A SUSTAINABLE SUMMER WEDDING AT FOLKERTON MILL
FEATURING
Deniz + Lorna created a DIY wedding day of dreams at Folkerton Mill in South Lanarkshire with rustic vibes
“Lean on your suppliers for hints, tips and advice. After all, they’ve seen it all!”
~ Deniz + Lorna
We Fell In Love With…
Custom green hued outfits, a tree planting ceremony and heaps of gorgeous DIY details. All while keeping sustainability in mind.
Rustic, natural and rural vibes were the order of the day for Deniz and Lorna’s Folkerton Mill wedding. They created their dream summer celebration and we couldn’t love it more.
Read on below for the stunning inspiration and stay tuned to the end to get some very practical advice from this beautiful couple.
TELL US ABOUT YOU TWO + YOUR WEDDING JOURNEY
We both met on our first day at University of Dundee, whilst waiting on our first lecture of our university journey!
We both knew that we wanted our wedding to be in the Summer, where you may have the chance of a warm day, but it is Scotland after all so knew it was a complete gamble. This coupled with us wanting rustic, natural and rural vibes, we were absolutely delighted when we found Folkerton Mill in rural South Lanarkshire whilst deep diving Instagram.
We wanted a venue that was DIY, but naturally lended itself to not needing lots of dressing up. We were extremely conscious of the throw away culture around weddings and really wanted everything to be as sustainable as possible. We also got our friends and family on board with crafting lots of items for the wedding day. Things that we could keep and were deeply personal to us. We felt that added deeper connection to the day.
We planned the entire day ourselves, but kept checking in with friends and family as sounding boards when decisions got tough!
TELL US ABOUT YOUR OUTFITS
Lorna wore a gorgeous green suit which was completed by Edinburgh Tailoring Company. With this she wore a tartan themed waist coat which was true to her new roots of marrying a Scottish woman.
Deniz chose a gorgeous green handmade jumpsuit by Mette and her team over at Freja Designer Dressmaking in Edinburgh.
Both pieces were chosen to be green in colour as we wanted to signal our love for the natural colours of our environment.
We both had a fantastic experience with our outfits. We knew that Chris and Mette had both worked together before for same sex couples and we were made to feel incredibly comfortable throughout the entire experience.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR CEREMONY
We spent a lot of time choosing our wedding celebrant as we wanted to make sure that they matched our values and could deliver everything we wanted and more. Along came Tasha the Celebrant and boy did she deliver! We opted for a humanist ceremony which was absolutely perfect.
For the Handfasting cords, we chose our two family root tartans to be entwined to signal us coming together as one.
We chose to do the tree planting ceremony as a small intimate group of both Mums and Deniz’ nephew. This element was a huge draw for us in choosing Folkerton Mill. With us both being geographers, it felt very symbolic to connect with nature as part of our wedding day.
TELL US ABOUT THE RECEPTION
We opted for a greek feast from Nae Bother Foods which went down an absolute storm with our guests! The evening food was pizza from Dean at Piping Hot Pizza, again our guests loved that there was no feeling of going hungry. Chris from Nae Bother and Piping Hot Pizza were definitely the dream team for keeping everyone full.
We chose The Upbeats for our wedding band which definitely matched the music vibe we were after. They were legends and learnt a couple of Tide Lines and Skerryvore titles which we both loved, as did our guests.
Our guests have constantly been saying about how relaxed the day was and how much they enjoyed the little touches. Especially the little wedding illustrations from Edith at Aulternative Weddings. A relaxed vibe is exactly what we wanted.
ANY LESSONS LEARNED OR ADVICE YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE?
Honestly, we had no idea how much each detail always interlinks with another. You can’t decide ceremony times until you’ve confirmed the coach company can make that time. You can’t decide food options until all dietary requirements are back. The list is quite extensive on decision making. This is just a small snippet of things that did trip us up along the way! We both do a lot of logistics and planning in our day jobs but a wedding hits a bit different.
Our advice is to meet with your venue ASAP so they can probe with questions that make you get ahead of the game with your planning. They ask questions you haven’t even considered, never mind have an answer for.
Lean on your suppliers for hints, tips and advice. After all, they’ve seen it all!
