Real Wedding – Blythe Campbell & Rian Williamson – 5th October 2024
We had this beautiful couples wedding day at the start of October 2024 and what a truly gorgeous day it was! The start of October stayed bright and sunny enough for this couple to enjoy their drinks outside!
They spoke to us about how they met and what decisions they came to when booking their dream wedding!
About Us
We met at Manchester Metropolitan University when we were placed in the same halls of residence only a few doors away from each other in 2014 when we were both 21
We got engaged in September 2021 due to Covid he couldn’t take me away abroad on holiday to propose so he asked when we were on a family holiday in the Isle of Wight
About the venue
We always had in our head that we wanted a very rustic barn style venue and Kinkell was the 3rd venue we saw. Myself, my now husband (!) and Dad all said after our first visit that there was definitely something very special about the venue.
Being in St Andrews was another added bonus as we knew a lot of our guests would be travelling from England and thought what a lovely place in Scotland to get married.
We had decided on the venue in October 2022, just under 2 years before our big day and honestly I am so glad we had those 2 years to plan. I take my hat off to couples that plan their weddings in a much smaller time frame as I wouldn’t have been able to do that!
After the initial visit and securing the date I already had a vision in my head of the colour scheme and the type of flowers that we wanted.
Shout out to Elaine at FiftySix Events as she absolutely understood my vision and she brought it to life so perfectly!
Having an October wedding obviously lended itself to having an autumnal colour scheme, however I think having pops of bright pinks made it feel a lot more modern and funky. I think we ended up having a bit of a mix of styles in the end from rustic and boho to modern/electric but it really worked!
The layout of the barn being open and having the different levels although being a big space, still felt very intimate.We were very lucky on the day that the weather was on our side so having drinks outside during the reception was just a perfect wee bonus!
Kinkell Byre’s supplier page and also attending their supplier open day was super helpful. It was really great talking to suppliers who had so much knowledge of the venue. We did also spend a lot of hours looking through Instagram!
During the planning I think we did start to stress a little about the barn being a blank canvas! One thing I would say is that if you are looking for a caterer, bear in mind that they would need to bring their own cooking facilities as this crossed a lot off potential caterers off our list! In hindsight though, having a complete blank canvas, especially in terms of the catering was incredibly positive. It meant that we could have a menu that we were 100% happy with and knew that everything our guests were eating was chosen by us!
Big shoutout to Wild Rover Food as we had so many of our guests saying that it was one of the bests meals that they have ever had at a wedding!
Amazingly everything went to plan on the day and we had no hiccups, none that I was made aware of anyway! I think a lot of that was down to the amazing team at Kinkell! Claire from Kinkell and Stephen from i-Light especially were unbelievable and were there for the whole day to make sure everything ran smoothly. A personal highlight was walking into the ceremony room and all of our loved ones looking back at me with so much joy and happiness! The whole day from start to finish was just incredible.
If we could give any advice to couples planning their wedding it would be to plan the day that you want and feels right for you as a couple. Try to not let other people’s opinions on how your day should be sway you. Be upfront with how you want your day to be. And most importantly soak up every second as it is over so quickly!
Suppliers
Photographer – Lindsay McCadie (The Stag & Doe)
Catering Wild Rover Food
Styling – FiftySix Events
Flower decor – The Drying Room
Hair – @meiganalessandrabridal
Makeup- @missymacyoga
Band – @Auroraweddingband
Lighting – Stephen Leslie
Bar – Event Bars St Andrews
