Fireworks For A Walled Garden Winter Wedding

Join us as we journey to pre-Covid days and a gorgeous winter wedding that is filling us with hope for the good times that lie ahead.

Fiona and Will chose their wedding date to continue a family tradition and were married in the polytunnel in the walled garden at Colstoun House in East Lothian.

They partied the night away with a ceilidh, with the addition of an extra special brass section. And the fireworks that brought the day to a finish were more than a little breathtaking too. So much to love!

How did you two meet?

Will and I met back in 2011 at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh. Will was in his 2nd year and I was just starting my first.

When I started uni, I had my heart set on joining the rowing team. It just so happened that during Freshers’ Week, Will was out recruiting for new club members. A night out with too many orange VK’s (remember those?!) later and the rest is history.

Nine years later and we’ve been through a lot together; living in separate countries, graduating from uni, finding our first jobs, countless house moves, travelling the world and a global pandemic! One year into married life and we can’t wait to make more memories and build our lives together.

What inspired your wedding plans?

We were the first out of our group of friends to get married and we hadn’t been to that many weddings as a couple. I think this was a really good thing because we could focus 100% on what we wanted rather than what we had seen our friends do.

Shortly after we got engaged, we both sat down with an A3 bit of paper and wrote down all the things that were really important to us for our big day. Very quickly three things emerged that were non-negotiable for us both; great food, great wine, great music. Our day had to reflect us as a couple, we never wanted anything too formal or staged and wanted our day to feel very relaxed.

The date of our wedding was also pretty special. There is a bit of a tradition on my side (bride’s) of the family. Both my grandparents (mother’s side) and parents got married on the 17th of February. I always knew I wanted to get married on that date, even if it was a bit chilly! On the 17th Feb 2019, Will and I got married, my parents celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary and my grandparents would have celebrated their 63rd wedding anniversary. It meant the world to share our wedding date with my parents and grandparents and continue a very special family tradition.

Tell us about your venue…

I am Scottish and grew up in Aberdeenshire. Will is English and grew up in Essex. We spent four years living and studying in Edinburgh, and it’s a place we became very attached to. We never really considered having our big day anywhere else – it’s the city and area we fell in love in, so it seemed only fitting to get married here too.

We actually found our venue via a recommendation from a family friend. When we were looking for a venue we had three main criteria; space for family and friends to stay onsite, that we could bring in external caterers and be able to provide our own wine.

We are both foodies so great food and wine were really important to us. A lot of the venues we looked at in and around Edinburgh came with pre-set menus and bar choices, which didn’t work for us. As soon as we first visited Colstoun we both fell in love with it. The owners allowed us to bring in our own suppliers and really put our own stamp on the place. Once we had it booked, we spend hours on wedding blogs and Pinterest envisioning how our day would look.

At Colstoun, one of the ceremony venue options is a polytunnel in the walled garden. We had seen it in pictures before we viewed the venue and loved how different it was. As soon as we viewed it in person we were obsessed, it felt so intimate inside and when the sun shone the lighting inside was incredible. It was the perfect ceremony location for us (and one that our guests won’t forget in a hurry!).

We had the run of the whole estate for the whole weekend of the wedding, which just suited us perfectly. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it as a venue to anyone else, it has a very special charm about it.

We love your outfits! Tell us more…

I hadn’t done a huge amount of research into dress designers or boutiques, if I’m honest, I found the whole process a little overwhelming.

I have quite a petite figure but I always knew I wanted a figure-hugging, backless & minimalist dress. I took my mum, sister (and bridesmaid) and best friend with me. At the time I lived in London so I flew up for the weekend and we dedicated two days across Edinburgh and Glasgow to find the dress. I booked appointments at a number of shops and boutiques, ranging from high-end designer boutiques to high-street. I found the experience shopping in the higher end boutiques disappointing, the dresses seemed over-priced and the service was pushy.

Ted Baker was my final appointment on the Sunday, I originally booked this to look at bridesmaid dresses, I never intended on trying on their range of wedding dresses. As soon as we walked in, a dress immediately took my fancy. I was hesitant at first but my mum convinced me to try it on. I knew it was the one as soon as I walked out of the dressing room, the look on my mum, sister and best friend’s face said it all.

I felt amazing in the dress, it was exactly what I had been looking for. I think there can sometimes be a lot of stigma around getting a high street wedding dress versus a designer dress. Ultimately the dress for you is the one that makes you feel a million dollars, no one cares what the label says.

Will wore his kilt that he has had since he was 21. It was bought for him by his granny, so it was really special for her to see him wear it on our wedding day. The jacket and waistcoat were bought from MacGregor & MacDuff, Glasgow. They are both dark blue tweed, in the style of a day jacket.

We loved the look of having the groom and groomsmen all in kilts of different tartan with the same jacket and waistcoat. The majority of Will’s groomsmen were English, so the novelty of getting to wear a kilt was pretty exciting for them.

We bought each other gifts to open on the morning of the wedding. I bought Will a silver, engraved pocket watch, which he wore in his jacket pocket. It complemented his outfit perfectly.

Will bought me a sapphire and diamond necklace, it had a short chain so was the perfect accessory to my dress. It is special to both have pieces of jewellery to remember our special day.

Your photos are incredible!

Right from the offset, we knew exactly what we didn’t want in our wedding photos… overly posed or classic cringey shots.

We wanted a photographer who had worked at Colstoun before so they knew the estate and where to get the best shots. We started by taking advice from our venue and looking at wedding blogs and Instagram to see previous wedding work.

Immediately Solen’s style stood out, the candid, casual nature of the photos was exactly what we were looking for. Of course, the grannies wanted a few of the posed family shots but we wanted to capture the real emotion of the day. Solen did exactly this and we couldn’t be happier with the end result! Every time we look back at our photos they bring a huge smile to our faces.

Tell us more about the flowers and florist…

As with our photographer, we were keen to find a florist who had worked at Colstoun before so they could advise us on how best to use flowers in the space we had.

We wanted the flowers to make our venue and reception feel fresh but not too staged. Our colour palette featured the plum red of my bridesmaid’s dress alongside whites and lots of green foliage.

As we got married in February, seasonal flowers in the UK were few and far between but Adelaide did a brilliant job using local flowers where she could. Adelaide was amazing at advising us on what works in the venue, she really understood our vision and went above and beyond to make it a reality.

What was your first dance song?

Life with you- The Proclaimers. We really struggled with choosing a first dance song. We’re both pretty appalling dancers so the idea of dancing in front of our family and friends was pretty daunting!

Life With You is upbeat and we loved the lyrics (it also has a natural break in the song about 30 seconds in, which meant our family and friends could join in quickly!).

Since day one of planning, we both knew we wanted a live band. Will is a big music fan, so took the lead on choosing the band. Corra are exceptional, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them to anyone else. We told them we wanted a mix of ceilidh and covers, they weaved the two together and threw in the odd ceilidh dance throughout the evening which worked brilliantly well.

Will’s dad is a semi-professional trombone player, so we added the additional brass section that he played with at the beginning of the reception. The dance floor was packed all night, everyone went home with very sore feet that night!

One of my best friends from school is a musical theatre actress. She has the most stunning voice, so we asked if she would sing as part of our ceremony. She sang a compilation of Everywhere (Fleetwood Mac) and Finally, acoustic (CeCe Peniston) whilst we were signing the register.

Were there any challenges along the way?

The weather… We chose to get married in February, a famously unpredictable month in Scotland weather-wise!

It wasn’t so much that anything went wrong but more so that I spent the weeks leading up to the wedding so worried that the weather would impact our day (cue beast from the East round two).

In the end, I had nothing to worry about, somehow, miraculously it was 12 degrees, sunshine and blue skies the whole day. But even if it had rained, or snowed it wouldn’t have changed a thing. Your day is what you make it and the weather just makes the photographer’s day more interesting!

Did you manage to stick to your budget?

Right at the beginning of wedding planning, we created a master spreadsheet to track our costs. We had a budget that we were working to, we went a little bit over this in the end but we always worked within our means and never spent what we couldn’t afford.

The one thing that took us by surprise was the ‘last minute’ costs. The things you buy in the weeks before the wedding really add up (things like small decor bits and gifts for the bridal party). In hindsight, we would have liked to do more budgeting for the last-minute spend earlier on.

Any advice?


1) Don’t sweat the small stuff – planning the wedding is a big task and it can feel pretty overwhelming at times. Try not to get too caught up in the small details that ultimately you won’t notice on the day (do you really need those personalised napkin rings…?). Make sure you and your partner have a clear list of what’s important to you for your big day and focus on that. On your wedding day the only thing that matters is that you are both happy, design the day YOU want and everything will fall into place.

2) Keep family at arm’s length – family is a hugely important part of your wedding day. But, during the planning process remember it’s your day, not your mum’s or mother-in-law’s. If you are letting parents invite their friends, be clear on how many (and who!). Everyone will try to give you their advice and opinions on your day, you don’t need to take it. Nod along, smile and do your own thing. We also found it easier not to disclose too much info about our day to family to keep opinions to a minimum.

Honeymoon or minimoon? [Editor’s note: Maybe skip this part if you’ve got a major case of lockdown induced wanderlust!]

Once we were married, we planned on taking some extended time off work and travelling the world for three months. Initially, we intended in making this our honeymoon but we got lured in by the shiny Kuoni brochure and ended up booking a separate honeymoon to Mauritius.

We got married in the middle of winter, so sun for our honeymoon was a must. A week and a half after the wedding (enough time to get over the inevitable post-wedding cold) we jetted off for 10 days all-inclusive in Mauritius. We stayed at Paradise Cove on the north side of the island. We’re not normally beach holiday type people but this was exactly what we needed. Pina Coladas at 11am, clear blue ocean and 30-degree sunshine every day, yes please! Don’t worry we still fitted in our three-month travelling trip at the end of the year.

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

Walking into the polytunnel and seeing my husband at the end welling up. At that moment it felt like it was just the two of us (even with 100 guests in the room!). I couldn’t wait to get down the aisle and marry him.

So much great advice here – choose your priorities and try not to be led by other people’s opinions. Thanks for sharing your incredible day with us Fiona and Will! x