A celebration of love

Angela and Steph’s wedding was 
a celebration of family, friendship and equality, and above all, a celebration of love. From Steph’s rooftop proposal overlooking St Paul’s Cathedral to their super personal ceremony – complete with ‘Pals of Honour’ – we just love their style.

Love at first sight?

We met at work in the October of 2011. Back then, we were based in Birmingham and both looking for a new housemate. Not knowing each other very well, but well enough to know we would make decent housemates, we moved in together with another work pal.

Over that time, we became extremely close and sort of relied on one another, sharing a bond only Celts share living away from home amongst our English counterparts.

Angela landed herself a promotion in the London office after a year and decided to take the leap, to live in the big smoke. It was at that moment, the very day Ange moved out that we both realised what we had. It was crazy. Neither of us seen it coming but we missed each other an incredible amount and so spent the next 9 months travelling up and down on trains to visit one another.

Fast forward to 19th Nov 2015 to a roof top overlooking St Paul’s Cathedral and Steph was popping the question under the stars. It was a very surreal moment and one we will never forget. We took the next hour to ourselves sipping on Champagne before we called the family to tell them the good news.

We were inspired by…

Honestly? Family and friends – We are both really close to our family and have a tight knit group of pals. We wanted it to be as much about them as it was us. That’s what inspired a lot of the personal touches and the location itself allowed for that, since the barn pretty much comes as an empty shell with all the potential!

We were also inspired by music, the other love in our life. There had to be music at all times and every song was chosen by us, from the pre-ceremony playlist right through to the party tunes. Music evokes memories and says a lot about a person. There were Irish jigs interwoven with Scottish tunes throughout the drinks reception and songs from the early days of us, giving our guests a little insight into our life through music.

Tell us about your venue…

We knew the moment we saw Comrie Croft that it would be the place we would get married. Not only is it bursting with character, rugged and rustic and set in the heart of the Perthshire countryside, Comrie is also a social enterprise, run and looked after by locals, which we loved. Having families and friends from Belfast, Scotland and other spots across the UK, we wanted somewhere that offered a place for everyone to stay the weekend, from Friday to Sunday, to make a weekend of it, and Comrie does just that. The steading and farmhouse is cosy and spacious and all our guests raved about it.

How did you choose your photographer?

It’s hard to find the words that sum up just how great these guys are. Wonderful and Strange were recommended to us by another photographer who wasn’t available for booking. Thank the universe they weren’t available because we would never have met Martyna and David and we wouldn’t have our stunning photographs that people have likened to something from Vogue!

We barely told these guys what we wanted. It’s like they could read our minds and knew exactly the shots we had hoped for. Our guests commented on how fun they both were, it’s was like having our pals at the wedding who just happened to take amazing pictures. They are so thoughtful, from the wee nip of whisky we all shared whilst taking the woodland pictures to the gorgeous presentation box posted to us all tied up in brown paper and string containing the coolest USBs we’ve ever owned filled with our photos and a wee tunnocks teacake treat.

Tell us about any accessories you had.

Angela – My dad bought me two really delicate and beautiful gold bangles, one for each wrist. I have tiny wrists and sometimes find it hard to get bracelets to fit me but they both fit perfectly, which meant a lot. They were my something new! I wore my granny Flo’s gold wedding band on my right hand as my something old, Steph’s graduation pearl earrings as my something borrowed and my blue was a tiny gem on the bottom of my shoe.

Steph – My sister very kindly lent me her wedding earrings and bracelet both from Swarovski, I had helped her pick them out for her wedding and had always admired them. I love all things 1920s and finding a Great Gatsby replica headpiece was the icing on the cake. My mum also gave me her tiny childhood gold locket to tie round my bouquet as my something old. Instead she had added pictures of my grandparents, which felt incredibly personal.

We picked our wedding rings together as we wanted ones that complimented each other. Both of our rings have a line of diamonds, Angela’s cross into a love knot.

What did you do for evening entertainment?

We knew from the off we wanted a ceilidh band but we weren’t looking for accordions and twee. We wanted a ceilidh band with a twist and that’s what we got with Scotch Bonnet. They turned up in all black with flashes of red in the form of their ties and bow ties. They were super chilled and were happy to do a half ceilidh half, DJ set – we didn’t want to kill our guests with 3 hours of Flying Scotsman and Strip the Willow.

The idea of a first dance had never really appealed to us. Our wedding weekend was very much about bringing our families together so we decided to share our first dance with the whole wedding party and cheekily selected to dance to ‘The Gay Gordons.’ I’m not sure anyone got the irony in the song choice, but we did so that’s all that mattered.

Tell us something surprising about your day…

There were moments during the day when we felt like everyone in the room had disappeared and it was only the two of us. This surprised us because we thought with that many eyes on you feeling like that was impossible. But we did, and it was an incredible feeling.

Another surprise we got were the intakes of breath from our guests as we entered the barn to walk down the aisle together, followed by a thunderous round of applause. When we asked afterwards who started the clap. No one knew. Everyone just kept saying, it felt so natural, like the only thing to do, to show how wonderful you both looked and how happy we were to see you both.

Any advice?


Do a little bit of planning every weekend in the run up to the wedding. A little bit over a long period of time goes a long way and means you’re not dashing around at the last minute. DIY is great and if you can do it and it’s not going to kill you, then it’s a great personal touch, but some things are worth paying for! Sneak off and have a moment together once or twice throughout the day. We were so glad we did this. Write your own vows if you can.

What’s the one truly unforgettable thing about your wedding day?

The laughter. The day was full of it, even throughout the ceremony and especially the speeches.

We had chosen Pals of Honour for our big day – our married friends Donnie and Fiona – and asked them to give a speech. We had no idea what they were going to say but we knew they’d be a hoot. What we didn’t expect, was that halfway through their speech, they’d break into song. They had replaced the lyrics of the Beauty & the Beast song – ‘Something there that wasn’t there before’ with words that told a story about how they didn’t know we were together but hoped we were.

It had everyone in fits of laughter and us floods of tears. Unforgettable!

I love that Steph and Angela’s friends broke into song during their speech. And that thunderous applause sounds wonderful! Alie x