Morning WWWers, it’s Friday which means its the last wedding of the working week, and it’s a goodie :-)

Kat and Neil were married back in May at at Kirknewton Stables, Edinburgh. They wanted their wedding to be relaxed and simple with good food and dancing. Kat wore a stunning David Fielden dress, which she looked oh so elegant in, while Neil went for a Richard James dark blue suit, loving those tan shoes too!

I am head over heels for the wild looking blooms, which were made up of peonies, purple freesias, rosemary, eucalyptus and roses, they must have smelt amazing. They wanted a handmade feel to their decor, with jam jars for the flowers, candles and stationery designed by Neil. Such a stylish affair…. gorgeous.

Thanks so much to the brilliant Modern Love Photography for sharing his images with us today.

Names…. Kat and Neil

Wedding Date…. 12th May 2012

The Proposal…. Neil surprised me with a night away in a lovely manor house up in Perthshire. I had a feeling he was going to propose and I think he knew I knew which made for some funny moments during the day! Neil didn’t get the ring for proposing, as he knew I wanted an ethical ring, something we went on to pick together. Instead he proposed with a beautiful handmade ring made of purple heart wood which his Grandad made for me. It was such a lovely surprise.

The Vision for the day…. We just wanted the day to be a celebration with all our friends and family, relaxed, simple with good food and dancing. It absolutely lived up to that expectation!

The Planning process…. We got engaged in February 2011 and booked the venue mid-April, giving us just over a year to plan the rest. We booked a venue where we could plan everything ourselves right down to choosing our own caterers and hiring in the PA. We chose a humanist ceremony, which reflected us and was very personal and we were married at the venue. It was a lot of work to plan everything ourselves and bring everything together but absolutely worth it. Neil was very involved in the whole process, which was great, we really felt it was something we did together. Our caterer was fab and had been involved in many weddings at Kirknewton so was able to give us lots of tips and advice. We didn’t let the process get stressful, didn’t really have an overall theme, just knew what we wanted and went with that.

Budget…. We had a figure in mind, which we managed to stick to. We spent money where we needed to and didn’t have to compromise on what we wanted and saved money in ways like using our own cars for getting to the venue, my sister doing a wonderful job with hair and make up and the fantastic support of friends in helping set up, making our cake, playing during the ceremony etc.

The Venue… We were married at Kirknewton Stables just outside Edinburgh. We had decided we didn’t want a hotel wedding as we wanted something a little different and wanted to create our day ourselves. Kirknewton was exactly what we were looking for. The venue is a long one storey converted stables opening out onto a lovely walled garden and surrounded by the grounds of Kirknewton and further gardens. The walled gardens have an avenue of cherry blossom trees which if the weather s nice enough you can get married under – the ground was too wet for us to do that unfortunately. The booking of the venue came with the venue itself, tables and chairs, everything else needed to be hired in. Charles, the owner, gave us a great list of suppliers who had previously been used for weddings at Kirknewton and from there we managed to get a fantastic caterers, wine merchant etc.

The Dress + Accessories….. I wore a David Fielden dress, Wallis Simpson style in ivory. I had three beautiful hairpins and earrings made by Janet at Rene Walrus, a bespoke jewellery shop in Edinburgh.

Finding the dress…. Getting the dress was not quite as straightforward as it was meant to be! I bought a dress in July, a lovely simple classic Maggie Sottero dress, with a detachable train. I thought this would be great for the evening dancing…  What I wasn’t expecting though was the dress to put my back out! I have a bad back anyway and I think the weight of the train because it was detachable wasn’t good. At first I wasn’t sure it was the dress, it was only when I tried it on for the fitting 3 months before the wedding and the exact same injury happened again that I realised I wouldn’t be able to wear it. I had 3 months to find another dress! I had originally fallen in love with a David Fielden dress, Wallis Simpson style, but it wasn’t in stock when I bought the first one. When my twin sister found out what happened, she found the David Fielden dress online second hand in my size, went to London and tried it on for me, bought it and posted it up to me in Edinburgh a week later.  It was prefect and exactly what I wanted. I’m so glad I got the dress I originally wanted.

Groom’s attire… Neil wore a Richard James dark blue suit, white shirt, brown shoes and a silk patterned Duchamp tie.

The Readings + Music…. For music, our friend Islay is a wonderful cellist and played 3 pieces for us – Bach Suite 1 Courante, Bach Prelude and Ae Fond Kiss while I walked down the aisle.

For readings, our friend Lorna read ‘I carry your heart’ by EE Cummings.  We asked my little sister Bella (13) to sing for us during the ceremony also. She wanted to keep it a surprise and absolutely blew us away by writing a song, especially for us; lyrics and music. She reduced the entire congregation to tears; it was wonderful.

Beautiful bridesmaids….. I had 4 beautiful bridesmaids, all my sisters, which was really special. They wore teal green dresses from Monsoon and necklaces also made by Janet form Rene Walrus. They picked their own shoes and my other talented little sister Alima did hair and make-up.

The Flowers… I wanted the flowers to reflect the simple homemade feel of the day and wanted something natural and colourful so went for wildflowers in jam jars on the tables and wildflower bouquets for the bridesmaids and myself. The flowers were provided by Planet Flowers in Edinburgh who just got it spot on and provided exactly what I wanted after getting my vague wildflower brief! My sister Jess brought lovely colourful plants from her garden for the steps outside. Flowers included pale pink peonies, purple freesias, rosemary, eucalyptus and roses.

The Cake… Our friend Jenny kindly offered to make our cake and after deciding that we didn’t want a traditional wedding cake she made a fantastic selection of cupcakes – chocolate and guinness, lemon drizzle and strawberry – with a chocolate cake on top for cutting.

Your Photographer…. Our photography was done by Daniel Rutter (Modern Love Wedding Photography)  who does great documentary style photography. We wanted photographs from throughout the day but didn’t want to spend ages having set photos taken so Daniel’s style was perfect for this – relaxed and unobtrusive. He spent a lot of time with us discussing what we wanted for an album and on the day.

The Details + Decor… The details and décor were exactly as we wanted, natural, homemade and simple. We had flowers in jam jars and additional single flowers in old chemist bottles along the windowsills. The venue had lovely candle mounts along the walls with tall ivory candles in them and we provided tealights for the windowsills. We had small jam jars filled with candle wax for candles on the table to complement the flowers. Neil is a graphic designer and designed all our wedding stationery, invites, place names, table plans etc. The table plan was table cards pinned onto a large second-hand picture frame that we’d found in a charity shop, painted and added pin board to. We wanted fuss free hearty food with a sharing theme and our caterer was fantastic. We had sharing platters for starters; a hot hearty buffet for mains and mini desserts on vintage cake stands for desserts. The venue itself had that simple, natural country feel and we didn’t want to add anything fussy or overbearing that would detract from that.

The Honeymoon…. A month after the wedding we went to France for 3 weeks. We drove down from Edinburgh and got the ferry over to Calais. We booked a lovely apartment in Antibes for the second week but otherwise were free to make our plans and mostly spent the other two weeks exploring Provence and the Riveria and following the sun!

Memorable moments… Amazing sunny day amid what can only be described as the worst summer on record, walking down the aisle, Bella singing for us during the ceremony, getting photos taken with Neil, the speeches, my Dad having recorded and playing a piano piece he’d written for me when I was little, the food, the John Langan Band keeping everyone dancing for the whole evening, they were amazing! The whole day was fantastic.

Advice for other couples… Plan your day as you want it and enjoy the process, it will all come together and shouldn’t be stressful!

Credit where credit is due…

Celebrant: Juliet Wilson – www.humanism-scotland.org.uk

Reception Venue: Kirknewton Stables – www.kirknewtonestate.co.uk

Dress: David Fielden, Wallis Simpson style

Photographer: Daniel Rutter – www.modernlovephotography.co.uk

Florist: Planet Flowers – www.planetflowers.co.uk

Bridesmaids dresses: Monsoon

Neil’s suit: Richard James – www.richardjames .co.uk

Bridal and bridesmaid jewellery: Rene Walrus – www.renewalrus.co.uk

Caterers: Nicola at Annabelles Catering – www.annabellescatering.biz

Wines: David Henderson from Hendersons wines – www.hendersonwines.co.uk

Ale Kegs: Stewarts Brewery – www.stewartbrewing.co.uk

Ethical wedding rings: Viviane at Fifi Bijoux – www.fifibijoux.com

Thanks so much to Kat and Neil for sharing their beautiful wedding with us today. Didn’t they have the most beautiful day!? XOXO Lou

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