A rustic barn wedding full of DIY style

Led by their rustic barn venue, WFIL readers Laura and Alastair embraced their creative side when it came to styling their summer Scottish wedding. From the DIY chipboard signs to the sash window table plans, we are loving their work!

Love at first sight or gradual attraction?

We met in Manchester, in the pub at Piccadilly Railway Station. We had both travelled to Manchester for the weekend to celebrate a mutual friend’s birthday – Alastair from Aberdeen, and myself from Newcastle, where I was studying at the time. We’d never met before and over the weekend as we got to know each other, we both just felt that there was something special there.

We spent the next few months dating, spending weekends where we could in Aberdeen, Glasgow or Newcastle, before I graduated and moved back to Aberdeen where dating became easier… and less expensive.

What inspired your wedding plans?

A few of our friends have had their weddings featured on We Fell In Love, and it was great to read their posts and learn more about the stylists and suppliers they used to add those special touches to their days. We took inspiration from weddings featured on WFIL, and will happily admit that we took influence from the favourite things we experienced at our friend’s weddings – and maybe pinched a few ideas!

We didn’t have a theme, but wanted everything to complement the rustic feel of the barn. Together, we’re quite a practical and creative pair and we wanted to make some things ourselves. We made our own centrepieces and favours from moulded concrete and copper piping, our table plans were old sash windows and all of our signage made from chipboard from Alastair’s workshop. It was really satisfying seeing it all set up and to be able to say, “Yeah, we actually did all this”. It looked fab!

It was important for me that the flowers complemented the venue so we went all out with lots of foliage, with a few statement white peonies for my own bouquet. My bridesmaids were wearing dark teal jumpsuits and the green foliage packed a punch and really made their entire look pop! Amy came personally recommended from a colleague at work, and her work on Instagram is just to die for. She’s excellent at what she does. We were very fortunate that two of our bridesmaids are also experienced florists, so they did a huge amount of work and produced all of the foliage and flower displays throughout the venue, it looked amazing.

We decided to go for slightly more unusual buttonholes – not a bit of foliage in sight, but twisted corn buttonholes. Alastair’s aunty is a super talented straw-worker and worked with us to design buttonholes for the groom’s party and dads. They were really beautiful and made wonderful gifts for all of the men, and it felt even more special to incorporate a traditional, handcrafted and unique design as part of the day.

We are lucky to have such a super group of talented friends who were happy for us to call on them for their help and expertise throughout the wedding planning process. One of my oldest friends, Kirsten, is a designer and took on the task of designing all of our wedding stationery. Again, we wanted something sleek, modern and understated, and she created a marble/art deco inspired design. It all looked amazing! She also made cute little photo treasure hunt cards for the children at the wedding, and surprised us both by making an illustration of our life together so far, featuring clues from the story of how we met, where we live and our wee dog, Dylan.

Our cake was made by the talented Mairi Robbie, Alastair’s mum. She mirrored the colour and design from our invites and created the most amazing marble effect cake with three delicious flavours: victoria sponge, chocolate and lemon & elderflower.

Tell us about your venue…

We had quite a clear idea of what we wanted in a wedding venue when we started our search. We wanted our day to be a fun, relaxed affair and it was important for us that our venue complemented that. We also loved the concept of having flexibility with a venue: to be able to design the layout and decor as much as we wanted to and to really put our own stamp on the place.

Over the past few years, we’ve attended over 20 weddings together (!!) and we didn’t want to choose a venue we had been a guest at before, so that actually narrowed our options down for us – which was really helpful!

Pratis Barns, near Leven in Fife, was the only venue we visited and we fell in love with it straight away. It just radiated authenticity, with beautiful traditional barns with exposed beams and stonework (and a few nesting birds too!). Pratis offered three large reception areas which meant we didn’t have to worry about redressing rooms throughout the day, and the owners were hugely accommodating too. It’s nestled in a stunning part of the East Fife coast, with amazing views across the Forth and we just fell in love with it, picturing our day there immediately.

We love your outfits, tell us more…

I had the typical bridal dress shopping experience – starting the process with a clear idea of what I thought I wanted, only to try on those particular gowns and styles and not really feeling like my best self in them. They looked beautiful, but something about them just didn’t feel very “me”, and I actually surprised myself by learning that I wanted a gown which accentuated my figure. I found elements I loved in lots of different dresses but not one that ticked all of the boxes.

After what felt like weeks of internet searching, I was drawn towards the Theia gown on BHLDN – a beautiful ivory crepe gown with a bardot/sweetheart neckline and train. It just had everything that I was looking for. My Mum was a bit anxious about me buying my dress online but it was absolutely the right decision. I asked both of the mums to be there for the first try on, and we all had “the moment” and knew it was the one. The dress was understated elegance, very flattering and so comfortable – and I barely needed any alterations. It was clearly meant to be my gown.

Alastair wore his own kilt with a made-to-measure brown tweed kilt jacket and waistcoat from Highland Scene in Montrose and a bespoke sporran from Janet Eagleton & Son in Perth. His shoes were brown leather brogues by Ted Baker.

The groom’s party wore their own kilt suits and accessories, and our bridesmaids wore ASOS DESIGN jumpsuits with kimono sleeve and peg leg in dark teal. The girls looked amazing! They styled it with gold shoes and jewellery of their preference. My shoes were also from ASOS.

Your photos are incredible! 

Neither of us are particularly comfortable in front of the camera, and the idea of having our day dominated by lots of staged photography opportunities kind of filled us both with a bit of dread. We wanted a photographer who captured those more candid moments – stolen glances, discrete kisses, surprising laughs, questionnable dance moves.

We stumbled upon Sean Bell’s website one weekend morning and just fell in love with the honesty and drama of his work, and we knew we had to book him.

We hear music was an important part of your day…

There weren’t many features of the wedding that we felt were non-negotiables – apart from the string quartet. For years, I always envisaged walking down the aisle to a string quartet and couldn’t imagine the day without one. The Dotted Crochets came recommended by a member of the family, and they did not disappoint. My dad and I walked down the aisle to ‘One Day Like This’ by Elbow, and we left the ceremony to ‘Friday I’m In Love’ by The Cure. Their catalogue is amazing and we hope our guests enjoyed their renditions of ‘Thong Song’ and ‘Still Dre’.

For our first dance, we chose Gerry Rafferty’s ‘Right Down The Line’. We’re both great fans of Gerry, and the lyrics to the song are so beautiful and really struck a chord for us both. For the evening, we planned our own disco. For 18 months, ourselves and my sister curated a playlist on Spotify, gradually adding songs and also asking our guests to make a request as part of their RSVP. It was a great party and the dancefloor was never empty, but it was pretty stressful distilling around 18 hours worth of music down to just four hours! It was a ruthless task, but the party did not stop – and we’ve had guests afterwards asking for us to share the playlist.

Were there any challenges along the way?

Thankfully, there were no hiccups. We very much had the approach of “don’t sweat the small stuff” – so long as we had a legal ceremony, the food was served and the speakers worked, the rest would be plain sailing.

Anyone else you’d like to give a shout out to?

Sheila Lawtie, our celebrant is just one of the greatest people we have had the pleasure of meeting. She is excellent at what she does and is a natural, friendly person who actually felt like one of the family at the end of the process. She captured our story beautifully and we would recommend her every day of the week.

Wild Rover Food – their food and service was unbelievably good, and to think it’s all cooked in an army kitchen set up! Totally recommended.

Z. D Jewellery Design – Zoe is an independent jewellery designer based in Forfar. She made my engagement ring and our wedding rings and was fantastic, and so patient! We loved the process of designing our rings and the quality of Zoe’s work is amazing. It’s special to know our rings are one of a kind.

Did you manage to stick to your budget?

We did. We were quite strict with ourselves – weddings are expensive events, and we tried to make sensible decisions and really think about whether we absolutely needed to spend money on X, Y and Z.

Together, we’re quite a practical and creative pair so we were able to make a lot of things ourselves: we made all of our own centrepieces and favours, decorations, table plans, welcome signs, used our own PA system for the music – all of which went a really long way to cushioning the budget. And it was great to look around at the end of the day and think: yeah, we made that.

Any advice?


Plan the day your way. It’s all about you – no one else.

Honeymoon or minimoon?

We went to Inverness for a few nights after the wedding, retreating to the cutest little vintage-inspired caravan in the countryside and enjoying rainy dog walks and leftover Champagne. We were so exhausted after the wedding and it was so good to escape to a little hideaway and try to digest everything that had happened!

In July, we went on our honeymoon to Italy. Neither of us had ever been before but it had been high up on our list of countries to visit for a long time. We travelled to Verona, Florence, Rome and the Amalfi Coast, enjoying all of the food and wine Italy has to offer. We were really lucky to attend a couple of gigs while we were there too (Bon Iver & Thom Yorke), which was really cool.

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

As every couple are likely to say, everything about the day was so memorable. We made a point of taking a moment out, just the two of us, to try to drink everything in. We found a quiet spot during the reception and it was so overwhelming to see all of our friends and family there, having fun, and appreciating that they were there just for us. A very special moment.

So much to be inspired by here! And is anyone else loving those teal jumpsuits on the bridesmaids? x