Simple & stylish – An Isle of Bute wedding

Inspired by simplicity, minimalism and their love of travel, Maria and Kerr were married in a civil ceremony on the beautiful Isle of Bute. With the help of their talented family and friends, their wedding reflected their love of clean style, delicious food and dancing. With the rain creating an atmospheric misty vibe, it was Scottish island romance at its very best.

How did you two meet?

It was love at first sight, which was definitely meant to be! We first laid eyes on each other on 16th February 2013 in a night club in Glasgow. After dancing all night, we met once again outside the club. After a brief chat, we parted ways, knowing only each other’s names. Little did we know a long adventure together awaited us.

If not for the pictures taken that night, our paths would likely not have crossed again. By good luck, Kerr clicked the ‘like’ button on Facebook on one of the photos from the nightclub. I made the first move and sent him a friend request. Kerr accepted and sent the first message. And so the relationship began.

What inspired your wedding plans?

Simplicity, minimalism and globalisation.

We didn’t want anything grand and overly ambitious. We value experiences over things. Having people from all over the world travel to Scotland for us was the best gift.

Having said that, we wanted to share our love for travel and the fact that we visited many places together. One country – Japan – holds a special place in our hearts. That is where I lived for nearly two years before marrying Kerr! Our table plan was a big world map, that signified the cities that we visited together. The same applied to our table names. On each table, we had photos from our trips in that particular city. Little gifts for guests were Matcha Kit Kats (from Japan) and little amber keyrings (from Lithuania) that were made by my aunt.

We chose a very simple and clean style for our flowers. Janine, a local florist in the Isle of Bute, did a great job for us! She made fantastic bouquiets not only for the bridal party but also for our mothers.

We were trying to be environmentally friendly and avoided extensive paper stationery. The table plan, table names and little information leaflets were all made by us at home.

The cake was made by my aunties and mother – we wanted it to be very simple and made with love! Honey used in Baklava was shipped all the way from Armenia, where my mother is from.

For the dancing, we played our own playlist. And we had a ceilidh band from Bute, which was great!

What brought you to Bute?

Scotland has fantastic nature and Kerr is from here. Isle of Bute holds a special place in our hearts and we couldn’t think of a different place. Also, we wanted to show Scotland to my family and friends, who never been here before. Everyone left amazed.

Generations of the Brogan family have visited the Kingarth Hotel in Scottish summer holidays. Hence the venue! Our choice was very easy and straightforward.

Your photos are gorgeous!

We were captivated by Jacqui’s amazing portfolio. Her photos looked stunning and included a lot of nature, which is exactly what we wanted for our special day. Also, she comes from the Isle of Bute which is where we were getting married, making it an even more fitting match.

Our photos are simply perfect. It rained on our big day. The rain created an atmospheric misty vibe. We wanted photos in woodlands as well as on the beach and Jacqui exceeded our expectations. We also believe if it wasn’t for the rain, the photos wouldn’t look as good!

Having a wedding video was more of a last minute decision and we were lucky to get a recommendation from Jacqui. Simon and Natasha from Cinematique were great! When we met Simon four weeks before the wedding, we instantly got along and we knew we had made the right choice.

We love your outfits! Tell us more…

My dress was custom made by a young talented designer in Lithuania. It was the one and only dress.

While living in Tokyo for almost two years prior to the wedding, I and designer, Rūta spoke about the desired style of the dress and planned in advance. I wanted an open back dress, featuring a big ribbon inspired by an ‘obi’, which is part of the Japanese kimono. Once I came back to Lithuania, the designer and her helper had only two weeks to finalise the dress design and sew it. We choose semi-light material in a nice milky white tone. It took us four fittings and the dress was ready!

My shoes were bought in an Italian shoe shop in Lithuania. With regards to accessories, I kept it very minimalist. The only piece that I wore was a Japanese pearl in my hair which was gifted by my recent employer. Kerr had a matching pearl tie pin. We stayed connected through that little pearl, even while getting ready separately.

Kerr wore a custom made kilt with his family tartan, accompanied by an Oban tweed jacket.

Since all my bridesmaids came from different countries and only one of them lived in Glasgow at the time of the wedding, they all sourced their own dresses from various outlets. The only direction I gave them was to have it in cool grey. The head bridesmaid, Rūta, however, sewed her own dress that matched mine.

What was your first dance song?

Desire – Under Your Spell. This song is about being in love forever; it has a really nice groove and is very unique. Most importantly, it holds a special place in our hearts. It is a song from the movie Drive – one of the first movies we watched together as a couple and we absolutely loved it.

Tell us something surprising about your day…

The rain. The week coming up to the wedding was bright and sunny, but a beastly cyclone came from the Atlantic on the day of our wedding.

We had to amend our plans and have a ceremony inside rather than outside as planned. But as we say in Lithuania, “There’s nothing bad that doesn’t turn out into good eventually” – our photos looked amazing as a result of the mist that landed right after the wedding.

Any advice?


Relax. And remember – it’s people that matter and not material things.

We didn’t have a precise budget, but we had a rough figure. Luckily, everything went according to plan and we didn’t need to break the bank.

Honeymoon or minimoon?

We had an amazing one week honeymoon in Mauritius. It was a perfect beach holiday. We went there two days after the wedding!

What’s the one moment you will always remember?

Maria: Waiting to be picked up by a car to travel to the wedding venue. It was only me, my mama and two best friends. It was the first quiet moment in the whole week running up to the wedding. And that is when I finally realised what was happening!

Kerr: Seeing Maria in her dress for the first time, walking up to me.

Thank you for sharing your wonderful wedding story with us Maria & Kerr. Oh, how we miss ceilidhs. And travel. And gathering! Can’t wait for celebrations like this to take place again.x