Fun Outdoor Wedding with A Frame Arch & Pampas Grass

Welcome to what’s set to be another awesome week at Whimsical Wonderland Weddings. I am kicking things off with a beautiful real wedding feature, yay! ✨

Michael and Natalia are joining us with their Elsick House wedding in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, which was held back on the 31st July 2019. Their day was all about ensuring everyone had fun and that’s an ethos I am totally on board with. They held their ceremony outdoors against a striking A-frame flower wedding arch complete with pampas grass and greenery. In fact, the pampas grass and greenery flowed throughout their day, into the gorgeous marquee and the bountiful bouquets.

There is a lot of style (hello gorgeous outfits), a lot of love and so many smiles. All of which have been captured so wonderfully by Firefly and Embers Photography. I am so thankful to be sharing these images with you today.

Elsick House Wedding

The Proposal

We were due to fly to Berlin on the 6th of September 2017 and the night before while we were packing Michael asked me to come down to the beach at the front of our house. The beach is covered in pebbles and a local artist sometimes carved animals into them. Michael told me there was a new one and we should go see it.

When we got to the beach we saw one that had a heart carved on it. Michael told me to turn it over and when I did ‘marry me?’ was carved on it and when I turned back round Michael was down on one knee holding my engagement ring. It was so lovely and we then got to go on holiday for a week and really celebrate!

The Vision

We had SO many different ideas at the start, we thought about going abroad, doing it at home or on the beach. But when we started looking at venues we knew it would be so lovely and that a lot of the stressful planning would be looked after by the professionals. So when we found the venue we loved we started exploring different ideas.

We started off loving the idea of lots of bright beautiful colours but we soon realised it wasn’t very us and the grounds of our venue were so stunning we didn’t want to take away from that. We also wanted our wedding to feel really inclusive of everyone and we wanted it to be above all fun for all ages. That’s what was most important to us.

The Planning Process

The planning process was fairly easy once we had our venue locked in and the caterers that came along with the venue do so much too. Once I had bridesmaids sorted we all bounced ideas around and it was a lot of fun. A lot of my inspiration came from different Instagram accounts so I would spend hours looking on there. Once I loved an idea I would run it by Michael and then I would find the right supplier to make it happen. Everything was actually pretty easy!

The Venue

We chose Elsick House just south of Aberdeen as our venue. I actually found it online in a list of up and coming wedding venues in Scotland. I was so drawn to getting married somewhere that not a lot of people would have heard of, as Aberdeen is pretty small you do tend to go the same venues more than once for weddings. We also didn’t want to leave Aberdeenshire as it’s so beautiful.

When we drove up towards Elsick House we both loved it and could already tell we were going to get married there. When we met Alison who runs the venue she was so warm and knowledgeable and it gave us a great feeling knowing someone like her would be looking after our big day.

The venue is exclusive use so there would be no one there except us and our friends and family and we loved that. The house is also big enough to sleep around 20 people so it meant all our favourite people could stay with us too. We really wanted to get married outside and Elsick has the most stunning gardens so it really ticked all the boxes.

There is a big marquee set up through our summer for your meal and reception and it was absolutely perfect for what we wanted. There was nothing we didn’t love about the venue and I would recommend it a million times over to couples looking for their venue.

The Readings & Music

We wanted music to be a huge part of the day. Natalia walked down the aisle to The Jesus and Mary Chain – ‘Just like honey’ and we had the incredible Amy Papiransky sing ‘home’ by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes during our signing and we walked back up the aisle to ELO’s ‘Mr Blue Sky’

Amy then sang during our drinks reception.

We entered the marquee to a piper playing ‘Mull of Kintyre’ by Wings.

Our first dance was David Bowie ‘Heroes’ and we had Steven Milne from Little Kicks DJ our reception. Our table names were our favourite alternative long songs so music was an important element of the day.

Our readings were done by Natalia’s cousin Sam and Michael’s sister Jo. Sam wrote a poem for us using different lyrics from songs and artist we love and Jo read a beautiful reading by The Dalia Lama.

Your Outfits & Accessories

Michael wore his family tartan, the McLeod tartan and got a custom made kilt from McCalls highland wear in Aberdeen. They looked after everything for him from the shirt, jacket, waistcoat, shoes etc. So it was really easy and convient for him. He chose a gorgeous green tweed jacket and waistcoat to match his kilt and received so many compliments.

I wore an Enzoani dress called ‘Lavender’ that I purchased from perfect bridal rooms in Aberdeen. I had tried on so many different dresses but when I tried this one on I knew straight away it was the one for me. It had beautiful lace details but still felt modern and fashionable and it was extremely comfortable and easy to move in. I ordered my veil online and it was a complete bargain. It was a stunning cathedral veil that really made me feel like a bride. I ordered a really simple pair of nude shoes from ASOS as you wouldn’t see them and I could dance the whole night in them.

I was gifted beautiful teardrop diamond earrings from Michael that I wore on the day. And a stunning Swarovski choker that I wore in the evening once I had changed into my second dress which was a simple silk floor-length dress from ASOS. It was perfect for dancing!

Beauty & Grooming

Michael’s hair was done at Harris and Fox, Aberdeen

Natalia’s hair was done by Nadia from Linton and Mac, Aberdeen

Natalia’s make up Heather from Linton and Mac, Aberdeen

Natalia’s spray tan and eyebrows were done by Rachel at Beautylicious, Aberdeen

Natalia’s nails were done at NailCo Aberdeen

Groomsmen

Michael’s groomsmen were his childhood friends Dave, Christopher and Michael who all wore grey and black kilts also from McCalls Highlandwear, Aberdeen

Bridesmaids

Natalia’s bridesmaids Natalie, Laura, Georgia, Joanne and Caitlin all wore dresses and shoes from ASOS. Really gorgeous boho dresses that were all slightly different and in a mix of either dusty pink or dusty blue. Their hair was done by Hair by Stacey Brown and the hard gorgeous soft curls with braids through out.

The Flowers

Our flowers and styling were done by the incredible Robin’s Egg styling. I really wanted no flowers and was looking for something totally different and botanical/grassy. I always see the same white rose and diamanté look at weddings and wanted the complete opposite! Hazel from Robin’s Egg created an incredible grassy haven with lots of pampas grass and dried coloured grasses. It was absolutely breathtaking and I’ve never seen anything like it.

We even had pops of yellow with a painted A Frame, plinth for our cake and stand for our seating plan. We received so many compliments and I cried when I first saw the whole set up. My bouquet was huge, wild and bushy and not a single flower in sight. The bridesmaids had smaller wild bouquets with pops of colours that really complimented their dresses and again no flowers 🙂

The Cake

We got a really simple naked cake from Marks and Spencer’s and Hazel from Robin’s egg styled it for us with some dried grasses to match our whole look. We added little bride and groom rats to pay homage to our beloved pet rats at home.

The Details & Décor

Robin’s Egg.

Karla at Paperskeleton did our invites, wedding stationery and seating plan. We wanted something really simple and monochrome and she really delivered and did our music theme perfectly! Again we got lots of compliments and it looked so good with our overall decor.

We did a pebble guest book and got everyone to sign pebbles from the beach where Michael proposed. We had a table in the bathrooms with glitters and face stickers for all the wee ones and all the adults joined in with that too! It was a fun element of the day!

Your Photographer

The AMAZING Liana from firefly and embers! Words can’t begin to describe how great she was. She totally understood our dislike for stuffy posed photos and she ran with it and we have some of the coolest, unusual wedding photos we’ve ever seen. We honestly get compliments all the time over our photos and we did an incredible shoot with our bridal party in an abandoned swimming pool. We’ve had people say it could be a picture in vogue or a Burberry campaign.

Gary from Rogues and Queens was our second shooter and he was so easy going and listened to all our ideas. We wouldn’t change a thing about our photos or our experience with our photographers, probably our favourite part of the day was getting our photos done, we had so much fun!

The Honeymoon

We planned an incredible 3 week holiday in Italy but sadly due to Covid-19 it was cancelled. We’re hoping to book it again some day soon!

Memorable Moments

Our swimming pool photo shoot was a big highlight! The fact the weather was so incredible really made our day and Michael’s cousin Darren did a ceilidh for us using all our favourite party songs and everyone absolutely loved it!

Advice For Other Couples

Honestly, just do whatever you want! Everyone on the day is just so happy to be there and share your day. It can be hard not to get caught up in pleasing everyone but at the end of the day it’s your day and you will be so happy it looks the way you wanted it to. Also, try have fun while planning. We really enjoyed ourselves and loved meeting our suppliers! And on the day just try and relax and take it all in because it really is the best day of your lives!

Need to give a HUGE shout to Sarah Hulse our wedding coordinator from Hudsons catering who ran our day for us. She was amazing and so easy going. Nothing was a bother and she was so fun to be around. The entire team at Hudsons we’re fantastic and really looked after our whole day.

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Well wasn’t that just all so lovely?! 😍

Michael and Natalia thank you so much for sharing your beautiful Elsick House wedding with us. I hope you get to have your dream honeymoon soon!