“I was honestly in tears the first time we looked at the photos of our Abercairny Estate wedding, they are just so perfect and everything that we hoped for. So emotional seeing them and re-living the day”
Have you considered an Abercairny Estate wedding? It’s an absolute belter of a venue, with gorgeous grounds to boot! Hannah & Russell picked it for their big day and we were so honoured to get to hang about with them and their precious wee ‘toots!’ :) So we know why we love it – but hey, H+R, why did you pick Abercairny?
“It was really important to us that the venue we picked had a meaning and significance to us, it was also important that Hannah could get ready the morning of the wedding at her family home in Crieff with her Mum and Dad – it was just something she had always wanted to do from when she was little ever thinking about her ‘big day’. When we stepped into Abercairny we knew that it was the one for us. Just outside of Crieff, it had been recently renovated keeping lots of character but modern at the same time, family owned and had the flexibility to have our ceremony outside in their beautiful gardens which we managed to do – not often you get a rain free day in September!”
Did you have any challenges when planning your Abercairny Estate wedding – and if so, how did you overcome them?
“Our venue, The Abercairny Estate, had at the time one main function room which if we were unable to get married outside would need to be ‘turned-around’ twice, once from ceremony to dinner and then dinner to dancing. It was going to be too much to do as we would have needed to do most of it ourselves. We had the option of a formal marquee in the courtyard area but it was the one thing we said from the beginning of planning our wedding that we didn’t want but accepted it would be our back up. The decision to have the marquee or not went right up to the week before the wedding which was slightly stressful but in the end we held out for the ceremony to be outside which worked out perfectly and the weather behaved!”
Was there anything (good or bad!) that came up during your planning which you hadn’t anticipated?
“We wanted to use small and local suppliers where possible and we had not anticipated just how accommodating and flexible they could be, they were all brilliant. Wine Box Events for example provided their marquee free of charge, Gourlay’s accommodated some very last minute changes, Laura Henderson Illustrations had to put up with many many iterations of table plan designs, invite designs and last minute additions. Lovely Things Event Hire dealt with lots of additions and our venue owners were there the day before helping to put flowers into jars and loaning us candle stick holders! Go to local wedding fairs and you will find some real gems to work with and as a bonus you are really helping small business grow and the local economy.”
“Our most vivid memory of the day is sitting at the meal and looking at one another saying “can you believe this is our Wedding?!”, it seemed to hit us both at the exact same moment!”
“We don’t have a favourite photo but rather a set – of us waving our arms. It is something Russell likes to get us to do and I mostly refuse (it is normally when we are walking along the street, hence my reluctance!) so it is just funny to have it captured and really shows how much we are enjoying the day!”
If you could go back and give ‘newly engaged you’ any advice, what would it be?
“If you have a clear vision of what you want then stick to it and try not to let anyone, albeit they might be trying to be helpful, influence your chain of thought. It is your day so have it where you want, invite who you want and most importantly be happy with all the decisions you make because they are going to make your day the one that you have both always wanted.
If you are thinking of doing a wedding which is ‘do it yourself’ be realistic about what you can achieve yourself, don’t be afraid to trust your suppliers to make the decision on what they think would be best on your behalf and take up all the offers of help!
Where you can put personal touches into your day. We used Hannah’s late grans ladies hip flask to have the gin in for the quaich ceremony, a fair isle knitted scarf from Shetland for the hand fasting, Hannah went to the venue in her dads car driven by her sisters boyfriend and the cake was made by Hayley Marshall, a best friend of Hannah’s. Russell’s sister Sally read a Shetland poem during the ceremony in Shetland dialect, most guest didn’t understand it but it doesn’t matter it meant a huge amount to us.”
Planning your own Abercairny Estate wedding? We’d love to hear from you!
It was awesome working with Boda Productions as always – here’s their film of H+R’s day :)
H+R’s Wedding Team (not previously mentioned);
The Bridal Courtyard, Houston Traditional Kiltmakers, Black Orchid Florist, The Stereobeats, Gordon’s Cater Hire, VW Affection, The Steel Bobbin