A joyous, spring Drumtochty Castle wedding

The ethereal setting of Drumtochty Glen in Aberdeenshire was the perfect place for Heather and Andrew to tie the knot.

Having originally started planning a marquee wedding, they switched venues midway through and were thrilled with their springtime celebration at the sublime Drumtochty Castle.

From Heather’s rust orange velvet shoes to her fabulous flower crown to the dream wedding team (spot the WFILfam folks, highlighted in orange), there is SO much to love!

How did you two meet?

We went to the same secondary school and were good friends before becoming a couple in fifth year. Andrew (finally) proposed on our 10 year anniversary!

What inspired your wedding plans.

We are not overly traditional, so we didn’t feel particularly constrained by the norms. Our main inspiration was simply to make the day relaxed, comfortable and cosy for us and our guests.

Tell us about your venue…

We actually changed venues mid-way through planning. Originally, we had been going to have a marquee style DIY wedding in the grounds of a private-hire house, but given the uncertainty and the logistics of pulling together loads of different suppliers, we decided to move.

Drumtochty Castle is located in the village where Andrew grew up, so it is very local to us and had such a familiar feeling – we have always admired it from afar! The fact that we could host our closest family and friends together under one roof for the entire wedding weekend really appealed to us.

On top of that, the team at Drumtochty are incredible and took the stress out of our planning! The food throughout the weekend was incredible. We handed the venue a long list of dietary requirements and they handled it with total ease.

We were so well looked after by all of the staff throughout the weekend and it felt really intimate to have the place to ourselves.

We had the ceremony outside the front of the castle and our lovely humanist celebrant was Gary Smith. He acted quickly when a huge gust of wind blew over one of the flower arrangements and gave everyone a chuckle.

As we only had a small number of guests, we held our reception in Drumtochty’s dining room, where we all sat around a single table.

We love your outfits! Tell us more…

My dress was from Catherine Deane (the Loyal gown). I found it shopping online and managed to grab it in the sale! Bridal boutique shopping just wasn’t for me, and being a short girl, I knew that whatever I found would need a lot of adjusting anyway – it felt much easier for me to do it from home.

My dress was very summery, an off-white oyster colour and covered in dotted chiffon and lace detailing. It is absolutely nothing like what I thought I would go for (having no sleeves and being off-white!) but I felt super comfy and relaxed, which is the most important thing in my book. Frances Bean in Stonehaven altered my dress and was so patient and skilful, adjusting it to fit me perfectly.

I also wore a pair of rust orange velvet mules with my dress, as I couldn’t find any ‘traditional’ shoes I liked. I adored them and they gave my outfit a nice pop of colour! Importantly – they were also super comfy. I wore some deep blue sapphire earrings that were gifted to me on the morning of the wedding from Andrew (via his sister) and a beautiful, multi-coloured flower crown made by our wonderful florist, Linda. I had a deep red velvet cardi for later on in the evening when it got cooler.

Andrew wore his own kilt from R Doig & Sons in Montrose, along with his own accessories. His kilt pin was a special gift from his parents some years ago and his watch was a gift from me for his 18th birthday.

Your photos are gorgeous!

We found Loraine Ross when we were trawling through the internet for a Scottish photographer we loved. As soon as we spotted her photos we were instantly drawn to her relaxed, candid and colourful style! She was so knowledgeable and helpful in the run up to the day and more than happy to chat to us when we had any questions.

We love how truly our photos capture our wedding day. Loraine fitted in so well on the day and did such a good job making us feel at ease (without too much posing!). We will cherish our pictures forever and we feel so lucky to have had Loraine there to capture them!

What was your first dance song?

We didn’t plan on having a first dance, but our family and friends were having none of that and after a few glasses of champers we eventually obliged. Andrew put on Billy Joel’s ‘Piano Man’ as he knows it’s a song I love and we had a wee dance to that.

Were there any challenges along the way?

Changing the venue was pretty stressful but we got there in the end! I feel like on the day we totally forgot about anything challenging in the run up to the wedding and just enjoyed every minute. The silent disco was a pretty last-minute addition and we are so glad that we went with it in the end.

Did you manage to stick to your budget?

Yes, but that was helped massively by the small guest list.

Any advice?

Don’t let pressure or tradition dictate your plans. Do what you want, it’s your wedding and the people that love you will love what you do!

Honeymoon or minimoon?

We had originally planned to have a three week trip abroad, maybe travelling around Asia or South America, but we didn’t book anything because of the uncertainty around travel!

Instead, we spent two weeks on the west coast of Scotland – it was glorious. Fingers crossed we can do the big trip next year.

What’s the one moment you will always remember?

Andrew’s brother Neil (best man) lives in New Zealand and wasn’t able to come across for the wedding. He recorded his speech, which Andrew’s dad, Angus played for us on the day. It felt like he was in the room with us, it was perfect – there wasn’t a dry eye in the house!

Because we weren’t originally planning on having a cake, we didn’t really think about the logistics of when to cut the cake and what to cut it with. When the time came after dinner (and after Andrew and I had consumed our fair share of wine with our meal!), we were handed a sword to cut the cake! We were totally shocked and found it absolutely hilarious in equal measures and roared with laughter whilst wielding our sword to cut our cake.

Which of your suppliers completely rocked your wedding day? Anyone you’d like to give a shout out to?

All of our suppliers were amazing and we would recommend them all.

Loraine contributed so much to our day and has given us photos that will keep our memories fresh for a lifetime. The team at Drumtochty were amazing throughout our wedding weekend and made us all feel at home.

Linda, our florist, totally knocked it out of the park with the flowers, they were incredible and we were in total awe. Gary, our humanist celebrant, gave us a relaxed and personal ceremony that we will always remember.

Finally, the Ritz Trio are such a classy group of guys and their music was the perfect addition to our day!

Love Heather and Andrew’s advice – as we always say here at WFIL, you do YOU. x