A WEST COAST ELOPEMENT AT KILMARTIN CASTLE

Outdoor lovers Catherine and Eurig tied the knot under a beautiful blue sky in the stunning landscape of Kilmartin Castle in Argyll.

Drawing on their Scottish and Welsh heritage, they planned an intimate Humanist wedding, with lots of wildflowers and delicious food! From Eurig’s Welsh kilt to Catherine’s bespoke blue boots peeking out from under her dress, there is so much to love here!

How did you two meet?

We met eight years ago at university on a marine ecology course. We were put in the ‘Lobster’ group for our first group assignment. Eurig had a springer spaniel puppy (this is a very important detail) and another gorgeous dog and invited the whole group to go on a walk to the beach together.

I was the only one who showed up and proceeded to fall in love with the puppy. The beach walks became a regular occurrence and only I kept showing up (despite everyone still being invited) and we found that we had so much in common, our morals, hobbies, dreams… and the rest is history!

What inspired your wedding plans?

Me being Scottish, and Eurig being Welsh, both with an unrelenting passion for the outdoors, we knew that an outdoor wedding was what we wanted with a location in proximity to the beach. Scotland worked best for us with close family ties and also there’s no restriction on where you can tie the knot.

We wanted to keep it really simple, but high quality involving lots of family and friends. With Covid restrictions in mind, in summer 2020 we booked our 10 person wedding with the option to online stream the ceremony.

Kilmartin Castle certainly ticked the box for high quality. It’s a totally luxurious, small castle which suited our tiny wedding perfectly. We opted for a Humanist ceremony which closely aligned to our beliefs, with lots of wildflowers and delicious food!

Tell us about your venue…

We were engaged for three years before deciding to book our venue and we only ever considered Kilmartin Castle. A close friend sent me their website, as she was looking for a location to elope to.

On first look, I knew it would suit our wedding perfectly with beautiful outdoor grounds and a back up grand hall, in case of rainy weather. Stef and Simo, the owners, were super professional, fun and friendly all at once. They sent us details for their local florist, chef, celebrant and photographer, and it was a breeze booking everything.

The location of the venue was really important to us, we wanted to be near the coast for a play on the beach after the ceremony and best of all, they were extremely welcoming of our three dogs!

We hear you found WFIL rather handy in the run up to your wedding… 

I referred to the Covid-19 information page a lot and I was also a member of the WFIL Circle on Facebook. On this group another member gave us advice about Zoom ceremonies and lent us a microphone/speaker for the event too, saving us lots of money.

We love your outfits! Tell us more…

I didn’t try on any dresses and bought one online from Still White. I loved the style and know that my mother-in-law is an incredible seamstress, so we bought some extra lace from the dress maker, Rembo Styling, and tailored it to fit me better.

I also wore blue leather boots made by Conker. I wanted shoes that would look great on the day and last a lifetime of everyday wear. I chose the colour to match the bright blue wildflowers we had, and chose everything from the laces colour to the stitching. Totally luxurious!

Eurig wore a Welsh kilt with a Spirit of Glyndwr tartan. The tartan on his kilt reflected the geographical area that we live in, where there are lots of slate quarries and buildings. We thought it suited him, as a Welsh man, really well.

Your photos are gorgeous! 

We found our photographers, Allta Elopements, through a recommendation from a friend. They started their business in 2020 and are working incredibly hard to establish themselves in the wedding and elopement photography sector.

We loved their style and emphasis on candid photographs. They were enthusiastic, reassuring and had really great communication with us from booking, right through to receiving our photos. They were really awesome and cared so much about our journey with them.

But the thing we most loved about them was their willingness for adventures and going with the flow. On our way to the beach we spotted an incredible bluebell forest in full bloom, it was too much of a temptation not to go so we quickly changed our plans to get some photographs there too. We also pushed them out of a ditch after their car rolled into it on the way to the beach, which they took in really good stride!

Did you manage to stick to your budget?

Yes! We spent a lot on the venue as we only had 10 people attending, but it didn’t blow our budget.

Were there any challenges along the way?

We were really lucky that Covid-19 didn’t disrupt our plans too much! We kept our original date and everyone was healthy and showed up for the day.

A big challenge that we did have to overcome was hosting our extended family and friends on Zoom, so that they could join in with the ceremony. This was a logistical operation which involved remote WiFi hubs, microphone systems and a willing member of the wedding party to also film on a separate moving camera.

Everything went well, except we didn’t factor in that it would be boiling hot on the day and our outdoor setup partly overheated and stopped working. We just didn’t expect 25 degree heat during a Scottish wedding in May!

Any advice?

Don’t feel like you have to fall into traditional elements of a wedding. Do what feels right for you and don’t do things just for the sake of trying to please others. It’s your day!

Tell us more about your florist…

Gill was a dream to find, I had always wanted to be involved in creating our wedding flowers but wanted them to look good at the same time.

So, the day before our wedding Gill brought buckets of locally grown wildflowers and peonies (in a blue / purple / pink / white colour scheme) to the castle, and with her guidance and expertise me and my family got to work making flower crowns, buttonholes, hair pieces, a bouquet and lots of table decorations. We had beautiful lupins and peonies alongside ox eye daisies, foxgloves and bluebells. Totally perfect!

Honeymoon or minimoon?

Oooh, yes we had a minimoon a few days after the ceremony to the very north coast of Scotland. We hired a beautiful house next to a beach that no one else went to. With daily sea swims, lots of tea and left over wedding cake while watching the sea, it was awesome!

What’s the one moment you’ll always remember?

Our springer spaniel dog (the puppy that brought us together in the first place) being our ring bearer on the day. It was a total joy to have all of our dogs join us as they’re so important to us.

SO much to be inspired by here! And we love that Catherine now gets to re-experience the joy of the day every time she pulls on her blue boots. Such a great idea! x