Rustic Simple & Relaxed DIY Barn Wedding in Scotland

A very warm welcome to WWW readers Emma and Kevin and their Scotland barn wedding. Their day was so gorgeous; rustic, simple and relaxed. And all held at the rustic Dalduff Farm barns, which by the way, were decorated so beautifully.

I love the dusky pink colour scheme, the fresh blooms and the wonderful moon gate flower arch to name just a few. There were stunning outfits, DIY wedding decor, a Harry Potter inspired proposal plus Emma and Kevin even brought along their cool campervan.

LJ Horton Photography I can’t thank you enough for sending over these glorious images for us to swoon over.

Emma on WWW

Myself and Kevin both spent hours looking at other amazing weddings on WWW for inspiration when we were planning ours!

Scotland Barn Wedding

The Proposal

Kevin and I love to travel around Scotland and Kevin knows how much I love Harry Potter so he wanted to include that somehow in the proposal.

We try to get away whenever a free weekend comes up so in October 2019 we rented a campervan and Kevin planned the route of heading to Fort William. We got up super early on the 12th and headed from Fort William to the Glenfinnan Viaduct (as seen in Harry Potter) to watch the sunrise and that’s where Kev popped the question!

No one else was around and it was the most beautiful morning – so pretty perfect!

The Vision

We knew we wanted to have a pretty informal and non-traditional wedding. I always loved the look of barn weddings with lots of lights and flowers! So finding a venue where we could put our own stamp on it was important.

Budget

We managed to keep our budget manageable by doing lots of bits and pieces ourselves!

The Venue

Dalduff Farm in South Ayrshire.

It fitted our vision perfectly and then totally exceeded our expectations on the day! We loved that there are lots of spaces to use and decorate exactly how you want – meaning every wedding looks unique!

Having the farm house and extra lodge on site to stay in made everything much easier and relaxed. The surrounding farm and fields are also stunning and is where we captured some of our favourite photos on the day.

It truly is an incredible venue and is ran by a small team who were all amazing – specifically James and Gemma who went above and beyond! They were also so supportive and accommodating with all the date changes due to covid! Our original wedding date was June 2020.

Your Outfits

My dress was by Mark Lesley from a bridal shop in Bathgate – To Be Wed.

I had always imagined myself in a dress with long lace sleeves and a plunging neckline but ended up with the total opposite! As soon as I tried on my dress, I fell in love with the amazing lace back detail and it made me feel so confident. My dress has small pearl details so I picked a beautiful heel from Dune London to match!

Kevin likes to keep everything simple and was never a fan of a kilt! So, he went with a tailored navy suit by Ted Baker from Slaters in Edinburgh.

The Ceremony & Music

We wanted to have a really simple ceremony with no fluff or faff! Our ceremony was conducted by a Registrar from South Ayrshire council – Margaret Boyce who was so lovely, organised and made us feel so relaxed on the day! It included everything we asked for and was perfect for us.

I walked down the aisle to Everywhere by Fleetwood Mac and back down to Ooh La La by Faces – songs that mean so much to us.

We made our own playlists for during the day and our meal meaning we got to listen to all our favourite songs. Then had a DJ for our evening entertainment. Our first dance was to the acoustic version of The Keeper by Blossoms.

Your Photographer & Filmmaker

Lj Horton Photography

We wanted photos that were bright, natural and romantic and Lj’s style fits that perfectly! As part of our package, we had engagement photos done which we were totally dreading but Lj made us feel so at ease and we had loads of fun doing it – even in the pouring rain which are my favourite photos from the day! It was also a great practice run before the wedding which I would totally recommend to any couple who feel a bit awkward in front of a camera!

On the day, Lj was amazing and blended in perfectly with all our guests. She made us feel at ease the whole day and guided us through the whole process. Every area of the stunning farm was used and Lj captured such beautiful candid moments and I honestly adore every photo. We recommend her to everyone!

Media Images Videography

Jan and Derek were a pleasure to deal with and are such professionals at what they do. Derek and his son filmed on the day and made everyone feel so comfortable. They totally blended into the wedding and captured every detail of the day! We can’t thank them enough for helping us to make such special memories and capturing all the moments that we missed!

The Styling & Decor

The farm and the barns are already so beautiful that less is definitely more! We knew we wanted lots of candles and flowers to match the rustic theme.
As it was a summer wedding, our flowers were a mixture of pinks and lilacs which also helped to tie in with the bridesmaid’s dresses.
We used one company to hire our flower arch, light up-letters and photo-booth (Instapic Photo Booth and Events). But did all the other decorating ourselves which saved us a lot of pennies!
A couple of friends helped us to make our own confetti cones and we used old pallets to display them and for our order of the day sign.
We also bought a lot of things we could use again; a mirror for our table plan and lovely vases and candle jars that we gifted after the wedding.
We collected lots of gin bottles to display our flowers – another cheap option!
For our cake, we went for a simple, ‘naked’ cake decorated with flowers that matched the bouquets.

The Honeymoon

We are lucky enough to have our own campervan which we displayed at our wedding and got great photos with! At the time there were still restrictions on travel so we decided to plan a ‘Mini-moon’ campervan trip in Scotland.

The day after the wedding we drove up to Ullapool and then took the campervan out to the Isle of Harris & Lewis then finished our trip in Fort William where it all began! We had the most amazing week away and had so many beautiful beaches to ourselves. Hopefully, we will get abroad for our ‘big honeymoon’ in 2022!

Memorable Moments

Our dog Maggie means everything to us do being able to have her with us for the whole day was so special! My brother was designated dog-sitter and we managed to get some lovely and special photos with her too!

At the end of the night, playing Loch Lomond is a Scottish wedding tradition but our Dj couldn’t get the song to play! So, one of our friends jumped up on the stage and started singing Wonderwall which everyone joined in with and it was such a great way to end the celebrations – definitely a moment we won’t forget.