A cosy, candlelit Edinburgh church wedding

Inspired by their faith and love of Edinburgh, Isla and Andrew picked two churches for their wedding. Held in iconic Greyfriars Kirk, their cosy reception was filled with candlelight, greenery and white flowers, with nods to their love of gin. Their photos are proof that, if you have the right attitude and a great photographer, it doesn’t matter what the Scottish weather throws at you!

Love at first sight or gradual attraction?

We met six years ago, at a ceilidh in Edinburgh. My best friend and Andrew’s cousin (same person!) was celebrating her 18th birthday. We started talking at the ceilidh, and continued on chatting via social media for the next six months until we eventually decided to start dating.

We had both just started uni at opposite ends of the country (me in Edinburgh, Andrew in Bristol) so we thought nothing could ever happen. But six months later, we decided we either needed to give long distance a go or stop speaking. We chose the former, and spent three and a half years in a long distance relationship (thank goodness for Skype!) before I moved to Bristol after graduating in Summer 2017.

We got engaged in January 2018, on our fourth anniversary. Andrew proposed by tying the ring box to the collar of one of my beloved dogs while walking them in the snow up Corstorphine Hill in Edinburgh. He threw a tennis ball to get the dog (Sammy) to bring the ring box. I untied the box, opened it – but it was empty. I looked up (a bit confused) at which point Andrew knelt down in the snow with the ring in his hand and proposed. Wise man not to tie an engagement ring to a dog’s collar!

We stood in the snow trying to soak up the moment of having just gotten engaged (!!!), but Sammy kept barking at us – he was a bit confused as to why on earth the silly humans were hugging rather than continuing to throw his ball for him!

What inspired your plans?

Scotland and Pinterest! Being two Scots living in England, our shared Scottish heritage was a really important part of our wedding planning. Personal touches were also hugely important, as neither of us wanted a cookie-cutter wedding. Our shared Christian faith hugely influenced the ceremony itself, as we wanted a service and songs which reflected our faith.

The idea with the reception was to create a classic, golden feel, with lots of candlelight, greenery and white flowers to complement the venue. It ended up feeling quite cosy and autumnal (especially with the dreich weather!) which was perfect, in a way – I always wanted an autumn wedding, but the dates just didn’t work!

We also wanted to personalise the reception as much as possible, e.g. with the table names being different gin bottles with connections to us as a couple. We really, really like gin!

I read We Fell In Love throughout our engagement as getting specifically Scottish inspiration was really important to me. We are both Scottish, but live down south in Bristol, so having a Scottish day (bagpipes, haggis and all) was really at the heart of our wedding planning.

When I first got engaged, my Mum and I automatically knew we wanted Flowers By Isla to do our flowers. We had been to some flower arranging workshops she hosted before, so we knew she had such beautiful taste and skill. Additionally she might be the most lovely human on this earth! We went out for a day with a (big) bridal party to talk all things flowers over tea at her gorgeous farm and the result was honestly stunning! I knew I wanted clean, classic and Scottish (with the thistles) and Isla listened to my brief and created the most beautiful bridal flowers and table decorations. She was super helpful in creating an individual Pinterest board for our wedding, which made communication so easy!

Our wedding stationery was created by a dear friend, who – in addition to designing, creating and printing all of our wedding invitations – rimmed each one with gold paint by hand! It was the most amazing wedding gift!

Tell us about your venue…

Mayfield Salisbury Parish Church was utterly gorgeous. As Christians, marrying in a church was really important to us, but as we both live in Bristol we didn’t have an obvious local church. I fell in love with Mayfield because of the stars painted on the ceiling at the front and the light in the venue. It was magical!

Greyfriars Kirk was an obvious choice from the beginning. We had our first date just round the corner at the Elephant House cafe, on George IV bridge (where Andrew surprised me on Valentines Day 2014). George IV is a special place for us, so having the reception just off from there was really special. Also – Greyfriars is such an effortlessly stunning venue. We really had very little to do in the way of decorating large-scale, as the high ceilings, the stained glass and the organ provided such a gorgeous and romantic setting for our reception.

We love your dress! Tell us more…

I knew I was in love with Naomi Neoh dresses the first time I saw one on Pinterest. She has this incredibly beautiful clean style, and fabric which moves so effortlessly – like water. When I saw that they were having a sample sale in their Pimlico store – and that they had my favourite dress (Willow) in my size, I made an appointment as soon as I could. It was the first dress I tried on – I felt so much myself in it, so completely comfortable, and it fit like a glove! I loved the simple elegance of it, how the fabric moved and the intricate lace on the sleeves. I knew it was the right dress, so I bought it there and then and walked out the shop with it that day.

The only small issue was that the dress was a bit more open backed than I felt comfortable with. My mum and I took it to Pan Pan Bridal in Edinburgh, and they added lace to the back to give me a bit more coverage, as well as making the necessary alterations. They were infallibly friendly, helpful and skilled. My dress turned out beautiful, and what’s more the shoulder stretched a bit due to a storage issue which I discovered two days before the wedding. They took it in and fixed it within an hour!

My shoes were from Dune – in the sale! Plain pink court shoes with a small heel as I am known for being more like Bambi on Ice than a graceful bride when wearing heels. My jewellery was from Britten Weddings (earrings and necklace) and my veil was from Pan Pan Bridal.

My wedding band was an heirloom as it belonged to Andrew’s late grandmother, and his is from a Bristol-based jewellery shop (Titcombe Jewellers).

And how did Andrew choose his tartan?

Andrew wore his kilt which he was gifted by his parents for his 21st birthday. His tartan is in the Gordon family (Traditional Gordon). We decided on a matching tartan tie (and the same for all the ushers/men in the bridal party) to really hammer home the whole Scottish wedding theme.

Andrew’s Sgian Dubh was from a small Ullapool-based Etsy shop.

What about your wedding party?

All the groomsmen wore their own kilts, with the exception of our younger brothers who both hired their kilts from 8 Yards.

The bridesmaids wore beautiful dresses from That Special Day Bridal in Bathgate. I let them choose their own dresses, as I wanted to make sure they all felt comfortable but in the end all six of them went for the same dress!

Your photos and film are beautiful!

Oh my word, where do I start? I would wax lyrical about Photography 78 all day. Lynn was recommended to me by another photographer and I honestly feel like I struck gold with her. She has the most beautiful knack for capturing joyful moments throughout the day. She is so gifted with capturing the most beautiful candids – we have photographs now that I didn’t know were being taken, but I will treasure forever. It’s one of the main reasons I booked her – her Instagram is full of the most beautiful and hilarious photos – from rogue flower girls to dancing grannies to giggling at the altar!

On our wedding day, the haar well and truly swept in. Lynn (and her second photographer Sarah from Joy Story) rolled with the punches and took some breathtaking photographs, umbrellas and all! I really feel her work demonstrates that even if the weather isn’t quite what you had planned, if you pick the right photographer, they will create beautiful photographs.

Our filmmaker, Jo was a university friend of mine, and when we realised we had the money in the budget for the film, I immediately messaged her on Facebook. She is incredibly talented, so helpful and professional. We had a Skype with her a wee bit before the wedding where she talked us through everything. As she’s actually based in Northern Ireland, she came over for our wedding in Edinburgh – what a trooper!

The wedding film she created was so full of joy! Her sense of timing is impeccable,and she captured the emotion of the day so completely. I will be forever glad we had a video made – it’s such an amazing way to look back on the day!

Were there any challenges along the way?

Yes!!! In general, the planning for the wedding went quite smoothly for the first 14 months, with the exception of a few travel hiccups thanks to the Beast from the East. However, four weeks before our wedding our lovely original caterer unfortunately had to cancel due to unforeseen medical circumstances. We were heartbroken for her, but also a wee bit stressed as we had to find another caterer with four weeks to go.

Thankfully, Regis Catering stepped in, responding to an en masse email sent out by my mum. Not only did they recreate our entire wedding menu (thank goodness – we didn’t have to get menu choices again!), but they essentially price-matched us for our original cost so that we didn’t end up bankrupting ourselves! They were unfailingly helpful, friendly and supportive throughout the entire process and their food was delicious – we’ve actually had other friends hire them on the recommendation of one of our guests!

They really went above and beyond to help us in our hour of need – three cheers for Ryan and his incredible team!

Any other suppliers you’d like to give a shout out to?

Our suppliers were all utterly incredible – for obvious reasons I’d love to sing the praises of Regis Banqueting for saving the day and being so incredible with their service. They even met me at the door to the reception with gluten free canapes – which we hadn’t planned, as I was the only GF person there!

Bridget from Beauty by Biddy was also an amazing supplier. She made me feel amazing, but what meant even more to me was that she made my mum feel like a million pounds that day. My mum is such a beautiful woman, and it was lovely to see her enjoy having her makeup done and look (and feel) so fantastic!

Also – Jill and Jade from Creative Rooms were brilliant. I was quite self-conscious about my hair and anxious about how it would look on the day, but they did such a beautiful job and I felt so confident. Also my hair is very soft and doesn’t really hold style well – but it held all day! Small miracles!

How did you get the party started?

Our first dance song was “Moon River” (beautifully sung by a childhood friend of Isla’s). It is a really special song to us lyrically.

‘Wherever you’re going, I’m going your way’ mirrors the idea of marriage to us – a lifelong commitment to navigate whatever comes together. Andrew has such a heart for travelling, so the lyric of ‘two drifters, off to see the world’, spoke a lot of us and our relationship.

We have many shared goals and beliefs, so the ‘after the same rainbows’ lyric also is very special to us – as horrendously cheesy as that all sounds!

The band did a beautiful job accompanying my friend in our first dance, and then their unique bluegrass ceilidh music was phenomenal in getting everyone up and giving it laldy on the dance floor – especially my gran, who barely missed one dance!

Did you manage to stick to your budget?

We went a little over budget, but for the most part we kept on track. We used a spreadsheet to make sure everything was in order and that if money needed to be moved around, it could easily be done!

Any advice?


GET WEDDING INSURANCE! It’s a relatively negligible cost but is SUCH a comfort when something goes wrong. We got ours through John Lewis and they have loads of different packages to choose from!

Also – sample sales are the best!! If you are obsessed with a specific designer but it’s a bit out of your price range (like me and the oh so gorgeous Naomi Neoh dresses), do your homework and find the sample sale. I got my dream dress in my budget, which would have been far beyond what I could have afforded retail!

Finally, spend some time after your wedding writing down the moments that are really special to you. That way, if you don’t get photos of them for whatever reason, you will always have a recorded memory of those special moments.

Honeymoon or minimoon?

We went on honeymoon to Tenerife (Hotel Jardin Tropical) and it was an utterly gorgeous 11 days away getting used to being husband and wife – and drinking a lot of wine!

What’s the one truly unforgettable thing about your wedding day?

We both share the same favourite moment from our wedding day. At the very end of the ceilidh, we did the traditional Auld Lang Syne where our family and close friends stood around us in a circle, and the rest of the wedding guests stood in a wider circle around them. We all sang Auld Lang Syne and our guests ran in and out in the circle towards us.

There was something so magical and emotionally overwhelming to be literally encircled by everyone we loved, singing a traditional Scottish song, having just become husband and wife. It was ineffable. We actually don’t have any photos of that moment as it was at the very end of the night, which almost makes it even more special!

Such good advice from Isla! Especially on the insurance front – peace of mind is so worth paying for. x