1,000 paper cranes and a blue tea length dress

Brought together by a shared love of Scottish country dancing, Sabina and Alan’s friendship developed into something more during a cycling wine tour in New Zealand (sounds like our kind of trip!).

Keen to have a colourful, fun and relaxed wedding, they set out to find a venue that would allow them to DIY as much of the day as possible. A thousand (plus!) paper cranes later and they were all set for an incredible, and inclusive, village hall celebration. Oh, and did we mention that Sabina made her own dress? So much to be inspired by here…

How did you two meet?

We met through the Scottish Country Dance Club at the University of Glasgow, but were just friends. Just as Sabina was graduating and planning a move to Japan, Alan took a job in New Zealand, and along with two other friends the decision was made to all have Christmas together in New Zealand.

A cycling wine tour is largely to blame for kickstarting our relationship, and we spent a year and a half crossing continents before returning to the UK and moving in together. Alan proposed on a trip to Berlin, on a day spent canoeing and surprise picnicking in the sunshine, with a custom ring made by a friend.

What inspired your wedding plans?

We didn’t really have a solid theme, but we wanted the day to be colourful, relaxed and fun. We made our own bunting, table runners and decorations including 1,000 paper cranes (possibly 1400-ish – we may have miscounted!), and decorated the hall ourselves.

We also had outdoor games during our drinks reception, including a hammer and nail game usually found at apres-ski in Austria. We just wanted a relaxed day where we could spend lots of time with each other and the other people we love.

We really liked casual, wildflower style bouquets and didn’t have strong feelings on specific flowers. After talking to Lavender Blue, they suggested that we decide on some colours, and they would be able to go to the flower market and find us the nicest flowers at the best price just before the wedding. This worked really well and they made the bouquet too, while my mum and a friend put together the jars for the table, which we had decorated ourselves with scraps from our (also homemade!) bunting.

For our stationery we had printables with a tandem bicycle from Protea Press, and did the table plan and numbers ourselves. Our friend Ellie baked most of our cakes and Alan baked the fruit cake.

My rings were custom made by a friend – Charlotte Hannet, who sourced Fairtrade sapphires and white gold.

Tell us about your venue…

We were specifically looking for a town or village hall, as we wanted to DIY a lot of the wedding and many big venues require you to take the day as a package. We also wanted enough space for dancing because having a great ceilidh was a priority!

Gartmore was clearly the best choice – spacious, beautiful and we had it from the Friday to the Sunday so we didn’t need to do any set up or take down on our wedding day! Our wedding caterer was Bespoke Catering, who we would absolutely recommend.

We stayed at the Old Manse Gartmore and got ready and did our first look photos there.

We hear you have some serious dressmaking skills! Tell us more…

I made my own dress using tulle and embroidered tulle from The Silk Society. I wanted to make a dress that I could wear again, which meant making it modular. The dress therefore consisted of a blue cotton strapless dress, an embroidered tulle bodice overlay and a tulle overskirt, plus a petticoat to give the dress volume.

Being able to ceilidh dance in the dress was really important to me so I knew I wanted a tea length dress – though I did try on a few dresses with my mum and my nanna just for the experience!

I wore Irregular Choice, gold ‘Stage Left’ shoes, and a pair of bridesmaid trainers from Monsoon (small feet perks!).

I kept the accessories simple and had earrings from Misty Ocean Gems on Etsy and a dried floral half crown from English Flower Farmer, again on Etsy. I did my make-up myself with mostly Bare Minerals make up.

Alan hired a Spirit of Glasgow kilt outfit. And our best people chose their own outfits and just wore their own clothes that they felt comfortable in!

Your photos are beautiful!

Jo and Liam were the photographers at our best friends’ wedding and did a phenomenal job. Obviously the photos are stunning and documentary style, but they also put us all at ease, and there were no cringey pose requests! We love all of the small moments that are captured in our set of photos.

What was your first dance song?

Our first dance song was the only non-ceilidh dance we did, and it was to Palms by Allman Brown because we both like the lyrics and it is a good song to have an intimate dance to!

The ceilidh floor was full for the whole evening and our friends who did the calling called gender-free to make sure that the ceilidh was inclusive to all our friends and family.

Honeymoon or minimoon?

We had a minimoon in Kenmore straight after the wedding, where we spent our days walking and cycling and our evenings drinking wine, playing board games and lazing in the hot tub.

We then went to the south of France for a two-week honeymoon, staying in Carcasonne, then a village near Montpellier and Lyon. It was exactly the kind of relaxing trip away we wanted, getting warmth and sun in October, eating and drinking locally and even taking a trip to see a rugby game.

Any advice?


Work out what is important to you and don’t lose sight of why you’re getting married! We wanted to get married, have all the people we love attend, have good food and good dancing.

The exact colour of the napkins isn’t important. Your wedding won’t be ruined if you don’t have chair covers! Enjoy the day and be prepared for not being able to spend lots of time with every single guest!

What’s the one thing you’ll never forget about your wedding day?

The dancing! Including a complicated dance written by Alan and presented to Sabina a mere 30 seconds before she was to dance it!

Loving all this colour and those cranes! And how talented is Sabina?! Anyone else feeling tempted to make their own dress? x