The Venue
We loved the hotel from the outset and trusted them to deliver excellent food on the day, which they did. Our menu was fairly traditional- tomato and mozzarella salad, chicken wrapped in parma ham then berry cheesecake. We decided that our evening guests would appreciate bacon rolls and chunky chips rather than a traditional buffet.
Planning The Big Day
I probably did most of the research but I would say that Maggs had input into all of the decisions apart from my dress. In fact it was his choice of kilt that dictated the whole colour scheme of purple. He had wanted to wear the family tartan but, upon investigation, this was rare and hard to get hold of so he elected instead to go for a modern tartan he liked. The tartan was grey and black with a thin line of bold purple in it so that became our colour!! Maggs's parents live in St Andrews so the kilts were hired from a traditional hire shop there.
When we first booked the wedding we sent out save the dates with lovebirds on them so, almost by default, lovebirds became one of our wedding themes. I had stumbled across a bird cage table plan in a wedding magazine so we ordered one (with mini lovebird pegs) and it looked great. We could have just given our tables numbers but we decided to name them after our dinner guests of choice, alive or dead!
My now husband grew up in Hong Kong so we had several overseas visitors (including his brother, the best man, who travelled from Singapore)
We were trying to keep a tight reign on the budget but we never wanted to skimp on alcohol so we decided, in addition to the welcome drink, toast and wine with the wedding breakfast we would like to offer our guests a free drink from the bar.
We decided to order blank luggage tags and stamp them with the the message "Take this to the bar and have a drink on us. Love your bride and groom xx". these then doubled up as placecards as we wrote the guests' names on the back and tied them to the wine glasses.
We hired a photo booth for the evening reception and it went down very well- our guests were queuing to go in...!
Our first dance was to 'I Just Can't Stop Loving You' by Michael Jackson.
Ceremony
We were married in a Methodist church and my sister and niece lit a candle in memory of my late Mum
Reception Venue:
Woodlands in Gildersome
www.woodlandsleeds.com
Bridal Attire:
Dress by David's Bridal.
Veil by Sassi Holford
Bridesmaid Dresses
Debenhams
www.debenhams.com
Flowers:
My friend, who used to be a florist, did the bouquets which were mainly white roses with some thistles in keeping with the Scottish theme.
Photography:
Amberlight Images
www.amberlightimages.co.uk
Transport:
A cream Volkswagen campervan.
TOP TIP!
We hired a nanny for the day to be responsible for our two daughters
(aged 1 and nearly 3 at the time) and to babysit for the evening reception- absolutely invaluable and it worked brilliantly as it took the pressure off family to look after the children.