SUNSHINE AFTER THE RAIN: AN ERROL PARK WEDDING
FEATURING
The sun came out for Shannon + Jon who conquered some big challenges to bring their stunning Errol Park wedding to life
“My biggest advice to anyone would be to take out wedding insurance, thankfully we didn’t need to use ours but you just never know what is going to happen!”
~ Shannon + Jon
We Fell In Love With…
A garden ceremony straight out of a movie, a little help from family and friends, all gorgeously captured by WFIL family member Leanne Heron Photography.
The sun shone brightly for Shannon + John’s Errol Park wedding. After the challenge of their venue management company going out of business just a few months before, they still managed to pull off their dream day in style.
Read on to see all the gorgeous inspo and stay tuned to the end to get some incredibly valuable advice from this lovely couple.
TELL US ABOUT YOU TWO + YOUR WEDDING JOURNEY
We met on a night out at a local music festival in May 2014. From there we spent the whole summer together and went back to uni in Aberdeen and Glasgow. Years of long distance went by and then I moved to Glasgow to be with Jon! 2 years ago we moved back to Montrose to be closer to our families.
As I am a teacher we really only had three points in the year to get married with the school holidays. As Jon’s sister was getting married in the summer we decided to go with April. My parents got married in April and we don’t have any birthdays around that time of year so it worked out well.
The theme for our wedding stationery, which Jon’s mum designed and had printed for us, was the outdoors with a particular feature on Scottish Lochs. The invitations were designed to look like the silhouette of Loch Laggan which is where we got engaged. All the stationery had a little thistle motif which had a hidden S and J in it. The tables were named after lochs and all the tables had artwork that matched each of the lochs’ landscapes. The flowers were very delicate and full of foliage!
We knew we wanted somewhere that had a big dance floor, plenty of accommodation so our friends and family could stay and somewhere big enough to fit our large guest list for the ceremony. We viewed lots of lovely venues with gorgeous houses but the majority of the celebrations were in a marquee, and we just felt we needed somewhere with a bit of character and when we found Errol Park it ticked every box!
Errol Park was being run by a management company at the time and we liked that everything including the catering was all taken care of. But, four and a half months out from our wedding, the management company went into administration and left us (and Errol Park) out of pocket and without a caterer. Colin and Jamie from Errol Park, were nothing but wonderful during this time, ensuring that our day would still go ahead and finding us new caterers within a day.
We had wedding insurance, but thankfully after Jon’s brilliant coordination of evidence and paperwork, we were able to get all of our money back though the bank. We think of this as a miracle, as we know that lots of couples were affected by the same thing and weren’t as fortunate as us.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR OUTFITS
I bought my dress from Aimee Bridal Couture in Glasgow. The label is not one they usually stock so it was serendipitous that I tried on the dress after the stylist Nicola brought it out for me. I knew I wanted a fitted dress made of crepe, but I just loved the very delicate, draped detailing across the front of the dress and the off the shoulder look. The beautiful train and the button detail made me fall in love with it. I knew from seeing it on the hanger that I would love it and my mum knew by the sound of my voice before I even came out to the changing room that it was the dress!
We got our bridesmaid dresses from Azazie, as it had the colour I was looking for! We wanted something in between Navy and Teal and the colour Neptune is what we decided on. The girls all chose different gowns they all felt comfortable in, but they all were chiffon fabric.
Jon and the boys got their kilts from Slaters in Dundee. Jon bought his own kilt using his family tartan, which was so beautifully made by House of Edgar. And the best man and groomsmen went for the Flower of Scotland tartan. These kilts were all paired with navy socks, navy tweed jacket and waistcoat and all of the accessories. They also had matte satin ties and pocket squares from Azazie that matched the colour of the bridesmaid dresses.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR CEREMONY
Mary was our celebrant and gave us the ceremony we wanted. We really wanted a focus on the importance of the ceremony and she really made it so sincere and sentimental. We were able to write our own individual vows that Mary told us to repeat after her, and then we did joint vows too.
We had a few elements that involved our parents. My dad walked me down the aisle, we had a moment with our mums where they gave us a kiss and cuddle before we made our legal vows, and Jon’s dad poured whiskey as we drank from the quaich. Our friend Beth read ‘Union’ by Robert Fulgham during the ceremony. Our brother-in-law Cameron and our friend Amy signed the register. This was a nice way of involving more people in the ceremony that weren’t in the bridal party!
Our friend Ellis, who was Jon’s former bandmate, played the piano and sang for us during the ceremony. I walked down the aisle to ‘Lover’ by Taylor Swift. A medley of First Date by Blink 182, Rearrange by Biffy Clyro and one of Jon’s band’s old songs played when we signed the register. We walked out to This Will Be by Natalie Cole.
Up until the week of the wedding, we had planned to get married inside the venue, at the bottom of the staircase in the main house. The weather was amazing and we just decided to shift our ceremony outside the day before. We got married with a beautiful view of the River Tay and the Highland Cows in the background.
We decorated the end of the aisle with two floor arrangements made by our florist, that looked like they could have grown there. She used lots of romantic textures including blush and dusty pink roses, ranunculus, anemones, thistles and lots of wispy wild movement. At the end of the aisle we had two bowl arrangements placed on tables and a smaller bowl arrangement for the signing table. The grounds of the venue were stunning so these floral touches added to the beauty!
TELL US ABOUT THE RECEPTION
As we had already done our meal tasting through Hickory, we had picked our menu! Our new caterers, A & D Catering, were absolutely wonderful and told us that they would make the exact same menu, with a few ingredient changes here or there. We had tower of haggis neeps and tatties or salmon and langoustine cocktail for starters, loin of venison or pancetta wrapped chicken breast for main and for dessert we had lemon tart or sticky toffee pudding. The sticky toffee pudding was a clear favourite amongst our guests. The meal was absolutely gorgeous and full of flavour!
During our meal, my friend Ronan played the piano and sang. On our invitations we had asked people for song requests and he played a variety of them and it was a really lovely touch and added to the warm atmosphere!
Our wedding cake was a two-tiered cake made by my Auntie. The bottom tier was Victoria sponge and the top tier was carrot cake. It was decorated with cuttings from the florist and a cake topper that said Mr and Mrs Reid.
We had round tables for everyone to have a good natter and a laugh. We didn’t do wedding favours but we had guitar plectrums personalised and I made friendship bracelets with various phrases to do with me and Jon for people to help themselves to. We had a Polaroid camera for people to take photos and to stick in the guestbook, which was so nice to look back on. We also made straws with our cats faces on them and put them at the bar. Finally we had a photo QR code set up for everyone to upload their photos of the day too, which was really nice for us to view the few days after the wedding.
For the evening buffet we had a hog roast, which was very much enjoyed by everyone.
Our band was KC and the Nightshift, who were a really upbeat band that had a trumpet and saxophone player. The band took requests and played a whole variety of different songs. The dance floor was never empty! My dad and uncles played for the ceilidh, as they are Scottish traditional musicians. It was a really lovely moment having them do that for us.
WHICH SUPPLIERS ROCKED YOUR DAY?
All of our suppliers were unbelievable but I’d like to shout out Leanne Heron Photography, our photos are absolutely beautiful and we are so grateful for her amazing attention to detail.
Colin, David and Alison at Errol Park were so amazing at picking up the pieces when everything fell apart for us months before the wedding. They quite literally saved the day!
ANY LESSONS LEARNED OR ADVICE YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE?
I think the biggest challenge was dealing with the administration of Hickory, but as I said before everyone at Errol Park was tremendous.
My biggest advice to anyone would be to take out wedding insurance, thankfully we didn’t need to use ours but you just never know what is going to happen.
