A destination wedding at Eilean Donan Castle

After falling in love with Eilean Donan Castle in the Scottish Highlands as a young girl, Katrina was thrilled when it turned out her South African husband-to-be, James felt the same way. Their destination wedding was filled with golden winter light, lots of greenery and white roses, fairy lights and candles, and so much love. After watching an epic sunset together, they partied the night away on the Isle of Skye. Sounds like an amazing way to start married life!

How did you two meet?

James and I first met back in 2012 and we used to work together. My desk used to be right next to the printer and I just thought he was a guy killing loads of trees by printing bits and pieces every few minutes. I did the usual Facebook stalk, as you do, and ended up adding him as a friend. The rest, as they say, is history!

We got engaged back in May 2017 at the top of Table Mountain which is one of my favourite places in the world. He took me to a quiet spot and got down on one knee. There were lots of tears… all of them from me!

What drew you to Scotland?

The Highlands is a special place for me. I have been coming up to visit since I was born as my Nan’s side of the family are all from there. I always wanted to visit Eilean Donan every time we came up and had said from a little girl that it would be the place where I would get married someday.

And it was! Luckily my South African husband fell in love with it too!

There was no other choice of venue for us. Duisdale was always going to be where we would have our reception as it is where I took James for his 30th birthday and we both fell in love with it. Everyone who works there is just so special and will do whatever possible to make your stay perfect.

I have been following WFIL for a long while on both Facebook and Instagram and have always loved looking at the ‘Real Weddings’ for some inspo!

What inspired your wedding plans?

We got married in the Highlands mainly because of what it means to us. It is where I feel most at home and my heart pines after the place on a daily basis. James has even gone on to liken it to his favourite place in South Africa (The Drakensberg) because of the similar landscapes.

We love Scotland so much and we were so excited to show all of our close friends and family the place that we love.

I really wanted the dramatic landscape of the Highlands to take the centre stage on the day. I wanted to complement all the different colours that would be around on a November day. I have never been a fan of bright colours for bridesmaid dresses, which is why I chose black and I thought they would go well with the flowers. I also love black and gold together, which is the colours I chose to do all the stationery.

I have an unhealthy obsession with candles, so of course I had loads around on the day! I had loads of storm lanterns dotted around, and also empty whisky bottles full of fairy lights.

Most of all, we wanted the day to be filled with so much love. We had quite a rough time leading up to the wedding with my Gran and James’s Mom both passing away very suddenly, so we wanted to make them feel like they were present as much as we could. I had pictures of them both attached to my bouquet to make sure they were with me. My Gran was born in the Highlands and it was such a special place to her.

Flowers were another part of the wedding which was important to me. I had always envisioned lots of greenery, white roses, and thistles. Very vague, I know.

With planning a destination wedding you need to trust your suppliers a lot, as you cannot just pop in to see them if you have any queries, etc. But working with our florist, Caroline was just a complete dream right from the first ‘hello’. She knew exactly what I wanted (even from my very vague description) and her knowledge of flowers is just exceptional. Nothing was too much of an ask for her.

The only times I cried on my wedding day were having the bouquets delivered that morning, and also laying my eyes on the dining room which she had set up. Everything was just so stunning and she brought my visions to life.

Your photos and film are so beautiful!

The photography was always going to be the most important thing to me, and I fell in love with John Johnston’s work the moment that I saw it. James and I both love the Highlands for its dramatic scenery, and we wanted our photos to capture that too. John loves landscape photography too which was a winner!

I am one for hating ‘posed’ pictures. The thought of your face hurting from smiling so much all day for photos terrifies me! John was the perfect ‘photo ninja’ and I had no idea he was there most of the time. He puts you at ease, makes you comfortable, and is just an all round great guy. He is so passionate about his work and it really shines through in his pictures.

I always wanted a wedding video! There were times where budget wouldn’t allow for it, but we thought we would take the plunge as it is memories you can keep forever. I always loved watching my parents’ wedding video when I was a little girl!

I managed to find Colin of Orange Tide Films on social media and I am so glad I did! His films are exactly how we wanted ours done. We didn’t want the ‘traditional’ type of film. We wanted something different and quirky, and something very relaxed. We wanted a film to tell a story, and to tell ‘our’ story, which is exactly what Colin does so perfectly. He’s one of the nicest guys around and deserves to go so far.

We love your dress! Tell us more…

I found ‘The One’ on my first visit to a wedding dress shop! But not without trying on about five or six dresses first. I only went to this boutique purely to try on a dress that they had in stock, which I actually ended up hating! The dress which I chose was the exactly opposite of what I wanted, except that it had sleeves! That was my only requirement!

I knew that the dress that I chose was ‘The One’ as soon as I put it on and I didn’t want to take it off. I teamed it with a full length veil.

I didn’t wear many accessories as I didn’t want to take anything away from the dress. The only accessories I wore were some pear stud earrings which James bought for me on my 30th birthday, and a hair clip which matched some of the flowers I had in my bouquet.

Being South African, I never thought James would decide to wear a kilt! But he loved the idea even before we were even engaged. He does, in fact, have Scottish descent and decided to get his kilt specially milled in the ‘Lang’ tartan, which luckily was in the colours which we loved!

What was your first dance song?

We had quite a few choices for our first dance, but settled on the one by a South African band – ‘I’ll Be There’ by The Parlotones, as the lyrics really meant something to us.

The song which followed our first dance was also one of our choices but it was played in tribute to James’s Mom. It was Elvis Presley’s ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’. She absolutely adored Elvis, and there was not a dry eye in the room.

Any advice you’d like to share?


Don’t stress about the little things! It really is not worth it at the end of the day. As long as you are both surrounded by all of your family and friends, you will have the best time.

The best bit of advice we were given was to take time out of the day just to be alone and to take everything in. Even if it is for two minutes. The day goes by so fast and you will hardly spend any time alone, just the two of you.

Honeymoon or minimoon?

We have not decided yet actually! We have quite a list of places where we would like to go to, but somewhere hot with a beach is always a winner!

What’s the one thing you’ll always remember about your wedding day?

The weather! Who would have thought that it would be 15 degrees, sunny and dry, on a November day in the Highlands.

We love these photos and the story behind Katrina and James’ choice of venue. And how amazing is their trailer film?! x