Colourful Scotland Garden Wedding During COVID

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Scotland Garden Wedding

Stewart and Louise are joining us today with their gorgeous Scotland garden wedding held on the 22nd August 2020. COVID19 may have altered their plans somewhat however their day was nothing but gorgeous. They had a back garden wedding, complete with a humanist ceremony and stretch tent reception.

Their day had a really colourful theme, with a hint of Japan (where their proposal took place). I just adore all of the multicoloured origami paper cranes they folded, which worked wonderfully in the stretch tent alongside lanterns and colourful blooms. I have to say they both looked really wonderful too and I am head over heels for Louise’s bouquet. Wow!

Proof again that love wins, always. A massive thank you goes to LJ Horton Photography for sharing these absolutely wonderful images with us.

The Proposal

The proposal took place in the highly regarded romantic setting of….. Hiroshima, Japan; the home of the nuclear bomb!

Stewart says that he had no real plan to propose except that it would probably be on my 30^th birthday. Stewart’s lack of forward planning came to light when I woke up on my birthday and asked for my present… In Stewart’s own words “I’m Scottish, and an Edgar, I am cheap”. The engagement ring was, therefore, was the only present I was getting for my birthday.

Knowing I would be slightly miffed at having no present to open on the morning of my birthday, Stewart had no option but to give me my present there and then. Stewart then invited me to open the hotel room fridge where a ring box has been ‘panic’ stored.

Upon opening the fridge, I burst into tears and Stewart got down onto one knee, on top of all our dirty clothes (because Japanese hotel rooms are definitely on the small size!) to pop the question!

The Planning Process

As Stewart himself said in his grooms speech, “getting engaged in the shadow of a nuclear bomb blast was maybe not the best omen for our wedding plans” as not all that surprisingly, all of our plans had to change because of good old Covid. We had originally planned to get married in Hetland Hall Hotel, in Dumfries and Galloway but we had to let go of this dream in June 2020, after we hung on as long as we could. Planning then changed to what we could make of our original wedding day, as rescheduling was something we wanted to avoid if possible.

We were blessed to have both very accommodating family, and more importantly, ones with big back gardens! Stewart’s Dad very kindly agreed to allow us to take over his garden for the big day and we subsequently took full advantage of this offer and got a teepee marquee for the garden to hold the wedding in. We decorated it ourselves, mainly with hundreds paper cranes that we painstakingly made ourselves, and pre covid got our friends round to help as we were going to use them in our original plan as well. Due to the restrictions we made the decision to use as few staff as possible, so each of the guests were allocated a role to ensure the day kept on track and went as smoothly as possible. We were very lucky to have amazing friends who each carried out their roles amazingly and everything went to plan! Roles included BBQ duties, bar man, DJ and even dog watch!

The Vision

To hold the best alternative wedding we could in the space of 8 weeks. Thankfully we’d been collecting decorations for Hetland Hall Hotel, therefore we were able to repurpose most of our decorations in some way. The themed continued to be colourful with Japanese elements, it just got even more ‘rustic‘ by now being in a teepee marquee.

The Venue

Stewart’s back garden in his family home, which is located in rural Dumfries and has some spectacular views. Thankfully space wasn’t an issue therefore we were able to create the garden party we never knew we dreamed of.

To allow us to have our wedding outside, we hired stretch tent from a company called Olive Design. Bearing in mind we only contacted them with 7ish weeks till our wedding day, they were very accommodating and just wanted to help! We were also able to hire tables, chairs and lights from Olive Design too… the joys of a package deal!

The Details & Décor

We decorated the teepee ourselves, mainly with streams of paper cranes that we folded over many months and colourful glassware we’d collected from charity shops and car boot sales. We intentionally didn’t want our décor to be too matchy, matchy as that’s not the aesthetic we prefer. More importantly, it made the process of collecting glassware soooooooooo much easier. Once we’d moved to the garden party plan, we also decided to have colourful lanterns dotted across the garden, this helped to pull the theme together and also provided much needed light. Most other décor were items from our house. All pillows were from our dining room chairs and sofa, our aisle was made up of our rugs, all tables clothes were my mums and all tableware were Stewart’s Dads Christmas ‘bests’.

Your Outfits & Accessories

Louise

Most importantly my wedding dress had pockets!!!! Once again something you never knew you needed beforehand. I wanted a wedding dress that I felt incredible but comfortable in and I found that in a ballgown dress from Wed2B. I wore a necklace that was gifted to me when I was born from my Gran… it was also my something blue! I had 2 pairs of shoes for the day, a hot pink pair of heels for the ceremony and a pair of grass friendly heeled Dr Martens to change into.

Stewart

I wore a kilt. I never really thought about my outfit as it was always going to be my kilt! My kilt was my 21^st birthday present from my parents and I got a new fitted kilt jacket and waistcoat for the day so, everything fitted perfectly!

Beauty

Due to covid restrictions we weren’t able to get our makeup professionally done but hair was able to go ahead. I, therefore, took on the task of being makeup artist for myself, mum and sister. I kept all of our makeup quite natural and glowy, considering I don’t see myself as much of a makeup person, I was really pleased with the results!

As for hair, I wanted an updo that would last all day and also stay looking good as it started to inevitably drop. I therefore asked for a relaxed low bun with flowers scattered throughout. All of our hair was done by Georgia Buckley who did a fantastic job.

Groomsmen

All groomsmen wore their own kilts, with it being a small wedding there didn’t seem much point in having the majority of the men that attended to wear the same thing.

Bridesmaids

My sister Emma. As we didn’t have a particularly dominant colour to our wedding, Emma was given free reign to choose any dress she liked. In the end she picked a lovely navy wrap style dress from Topshop which was teamed with a pair of low sparkly heels from faith. Emma’s hair was similar to mind but will braids at the front… Emma has much more hair than me!

The Readings & Music

We opted for a humanist wedding and ours was performed by Lindsey Mason Ross. With neither of us being religious, a humanist wedding seemed like a perfect choice. Lindsey put in a lot of time and effort into her writing to ensure the ceremony with completely personal to us and also really relaxed. What we must wanted was for our guests to laugh and that was very much achieved. As for readings, we asked my aunt and Stewart’s dad to come up with something that represented our families. Famous birds and cows were what they came up with aha.

As for music, we just had our Sonos sticking out of the utility window (highly professional) and handed all rails over to our friends who were on music duties. They did a fab job!

The Flowers

OMG the flowers, one of my favourite things from the day! Even before the garden party, we really wanted our flowers to be relaxed and more homely than some traditional arrangements you see. We came across a lady called Rosie who runs Galloway Flowers and she offered exactly wat we were looking for. We opted be the ‘bouquets and buckets‘ option, which provided us with mine and my sisters bouquets, buttonholes and buckets of loose flowers. We asked for, and I quote, ‘all the colours’, and for the bouquets to be nice and wild looking. They were beyond perfect! Stewart’s dad also grew flowers for the occasion, lots of lovely sweet peas and corn flowers, meaning we had plenty of options when it came to arranging our glassware collection.

The Cake

Baked by my cousins Rowan and Kae as a wedding present. I gave me cousins the brief of ‘colourful rustic glam with a hint of Japan’ and then left them to their own devices. Rowan and Kae ended up producing a delicious three tiered cake decorated with cherry blossom icing and topped with a Japanese Tori gate and brass figures of a loin and unicorn which represented me and Stewart (I’m English and Stewart is Scottish).

Your Photographer

Our photographer was LJ Horton, from LJ Horton Photography and we couldn’t speak higher of her if we tried! Because of good old covid, as mentioned a few times, our plans changed left, right and centre and LJ was so accommodating. I think LJs pictures speak for themselves. They are so beautiful, so relaxed and just all round filled with joy. Receiving all our wedding photos was such a treat as LJ can captured bits of our day that we might not have otherwise seen. I don’t think you can really appreciate a person’s talents until you see photos of yourself taken by LJ, we love every single one!

Your Filmmaker

We didn’t have an official filmmaker but we did ask our friend Chris if he wouldn’t mind filming on and off throughout the day so we’d have something to show our guests who couldn’t attend. Chris did and amazing job, we were hollowing with laugher seeing all the fun bits from the day and also at Chris’ witty commentary which was a nice surprise.

The Honeymoon

The Maldives… no I’m only joking, it was Wales aha. We had planned for the Maldives but what are you going to do right?! Regardless we had a fantastic time. I spent most of my childhood holidays in Wales so it was so nice to go back again. The whole holiday pretty much became ‘Louise’s driving tour of Wales’. And in all honesty, we could have stayed in a Travelodge just off the M6 and we’d have been happy as we ACTUALLY managed to get married!

Advice For Other Couples

Our advice in these very uncertain times is to try and not get too upset if plans have to change. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve cried, moaned and thrown a strop about the whole situation on more than one occasion, but on the actual day we didn’t think about what could have been.

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Stewart and Louise thank you so much for sharing your seriously lovely wedding day with us. I am so pleased that despite everything you had the most wonderful day. Scotland garden weddings surely can’t be much better than this?! xo Lou

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