and mum, to looking around at the wedding breakfast and seeing everyone I love in one room, but I think my favourite moment was the end of the night – the band played Loch Lomond, and Steffan and I were up on friend’s shoulders with everyone else around us (it was a rowdy reception!). It was so amazing having that level of love in one room and finishing off the night like this!
Words of Wedded Wisdom
If you can, do your wedding admin from a pub with your partner and a glass of wine – it makes it a lot easier, and a lot more fun.
clunycastle.com
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Additional Credits
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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.
