Real Wedding – Leanne and Jeff Wood ~ Wedding Date: 28 October 2017

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“Immediately after seeing Kinkell we cancelled the other viewings and booked! It was perfect”

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.

What did you both enjoy planning?

I loved planning the more personal aspects of the day, we made a lot of our own decorations, hangover kit favour bags, and flavoured shots for guests, I’m lucky to have some amazing friends who got roped into helping. Jeff planned the catering side of things and the music, spreadsheets and technical drawings galore!

Tell us about your day?

We got married in October, and we were so lucky that the weather was a beautiful clear day (with the odd gust of wind!) – looking out the window to see the view of the famous golf course in the morning really set the tone for the rest of the day!

Our amazing bridesmaids and ushers had helped set up the venue the day before, while we went to collect our marriage licence, and I can’t thank them enough, as it meant the morning of the wedding was completely relaxed.

It was a Scottish/English wedding, we had tried hard to reflect that through the day, from the ceremony, the personalisation of the venue, the speeches, the cocktails, even down to the props used in the photobooth! I loved that we were able to have so much of ourselves, our family and friends incorporated throughout the day!

The day flowed so smoothly, I’m a total control freak, and I never even had to think about anything – Sam from Kinkell and Stevie from iLight were outstanding, and we can’t thank them enough. Our photos from the various spots around the Byre are amazing – we barely walked anywhere, but the versatility of the surroundings made it look like we were at about 6 different locations!

The speeches were my favourite part of the day – I had no idea what to expect, and they were just brilliant, they still make me laugh watching them back.

After dinner, we let our hair down, hit the bar hard and partied the night away with our favourite people.

What made it so special?

Our friends and family making such a brilliant effort to share our day with us – we didn’t make it easy for them, as we were asking everyone to travel to St Andrews from Glasgow, Newcastle, and further. They all were just amazing, and made our wedding day as memorable as it was. They also were very obliging to follow the lead of a very drunken bride and groom! We had put so much effort into the planning, we wanted it to feel really personal to us, and everything paid off on the day, with everything going just as planned, thanks to our wonderful suppliers.

What advice do you have for other couples planning their wedding?

Don’t get caught up in what other people want – its your day, and you’ll remember it for the rest of your life. Go with suppliers you actually like as people – you’ll be speaking to them a lot, and you need to be able to trust them. Go with your gut feelings and if you can, pay as you go along – it felt so good to be able to have things paid off well in advance of the wedding. Also, if you can, get a videographer! It was one of the last things we did, but it was honestly the best decision – there was so much of the day that we either couldn’t remember or missed, and we got to see it all on the video – worth every penny.

How is married life treating you?

After saving hard for 2 years to pay for our wedding and becoming hermits, the past year has been a blur of making up for it. Married life is exactly what we wanted it to be – not much changed, apart from my name!  We have completely enjoyed our new ‘official’ life together, and we plan to continue doing so.

Photographer – PJ Phillips Photography

Supplier shout outs – Chris Kelly Films, Gourlay Catering, The Kicks wedding band, The flower house, Event Bars St Andrews and i-light.