“We loved being able to make everything completely unique to us and really tried to add as much individuality as we could to our decor and our day over all.”
Tell us a little bit about planning your wedding? What inspired you to pick all the things that you did and what was most important to you both?
I’m from Newcastle, and had always thought I’d get married there, but the most important thing for both of us was to have a humanist wedding, so Scotland it was! We both agreed we didn’t want a typical wedding, and we loved the look of the barn weddings we had seen. We arranged to see a number of different venues, Kinkell being the first – immediately after seeing Kinkell we cancelled the other viewings and booked! It was perfect, as we both wanted a wedding that was personal to us, and the Byre was essentially a blank space for us to fill as we wanted. We also were quite set that we didn’t want a formal meal, so the BBQ option from our caterers was perfect.
We got engaged 10 days before Christmas 2016 and agreed not to begin wedding planning until after the New Year. We couldn’t help ourselves from doing the odd Internet venue search though and that’s how we came across Kinkell. We viewed it on the 30th December (already breaking the pact not to plan anything until after New year!) and fell instantly in love.
We booked that night and never viewed any other venues. Nicole is the youngest in her family and subsequently the last to get married so we had attended so many weddings already and knew that we wanted something completely different from anything we had seen before.
We loved being able to make everything completely unique to us and really tried to add as much individuality as we could to our decor and our day over all. Craig’s mum made all of our flower arrangements including all the bouquets, Craig’s sister make our wedding cake, Nicole’s sister painted all the pallets and wooden signs and Nicole’s best friends performed a mash up of our two favourite songs during our ceremony. The most important thing for us was making sure the whole day felt as relaxed as possible and we wanted our personalities to be evident in all our choices.
What did you both enjoy planning?
We both loved writing our ceremony and making all the music choices. We booked a night away so that we were relaxed and could focus on just these two things and it was definitely the best decision we made. We had a couple of glasses of wine together and then started writing the ceremony which meant it was heartfelt but also comedic so it had everyone laughing and crying on the day! We are both big music lovers so planning all the music choices was so much fun! Oh and the wine sampling was pretty good too!
Tell us about your wedding day. What made it special for you?
It was a big wedding with 180 guests all day and we were so grateful that so many of our guests decided to stay in St Andrews and nearby area for the weekend of our wedding. We are both from Edinburgh but have family in England, Canada, and Australia so there was plenty of travel involved. We booked the whole of Morton of Pitmilly countryside resort and had 90 of our friends and family around us while we got ready.
Even Nicole’s hairdresser made the weekend trip to be there. A friend piped guests in on arrival and we had spent the day before hanging loads of photos of us and our family and friends around the venue so there was plenty for everyone to look at and chat about before the ceremony started.
After the ceremony we went for a short drive for photos and then were surprised on our return to Kinkell by a magician. Nicole’s parents had organised for him to be there to entertain guests during the drinks reception. We had 25 kids as guests all day so to keep them entertained we set up games and fancy dress in the raised barn.
We had organised with the caterers for our guests to be involved in serving their own dinner so after the starters were cleared we asked guests to look under the seats and if they had a chef’s hat or an apron then they were to make their way to the kitchen to become servers for the evening. This was one of our favourite moments of the day because the atmosphere and hilarity in the room when half the guests walked out dressed as chefs was just amazing. After dinner it was straight to dancing the night away, we don’t think the dance floor (or the bar) were empty once.
What advice do you have for other couples planning their wedding?
Just remember it is your day so go with the choices that make you happy. You are planning the happiest day of your life so don’t sweat the small stuff, those things take care of themselves! And finally, we know it’s clichéd but it really does go by so fast so make sure you take it all in!
How is married life treating you?
Nicole is still getting used to the new name but apart from that not much has changed. We are very happy and having the memories of our wedding to think back on is just perfect.
Photographer – Clear Photography
Other supplier shout outs – Scott’s Catering Services, Just Married Movies, The Riffeshers (Band), Moira Heatly (Celebrant), View from the slow Lane (Wedding Car), Andrew Mckinley (Magician), Kavelle Couture (Brides dress), Morton of Pitmilly, Event Bars St Andrews
