CHARLOTTE AND SHARON’S BEAUTIFUL SCOTTISH LOCH ARD WEDDING

This wedding makes me miss summer, sunshine, and green trees.. Oh how much would I give to be sitting by the lake now… Charlotte and Sharon had an amazing wedding with lots of sunshine and the gorgeous scenery of Loch Ard.

HOW DID YOU MEET?

Through a friend whilst on rugby tour at the Magaluf beach.

TELL US ABOUT THE DAY! WHAT WAS THE THEME, INSPIRATION, THE MOST IMPORTANT AND MOST FUN PART FOR YOU?

The main thing that we wanted from our wedding location was to get married by the water, whether that was on a beach or next to a loch. The second thing that we wanted was to be able to get married outside (British weather permitting). Charlie found Altskeith Country House while recovering from a broken ankle and it ticked all of the boxes and more for us. Firstly it was on the side of Loch Ard, secondly it had several stunning outside options to get married and thirdly it had the most stunning views across the loch with Ben Lomond in the background. When we went to view the house over the Christmas holidays in 2015 we knew instantly that it was where we wanted to get married. Charlie was grinning from ear to ear before we even got out of the car and saw the inside of the house. We were also very fortunate that the owners, Alison and Yas, were so welcoming and made us feel at ease straight away. They were so proud of the transformation they had made to the house and that they could share it with couples like us who wanted a dream location for their wedding day. The final bonus was that as the house was in Scotland we could legally get married outside if the weather was on our side on the day.

When we got down to planning the wedding the main thing that we realised was that all we wanted was a relaxed wedding where we could chill out with our friends and family and dance the night away. The key to this was going to be to have the whole day in one location, which we had with Altskeith. When we put this across to Alison and Yas they said the new family style BBQ menu was ideal for our day because it encouraged people to get involved around a table, to carve their own meat and generally be sociable without the constant interruption of waiting staff bring in several courses of food. This was perfect and summed up the kind of day we wanted, where our friends and family could relax and just enjoy themselves.

We have to give Yas a special mention as he actually fell out of the loft while he was collecting the wood chips to smoke the salmon and broke his ankle about an hour and a half before the ceremony started. But like a true professional he refused to go to the hospital until after the food was served and gave directions with his leg elevated to his soux chef and the waiting staff to ensure our day went off without a hitch.

We also wanted to do as much as we could ourselves for the wedding and our friends and family pitched in too. Both of our mums made the wedding cake, Charlies mum baked the cake and covered them and then both mums made the decorations to go on the cake and assembled it on the day. Sharon’s mum baked the table center pieces and deserts which were cupcake bouquets. One thing that made us laugh on the day was when Sharon’s friend Gemma realized the bouquets were edible and shouted out “Oh my god you can eat them!!” during the father of the brides’ speech. Both dads helped to make decorations for the day as well as help our mum’s with the tricky task of getting all of the cakes to the venue undamaged. Sharon’s maid of honour Fiona provided the bunting for the function room, this was the bunting that her mum made by hand for her wedding a few years earlier. We made the invitations ourselves by hand, Sharon’s mum kindly helped us stuff envelopes and get them ready to post while down visiting us on holiday. Charlie’s sister Felicity took our engagement photographs and helped us to design our save the date. And Felicity’s boyfriend Neil is a jeweller and helped us to pick our wedding rings.

It’s hard to pick just one memory or highlight from the day. I think our favourite parts of the day were seeing each other’s dresses for the very first time during the ceremony, that was emotional and amazing all at the same time. We had written our own wedding vows so that was a special touch to be able to make the ceremony so personal. As Sharon is in the Army we had a Guard of Honour to line the end of the aisle for us to walk through at the end of our ceremony. Sharon’s friend Roddy was our piper for the day and he piped us down the aisle at the end of the ceremony which was really special. The bridesmaids speeches were very special and hilarious, they captured us both very well. Sharon organised a surprise by getting her former military pipeband from her time at University to come and play for everyone at sunset. Most of Charlie’s family had never seen a pipeband so this was a great surprise for them especially. We had a brilliant ceilidh band who got everyone up dancing, even a lot of Charlie’s family and friends who have never tried ceilidh dancing before. We were particularly impressed with Charlie’s friend Sarah who was one of the last people to leave the dance floor despite being 8 months pregnant!!

FLOWERS

Laura Jardine of Cherry Blossom did an amazing job, she listened to our ideas and made suggestions based on things she had done in the past. We wanted bright flowers to contrast the purple of the bridesmaids’ dresses. The bridesmaids had bouquets of bright gerberas and we both had a selection of bright flowers including roses and thistles. The rose and thistles were worn by our dads as buttonholes.

DECORATIONS

We kept this very simple as the venue didn’t need lots of things. Our friend Fiona lent us bunting from her wedding, which was used with fairy lights for the ceiling of the function room.

We decorated the tables with the cupcake bouquets (which was dessert) and our Easter egg favours, we asked our guests to take a photo of #howdoyoueatyours. These photos have been very funny.

CAKE

Both of our Mum’s did the cake, Charlie’s mum baked them and covered them and drove them from Kent to Scotland, and both mum’s then did the decorations on the days leading up to the wedding and assembly on the day.

Sharon’s mum baked our table centrepieces which were cupcake bouquets.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER

Ross and Dave were brilliant, they put us both at ease from the very first meeting and the photos they took of our day were superb. Everyone who met them said how good they were and we are so pleased that we chose Ross.