A Remote, Intimate, Lochside Wedding… Ours!!

Jun 18 2012

Just under a year ago, Penny sprang a surprise on Martin’s birthday, just beating him to the punch (he’d planned the same thing for her birthday a month later) in asking him to marry her! Well here we are, 6 weeks into married life (and loving it!), with a little post about our own wedding!

We wanted to have an outdoor ceremony which is not legal in England. We had considered doing the legal bit in our jeans the day before putting on the main ceremony for our friends and family, perhaps in the woods, but we were uncomfortable with the idea of already being married. Scotland (and most of the rest of the world) is more relaxed on their marriage laws so we would be able to have a legally recognised, humanist ceremony wherever we liked… and well, the Scottish highlands are stunning! We were really concerned that our nerves would overpower all other emotions on the day if we were to stand up in front of an audience, so we made the decision to have our little ceremony all to ourselves!

We wanted to be married somewhere beautiful, dramatic and remote – somewhere that was just ours! We got some recommendations from a friend who knows the highlands well, and fell in love with Kingairloch when we saw the photos. We hadn’t visited the estate beforehand, so we spent our first day at the cottage exploring its stunning surroundings, and found the perfect little spot for our ceremony!

We just loved the idea of having our own little photo project and actually the photographs mean so much more knowing that we took them ourselves! Martin was super-clever in how he organised all the cameras on tripods hiding in every available patch of long grass, set to take photos every second during the ceremony and every few seconds during the ‘couple shots’! We have loads of pics just like this one, of Martin running into the frame, bounding over rocks and streams!

Martin had never shot video before but he had 12 hours of practise on the way up to Scotland and I think he did a grand job- everyone was ooing and aahing when we played the video for our friends and family at our Brighton reception a couple of weeks later! It was so wonderful watching their reactions- laughter and tears, all of which we would have missed had we been at the front worrying about getting our lines right!

Details of all the music used & how to purchase the track can be found on Youtube, if you click on the ‘Watch on Youtube’ button in the right corner.

If you made it to the end of our video, you’ll have seen the somewhat comical cycle rickshaw ride, which capped a wonderful honeymoon weekend in Edinburgh! You may well have seen our Instagram post ‘Edinburgh ♥‘!

Some of our favourite wedding photos, including some behind the scenes!..

Penny’s dress: I wasn’t looking for a ‘wedding dress’ as such. I wanted something that was mine, a one off, designed for just me! I was gathering inspiration on Etsy and toying with the idea of designing my own, when I came across the wonderfully talented Tawny from Armour sans Anguish who uses reclaimed fabric (girl after my own heart) to create one-of-a-kind garments to order. It was a bit of a risk ordering a dress for a designer in California without having any fittings or even seeing the colour of the fabrics in person (photos can be rather deceptive)! However it really paid off. A few tweaks from a local seamstress and it was just perfect!

Penny’s shoes: Dizzy stiletto welly ankle boots from Treds in Eastbourne!

Penny’s hair accessories: Feather headpiece by Circus Kinetica in Snoopers Attic, Brighton. Sadly the wind took one of the feathers during the ceremony, so I had to take it off for the couple shots! : (

Other accessories: My mother, aka Lupi-Lu, makes all sorts of bags from reclaimed fabric and amongst the collection she made for us, was my beautiful handbag! We also had special bags for our wedding shoes as well as for my underwear and make up, and even for our wash stuff!

Martin’s outfit: BN21 Designs – a men’s boutique in Eastbourne. Martin didn’t want anything too formal- it just wouldn’t have worked in the setting. Martin’s bowling shoes were from ‘To Be Worn Again’ in Brighton. He really fell for the ‘Rebel’ detail! His watch was a wedding gift from me, by Kapadesigns on Etsy. I made Martin’s button hole, using a cotton stem, a little bit of reclaimed fabric and a gorgeous little broach by Circus Kinetica in Snoopers Attic, Brighton to match my headpiece.

Flowers: We really loved the idea of having paper and fabric flowers and spent ages trawling through tutorials online. Once we had gathered hoards of fabric from charity shops, bootfairs and ‘worn and washed’ fabric from Liberty we headed over to my mum’s to set up little production line! Within a few minutes, my mum had designed a handful of coffee filter flowers, having completely disregarded all the tutorials we had sourced and we just loved them! We then set about making another 250 odd for our reception, each one unique! We picked out a few of our favourites for my bouquet and included 3 crystal flower heads that we found at Brighton Bridal Boot Fayre, just to give it a little bit of special sparkle!

Decor: We made some twinkly light fabric garlands from strips of reclaimed fabric to decorate our reception venue, and took one to Scotland with us, just in case we found a use for it! When we got to the cottage we were searching for suitable ceremony location and came across a tree that would display the garland beautifully and provide the perfect backdrop! We had a few bits that we would need for the ceremony, like a candle, lighter and of course the marriage certificate to sign, so we needed somewhere to store it. We found a little cupboard in a charity shop and decoupaged it with fabric so it would fit in with our theme.

Rings: A few years back I bought Martin a ring whilst on a little birthday day trip to Rye. This ring holds so much sentimental value that it just made sense to use it as a wedding ring! My ring was from Goldsmiths in Eastbourne. It took me months to find one that fit around my pre-loved engagement ring from Jools of Eastbourne!