Super Elegant Scottish Wedding With Sophisticated DIY Touches: Laura & Thomas

Today’s real wedding goes to show that you can have an elegant wedding with all the diy detailing and it look uber sophisticated!

Laura & Thomas had an elegant Scottish wedding with a few well made, sophisticated diy details. Their home-made illuminated lights looked amaze and made an awesome backdrop.

Laura looked beautiful too in her gorgeous Alan Hannah gown – the back detail is just exquisite!

Words by Laura. Images by Craig & Eva Sanders.

I tried on 60-70 dresses but none of them gave me the jittery, excited feeling that I had expected. I had no idea what I was looking for and was beginning to give up on that “wow” moment when I tried on Gwyneth by Alan Hannah.

It sounds so cliché but from the moment I tried it on I knew it was the one. I still haven’t seen another dress like it and it made me feel so effortlessly elegant.

It was a bonus that it was so light and airy, meaning that I could party the night away care-free with my new husband!

I loved my veil! It was a cathedral length soft silk tulle veil and felt so luxurious and soft against my skin.

Thomas and the groomsmen wore slim fitting black tuxedos with a U-shaped waistcoat from Moss Bros. Thomas also had a pocket watch and white pocket tissue.

The Rose House at McEwen’s did all of our flowers – they were amazing and instantly understood the look that I was going for.

Audrey took the time to understand what I wanted and came up with lots of brilliant ideas.

It’s worth a visit just to meet shop dog Oscar!

My Dad walked me down the aisle – we walked down the aisle to Pachelbel’s Canon in D.

Craig and Eva Sanders were our wedding photographers – we absolutely loved them and can’t recommend them enough.

Not only did they capture the most beautiful and natural photos of our day, they were so much fun to be around and made us both feel completely at ease.

We didn’t really have a theme for our wedding as such, we just picked things that we liked and hoped they would go.

We wanted a relaxed, informal and fun feel to the day so we had benches and picnic blankets outside with some garden games for guests to play with. We also wanted people to feel fed and well cared for so we had an ice cream stall during the drinks reception; a three course wedding breakfast; and then a delicious wood-fired pizza stall at night.

For drinks, we supplied all of the table wine, champers and cocktails but for the bar supply, we decided to run a ‘bring your own bottle’ bar. For this, we asked guests to donate a selection of soft drinks and alcohol and had a wonderful mobile bar company (Stewart’s Drinks www.stewartsdrinks.co.uk) run the bar and serve our guests just like any other bar.

This meant that there was never a queue for the bar and no one needed to bring any money to our wedding ! We are still getting comments on how well it worked on the night and how it saved folk a fortune.

We used photos of us for the table numbers and used a paint marker on a vintage, gold framed mirror for the table plan. We made all of our own stationery, from the photo magnet save the dates to the menu cards at the table. We used linen card with silk ribbon to add an elegant touch.

As a budget alternative to a photo booth, we set up our own camera on a tripod, bought some fancy dress kit and made a coloured hearts backdrop. There are some great shots from that!

For lighting we had candles everywhere, on the tables, on beer kegs, floating tealights in the cattle troughs and tealight chandeliers hanging from the roof beams. We had also seen companies hiring big illuminated letters for the dance floor and, although we really loved the look of them, we just couldn’t justify spending lots of money on it.

So instead, Thomas took on the challenge of making our very own T & L illuminated letters. He spent many hours cutting the basic shape, molding the aluminium sheeting to the letters, drilling holes and inserting the lights.

They looked amazing on the day and I was so impressed with it. We definitely loved being able to personalize our day with lots of diy touches.

We had Cristina Perri – A thousand years for our first dance song. We had planned on having All Saints – Pure Shores as that’s our favourite song but we soon realized that it’s not the easiest song to dance to.

A thousand years had been playing on repeat since we got engaged (through my obsessiveness with watching other people’s wedding videos) and so one day we got up, danced, thought we looked ok and so that was the song!

If you could impart any words of wisdom to future brides planning their wedding day, what would they be?

Don’t stress! Everything comes together perfectly on the day so don’t let anything worry you, just relax and enjoy the buildup. Also try to remember to take your time walking down the aisle.

I had planned on walking slowly but got caught up in the moment and was just about sprinting down the aisle until my dad whispered “slow down”. That’s the one thing I wish I had taken more time to do.

What was your most memorable moment of the day?

There are so many moments of the day that we will remember forever more, from holding my dad’s hand in the car on the way to the church, to surprising Thomas with our dog Roxy being brought to the venue for so me photos, to my sister’s fabulous rendition of Taylor Swift’s – Love Story during her speech.

We really had the most wonderful day and we were lucky enough to have some great weather! We were so blessed to have such an incredible bunch of friends and family to help us out with our plans and to be there for the clear up whilst we had a lie in.

Thomas and I have been together for 5 years now, but our day was still the most beautiful, romantic, special day of our lives. It was everything we could have wished for and more.

Thank you so much for sharing your elegant with us Laura and Thomas! It just goes to show you can still remain super sophisticated and have DIY touches – Loving the home made illuminated initial lights – skills!

wedding credits / photographer: craig & eva sanders photography / wedding venue: the byre, perth – scotland / brides dress: gwenyth by Audressy / brides veil: as you like it wedding veils / grooms suit: moss bros / brides shoes: benjamin adams / bridesmaid dresses:  Lilybridal / bridesmaid shoes: various / hair & makeup: sc makeup artistry / florist: the rose mcewan’s / wedding cake: marks & spencer / wedding planning: elonline

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