Today’s beautiful wedding was an intimate & incredibly scenic, Scottish highlands wedding with a low key and laid back vibe. Jennifer DIY’ed a few elements, choosing a pretty and romantic colour scheme of pale pink and a knockout Maggie Sottero bridal gown.
Words by Jennifer. Photography Shaun Carr Photo.
We are quite outdoorsy people; we love nothing more than being lost in wild and remote places and therefore wanted a wedding venue that reflected our personalities. The setting of Glenfinnan House Hotel, perched on Loch Shiel with the mountainous backdrop, was the perfect fit. Even after spending 5 months travelling around the globe, that part of the Highlands is still one of the most beautiful places we have been. The hotel itself had also won numerous awards and was the perfect size for our 50 guests.
I had a rocky relationship with my dress, it definitely wasn’t love at first sight! We only gave ourselves 5 months to plan our wedding, and after visiting a few bridal shops I realised the dresses I loved took 6 months or longer to arrive. I ended up choosing this dress as it was the best of a bad bunch in an ex-sample stock sale. The dress was too big for me so I only felt ‘okay’ during my first couple of fittings, however once the seamstress worked her magic I actually ended up falling in love with it!
My Dad walked me down the aisle to his recorded acoustic rendition of Steve Earl’s ‘Goodbye’.
My wedding day is definitely the best day of my life but the proposal is a very close second! During our travels we visited Patagonia and challenged ourselves to hike the southernmost trek in the world; the Dientes Circuit. On the second night of the four day hike, I had a sleeping bag malfunction which was terrifying, as temperatures had plummeted to below zero!
After trying to share one sleeping bag that night, we realised it was quite dangerous to continue so made the decision to turn back and hike the previous 2 days in just one day! It was the biggest challenge either of us had ever faced. As we reached about half way we ascended over an icy mountain pass and Phil asked us to stop to just take in the incredible scenery. It was at that moment he spontaneously got down on one knee and asked if I would marry him.
Our wedding photographer Shaun is an outstanding photographer and did an exceptional job on our wedding day. From the offset we were adamant that we wanted a laid back wedding, one that we would remember for sharing special moments, laughing freely, feeling completely at ease and not constrained to the status quo of weddings formalities.
Shaun’s approach is to blend into the crowd and capture moments without anyone even realising, so that the day remains completely natural. Shaun was the perfect person to capture our intimate, informal wedding and we now own a selection of truly natural shots which tell the real story of our wedding. Shaun was extremely professional, reliable and flexible. His skills shone throughout the day, and are so clearly demonstrated by the spectacular images he creates.
I decided to order 3 chocolate and sponge plane ivory cakes tiers from Marks and Spencer to save a few pennies. I put my own pink ribbon around the rims using my trusty glue gun, bought some cake pillars to assemble the tiers myself and then bought a sugar lily cake topper from an online bakery store for £15! We saved approx. £400 and it was the best cake I’ve ever tasted.
Our most memorable moments were too difficult to decide! We have made a memory diary as there are just so many and we don’t want them to fade!
If we could offer any advice to future brides and grooms we would say…
Keep guest numbers to a minimum, having less than 50 guests meant that we could spend lots of time with every individual.
My makeup and hair didn’t go to plan and it was stressful but I would say just don’t sweat the small stuff and just try to enjoy every minute!
It does go very fast, so try and press a mental ‘pause’ button at various intervals throughout the day.
My Dad is a solo guitarist and he kindly offered to play a set of my favourite songs (artists by the likes of Dire Straits, Jimi Hendrix and Chuck Berry) for an hour. He owns all of the DJ equipment including disco lights so we just created our own playlists for the evening. Our first dance was to Van Morrison, ‘Someone Like You’.
Thanks so much to Shaun Carr Photography for sharing this gorgeous highlands wedding with the WTW blog and a big, massive, huge congrats to Jennifer & Phil.
wedding credits / photographer: shaun carr photo / wedding venue: glenfinnan house hotel / brides dress: maggie sottero / brides shoes: debenhams / grooms accessories: t m lewin / florist: diy / wedding cake: m & s and diy
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Some great shots and I love the Highlands of Scotland !