AN OH SO STYLISH NON-BINARY GLENAPP CASTLE WEDDING
FEATURING
Zoë + Jon came all the way from Seattle to get married and celebrate their love with an epic Glenapp Castle wedding!
“Make it exactly what you want whether that is something big and glamorous or nerdy and fun.”
~ Zoë + Jon
We Fell In Love With…
Blue gown, dreamy florals, a cookie tower and the eternally epic setting of a Glenapp Castle wedding!
We love how how Zoë and Jon brought their family and friends all the way from the USA to experience Glenapp Castle in all its glory. The tiny details and sentiments sprinkled throughout their day made it super special and we just adore the oh so stylish colour injections in their outfits.
Read on to see all the beautiful inspiration and hang around to the end to get some solid advice from this lovely pair.
TELL US ABOUT YOU TWO + YOUR WEDDING JOURNEY
We met in Chicago in 2014 and started dating a year later. Zoë proposed in Chicago and we legally got married in Seattle (where we live) on our dating anniversary. A few close friends and family made it to that very, very small wedding and Zoë’s parents offered to fund a castle wedding for us in the UK.
We picked the date as it was the best month for family to travel plus the weather in Scotland is beautiful in May. Everything is blooming and there was less chance of a fully sunny day. We prefer clouds with sun and thats exactly what we got on our wedding day!
We looked at a lot of castles throughout the UK before deciding to hold our wedding at Glenapp Castle. It’s so beautiful, has a glasshouse and all our guests could stay there with us. The staff there are incredible and went above and beyond for us.
The biggest challenge we had was communication with suppliers from the UK. As soon as Cat from Fin Flükra came onboard everything was much better as she handled most of the vendors for us. From there out it was super easy, we mostly just said yes and no. It was a breeze!
We alongside Cat and Paige from Glenapp Castle, planned and prepared everything. Family had input, but we pretty much went with whatever we wanted for the whole thing.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR OUTFITS
Jon wore a gorgeous tailored black velvet suit from Richard James with a cravat, bunny cufflinks, and a bunny lapel pin.
Zoë is plus size and shopping for clothes is usually a horrible experience but then they discovered Carol Hannah. After discussing their vision, the dress that she designed was perfect. Zoë just fell in love with it! After photographing weddings for 7 years, white was the last thing on earth they wanted to wear. Instead they wore a stormy blue with a yellow ribbon, like a ray of light shining through the clouds. Their shoes were black boots from All Saints.
Our rings were custom made by Green Lake Jewellers in Seattle. Zoë designed Jon’s, a simple white gold with 5 sapphires on the inside. He’s not a super flashy guy but the first gift he ever bought Zoë was a sapphire bracelet. They wanted him to have something beautiful on the inside (because he’s beautiful on the inside).
We designed Zoë’s ring together to represent our relationship and their heritage. We chose a salt and pepper diamond, it looks like a sky full of stars when held up to the light.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR CEREMONY
We had a humanist ceremony with the best celebrant ever, Ross! He made it funny – heckling the crowd and helped guide us to make it really personal. We told each other our own versions of how we met and how we fell in love. We were both in tears.
Zoë walked with their dad, Jon walked with his mom. We came from opposite sides of the castle so we walked up at the same time. This was important to us, we didn’t want one person to feel more important than the other. We did it together, like everything we do in life. A string quartet played on the way in.
Gloam did our gorgeous wildflower type arrangements. Our friend Chelsea read The Luckiest by Ben Folds. Zoë’s mother presented the quaich, filled with Raki Zoë’s brother brought from Türkiye and water Jon’s mom brought from Chicago. It was a really perfect ceremony and we couldn’t have been happier!
TELL US ABOUT THE RECEPTION
Glenapp Castle provided all the food and it was incredible. There were pastel colored candles and wildflowers all over the table.
We had a live band, The Lego Man, who were amazing! They played a lot of our favourites and some great songs for dancing. Hey Moon by John Maus was our first dance and Zoë danced with their dad to Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, a song they both love after it was featured in Remember The Titans, one of their favourite movies to watch together.
Instead of cake we had a tower of cookies, decorated with ceramic versions of our rabbits Bun and Bean that our friend Jonathan Kusnerek made. Late in the night the folks at the castle brought out a sword and we cut one cookie with it. It was completely ridiculous, we loved it!
The vibe was very cosy and warm. We all ate at a long table, no head table, no sweetheart table, just all of us together. At the end of the night Glenapp put on a magical fireworks display, we all sat out on the lawn together cuddled up to watch.
ANY LESSONS LEARNED OR ADVICE YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE?
Our best advice for everyone getting married is, if you are able, hire a wedding planner. Everything is so much easier with a wedding planner. It lifted 90% of the stress off of us when we hired Cat from Fin Flükra. The rest of the stress was just due to the logistics of getting married in another country and dragging your whole family with you.
Our other advice would be to do what you want. The wedding is about you and your partner, not anyone else. Not your parents or your aunts or whatever, it’s about the love you found with each other. So make it exactly what you want whether that is something big and glamorous or nerdy and fun.
