Elaine and Alan were lucky enough to have pretty snow fall on their January wedding at House For An Art Lover, Glasgow. It made for the prettiest of images. I love their proposal story, having been together for a year, they planned their wedding within just 3 months.
They wanted their wedding to be romantic, personal and intimate. They had Elaine’s mum make the beautiful vintage inspired cake, pink and green roses and fudge favours.
Elaine looked amazing in her tulle dress and glamorous up do, while Alan donned a kilt in grey spirit tartan. They looked so gorgeous. Such a lovely couple.
Thanks so much to the fantastic Linzie Russo Photography for sharing her images with us today, here is what she had to say about the day;
“I met Elaine and Allan about 6 weeks before the big day and couldn’t believe they had only known each other for a year. But that was like my husband John and I. We got married 18 months after meeting. When you know, you know! We talked about how we had hoped for a sunny frosty day as it would make the photos lovely. But we live in Scotland and more often it is just grey and wet! When the day arrived, the forecast said snow for 2pm…if only! But as I looked out the window it was raining. Typical! Elaine was incredibly calm when I arrived at the hotel, everyone was. Her dress was gorgeous. Totally different to what I thought she would have chosen. Being tall and slim it hung beautifully from her and her make-up was subtle, yet gorgeous. She looked amazing. House For An Art Lover is a fabulous location for a wedding. The staff are also one of the best I have come across. They did everything they could to help make the day even more perfect. Once the ceremony was over I managed to talk them into going outside. The snow had finally made an appearance, however it wasn’t settling. We headed out to the garden and as soon as I started photographing them the snow began to lay on the ground. Elaine was awesome. Dumping the umbrella and embracing the winter weather. It couldn’t have been more prefect. My favourite shot is the portrait of Elaine where you can see a snowflake on her eyelashes. Love it. Elaine & Allan were fabulous to work with and made the wedding an utter joy to photograph. Elaine and I have remained friends since, which is lovely.”
The Proposal…. Alan originally proposed to me in my living room when we’d been together about 6 months. He came back from the shop with a bag of Haribo sweets then, with a jelly ring, got down on one knee and proposed. I actually thought he was kidding so took the ring and ate it! It just turned into a kind of a running joke for the next few months so in the end up Alan & I didn’t get “engaged” in the typical sense.
Our whole relationship had been a bit of a whirlwind; we met in Dec 2011 and have hardly spent a day apart since. Towards the end of last year we had a conversation about where we each might like to get married one day, what type of wedding we would like etc. I mentioned that I liked HFAAL, Alan had never heard of it, so looked it up and noticed they had an open day in October, we went along and both loved it. I really liked the idea of a winter wedding so we originally checked what dates they had next winter. Then, again, kind of jokingly, said that we should see if they had anything THIS winter and if they did then we’d just do it. Turns out they did, so we booked it and that was that! We were getting married!! We decided that we weren’t going to do the engagement thing or announcement and so we didn’t tell anyone until the end of October when the venue was booked. However, on the 18th of December I came home from work and as I walked through the door, Alan was on one knee again (but this time the ring wasn’t jelly)!! We did it a bit back to front I guess but we got there in the end. ;)
The Vision for the day…. A romantic, personal, informal day that represented us as a couple but most of all we just wanted everyone to have a great day. We wanted a small wedding surrounded by only our closest friends and family.
The Planning process…. Giving yourselves 3 months to plan a wedding doesn’t really allow for much of a “planning process” It was a case of writing a list of what we needed to do in order of priority & working our way through it as fast as possible! We’re both usually fairly indecisive but we had to learn how to make fast decisions!!! There were a few stressful moments; the dress only arrived the week before the wedding, the invitations were a wee bit late going out, and we (Elaine) had a few last minute hiccups but none of it mattered on the day, which was perfect!
Budget…. £10,000
The Venue… The beautiful, Charles Rennie McIntosh designed, House for an art lover, in Bellahouston Park, Glasgow.
The Dress + Accessories….. THE Dress was “Miriam” by British designer Lisa Marie, it had a silk bodice with a low waist a low and a tulle skirt, it has no train but it didn’t need it. I added a vintage inspired Miranda Templeton belt to the dress for a more vintage look.
I absolutely adored my hair band which was made by Karen of bridal bliss online, I showed her a picture of the belt I was having added to my dress and she designed my headband to compliment it. I would never have been able to buy something off the shelf that matched so well and it was less expensive than a lot of head bands that I looked at in bridal shops.
I wore my little sisters wedding pearl necklace and earrings which are gorgeous & counted as my something borrowed.
Finding the dress…. My 2 sisters came shopping with me on a rare and last minute day off. The dress I bought was the 1st one I tried on! I thought what I was looking for was a lace, slim-fitting A-line dress, the last thing I wanted was tulle, and I actually tried on what turned out to be MY dress, for a bit of a laugh! But I tried others on after it & nothing compared, then when I put it back on, added the vintage style belt and my (and a sister or 2’s) eyes started leaking, I knew that was the one I had to get.
Groom’s attire… Alan wore a full kilt outfit in grey spirit tartan with a dark grey tweed jacket and a traditional plaid and brooch from Guilted Edge.
The Readings + Music…. I came down the aisle to “The Secret wedding” from Braveheart and we came back up to Caledonia both played on the bagpipes by family friend. We had a humanist ceremony so we had free rein to pick whatever we wanted. The readings we had were “A red red rose” by Rabbie Burns as the wedding was on Burns day. Alan and I have been known to talk to each other in dinosaur (Rawr) and we were keen for the ceremony to be light hearted so we also had “A lovely love story” by Edward Monkton.
The 1st dance was Bob Dylan/Adele “Make you feel my love”. Alan sent me a link to the song not long after we met (trying to tell me something, without actually telling me??!!??) so it has always reminded me of him.
Beautiful bridesmaids….. I only had one Bridesmaid, my oldest friend Gayle who I grew up across the road from & have known my whole life. She didn’t arrive in to Glasgow from a business trip to Boston until 8am the morning of the wedding, but she had left a day early flown over night to make it back in time and then she spent an hour sitting on the floor “blinging” up the wedding wellies for me, Champagne in one hand, nail glue in the other. She clearly took her duties very seriously.
I also had my gorgeous 1 year old niece as a flower girl and my 7 month old nephew as a Paige boy.
The Flowers… I was keen for my flowers to have a romantic feel & be vintage type colours; I didn’t want anything too severe or structured. I am not arty in any way so was a bit worried about trying to explain what I wanted to my florist, but Ruby at Ruby flowers seemed to know exactly what I wanted and was brilliant, especially as I was on a fairly tight budget. She did an amazing job with my bouquet and pedestal arrangements.
The Cake… My mum makes wedding cakes/cupcakes so we were lucky in that respect. Ours was an extra deep, ivory 3 tier cake with a wide ribbon and bow, the colour of my bridesmaids dress, on the middle tier, lace appliqué effect sugar plaques round the tops of the tiers and fresh flowers to match my bouquet. We couldn’t decide on a flavour so each tier was different, 1 chocolate, 1 sticky toffee and 1 carrot cake. My mum did an amazing job and despite a wee accident with the cake on the wedding day, it was beautiful.
We also had cake-pops in the shape of Dalmatians (as we have 2) which we served with the tea & coffee after the meal, they added a wee fun element as well as being absolutely delicious.
Your Photographer…. Our photographer was the brilliant Linzie Russo. She was recommended to us, as we wanted very informal photos and really wanted someone who could capture the fun, relaxed & happy atmosphere of the day. Linzie’s style, which I’m reliably informed is “photojournalistic”, was perfect for this and, as well as the amazing outdoor photos (already known amongst our friends as “THE snow pics”) she got some beautiful shots during the ceremony, that we absolutely love, without us even noticing she was there. She really is the “ninja” she said!! She’s also very easy going and as both of us hate getting our picture taken; this really helped put us at ease. ;)
The Details + Decor…. The venue was so beautiful we didn’t need much decoration. All we had during the ceremony were 2 pedestal arrangements. We had a wishing tree rather than a guest book as we loved the way it looked and felt it went well with the vintage elements on the day, we also had a lovely vintage bird cage that we used as a post box for our wedding cards.
We named our tables in the style of “Friends” episodes titles, but personalised them to someone (or some people) at each table; “the one with the the godfather” “the one where they would like to be superheroes” “the one with the bride and groom” etc. We chose this partly as we watch Friends episodes constantly, but also as we thought it might be a conversation starter for guests that hadn’t met each other before.
We had a humanist ceremony, which was lovely as it enabled us to put more of ourselves into it and make it really personal. We included traditional hand fasting as we liked the idea of a physical symbol of our hands being bound together (it’s where the expression tying-the-knot comes from) and it also gave us another memento of the day, the knot was tied from the same tartan as Alan’s kilt. We also included “3 reasons” in the ceremony, prior to the day we both gave our Celebrant 3 reasons why we love each other, and they were read out as part of the service. It added an emotional element to it and also meant that there was something in the ceremony that was a surprise to each of us.
The Honeymoon…. We had a very snowy 5 day mini-moon with our 2 Dalmatians at a log cabin in Glen Clova straight after the wedding, but we are honeymooning in May in Kenya, Dubai and the Maldives.
Memorable moments… Alan had given my friend a gorgeous Tiffany necklace & card to give me the morning of the wedding and despite not thinking I would cry at all throughout the day, receiving that set me off before I’d even got out my bed!! Alan – Turning round to see Elaine as she got to the bottom of the aisle to meet me. It started to snow heavily just as we went out to get pics taken. The best man (my new brother-in-law) nearly making me cry again by included a Rabbie Burns quote as part of his speech. “She asked why wedding rings are made of gold; I ventured this to instruct her; Why, madam, love and lightning are the same, On earth they glance, from Heaven they came. Love is the soul’s electric flame, And gold its best conductor.” It was fitting as it was 25th January but it was so unexpected of him and I was touched he’d put so much effort into our day, we intend to have it engraved on a frame of one of the wedding pictures.
Advice for other couples… Consider different types of ceremony, religious or registrar are not your only options. Don’t sweat the small stuff, its easy to get bogged down in the tiny details (esp. for the bride) but on the day no one will notice if your shoes aren’t the EXACT same colour as your dress, nor will they care that uncle Jimmy and Aunt Vi aren’t sitting at a table with Josie and Johnny! Everyone says STOP for a few minutes and take it all in, its true, it all goes by so fast and its so hard to remember, but its not always possible so, failing that – make sure you tell everyone to take loads of pictures! We could hardly remember anything, as the day went by in such a blur, but photos from Linzie and our guests have really helped us remember and see just what an amazing day it was and how much everyone enjoyed themselves! Hire a band – If you can find it in your budget to afford live music then do! It makes such a difference to the atmosphere, loads of our guests commented on how much they enjoyed our band, they were brilliant. Have a separate drinks reception for your evening guests so you get to spend a little time with each of them, it really makes them feel included in the day. Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want, especially of your venue. It’s your day and you are paying a lot of money for it. The worst they can do is say no, but more than likely they’ll be happy to try to help with whatever they can. Our venue were great in that respect.
Credit where credit is due…
House for an art lover – www.houseforanartlover.co.uk
Linzie Russo photography – www.linzierussophotography.com
Dress - www.lisamarie.org.uk
Brides hairband – www.bridalblissonline
Bridesmaids accessories – www.bellabrilla.com
Cake – Cupcakes and crafts, Aberdeen 01358 724694
Celebrant – www.fuzeceremonies.co.uk
Daytura wedding band – www.daytura.com
Cake pops – www.nancysfancies.co.uk
Oh i do love a snowy wedding, how utterly romantic. Thanks so much to Elaine and Alan for sharing their wedding with us today XOXO Lou