AN ELEGANT & COLOURFUL SUMMERHALL WEDDING IN EDINBURGH
FEATURING
Naomi + Daniel’s elegant Summerhall wedding in Edinburgh was a chic city affair full of colour!
“Don’t worry about the details – lots of little things didn’t go to plan on the day but you don’t really notice them because you’re so busy seeing friends and family and getting married!”
~ Naomi + Daniel
We Fell In Love With…
The stylish city venue, the colourful bridal party attire, and beautiful DIY decorations.
Don’t worry about the details! Sound advice from Naomi and Daniel whose Summerhall wedding in Edinburgh was infused with a serious dose of colour and style.
Read on to find out all about it and stay tuned to the end to hear their fabulous advice for those who are currently planning a wedding!
TELL US ABOUT YOU TWO + YOUR WEDDING JOURNEY
We met in 2013 at a party that was hosted by Daniel’s brother and Naomi’s friend who were university flatmates at the time. The party was actually just over the road from our wedding venue – Summerhall!
We went on our first date soon after and then eventually moved into a flat in Edinburgh together before moving to Cambridge in 2017. We got engaged in Bruges in September 2022 and had our daughter soon after in early 2023.
We wanted the wedding to be in Scotland because it’s where most of our friends and family live (plus we really wanted to have a ceilidh!). We chose Edinburgh because we had a lot of people coming from across the UK and Europe and the city was easier to get to than some more rural venues.
We didn’t have a particular theme in mind other than wanting it to be fun and colourful. We spent some time looking at suppliers we liked and took things from there!
TELL US ABOUT YOUR OUTFITS
My dress is from The Pantry in Saffron Walden. I wanted to buy a dress from somewhere close to where we live as I knew I wouldn’t have a lot of time to travel for fittings, etc. I looked at bridal shops in Cambridge and the surrounding area and loved the dresses stocked by The Pantry.
I hadn’t planned on going wedding dress shopping but my Maid of Honour was visiting one weekend and we managed to book a last-minute appointment to see some of the dresses there. I tried on about 5 different dresses plus a trouser suit and ended up going for the first one I tried with a few customisations.
My favourite thing about the dress was that you could remove the overdress and transform the bow at the back of it into a hair accessory so it looked like two different outfits.
Daniel’s suit was custom made at Trotter & Deane in Cambridge. He wanted a light suit for our summer wedding. We both went to the shop and were amazed at the variety of fabric. After looking through dozens of options, Daniel settled on a pale green linen.
I asked the bridal party to wear something within the colour scheme (pink, purple, red and green). I wanted everyone to feel their best on the day and was keen for the bridal party to choose their own outfits. They kindly chose gorgeous outfits within the colour scheme and I really liked seeing them all come together when we were getting ready in the morning.
Daniel likewise asked the groomsmen to wear whatever they felt most comfortable in. The whole vibe of our wedding was fairly eclectic so I think mismatched outfits complimented the overall aesthetic.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR CEREMONY
We decided to have a humanist ceremony that was very personal to us and our journey as a couple. We wanted to keep the ceremony as simple as possible and so we chose not to have any readings but we did do a traditional handfasting. Our 1 year old daughter came running up to us as soon as we were announced husband and wife which was very cute!
We had initially only planned to have flowers as decorations for the ceremony room (colourful ones, of course!) but Daniel’s family, along with some family friends, surprised us by making 1000 origami swans and cygnets which was an incredible gift! We hung them up along the walls of the ceremony room and, alongside the flowers we had originally planned, the effect was amazing.
We also ordered loads of colourful confetti which made for some great photos (and the kids had a lot of fun playing with it!).
TELL US ABOUT THE RECEPTION
We chose Hickory to organise catering for our wedding and opted for canapés followed by a 3-course sit-down meal and then sausage rolls in the evening which went down well. We ordered wine with Majestic and did a tasting with them to make sure it complimented the menu and our tastes (and it was also a fun day out!).
Our cake was made by Charo Cupcakes and Cakes who is a friend of Daniel’s parents. We opted for a simple, 3-tier cake with different flavours which was then decorated by Days of Dahlia who provided our flowers. It was delicious and I was hoping we had ordered enough to have some left over but (unfortunately for us) the guests loved it too and it had all gone by the end of the day!
We really wanted to have a ceilidh and asked The Jiggers to perform. It was the first ceilidh for a lot of our guests and the band did a great job of calling so everyone knew what to do (although half of the fun is always when we get it wrong!). We finished the day with a disco which was great fun.
For the decorations, we wanted everything to be really fun and colourful. We had flowers all along the tables as well as origami hearts which Naomi and Daniel made with the help of some friends (before we knew about the origami swans and cygnets!). We had lots of colourful paper decorations and streamers lining the walls and we brought a lot of our own art from home to help decorate the space (which we did with the help of family and friends).
For fun favours, we brought heart shaped sunglasses and fans which, after seeing the pouring rain at the beginning of the day, I thought was a bad idea but the guests loved them and the fans were handy for cooling down after some rigorous celidhing!
We had quite a few children at our wedding so we hired Little Royals who set up a creche in the adjoining room. It worked really well as quieter space where children could go to play away from the main party but close enough that parents could check in on them easily.
ANY LESSONS LEARNED OR ADVICE YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE?
I think the biggest challenge for us was probably trying to plan the wedding from Cambridge with a new baby to look after but we luckily managed to plan a couple of trips to Scotland to get things organised with the help of our parents who took care of our daughter while we went to do menu tastings, etc.
My advice would be not to worry about the details – lots of little things didn’t go to plan on the day but you don’t really notice them because you’re so busy seeing friends and family and getting married!
