It wasn't until the very end of putting today's real wedding post, (with stunning pictures by Dasha Caffrey Photography) that we realised Alice and Daniel's rustic Scottish wedding was actually planned, from Brazil!
While destination weddings are incredibly common, and lots of couples plan weddings in their hometowns, away from where they now live, when a wedding has such a local, relaxed, family feel, such pretty features, and such attention to detail, we can usually picture the bride and groom living near-by and overseeing the lot.
A charming celebration, which saw two families from two continents coming together under a rare day of Scottish sunshine, with local wildflowers, lots of dancing, and lashings of cake!
But before we let you see all of Dasha Caffrey's beautiful photography, and read all about how Alice and Daniel put their day together, can we just take a moment to check out their style?
Daniel in his family tartan, Alice in one of our favourite Monique Lhuillier gowns; such a stylish pair, for such a chic wedding, don't you think?
Wedding Day Snapshot
Our Wedding Day
Having the wedding in Perthshire, in some of Scotland’s most beautiful countryside, had both meaning to me and my husband.
My husband was brought up in Perthshire and lived 15 minutes away from both the ceremony and reception venues.
And for me, having moved to Scotland to study when I was 18 and living there for 5 years meant that it became a second home to me. And especially Perth and Perthshire, as I would visit my husband’s family a lot and felt very at home there.
The setting was also very me, as I am very outdoorsy and love being by nature. One of the things that swayed me to choose Scotland for University was its beautiful scenery!
The reception venue was by the River Tay, which swayed both me and my husband toward it as we both love being by water and Danny grew up by this same river, as it cuts through Perth.
The venue was also surrounded by cattle fields, which added to the country feel. I particularly love highland cows, and we could see a field with lots of them from the bridal suite.
The ceremony venue again echoed similar things, with its beautiful grounds, greenery, gardens and huge ancient trees lining the paths.
The estate is a castle estate, but the castle itself was an old hunting lodge which meant that it wasn't too pompous, but still beautiful! This was in keeping with the more relaxed, rustic feel I wanted.
But the main reason why we chose this estate was because of its beautiful and unique 16th and 18th century Catholic chapel, with seating both in front and behind the altar.
I wanted the wedding to be quite outdoorsy so we could enjoy both venues/settings, and the weather didn't disappoint! It was a very sunny and warm day, which is very unusual in Scotland. But this made all the difference and the Brazilians appreciated it!
The combination of Brazilian and Scottish guests, probably made our wedding quite unique and very fun! They are both very lively crowds and up for a party! And got on extremely well!
I think the Brazilians really enjoyed some of the Scottish/UK wedding traditions/set-ups, especially the speeches!
My dad had never seen or had to do a speech of this nature before, and he was a major hit as he made fun of both me and my husband a lot, which I don't think my guests were expecting!
I think overall, it was the family feel that made the wedding so us.
We all (both the bride and groom’s family) stayed in the same hotel where the reception took place, which meant that we all got ready together and spent three days together sharing all these special moments.
It also helped make the reception a lot more relaxed!
And even though a lot of work went into the day and the details, and we had 210 guests, we managed to create a very fun, intimate, joyous, informal, family orientated, natural day.
Which to be honest I think essentially comes down to the wonderful family and friends we have!
And even tough quite a few things went wrong throughout the day, none of it mattered! And we had the absolute best time!
The Theme
We chose a natural, relaxed, country-chic theme which would complement the beautiful rustic Scottish countryside and setting around us.
We relied heavily on unstructured wildflower arrangements for the decorations and focused on pastel tones throughout.
The flat-lined marquee with wooden floor and support poles, as well as wooden crates and whisky cask barrels helped create the rustic feel.
The Dresses
I (the bride) wore an ivory lace Monique Lhuillier dress and the bridesmaids wore light mint green custom-made dresses by Emilia Wickstead.
The bridesmaids’ dresses were all slightly different styles to complement each of their figures.
All the dresses were quite flowy and natural, in keeping with feel of the day.
The Ceremony
We had a Catholic ceremony, so the readings and the gospel were chosen by me (bride) and our priest. One of the readings we chose has a very special passage which says:
Love is always patient and kind; it is never jealous;
love is never boastful or conceited; it is never rude or selfish;
it does not take offence, and is not resentful.
Love takes no pleasure in other people's sins but delights in the truth;
it is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes.
Love does not come to an end.
The Word of the Lord.
But what made the readings even more special was that they were read by close friends and family members.
And the homily to the gospel was done by our family priest who flew to Scotland especially for the occasion!
The Photography
I chose my photographer and videographer as they had very similar styles and had previously worked together at weddings.
They both focused on capturing the feeling of the day, in a very natural and unintrusive manner, which meant that we ended up with photos and footage that helped us re-live the day a little.
And I loved that the videographer provided a short highlights film which I could share with my guests and the way he put together the story of the day in the longer version of the film!
And I have to say that meeting them beforehand and getting on very well with them was quite a bit deciding factor in chosing them, as I felt I could completely trust them to deliver something amazing!
The Decor & Details
I (the bride) sourced most of the props for the wedding, including things like the lemonade dispensers, jam jars, table runners, table number holders, favours, pom poms for the dancefloor, etc.
But I had quite a bit of help from both the event production company and the florist to source the rest, following the rustic brief I gave them.
The event production company sourced and provided the whisky cask barrels for the outdoor drinks reception and were in charge of the marquee lighting. They also created the table plan frame (and I printed the name cards to hang from the frame) and the dessert table using the barrels again based on some inspiration I got from Pinterest.
The florist sourced all the containers/vases for the flowers, all the candles and the wooden crates used for outdoor decoration.
The Flowers
The focus was on wildflowers including ammi (lacy white flower) and love-in-a-mist, garden roses, spray roses (small buds), dahlias, cosmos (big daisy), astrantia (star), lavender, waxflower (or seasonal alternative), astilbe (feather), fresh green foliage, textural flowers including green berries and herbs.
The Music
For the ceremony most of the songs were religious, and were all played softly by a guitarist.
These included; Jesus Joy of Man’s Desire, Hallelujah and Fields of Gold.
But I wanted our recessional song to be a little more upbeat, so we chose Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles.
Our first dance song was My Girl by The Temptations, as this was one of our favourite movies growing up. It is also quite a sweet but fun song to dance to and all our guests sang along to it whilst we danced which was great!
For the evening we had a Scottish Ceilidh, which was so much fun as almost all our Brazilian guests had never danced Ceilidh before!
The band (Ceilidh Experience) was brilliant and it was great watching the Scottish guests trying to teach the Brazilians.
The band DJ took over for the rest of the night and I put together a playlist that included a few Brazilian songs so that I could dance these with my guests! Then it was the Brazilians’ turn to teach the Scots!
I think we had almost everyone dancing throughout the whole night, which was amazing!
The Refreshments
We had a brief Champagne and elderflower toast straight after the ceremony on the grounds of the estate where the church is set.
A lemonade table during reception – Lemonade served with drinks dispensers bought from John Lewis and the USA via Amazon. The lemonade was served to guests in jam jars with colourful paper straws.
Guests drank the favours with ice, which were brammle whisky liqueurs.
We had a sit down three course meal, with speeches during dessert.
We had a cake table with several different cakes and small bites instead of one wedding cake, and guests helped themselves throughout the night. I chose the bakers, Three Sisters Bake, as they have a style that really fit the theme and feel of the wedding.
Advice for Other Couples
Be very picky about your photographer and videographer! They are the ones who will help you hold on to these memories forever. And they should reflect what you want for your day!
If you can, take some time to plan the wedding and try not to rush it as it can get pretty stressful. The more time you have to plan it, the more you will enjoy it!
Get involved in the details! Although it is stressful to think of every little thing, it is so gratifying to create a day that is all you! I wish I'd had more time to personalize and set up things myself.
But get help! I wouldn't have been able to put it all together without my wedding planners. Especially as I was planning the wedding from Brazil! But it makes such a massive difference to hand everything over to someone else on the actual day, so that you can sit back and enjoy it and not worry!
Surround yourself with your family and close friends (bridesmaids, groomsmen, etc) on the day and delegate as much as you can!
I used several different websites and sites to source inspiration and props, but The Wedding of My Dreams seems like a very good start if you are looking to create a wedding with a rustic feel.
Isn't it beautiful? That dessert table looks incredible, and what a pretty setting! I love how Alice described her and Daniel's families teaching each other to dance – that sounds like so much fun!
Thanks so much to Dasha Caffrey Photography and of course the gorgeous Alice and Daniel for sharing their special Scottish wedding with us.
Love this wedding? Check out more Chic + Rustic Real Weddings.
