Real Wedding – Yuyan & Richard – 18th March 2023

Family & Friends came from all over the world to come and see this couple get hitched at Kinkell in March. They returned to Kinkell after both meeting at St Andrews University and attending a few blurry nights here! They did all their planning remotely from Singapore (!) and have kindly answered a few questions on their favourite moments from their wedding, how they chose their suppliers and advice for those planning a wedding remotely!

Firstly a little bit about you..

How did you two meet?

We met at the University of St Andrews where we both studied Management and Psychology!

Where did you get engaged?

We got engaged in Singapore which is where we have been living for the past 4 years.

Finding your venue and planning the wedding

What was it that first attracted you to Kinkell? Was there something that stood out when you knew it would be the perfect place for your special day?

When thinking about where to get married, we both immediately agreed that St Andrews would be the perfect place to return to, after all it is where we met and built the foundations of our relationship. Plus, it is “equally inconvenient” for everybody, given that Richard’s family is in the US/UK and Yuyan’s family is in China/Germany, i.e. a perfect middle ground.

We both had very fond memories of Kinkell from our student days, it is where many of the student balls were held and we loved the fact it was right by the sea. Admittedly, we did not remember most of the details about Kinkell, but we had a good gut feeling. One video call with the Kinkell team gave us all the reassurance we needed that this would be the perfect wedding venue for us and, importantly, the perfect team to help us in the lead up to the day.

Tell us a little bit about planning your wedding. Where did you start?

We had to plan the entire wedding remotely out of Singapore so our priorities were simple: confirm the venue asap (and with it the date), find the right suppliers, don’t sweat the details. What was particularly important to us when choosing our suppliers is that first of all that they were responsive and good communicators – planning a wedding from a place that had 8 hours time difference was not easy and it was important that communication was simple and smooth.

Secondly, we relied heavily on local recommendations (e.g. by Kinkell) and advice when choosing our suppliers – we wanted to choose suppliers that are familiar with Kinkell, that have worked with each other before and that are comfortable making smaller decisions on our behalf. This worked out really well for us, nothing beats great chemistry between suppliers and the support and expertise they are able to offer when you are planning a wedding (for the first and only time :))!

How did you decide on a colour theme or style?

Going back to the point of not sweating the details, we just asked Amy, our Florist, about what types of flowers / greenery naturally bloom/grow in March in Scotland (cue: not many) and that helped us get to our colour scheme which included eucalyptus green, cream, light purple/blue.

Where did you find your suppliers?

We relied heavily on local recommendations, e.g. Kinkell had Vicki as a recommended photographer, then Vicki recommended other suppliers such as Colin (videographer) and Karen (MUA), then Karen recommended Laura (bridal hair) etc…we found the two Patricks (Patrick Gilmour for catering and Paddy Gordon for DJ) ourselves and are grateful for our luck as they were both terrific!

Is there anything you wish someone had told you about before about planning a barn wedding?

Nothing specific comes to mind… the Kinkell team (and other suppliers) was really helpful in guiding us through what are the important things to consider, and what are details that we don’t have to worry about too much.

Was there anything that was really important to you both to have?

We wanted to have a good time with friends and family who travelled in from all over the world, we really wanted to make sure that everyone felt at home and could enjoy themselves. We knew that our suppliers were there to help us make the wedding day itself a successful one, so we ended up spending more of our own time and efforts planning the days leading up to the wedding day, making sure to organise group activities, dinners, drinks and general fun, and finding creative ways to incorporate different cultural elements into our wedding.

The Big Day!

Tell us about your wedding day, what are your highlights and favourite memories?

Having a double rainbow show up during picture time (and it wasn’t raining)!!!
Having one last nightcap with some of our wedding party in the Kinkell cabin after all other guests had left
Dancing with the parents

Have you any advice for other couples that are planning their wedding?

Thinking back, one of the things that helped us the most was being clear on our priorities. There are so many things to take care of and decisions to make, knowing which ones are important (and which ones frankly don’t matter) will save you a lot of unnecessary stress (and money) and free up time to spend with loved ones.

How is married life treating you?

It’s great! Not much has changed in terms of day to day life, but we are back in Singapore and about to fly off to China for a banquet with friends and family on this side of the world who unfortunately couldn’t make it all the way to St Andrews, we also still have to plan our honeymoon, so there are plenty of things to look forward to :)

Supplier shout outs –

Photographer – Victoria Litster

Venue: Kinkell Byre

Lighting: Stephen Leslie

Caterer: Patrick Gilmore

Videographer: CAM Media

Florist: Amy Annand

DJ: Paddy Gordon

MUA: Karen Bowen & Vicky Cameron

Hair: Laura Anderson

Piper: Paul Webster (St Andrews Piper)

Suit: The Prefecture