Photo by Victoria Photography
Rustic weddings are ever-growing in popularity, particularly among engaged couples who are after an organic but warm feel for their big day. But, with so much to plan, how can you make sure that you’re doing this style justice, and bringing your rustic wedding vision to life? From venues, to decor, to finding inspiration, there’s plenty to consider – in this guide, we’ll run through all our top tips for creating the perfect rustic wedding.
Make use of outdoor space
Nothing says rustic quite like the use of a natural space, and many couples like to keep this in mind when choosing a venue for their wedding. Usually, they’ll head towards the countryside in search of rugged farmhouse grounds, or a cosy barn that’ll bring a taste of the outdoors in.
When shopping around for venues, you’ll want to think carefully about which areas would best function as the perfect, rustic backdrop for your big day – perhaps you’ll want to host a magical, romantic ceremony in the nearby woodland, or secluded flower garden – while opting to save the more sheltered barn or summerhouse for your evening reception.
Photo by Victoria Photography
Make your own decor
When you’ve found yourself the perfect rustic setting, there’s often not much that needs to be done in the way of decorations – usually, the natural backdrop speaks for itself. However, some handmade items can still serve as the perfect finishing touches for your wedding set up.
Some couples like to use spare wood cuttings for their centrepieces, or have them carved into place settings – this always looks gorgeous surrounded by plenty of colourful, natural flowers and foliage (for an extra dose of rusticity, wildflowers work best). If you’re planning on hosting your wedding in a city setting, all is not lost, as you can opt for candles instead of electric lights, and plenty of natural furnishings for a feel that is more rustic, less polished.
Check out inspo
The dream of a rustic-inspired wedding is one shared by many, so, you’ll tend to find that there’s plenty of inspiration out there on the internet and on social media. You may want to take a look at the photos from previous weddings that have been hosted at your chosen venue to get a sense for how another happy couple has interpreted the theme – you might even find that some of their decor items can be provided by your chosen venue, making the overall planning process just that
little bit easier.
Photo by Neil Thomas Douglas
Keep it informal
The rustic wedding is known for its laid-back and welcoming atmosphere. With this in mind, you’ll want to avoid worrying that things may not go to plan, and allow for your wedding day to be a little rough around the edges here and there. After all, above all else, this day is about simply celebrating love, and having a great time surrounded by all of your closest people, at this most special time in your life.
Blog written by Amanda Reed
(feature image: Photos By Zoe)
Planning a wedding during the last few years has been incredibly stressful for couples. The pandemic threw up many hurdles and many people have changed plans numerous times, with over 70% postponing their big day in light of Covid-19. Amongst all of this potential stress, it’s easy to lose sight of some other important wedding planning essentials. And recently, one of the key things to consider is the environmental impact of your wedding.
We hear more about how important it is to reduce our impact on the world around us. Weddings might not feel like the obvious place to start, but events do generate waste and have a huge environmental footprint. For eco-conscious couples, planning a sustainable wedding could be a top priority. Here, we look at some top tips for reducing waste on your special day.
Create your own decorations
The amount of stuff you can buy for your wedding is incredible. Even just considering decorations, the choices are endless – place settings, table plans, bunting, and more. A lot of these items are only used once – single-use materials are the epitome of today’s throwaway culture.
So why not make your own decorations with recycled materials? Bunting from old clothes, place names on carved wood and homegrown plants as table centrepieces are striking ways to decorate, and are eco-friendly and budget-friendly. This can also add to your personal touch around the byre.
If you’re not feeling that creative, consider hiring decorations rather than buying everything new. We have some amazing stylists on our recommended suppliers list who can help out!
(Iain Mcintosh Photography)
Think about the flowers you’re using
According to this sustainable wedding guide, exotic flowers are one of the worst offenders at weddings when it comes to having a negative impact on the environment. This is largely down to choosing flowers out of season from far away. You can immediately reduce this by working with a local florist and asking them where they source their flowers. You can then discuss with them what’ll be in season when your wedding is due to be held and plan accordingly.
(Photography by Emilie Gray)
Pre-order your food
Think carefully about how many meals (and courses) you’re providing your guests. Food waste is a surprisingly large impact from weddings, with 10% being thrown away. Always get your guests to pre-order what they want during the day and ask your venue what they tend to do with unused food. You could consider donating unused, unopened items.
You should also be careful with your wedding cake – a lot of wedding cakes are thrown away simply because they’re just too big. If you still want the impact of a large cake, many cake makers use false tiers to cut down on waste (and costs). Or, if you’re willing to go smaller, consider cupcakes or a one-tiered cake just for you.
(Brown Photography)
Considering scrapping the gift list
Historically couples were given many useful household items at their wedding as it would be the start of them living together. Nowadays, many people live together for years before a wedding, so this practice has become a bit outdated.
Think about what you really need or want from your guests. You could consider scrapping the idea of gifts altogether or if you have particularly persistent (and generous) guests, ask for experiences or potentially contributions to your honeymoon. Only create a list of items if there’s actually things you need.
Any efforts you make to reduce waste at your wedding should be applauded. With the right help and support, you can plan a sustainable wedding which only leaves behind happy memories.
“Kinkell Byre is an old farm and we are committed to using our land to do as much as possible for the environment and the local community. By rewilding, planting trees, creating wetlands and conservation grazing with our highland cows and ponies, we believe we can enrich our landscape, increase our local biodiversity, absorb more carbon and provide opportunities to the community for participation, education and the enjoyment of nature”
– Rory Fyfe
At Kinkell, we are committed to using our land to do as much as possible for the environment and the local community. Recently, we have introduced highland cows on the land as a way of conservation grazing and we have also planted trees to increase our local biodiversity and absorb more carbon. Another way that we can help become a more sustainable business is launching our Weddings for the Wild offering.
Weddings for the Wild is for those couples who want a to celebrate their big day but are also conscious on the impact that it has on the planet. The typical wedding ceremony generates tonnes of carbon dioxide in just one day! We are working with Scotland the Big Picture to find a solution to this and show you how you can have an eco friendly wedding.
This brochure, tells you how you can off set your wedding to reduce the carbon that is produced on the day.
For more information, contact us at info@kinkell.com or Katherine Tubb katherine@scotlandbigpicture.com
Happy December! We have finally entered Winter Barn Wedding month! What is so great about a barn wedding is you can style it how you like, but where do you start with a Winter themed wedding? This blog is going to be full of winter wedding ideas including top tips from our amazing florist Blue Poppy when it comes to choosing winter flowers and some ideas on décor from our stylish queen Sarah from Ambience Venue Styling.
Winter Colours
With the help of Stevie from i-Light, Kinkell is already filled with a romantic and cosy atmosphere due to the lighting. Filling up the space with some warm hues will make the place feel relaxed and intimate.
Winter Flowers
Our amazing recommended Florist at Kinkell, Cath from Blue Poppy Florist has offered some advice when picking winter flowers:
“There is nothing quite like the romance of winter weddings. Adding colour into your floral designs is the quickest way to add warmth to your venue. Rich, berry tones are perfect or if you lean towards autumnal hues, go for that instead. Both work perfectly with the backdrop of the Kinkell stone. You can include British-grown flowers which include tulips, anemones, ranunculus and narcissi.
If you want to go truly seasonal, stick to foliage-based designs. Luscious swathes of garlands can highlight barn features and drape tables. You can add in seasonal seed heads or grasses for texture and always team with lots of candlelight for that inviting glow…wedding perfection!”
Décor Ideas
Our stylish queen Sarah from Ambience Venue Styling has gave her top tip advice on how to decorate your barn wedding during the winter months!
“Top tip number one – choose the perfect barn venue (Kinkell Byre obviously!). When thinking about how to style your wedding don’t be tempted to mix up a ‘winter wedding’ with a ‘Christmas wedding’ – they are not the same thing. You can still bring winter style and elegance to your venue without baubles and tinsel! Barns can be styled to channel an elegant ski chalet vibe in the winter months, and all the fun that goes with après ski”
Paul Placitelli Photography
“When it comes to décor lots of candlelight and fairy lights are a winner, you could consider a fairy light wall as the backdrop to your ceremony. In terms of colour scheme, you could choose to go all white with accents of cooler colours like silver and pale blue or add pops of jewel colours to go with the season. Colour can be added into table linens, napkins, even jewel coloured glassware. Consider using dried fruits and pinecones in table centre arrangements (these can also smell amazing!), and even if you do go for an all-white theme, don’t be afraid of darker accents – even using a small amount of black – monochrome can look amazing in the winter”
Paul Placitelli Photography
Timings
During the winter, the sun sets considerably earlier than it does in summer so you want to make the most out of the daylight as you can for photos! We recommend having your ceremony a little earlier, around 1pm- giving you at least 2 & a half hours of daylight for photos before the sun begins to set.
When the sun begins to set, head out the front to our sea view or to our orchard for some stunning ‘golden hour’ photos!
Sea View: Photos By Zoe
Orchard: Victoria Photography
Christmas Trees
At Kinkell, throughout December we have a selection of Christmas trees dotted around the byre. One in the entrance and hanging down ones along the roof of the long shed. These are such a nice add do your winter décor look. You can also add more to the ceremony room or long shed if you wanted too!
Sparklers
A sparkler exit is a must to add to your winter wedding and look amazing out the front of the byre at night time. We can do indoor sparklers in the entrance room in front of the sparkly archway or make your guests line up outside for a sparkler send off!
Emma Lawson Photography
9th November 2021
The twin crises of biodiversity loss & climate change
At Kinkell, we are genuinely worried about the impact humanity is having on the natural environment. Around the world, one million animals and plants face extinction. After centuries of intensive farming, construction and industrial expansion, the UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in Europe. Forests are in retreat, wilderness has almost disappeared, more than 40m birds have vanished since the 1970s and 15% of all wildlife in the UK is now threatened with extinction. This loss of biodiversity is another ecological crisis, which is less well publicised than climate change, but could be equally as dangerous for humanity.
What can we do to help repair the natural environment?
By rewilding Kinkell, we believe that we can help tackle the twin environmental crises of biodiversity loss and climate change.
We are blessed at Kinkell with a stunning natural environment and expansive views overlooking St Andrews and the Bay. However, like much of Fife, wildlife has been pushed back by the spread of intensive farming. Historically, Kinkell was a small arable and livestock farm. Although we branched out into the weddings and events business back in 2003, we have retained around 100 acres of land, including 70 acres of grass fields and 30 acres of cliffs, which are designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
By rewilding the land at Kinkell, turning it back over to nature and allowing natural processes to take hold again, we can help reverse the loss of biodiversity, encouraging the return of native plants, insects, bees, birds and larger animals. At the same time, an increase in plantlife will also sequester carbon from the atmosphere.
To press forward with this plan as quickly as possible, we are giving nature a wee bit of a helping hand.
Firstly, we have started a new policy of conservation grazing, using native cows and other large herbivores to graze and manage the land in the way that nature intended. As part of this plan we have, for now, reduced our head of cattle from 12 Aberdeen Angus to 2 Highlanders and we plan to add Highland Ponies and maybe pigs in the future to diversify the styles of grazing.
Our new resident Highland Coos at Kinkell
Secondly, we have mowed and bailed the existing grasslands to reduce the nutrient load in the soil and plan to sow yellow rattle seeds to further reduce this load. This will help a greater diversity of plants to compete with the grass that dominates the land as a result of decades of heavy-fertilisation.
Cutting and baling grass to reduce nutrients in the soil
Thirdly, last winter we started planting native hedgerows and trees on a small scale. This winter we will be planting about 11 acres of native woodland, hedgerows, orchards and wildflowers which will sequester more than 1500 tonnes of carbon over the next 100 years, equivalent to the annual emissions of 750 petrol cars. In coming months we will also create wetland areas, ponds and scrapes, again to attract a greater diversity of wildlife to the area.
Native hedgerow planting at Kinkell
Fourthly, we have joined the Northwoods Rewilding Network, which is part of Scotland the Big Picture (SBP). If you would like to learn more about rewilding, their website is a great place to start. Through SBP we are offering Weddings for the Wild and we hope we can make our weddings more sustainable – you can read more on our blog, how to have an eco-wedding.
Although we are just one small project, we hope that by demonstrating the impact and abundance that can result from rewilding, we will persuade other landowners in the area to turn over some of their land to rewilding. In time, this will hopefully help to rebuild a connected network of rewilded land across Scotland.
As Scotland the Big Picture puts it…
Imagine a country where wild forests teem with life…
where rivers brimming with salmon and trout flow freely…
where wetlands are shaped by beavers and echo to the calls of cranes…
where healthy peatlands regulate carbon and purify water…
where oceans support an abundance of life…
where communities are flourishing in a vibrant nature-based economy.
Now imagine that country is Scotland.
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