A FAMILY AFFAIR: A SUMMER WEDDING AT THE COW SHED CRAIL
FEATURING
Emily + Ali made it a real family affair at their Scottish barn wedding on a beautiful summer’s day in Crail on the East Coast of Scotland
“Our biggest tip is do it your way! Don’t feel like you need to follow traditions. Adding personal moments to our day made all the difference.”
~Emily + Ali
We Fell In Love With…
The perfect barn setting, styling and florals to die for and dreamy coastal portraits.
Emily & Ali are match made in heaven, and in wedding planning. With Emily taking the creative lead and Ali being in charge of the spreadsheets, they created the day of their dreams surrounded by their family.
Read on for some cool inspo and stick around to the end to get some valuable advice from Emily and Ali.
TELL US ABOUT YOU TWO + YOUR WEDDING JOURNEY
We met through mutual friends over 7 years ago and have been together for 6. We currently live in London but since we got engaged in Scotland, and all of our family still live there, we knew our wedding would be in Scotland. We have always loved the East Coast and I’ve been going on holidays to St Andrews since I was little. We made a trip over there to see several venues but we knew The Cow Shed Crail was the one, instantly. It had everything we were looking for and with the on-site accommodation it just felt perfect.
I knew I wanted to do a lot of the details myself so I took full creative control and Ali was king of the spreadsheets, making sure we were all organised. It was the perfect combination.
When we saw the courtyard in our venue, we knew we would like an outside ceremony so we booked for Summer and thankfully the weather was perfect!
TELL US ABOUT YOUR OUTFITS
I got my dress from Unbridaled in Ayr. It was from the designer Jenny Yoo. I knew I wanted something quite simple and understated which is what they specialise in. It was the third shop I went to and I knew it was the one straightaway.
Ali wore his family tartan in a kilt he’s had for over 5 years. His jacket and finishing touches were all from MacGregor and MacDuff.
All of his groomsmen wore their own family tartans with matching jackets. Our bridesmaids wore pale yellow dresses from Six Stories.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR CEREMONY
We chose to get married legally a couple of days before our big wedding, so we did this in Glasgow with just our immediate families. We chose to do it this way as we wanted someone who was close to us, and that had witnessed our full relationship, to conduct the ceremony and tell our story on our big day so we chose my sister (also my bridesmaid). This was very special to us both and it added so many personal elements. Our guests loved it and said they got such a good insight into our relationship, our journey and our families.
Ali’s sister did a reading and his brother made us a cocktail to drink out of the quaich which added a bit of flare!
It was a real family affair … which is my biggest recommendation to anyone getting married.
TELL US ABOUT THE RECEPTION
For our drinks reception, we had champagne, cocktails and canapes. We chose not to get any couple photos at this time so we could really mingle with our guests. We also had music to get the party going.
For our meal, we had Edinburgh Catering Company who were amazing! We had pork belly to start, then venison and finished with Crème Brulee. Our favourite things.
Our band was Sneaky Treacle who were amazing. A lot of our guests were never off the dance floor. We did have a couple of Ceilidh dances, however we had quite a few English guests so there was also a bit of chaos!
WHICH SUPPLIERS ROCKED YOUR DAY?
Knoxland Films were amazing! We’ve watched our wedding film back so many times and its amazing to relive the day and also see moments we might have missed.
ANY LESSONS OR ADVICE YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE?
Our biggest challenge was managing so many suppliers. We chose a venue where we had to do a lot of things ourselves, which is why it appealed to us so much, but it also meant that we had a lot of email chains to keep track of!
Our biggest tip is do it your way! Adding those personal moments to our ceremony and our day made all the difference in how relaxed we were and how much our guests enjoyed the day. Don’t feel like you need to do it the traditional way.
Enjoy the whole process. It can be so easy so get consumed in the planning and the stress but you’ll only get to do it once, so enjoy making all the big (and small) decisions.
