Hippy-Vibe Tiny Forest Wedding With Humanist Ceremony & Multicolours

George and Gemma’s tiny forest Glen Dye wedding was all kinds of beautiful! Just wait until you see the outfits which ooze hippy style, the sensational multicolour blooms and the gorgeous personal humanist wedding ceremony in the forest. Swoon.

You see, George and Gemma decided to elope to Scotland with their two boys and their closest loved ones for a micro wedding celebration. They then honeymooned in the same location for another week of adventures together. It all sounded so perfect.

They really made sure their wedding was personal to them and their ceremony especially represented who they are. Perfect! Emma Lawson, thank you so much for sharing these seriously dreamy images with us. Enjoy it all.

Glen Dye Wedding

The Proposal

Many moons ago, on a beach in Cornwall. Unexpected, on one knee, with his grandmother’s engagement ring.

The Vision

We always knew that we didn’t want a ‘traditional’ wedding, and had booked the holiday first at Glen Dye. It was a couple of months later that we realised it would be a great opportunity to finally elope and have a micro-wedding surrounded by nature with our sons and a handful of people.

We wanted something simple but fun and meaningful to us. The wedding planner at Glendye recommended exceptional people (below) to help us bring the day together; it was pretty organic and relaxed. Flowers and food led the way!

Budget

£5k

The Venue

Glendye Cabins and Cottages, Banchory, Scotland

Your Outfits

I chose the Thistle dress from Meadows – I loved the simplicity of the dress and its style, it has a lot of material so flowed really beautifully. I chose some gold flat sandals with a bow from Zara. I wanted to let the flower crown and bouquet really sing!

George – pop-over, floral print shirt (by Engineered Garments). Navy flat front chino – Engineered Garments, shoes hand sewn Ranger Moc by Yuketen. The floral shirt was perfect for the woodland wedding.

A micro-wedding in a forest really didn’t demand a traditional wedding dress and suit, so we chose a fairly relaxed dress and outfit and we felt really comfortable and ‘like us’ as a result.

The Ceremony & Music

We wanted a Humanist ceremony and civil partnership as that reflected our values. Neil Lynch was recommended to us by the wedding planner at Glen Dye and he led the ceremony wonderfully. We chose poetry and readings to be shared, and he asked us to share our ‘story’, our hopes and what marriage meant to us – all of which he wove into the ceremony to create a really moving and personalised event.

There were tears and lots of laughter. Neil also brings his dog Tanni to the weddings which our young sons loved. We added symbolic gestures including Hand Fasting and Drinking from a Quaich, which felt really special.

Over dinner (sublime food and service by the Liam and Inca from Kate’s Bespoke Catering) we listened to records including the soundtrack of South Pacific – dreamy, swirling, romance!

Your Photographer & Filmmaker

Emma Lawson was another superb recommendation – she was utterly delightful and made us feel really at ease. She captured the day perfectly and the quality of her work is amazing. At such a small wedding, we wanted to capture the day to share with family and friends and having someone like Emma there was wonderful to document it in such a way we will cherish.

The Styling & Decor

Styling-wise it was really all about the flowers! Again, we chose something bright and vibrant so as to avoid the traditional ‘white’. Jill at Hays Flowers (another tremendous recommendation) created a truly beautiful flower arch using local flora and fauna, flower crown, bouquet and table decorations.

Rachel at Glendye led the styling and décor for the wedding setting and the party/meal. We simply requested ‘colourful’ and Rachel did the rest! She added the crockery, glasswear, table decorations, flags, banners and candles. We loved it!

The Honeymoon

We stayed for a second week at Glendye Cabins and Cottages, moving to the cottage ‘Cuttie Shillock’ for the Honeymoon week. Jill (Hays Flowers) and Rachel (Glen Dye) cut the flowers from the flower arch and filled the cottage with vases of wedding flowers for us to enjoy for the week. Cuttie Shillock was exceptionally beautiful – we adore the styling of the cottages at Glen Dye – and very peaceful.

We had a wonderful week relaxing and exploring the area with our sons. It is such a magical place, we enjoyed river swims, forest walks, castles and the beach.

Memorable Moments

• Watching the rain stop moments before the ceremony and enjoying the fresh vibrancy of the forest after rainfall.
• The stunning setting of Glen Dye and the beautiful flowers and décor.
• Hand Fasting – our son Rex sprinkled the water (collected from the River Dye that day) on our hands to confirm our union, in the traditional Celtic manner. Beautiful to involve him in the ceremony.

Advice For Other Couples

We feel privileged to have been recommended exceptional people to help us create our day. We were pretty relaxed about what we wanted and we absolutely put our trust in each and they wowed us with their work. Each took time to understand what we were looking for and despite the micro-wedding scale of our day, made us feel that it was an important day. Equally, each person was incredibly lovely and positive and a joy to share our day with! So seek recommendations and if you’re met with warmth and it feels right, put your trust in them and be wowed!

Prior to the wedding I hadn’t given much consideration as to who would lead the ceremony and hadn’t understood until we met with our celebrant, Neil Lynch, the rich opportunity we had to ‘change the script’ and create a really personal ceremony. He was masterful at creating a warm and informal ceremony that was really moving and captured ‘us’ so well. So, advice – take time to consider this aspect and choose someone that can help shape a ceremony that’s perfect for you.

Oh my! What a treat.

George and Gemma thanks so much for sharing your incredible special Glen Dye wedding with us.