GLAMOUR AND GRIT – AN URBAN LOVE STORY

We’re travelling back to pre Covid times (yay!) for an urban wedding with all the party vibes! Stephanie and Fraser styled their day with a rich colour palette and named their tables after famous writers throughout history. With joy and style in equal measures, something tells us their Glasgow summer wedding will make you smile!

How did you two meet?

Fraser and I met through mutual friends in 2010, on a Saturday night out at ABC on Sauchiehall Street. We talked for hours that night, like we’d known each other for years. I remember Fraser tried to give me a co-carry down the stairs when ABC closed but fell backwards and landed on me! I had quite the spectacular bruise for weeks.

Fast forward 8 years and we left for a trip to Iceland on the 27th of December to try and fulfil one of my bucket list dreams of seeing the Northern Lights. On the second night, Fraser mentioned that he wanted to walk to the Hallgrímskirkja church, a viewpoint on top of a hill in Reykjavik. I was quite tired and didn’t fancy the walk so admittedly didn’t make this romantic idea very easy for him! When we eventually got to the top around 9pm, it was a lovely, clear night but the wind was howling and freezing cold so he said he was going to ask someone to take our photograph.

Two young girls approached and began to take our photo and as they did Fraser got down on one knee, I can’t really remember what he said but I remember being so shocked that I started to cry and my glove blew away! The photographs are a great reminder of that night. After the proposal, we went on a bar crawl for celebratory drinks, where I told everyone within a one mile radius that we’d just got engaged (much to Fraser’s embarrassment).

What inspired your wedding plans.

Fraser and I love exploring cities – so we knew we wanted to get married in the city centre but we also wanted to incorporate the cultural aspect too.

The Trades Hall perfectly matched the rich colour palette we had in mind and contrasted well with the urban feel that surrounded the building. We carried this theme inside by naming our tables after famous writers throughout history. The centre-pieces were flower-filled gin bottles and the writer’s love letter held in a gold frame.

I had been to quite a few friend’s weddings by the time we got married and spotted some good ideas from them – thanks in particular to Chantalle and Jack for lending us a few decorative bits and bobs – namely an old, wooden step ladder which I placed wedding portraits of Fraser and I’s parents, grandparents and other close family members. Chantalle also created a thoroughly Glaswegian, welcome sign for outside the venue which said, “Coupla’ belters gettin’ married this way”.

I spent a LOT of time on Pinterest, saving ideas to a folder on my phone which I recreated and personalised to us. This included a ‘bling yer bubbles’ station with different berries, liqueurs and cordials for guests to add to their welcome drink. This was finished with a banner that hung overhead stating, “Till death us do party”.

Our wedding stationery was created by me through Vistaprint! I’m a primary teacher so I love being creative, I really enjoyed the design process – experimenting with colours and fonts.

Our florist, Emma (Betty Bluebell) had previously done the flowers for my friend’s wedding and I’d admired her work for a long time. Emma herself is an amazing little bundle of joy and energy, she really loves her job which makes working with her really easy. When I described my vision and colour palette, “a winter wedding in July”, Emma understood it right away. The flowers were perfection and lasted a long time after the wedding day too!

Tell us about your venue…

We particularly wanted to get married in Glasgow. Most of our family and friends live here and Fraser and I met in the city. We visited lots of beautiful barn/rustic type venues but nowhere beats the city centre for us.

We were initially torn between two venues, The Trades Hall and the Glasgow Art Club – both similar in that they were historic and had lots of rich colours, gold and dark wood. However, the Trades Hall was the winner, in the end, its baroque style grand hall with gold, dome ceiling sealed the deal.

We love your outfits! Tell us more…

Anne Priscilla’s was the fourth shop I went to, I was beginning to wane if I’m being honest as every shop I had tried previously was nice but I wasn’t really feeling like myself in any of the dresses.

However, when I went into Anne Priscilla’s I was shown around by a young, Australian woman who I clicked with straight away and she really got my style (one of the dresses I tried on was the wedding dress she had just bought!).

I was very drawn to unstructured dresses with beading – I was determined to be comfortable and able to dance at my wedding so corsets and petticoats were out of the question for me. The stylist suggested an Eliza Jane Howell dress in a lightweight, silk fabric which had a draped, cape-like body with batwing half sleeves, flowing into a Grecian style skirt. The cherry on the cake was the beading – gorgeous glass beads which spread like vines throughout the dress. It was the first dress I had felt really excited about. I remember walking out of the changing room towards the seating area and calling to my mum, “I really like this one…” however as I turned the corner into her sight, she didn’t say anything. My heart sank as I thought she didn’t like it but then she began to smile and tear up. After which we both had a good cry as I paid the deposit!

I knew I wanted comfortable shoes that I wouldn’t be in agony in by the time it got to the nighttime part of the wedding. I opted for the same gold, strappy sandal with block heel as the bridesmaids. The main accessories which I adored were a delicate, gold, metal flower crown, designed to look like gypsophila flowers and matching earrings. Both created by Rene Walrus, who I met at the same wedding fair as I met Simon from Boda.

The other accessory that I wore for photographs was a leather jacket with the title of the song I walked down the aisle to – Come Rain or Come Shine by Ray Charles – hand-painted on the back by Claire from Daisy Bisley. Claire is amazingly talented, she took my ramblings about star constellations, scrolls, arrows and made the most beautiful piece of art. Claire also created some signs for us, like our order of service and seating plan on giant chalkboards.

Fraser managed to pick his suit in the first shop he went to, Slater Menswear. He had a fair idea of what he wanted; he liked grey, tweed style suits. However, as we were getting married in July he knew that the wool finish would be too warm. In the end, he managed to get a three-piece grey suit with a muted, gold check and a deep, wine coloured tie. I encouraged him to add the waistcoat as I knew I wanted to get him a pocket-watch as a wedding gift.

How did you choose your photographer & filmmaker?

We enquired into a lot of photographers but John and his lovely wife were the only ones who suggested meeting and having a chat in the pub, that’s when we knew he was the photographer for us!

John really knows his stuff, the amount of effort he put in beforehand to find the perfect spots with nice light was great. He is also one of the friendliest guys you could meet, he is so down to earth and made our photos really fun to do on the day; he also even made time to have a chinwag with my wee granda.

I heard about Boda at a wedding fair in BAaD Glasgow, after watching some of their trailers they had the chilled, documentary-style approach we were looking for. It was a bonus that Simon and John had worked together previously so the two really complemented each other. Simon was really friendly and approachable too, he kept in contact with me in the run-up to the wedding which was a nice, personal touch.

Bygone Photobooth was such a good addition to our day. We asked Steph to set up for the nighttime changeover after the dinner and it was a great, fun way for the night guests to mingle with the day guests. Plus the snaps doubled up as a guest book which everyone signed beside their photos!

What was your first dance song?

Our first dance was ‘It Was You’ By Aretha Franklin. Fraser and I both love Motown and soul music, and the lyrics mean a lot to us. After our first dance, I had a wee dance with my grandad to ‘You’re Nobody ‘till somebody loves you’ by Dean Martin, that was definitely a tear-jerker for me.

The Brightside Band were a huge hit with our guests, they sounded absolutely amazing and could play songs you wouldn’t think possible by a live band. The floor was never empty; We ended the night with ‘We Are Family’ by Sister Sledge and Selina’s vocals were incredible.

Were there any challenges along the way?

My favourite mishap by far was that one of our flower girls, who was only two at the time, was toddling about as Fraser and I attempted to walk back up the aisle out of the ceremony. She looked at us smiling but was not moving anywhere fast, until one of our friends quickly lifted her out the way – John caught action shots of her being carried away and they are genuinely some of the funniest photos I have seen, they’re definitely getting hung up at her 18th birthday.

Did you manage to stick to your budget?

Not quite but we didn’t go over too much. I think the most sensible thing is to pick a ballpark figure that gives you some leeway. Things are far more expensive than you think and the little things definitely add up. For example, I got too excited at the beginning of the planning and bought all these daft, little things that I ended up not using! Not the best idea!

Any advice?


Might sound cliche but try and relax. When we were planning I tended to stress over details but when the day finally arrived, I honestly didn’t give the small stuff a second thought.

If you’re planning on wearing a dark lipstick like I did, do your homework – try different brands and give it a trial run on a night out. Also if you’re getting married in summer when it tends to be warmer, have some makeup, plasters, deodorant and hairspray etc. stored away somewhere so you can do touch-ups throughout the day.

Honeymoon or minimoon?

Our honeymoon was booked through Trail Finders. We planned two weeks in South Africa, driving from west to east coast. We started in Cape Town and made our way through several smaller places like Fransscheook (where we went on a day-long, wine tour on a little tram) and Hermannus (where we did a Great White Shark cage dive). We finished our trip on Pumba Game Reserve in their bush lodges for three days of luxury and safari.

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

During the party at night, I dragged Fraser to the back of the room and we took a moment to watch everyone dancing and enjoying themselves. At that moment we felt especially grateful to have all those wonderful people in our lives.

Check out Stephanie & Fraser’s amazing wedding highlights film by Boda Productions below…

Ah, all the feels seeing these big wedding party vibes. These days will return – and they will be so worth the wait!  x