A MONACHYLE MHOR ELOPEMENT WITH SERENE LOCHSIDE CEREMONY
FEATURING
Mel + Phil travelled from Devon for their dream of a wee wild wedding surrounded by nature
“Just think about you as a couple and what would make you happy. The people who get it, get it and those who don’t are missing out.”
~ Mel + Phil
We Fell In Love With…
A lochside ceremony, luxury picnic reception and visits from fluffy friends!
Mel and Phil’s Monachyle Mhor elopement is the perfect encapsulation of doing your wedding, your way. We love how our friends at Wee Wild Weddings made their dream to get married amongst nature come true!
Read on to find out all about it and stay tuned to the end to hear their fabulous advice for those currently planning a wedding!
TELL US ABOUT YOU TWO + YOUR WEDDING JOURNEY
We met in 2012 whilst working for John Lewis – I needed first aid and Phil was the first aider! We became a couple in 2014 and the rest is history!
It was an easy decision to get married in Scotland. On our first visit we laid Mel’s nan to rest in her childhood village of Mouswald, and then took a camper to Glencoe and Skye. We fell in love on that trip. The next year, we came back for a holiday in Glencoe and got engaged at Glencoe Lochan under the Pap!
Mel followed Wee Wild Weddings on Instagram, showing Phil her favourite wee weddings. We knew that was how we wanted to get married. We wanted a wedding that was totally us and what we liked. We are super relaxed as a couple so we wanted something that would reflect that. Keeping it simple and in nature.
We got married in May. We wanted spring because of the weather and we ended up with the most beautiful day! Mel wanted peonies in her flowers and Karen did the most wonderful job. Mel nearly cried when she saw them. Flowers were super important to her and Karen really got her vision.
We chose Monachyle Mhor after looking at a lot of locations. We fell in love with the view of the loch and the hills. It was exactly as we had pictured our day. The place was amazing, so relaxed and we felt right at home straight away.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR OUTFITS
Mel always knew her dress wouldn’t be traditional. She wanted something whimsical and girly but without being over the top. Needle & Thread was the best, she tried on about 4 or 5 and loved them all. Phil’s suit was from Moss Bros. He thought “would a hobbit wear this?” If yes, then great!
TELL US ABOUT YOUR CEREMONY
We had a humanist ceremony because we wanted it to be all about us and love, nothing else. Ronit Quayle, our celebrant, was perfect. We had the same sense of humour which was super important.
We chose to do oathing stones. Mel collects stones and shells and all kinds of things. There are jars of them all over the house! We brought one stone from home and one stone from Scotland. We threw the home stone in the loch and took our Scotland stone home. We LOVED this, it felt very us. We also love that we can see the stone in the loch and will definitely be looking for it when we go back to visit.
We chose to write our own vows which we found quite difficult. We are quite private people about our feelings and the thought of reading them out loud in from of people was a little overwhelming, but we are so glad we did. Speaking the vows to each other next to that beautiful loch is a memory that will stay with us forever. We didn’t decorate our space we loved the idea of standing amongst nature. We had a swan join us during the ceremony and it even chimed in when it came to saying “I do!”
TELL US ABOUT THE RECEPTION
We had a super picnic from Scottish Wild Picnics. It was perfect. Our cake was a lovely, simple Victoria sponge cake and there were mazing sausage rolls and cream teas. We listened to music (Taylor Swift and Blink 182 in the mix) and ate in the sun.
We took polaroids of everything, we were so happy that everything was exactly how we had pictured it. After our picnic we took a walk along the loch in the sunshine before heading back to Monachyle Mhor to eat our cake, have drinks and watch the sunset. When it grew dark we went inside and played Jenga. It was honestly the best day.
ANY LESSONS LEARNED OR ADVICE YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE?
Our biggest challenge was guests. One of our best pals couldn’t come as she was due to give birth any moment. That was hard because we’ve always done life events together but now she has a beautiful daughter! Some people didn’t understand why we wanted to go all the way to Scotland – we live in Devon – and we didn’t have any reason other than we wanted to. That did mean some people couldn’t make it and we only had 3 guests in the end which ended up being perfect.
We knew what we wanted to do and we knew that unfortunately meant some people wouldn’t make it. We really and truly wanted the day to be exactly us and not for anyone else. We invited around 8 people and 3 made it, to be honest we were more than happy with that!
Our advice is to really and truly think about what YOU want. Not what you think another people would like or what you think will look good. Just think about you as a couple and what would make you happy. The people who get it, get it and those who don’t are missing out.
