Outdoor Aberfeldy Micro Wedding With Highland Safari

It takes a brave couple to plan a winter outdoor micro wedding – in Scotland! But it more than paid off for Kirsty and Gavin, whose Plan B micro-wedding in a Perthshire woodland was followed by a Highland safari with a wee dram or two to warm up.

Come brave the chill and enjoy their day, deer spotting and all…

How did you two meet?

We met online via a dating app in 2016. We chatted for a few weeks then met up at a local pub in Leith, Edinburgh. We met for lunch and carried on eating and drinking through to the evening! I had a friend’s Christmas party to attend which I ended up being a few hours late for, oops!

We then spent the rest of the year enjoying breaks away both in Scotland and overseas, before I moved in with Gav. Following that, we enjoyed a few more holidays (who doesn’t!) before buying our first – and hopefully forever – home together.

We got engaged in December 2019 at the top of Ben Vrackie in Pitlochry – one of our favourite destinations.

What inspired your wedding plans?

We both really wanted an informal wedding full of good laughs, good fun and good food. We had our wedding planned for October 2020 for over 100 guests at a converted barn. After postponing, we later decided to cancel as it was unlikely our new postponed date would go ahead.

We decided to have a micro wedding with just our immediate family, outdoors, somewhere meaningful to us. Followed by a Highland safari into the mountains to a hilltop bothy for champagne, drams and hot chocolate. We then went back to our hotel/venue for drinks and a three-course meal.

On the day, Gav wore his family tartan – which I had a matching shawl of. Gav’s granddad was a train driver, so all the men of the family had a train pin badge on their jackets in honour of him.

I enjoy crafts so there were a few DIY touches – I made the flower bouquets and personalised my shoes on the day with my new initials.

Tell us about your venue…

The ceremony was outdoors in The Lower Birks of Aberfeldy. My family used to have a timeshare at Moness Country Resort so we visited every summer for a holiday. Gav and I spent our first anniversary there, so Aberfeldy was always a special place to us.

When we had to postpone, and later cancel our original wedding plans, we both felt getting married in Aberfeldy at the Birks, where we spent our first anniversary would be fitting. We love Moness for all the memories.

The staff at Moness were superb, they were so attentive and really helped us organise the day, the accomodation, they provided fantastic food, a full restaurant area to ourselves and most importantly they were so flexible every time we needed to change something.

We love your outfits! Tell us more…

I tried on about 10 different styles of wedding dress, I wanted to try everything since I had heard that you never pick the dress you think you do! This was the last one to try on, a sleeveless lace dress with an open back. The train was so enormous, so we had to cut it down a tad!

Gav wore a Robertson tartan kilt which was green and navy with a navy jacket. All the men in his family had matching tartan kilts and on my side, the men in my family also wore their own matching tartan – but a mix of kilts and trousers.

Gav wore black brogues and I wore white converse trainers (personalised with my new initials).

I purchased the bridesmaid dresses from JJHouse – they wore sage green long-sleeved maxi dresses.

How did you choose your photographer?

I initially found Olesja online and was instantly captured by her style. It looked a mix of fun, relaxed, soulful and atmospheric photos – it was the style we were after! Olesja was also recommended to us by the original venue we booked. So we felt that she was the one to capture the day.

We only had 11 guests at our wedding so we now have amazing pictures which capture the day perfectly and that we can share with those not present, it means the world to us.

What was your first dance song?

We didn’t have a first dance, unfortunately, but I walked ‘down the aisle’ (down a staircase to the forest) to Zak Abel’s cover of ‘You’ve got the love’… there was a stream next to us so I couldn’t even hear the song!

Tell us more about the flowers.

I made the flower bouquets myself – it was difficult to find a florist in the area that could deliver to the venue due to restrictions in place, so I bought fake flower stems and pine cones and made a bouquet for myself and two bridesmaid bouquets.

Were there any challenges along the way?

Mainly Covid. The uncertainty made wedding planning extremely difficult – as well as incredibly stressful. Pretty much everything went to plan at our micro wedding – we were so lucky the weather was dry (we had a backup marquee in place if not!).

Did you manage to stick to your budget?

Yes, we had a budget set for our initial wedding, of over 100 guests and then stripped it right back for our micro wedding.

Any advice?


Have the day you want. It’s hard not to get wrapped up in the ‘big wedding’ and menu choices, flower choices, stationery choices etc. We can honestly say that we had such an amazing, perfect day with our family with an informal and relaxed atmosphere. (We just wish our friends were able to come!)

Honeymoon or minimoon?

We had a minimoon afterwards, a few nights at a cottage with a hot tub. We look forward to a honeymoon (maybe next year?) to South Africa to go on safari.

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

The Highland safari. We were picked up by three Jeeps and taken into the mountains to a hilltop bothy to enjoy snacks/champagne/drams and it was so much fun, so relaxed and such a good laugh. It was freezing, so cold hands and noses all round but some amazing views, deer watching and great pictures.

The Highland Safaris team were so patient with us whilst taking photos and more importantly they were so much fun! it really lifted the day and added to the laughter.

Thanks for sharing your wonderful Plan B wedding with us Kirsty & Gavin. A Highland safari sounds pretty amazing – we think you’ll be giving lots of folks ideas with that one! x