Claire & Doug

Maybe you’ve already had a wee peek at this lovely wedding over on the amazing Rock N Roll Bride blog yesterday but now I also want to blog Claire & Doug’s wedding in it’s full glory. Claire has written a little ‘essay’ as she calls it about her wedding and I thought it would be nice to include it to give you a bit more background info. Claire receives a big fat shiny gold star for all the beautiful DIY details from me and she’s been super sweet and made me one of the gorgeous clay fish too which I look forward to displaying in my new home. So over to Claire and I hope you enjoy the images as much as I loved photographing this wonderful wedding!

Happy Friday me lovelies

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We went on our first family holiday to Strachur last year and when we stumbled upon Inver Cottage Restaurant on the banks of Loch Fyne we fell in love with it. We love all things seafood.  It was during this holiday with our 9 month old daughter, Maggie, that Doug proposed. Directly across from Inver Cottage at the ruins of the old castle Lauchlan (down on one knee if Maggie strapped to him!)
The only place for our wedding ceremony was at Inver Cottage. We both hated the idea of a formal wedding but wanted to share the day with close family and friends and do it in a personal and well thought out way.
Wedding invites were handmade messages in a cork topped bottle. Maggie inviting every guest to the marriage of her mummy and daddy. Using the water beside the venue as inspiration.
Brides dress is by Dessy.  Tried on a variety of “classic wedding” dresses and hated every one. I had cut out an image of a dress with a bateau neckline and pockets and instantly fell in love with its laid back yet elegant appearance.  Walked into Anne Priscilla in Glasgow and there it was. Perfect.  Headpiece is a vintage appearance, hand made Jenny Packham. Saw it and had to have it.
Shoes by Dune
Since studying at Art School and making handbags I have always loved Lulu Guinness. I own at least 20 of her bags and have met the lady in person. She is very 50’s glamour and I knew that was the look I was after. Rather than having a bouquet of flowers I splurged on a classic lip clutch bag of hers. Bangles were a selection of previously owned, borrowed and Accessorise.
Kilt was owned by the groom.
Maggie was my only flower girl and her dress was hand finished by myself. I made the flowers to embellish it from satin ribbon and organza to make it extra cute!
Cake was a selection of cheeses from The Deli, in Troon, where my mum works. Anyone who knows me will know my weak spot for cheese, so that was the evening food taken care of.  Handmade oatcakes by my mum’s work colleague, cheese and port!
Flowers were all handmade by me with some help from my mum, my witness Rosemary and another true friend Allison (not to mention my lunchtime flower-making club girls and boys at school!) (I’m a secondary Art Teacher). The pupils were especially good at the button flowers. They made Maggie’s bouquet for me and I love it. All fabric is vintage scraps I have collected.  Buttons, beads and pearls came from my grans collection and a couple of friends mums.
Bunting was bought from The Gift Horse, Troon.
Vintage wooden Ladders were borrowed from my Aunt and painted white to put our only selection of fresh flowers on.
Music was my long-time friend and musician Ned Goodwin.
I grew up with memories of going to the seaside and eating fish and chips from newspaper wrapping and wanted this for ours with a modern twist, so we bought a few newspapers when Kate and Wills got married for the photograph and headlines, then doctored it by superimposing our faces, and Maggie’s on top of the image of their balcony kiss. Changed the headlines so that we were the headline news of the day and got it printed locally. We then made these up into 50 paper baskets for our “fish suppers” to be served in (even asking our local chippy if we could have 50 of the paper trays that they use as the template shape.)
The first toast was paid for by selling my first ever car (that had been parked up in the garage at my parents house for the last 14 years!!) A mini that my Granda had bought cheap and done up for me to use as a car to get me to and from Art School. It had turned into a rust bucket but as my Granda had had given it to me, and he is no longer here, my  mum wouldn’t part with it. This was a nice way of him being part of the day. And toasting to Doug, Maggie and I. The lucky horseshoe off the front grill was saved before it left for the scrapyard, and was my lucky horseshoe on the day!

Carrying on the fish theme and to add some decoration to the table I handmade 50 clay hanging fish as favours.  I made these by going into school at weekends and using the ceramic room there to add glazes and to kiln fire.  Each one is different and marked with the date of our wedding on the back.
Each name tag for table seating plans was stitched on and embellished with vintage beads and buttons to carry the vintage craft theme.
Entertainment for the guests while photos were happening was a couple of local artists from Fyne Studios who do Brushstroke Memories where guests were invited to add to a painting of our day that we could take home and have forever.  It was perfect.  Our friends and family painted Inver cottege, the ruins of the castle, and what was happening on the top, and underneath the water, continuing fish theme.  Maggie added the rainbow.  And we finished off the painting by adding 2 hearts over Inver Cottage.

The weather was perfect and our day was the relaxed and personal day we had always dreamed of.