A midsummer destination wedding at Loch Lomond

Samantha and John planned their summer solstice Loch Lomond wedding in just five months. Originally from the UK but now based in Australia, they were inspired by bringing the outside in, and styled their day with greenery, natural foliage and whimsical blush pink peonies and roses.

From Sam’s wedding dress being ruined days before the wedding to her needing emergency back surgery just six weeks before (plus a whole list of added challenges!), these two are an incredible example of how to overcome adversity and still have the wedding of your dreams.

How did you two meet?

John: We met for the first time at a small wine bar in Sydney that was playing very loud jazz music. Sam must have heard my jokes as we soon met up for a second date. We got engaged four years later following drinks and a meal near Sydney Harbour Bridge, and I proposed at a scenic look out point near our home in Sydney’s Northern Beaches area.

Tell us about your venue…

John: We both live in Sydney, Australia so all our research was done online. Sam is English and I am Scottish so we knew we wanted to get married in the UK. Sam had only been to Scotland once before, but had fallen in love with Luss when we visited last time.

Boturich Castle is a private castle wedding venue on the banks of Loch Lomond. It has a separate, permanent marquee adjacent to the castle for the reception with a beautiful wooden floor. It is light and airy and offers breathtaking views of Loch Lomond.

I knew the area but not the venue and it was important to us that it had amazing views, history, and was close to Glasgow. It was important to Sam that the venue was close to water and nature, and offered a blank canvas for the look we wanted. We knew we’d found something special when we discovered Boturich Castle. It really was the most amazing place. We even had wild horses visit us at the end of the day.

The venue caterers, Castle Catering were also very flexible to our needs. Ian was fabulous. No request was too difficult. The food was absolutely delicious. We opted for a lot of traditional scottish dishes, but had a lot of vegetarians and vegans in attendance, which they catered for magnificiently. We even had vegan haggis as an option! Our guests were able to choose from three starters and main courses ahead of time, so everyone got what they wanted.

What inspired your wedding plans?

Sam: We wanted to share a bit of our heritage with our guests so included items as favours to reflect that. Everyone received a beautiful white gift box, tied with twine and eucalyptus and a hand written thank you note. We included Scottish shortbread, tablet and Tunnocks tea cakes to acknowledge John’s Scottish roots, Tiptree Champagne Jam and English Mustard – from my hometown, to reflect my Essex heritage, and little jars of Vegemite to acknowledge our Aussie life. I think everyone loved them!

We tied over 2km of six different coloured ribbons to 120 chairs to style the venue. It looked stunning but was no mean feat. One of my bridesmaids literally spent 48hrs cutting and tying ribbons!

We also wanted the kids to be entertained and have lots of fun. They had their own table with activities, Polaroid cameras and tipis to chill out in and even had their own menu!

Our stationery was a bespoke design – we opted for rose gold calligraphy to tie in with our blush and greenery theme. I discovered Dovile’s work on Etsy and she was the most special lady to work with. We didn’t have a lot of time and she turned everything around so quickly. All her stationery arrived wrapped so beautifully. Having bespoke stationery really gave our day the edge, I loved our seating plans, table menus, dessert board signs and orders of service.

We had two wedding cakes. I am vegan so we had one that was vegan and gluten free, and one that was more traditional. Rather than serve dessert we went for a feature dessert table of mini desserts. We ended up with a two tier fondant-covered blush cake (strawberry and cream), and a semi naked lemon and raspberry cake. Our five tier wedding “cheese cake” was also super popular.

Flowers were hugely important to me from the start. I still don’t think John knows what our flower budget was – but it was pretty crazy! I planned the whole wedding around the idea of bringing the outside inside, and wanted lots of greenery, natural foliage and the most whimsical blush pink peonies and roses.

I loved our florist, Little Botanica’s ethereal bohemian style from the start. They created the most beautiful canopy of hanging greenery in the ceiling with the use of trailing chandeliers. Trailing greenery and roses adorned our top table, with our guests’ tables decorated with towering vases of eucalyptus, peonies and tea roses.

Little Botanica decorated our dessert table with greenery and moss, and helped create a signature backdrop with rose gold floral hoops with eucalytpus and tea roses.

My bouquet was soft, romantic and ethereal, with the palest blush pink David Austin roses, fluffy blush pink peonies, sweetpeas, silver eucalyptus leaves and trailing ribbons. The bridesmaids all had matching bouquets. The groom and groomsmen had buttonholes with traditional Scottish flowers and thistles.

My best friend did an incredible job of creating beautiful flower arrangements for the church and made flower crowns and corsages for close friends.

We love your dress! Tell us more…

Sam: I wore an ivory full length sleeveless A-line tulle gown with a sweetheart neckline. It had a corset style satin bodice that laced up at the back. The bodice was covered in tiny lace flowers. The skirt was made of nine layers of supersoft tulle and a very long train (almost 2m!). I also wore a cathedral length single tier tulle veil, which I kept down at the front until we had said I do!

Dress shopping was extremely stressful for me, as we planned our wedding in five months which ruled out many options. After about 10 separate visits to bridal shops, I still couldn’t find the dress I was looking for. I had a very clear vision of what I wanted so ended up working with a bridal designer and having the dress made.

As a life long lover of ballet, I knew I wanted a flowing skirt made of tulle. I wanted a dress that was ethereal, soft and romantic, and that I could dance in.

My designer made the most beautiful dress, however final alterations didn’t go to plan and I ended up needing to find a new dress two days before leaving for Scotland. Stressed did not cover it!

I was so blessed by the team at Bridal Secrets, I was an emotional mess and they not only helped me find the most perfect dress, they worked around the clock to get the alterations done in time. They basically remade a dress for me – sleeves were taken off, lace was removed, necklines were cut, belts were added. It was insane how they got it done in time. I will forever be grateful to them.

I ended up adoring my new dress and felt like a real princess on the day. In the madness of the alterations, I don’t even remember what brand my dress was, but I think it was Pronovias.

I’d just had a spine surgery six weeks before the wedding and also had a broken collar bone when we got married, so knew I couldn’t go totally crazy with my shoes. I wore a pair of open toe strappy silver shoes with a two inch heel for the ceremony and then spent the rest of the day in a pair of silver ballet flats! I got them both from a ballet shop called Bloch and they were pretty comfortable.

I had six beautiful bridesmaids, five of which were in the UK and one in Sydney. I wanted them to feel special and embrace their own style, so just offered some guidelines around a long, floaty ethereal look in pastel shades. Hilariously everyone (except my sister) ended up with pastel pink dresses. I then had to ask my sister to find a pink dress. My favourite dress was from Monsoon and was called “The Blake” after Blake Lively.

Louise Hughes, our hair stylist was absolutely incredible. She had 8 ladies to get ready, so came out super early with an amazing assistant. She was so calm and funny, and her attention to detail was insane. Everyone looked amazing and she had a lot of different hair types to manage. She was absolutely beautiful to work with.

We had two wonderful, amazing makeup artists help us; Sharon Cuthbert and Katie Hellier. They had not worked together before but worked so seamlessly on the day. I had a trial with Sharon a few days before the wedding and she was so helpful and reassuring. There were lots of heated emotions on the big day, and Sharon and Katie were so calm and cool and did an incredible job of making us all look a million dollars and getting us out the door on time, which was no easy feat!

And what about John’s outfit?

John: I wore a navy blue tweed jacket and navy kilt which I chose as I liked the colour, and I was a big fan of the Slanj kilt shop’s modern style. We opted for matching navy socks for a modern look. I had a bespoke sporran made for the day in pale silver.

The groomsmen all wore matching navy kilts from Slanj. Sam’s dad wore a green tweed tartan kilt in his family clan tartan, also from Slanj.

Were there any challenges along the way?

Sam: So many to mention, one day we will write a book about it as so many things went wrong – that people don’t believe us when we tell them!

In addition to all the dramas and fun in general of planning an overseas wedding. here’s a flavour…

I had emergency back surgery six weeks prior to the wedding. I also got married with a broken collar bone (that got operated on the day we returned from our honeymoon).

John was injured on his stag night at York Races, by an advertising billboard. He then later fell over at the end of the wedding night (so not his fault…) and dislocated his shoulder. We spent our wedding night in A&E, and then he was in a sling for the rest of the honeymoon.

Our original minister had an unfortunate accident and broke his hip. We had to find an alternative minister two weeks before the wedding.

The classic car we’d booked had a car crash a week before the wedding, so we had to reorganise all the bridal cars.

I had ordered about 2km of assorted ribbons to decorate the church. Unfortunately they got delivered to the wrong address and half of the boxes ended up in the local sorting office. It was unfortunately closed the day before the wedding, and it seemed like the chair plan would have to be abandoned. Luckily a local taxi driver sprang to the rescue and managed to find someone who managed the sorting office, get it opened, get the ribbons and we were back on track.

My sister’s bridesmaid dress that she’d ordered online went MIA. She had to find a new dress the day before the wedding. One of the bridesmaid’s zip broke, so she also had to find a new dress.

My own dress was a complete disaster – after my original dress got ruined in the alteration stage, I ended up having to find a new dress days before the wedding.

The taxi we booked to take us from our hotel to the wedding venue got a puncture on the morning of the wedding.

Even our honeymoon was filled with drama – we enjoyed a European river cruise from Budapest to Prague. John was in a sling the whole time and our river cruise got stuck in Germany and was three days late in arriving!

…I could go on and on and on!

In the end, my bridesmaid Angela summed it up so well. It was like a Cinderella wedding. The day itself was absolutely perfect. Everything (well almost everything) went to plan. But come midnight – (when the groom dislocated his shoulder) it all turned into a pumpkin.

Before and after the wedding were an absolute nightmare, but the day itself was everything we hoped and dreamed it could be. It was perfect and we both felt so happy and in love. We couldn’t stop kissing!

Your photos and film are beautiful!

John: Our photographer, David was was one of the best parts of our day… From the first Skype call with him, we immediately knew he was the guy for us and he made us feel so at ease.

His photos really do weave a story and he makes remarkable use of light and nature. We love that our photos are very natural, that they capture the emotion of the day without being staged. David blended in so well on the day and works very much behind the scenes. His photos are whimsical and deeply romantic. He was so easy going and down to earth and I love the fact that he joined us the night before for our pre-wedding BBQ, so that guests could get used to him.

Olive & Thistle are a Glasgow based videography company. We booked them fairly last minute but from the first email were struck by their warmth, professionalism and flexible approach. From the outset, their modern, timeless approach and cinematic style really appealed to us.

We loved the way they used drones to capture the area as well as the wedding venue. We had two videographers join us on the day, and you almost didn’t know they were there. They worked so well with our photographer and worked so hard. They did a magical job of capturing the light and we loved the way they set out story to music.

An amazing team to be part of your day. We now have our special day captured forever.

What was your first dance song?

John: We both love “Heroes” by David Bowie and it really summed up how we felt about each other and our special wedding day. We also wanted something classic that we’d have fun dancing to.

Our band, Ernest were one of the best parts of the day. Sam found them online and booked them immediately after listening to a few of their tracks. Music was a real focus of the day and we really wanted people to have fun and let their hair down. They were absolutely incredible and sounded so good live. No cheesy songs in sight. They also did a Scottish ceilidh – which was hilarious.

Any (pleasant!) surprises on the day?

John: Sam surprised me by organising for a soprano to sing in the ceremony. She was amazing and worked so well with our pianist and the Cairn String Quartet. Together they created a very moving ceremony, full of beautiful pieces of music. A real highlight was Leona and the quartet singing “Somewhere” from Westside story and a beautiful rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”. Very moving. They did a great job of keeping the guests entertained during our photos and dinner.

Sam: It didn’t get dark until 11.30pm! Even then it was still too light to light the sparklers!

Got any advice you’d like to share?


Plan ahead! Organising a wedding overseas in five months is not for the faint hearted.

Have a run list on the day – and make sure you nominate someone other than you to check over all your details. You don’t want to spend your wedding morning fussing over things. Get someone to help you or hire someone to play this role.

Enjoy every moment, it really does go quick. Make sure you get some moments with your partner together – just the two of you.

Be flexible and have an open mind. There are too many variables in a wedding to be in control of for something not to go wrong. It’s how you respond to it that matters. There is always a different option.

What’s the one moment you’ll always remember?

Walking out of the church, dancing to the sound of The Police’s “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic”, holding hands, everyone smiling and throwing confetti at us. I felt so happy I could burst.

What an amazing story! And there’s been a new chapter since the wedding. Welcome to the world baby Finn! x