Scottish Castle Wedding
It's not often that you find a wedding as ethereally romantic as this. One that is sooo filled with gorgeous details and heartwarming moments, it kind of feels like you are watching scenes from a classic movie with Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant. Add to all of that romance a breathtaking Scottish castle and the light-filled images of Craig & Eva Sanders and it's a gallery of awesome that can't be missed.
From the Bride... We chose to have our ceremony at Straiton Church and wedding reception at Blairquhan castle in Ayrshire, Scotland.
We came across Blairquhan castle when we were looking around online. I think we found some pictures of a wedding here that had been taken by our amazing photographers Craig and Eva. We were looking for an exclusive use venue that we could treat as our home for the weekend with our friends and family. We took a drive down to Blairquhan Castle one day and we knew straight away it was the right place, the setting and grounds are breathtaking and although it had this look of grandeur, inside it felt so homely and comfortable. The drawing rooms where we had the wedding meal were absolutely amazing with beautiful chandeliers, large fireplaces and windows that looked out into the landscape beyond. We weren’t having a huge wedding so the space was just right and I could imagine all our friends in this room having a great time and later dancing the night away. Accommodation was great, too as Blairquhan had self catering cottages on the grounds and beautiful rooms in the castle itself. This meant that we were able to enjoy having all of our friends and family together for the full weekend.
We came across the church in the beautiful small village of Straiton a small drive away from Blairquhan Castle. I is from Ayrshire so it felt even more special that this was the place we were married. The church is tiny and very pretty with lots of original features and stained glass.
I started looking at lots of different ideas in wedding magazines, online, blogs (Style Me Pretty!) to get ideas. Pinterest was also great and really helped me pull together themes and looks that I liked. I knew that I wanted a vintage feel to our day and I loved the old world glamour look that was evident in our venue at Blairquhan Castle. I wanted our theme to reflect the beautiful interior of the castle and tie in with that look and feel. I loved the use of light and the reflection of light on the wonderful old mirrors in the drawing rooms and chandeliers. I tied in our table decorations with mirror centerpieces and cut glass flower vases to carry through this theme. We also had lots of candles and antique mirror candle holders everywhere. Little Botanica were our florist and did a beautiful job of decorating the castle full of seasonal flowers that reflected the pretty, vintage look we were going for.
For the church, I had seen an idea in a magazine of another wedding that had gorgeous arches of branches and flowers down the aisle – my aisle was tiny, but Little Botanica were able to create a gorgeous version of this in the aisle and at the entrance to the church which set a lovely theme in and outside the church. We were also conscious that we wanted our wedding to be fun and personable. So a lot of things were inspired out of the fact that we wanted our guests to enjoy the day with lots of surprises like our photo props on tables, the ‘dare game’, caricaturist and mum’s homemade Limoncello favours. We were also lucky to have a friend to do the job as Toast Taster. He was absolutely amazing and made our day feel so personable and fun.
The whole day was so enjoyable, if there is one favorite, I think it was coming out the church to all our friends and family cheering throwing clouds of confetti everywhere. It felt so magical and we even got some beautiful sunshine to go along with it.
The fabulous Craig and Eva Sanders were our photographers – absolutely loved them. Not only did they capture the most memorable and beautiful photos of our day they were also so much fun to be around and made us both feel really comfortable. I couldn’t recommend them enough.
Our cake was by Top Tier Cakes in Glasgow. Their shop is just beside where we live and we’ve sampled quite a few cupcakes from there over the years. They were really friendly and easy to deal with and delivered everything to the venue which meant no disasters getting the cake there in one piece.
Little Botanica did the flowers. They were amazing, really different and got the theme I was going for straight away. Lisa took time to understand what I wanted and came up with lots of brilliant ideas. You can tell they are really passionate about what they do and wanted every detail to be perfect.
My advice for brides-to-be: Smile, be happy and enjoy every moment of it. When it comes to planning your big day do things that really reflect who you both are, it’s your day so take the time to make it special and everything that you are.
We came across Blairquhan castle when we were looking around online. I think we found some pictures of a wedding here that had been taken by our amazing photographers Craig and Eva. We were looking for an exclusive use venue that we could treat as our home for the weekend with our friends and family. We took a drive down to Blairquhan Castle one day and we knew straight away it was the right place, the setting and grounds are breathtaking and although it had this look of grandeur, inside it felt so homely and comfortable. The drawing rooms where we had the wedding meal were absolutely amazing with beautiful chandeliers, large fireplaces and windows that looked out into the landscape beyond. We weren’t having a huge wedding so the space was just right and I could imagine all our friends in this room having a great time and later dancing the night away. Accommodation was great, too as Blairquhan had self catering cottages on the grounds and beautiful rooms in the castle itself. This meant that we were able to enjoy having all of our friends and family together for the full weekend.
We came across the church in the beautiful small village of Straiton a small drive away from Blairquhan Castle. I is from Ayrshire so it felt even more special that this was the place we were married. The church is tiny and very pretty with lots of original features and stained glass.
I started looking at lots of different ideas in wedding magazines, online, blogs (Style Me Pretty!) to get ideas. Pinterest was also great and really helped me pull together themes and looks that I liked. I knew that I wanted a vintage feel to our day and I loved the old world glamour look that was evident in our venue at Blairquhan Castle. I wanted our theme to reflect the beautiful interior of the castle and tie in with that look and feel. I loved the use of light and the reflection of light on the wonderful old mirrors in the drawing rooms and chandeliers. I tied in our table decorations with mirror centerpieces and cut glass flower vases to carry through this theme. We also had lots of candles and antique mirror candle holders everywhere. Little Botanica were our florist and did a beautiful job of decorating the castle full of seasonal flowers that reflected the pretty, vintage look we were going for.
For the church, I had seen an idea in a magazine of another wedding that had gorgeous arches of branches and flowers down the aisle – my aisle was tiny, but Little Botanica were able to create a gorgeous version of this in the aisle and at the entrance to the church which set a lovely theme in and outside the church. We were also conscious that we wanted our wedding to be fun and personable. So a lot of things were inspired out of the fact that we wanted our guests to enjoy the day with lots of surprises like our photo props on tables, the ‘dare game’, caricaturist and mum’s homemade Limoncello favours. We were also lucky to have a friend to do the job as Toast Taster. He was absolutely amazing and made our day feel so personable and fun.
The whole day was so enjoyable, if there is one favorite, I think it was coming out the church to all our friends and family cheering throwing clouds of confetti everywhere. It felt so magical and we even got some beautiful sunshine to go along with it.
The fabulous Craig and Eva Sanders were our photographers – absolutely loved them. Not only did they capture the most memorable and beautiful photos of our day they were also so much fun to be around and made us both feel really comfortable. I couldn’t recommend them enough.
Our cake was by Top Tier Cakes in Glasgow. Their shop is just beside where we live and we’ve sampled quite a few cupcakes from there over the years. They were really friendly and easy to deal with and delivered everything to the venue which meant no disasters getting the cake there in one piece.
Little Botanica did the flowers. They were amazing, really different and got the theme I was going for straight away. Lisa took time to understand what I wanted and came up with lots of brilliant ideas. You can tell they are really passionate about what they do and wanted every detail to be perfect.
My advice for brides-to-be: Smile, be happy and enjoy every moment of it. When it comes to planning your big day do things that really reflect who you both are, it’s your day so take the time to make it special and everything that you are.