Category Archives: Real Life Weddings

We were delighted when Andrea Benn got in touch about her wedding in early December at the lovely Ednam House Hotel in nearby Kelso in the Scottish Borders.  Here are a few images from the day showing her wonderland winter wedding style, including the natural Scottish palette of her bouquet and a veritable forest of twiglights!

www.mirrorboxphotography.com

www.mirrorboxphotography.com

www.mirrorboxphotography.com

Andrea’s bouquet combined white anenomes, cream roses, freesias and heather in a hand tied posy, finished with pearls and cream lace.  She wore a stunning dress with lace bodice and a fabulous fur wrap.

Andrea wanted to create a sparkling, wintery theme for the dining room with plenty of candles.  Several of the tables were decorated with beech and twisted willow branches and finished off with hanging jars and votives.  We put arrangements of vintage coloured roses at the base of each centrepiece and further candles in stemmed glasses.

Photograph by: Adrian Gould / Borders Photographer

Andrea was keen to use a number of different accessories for the dining tables.  The long oval top table was set with two-tier candelabras.  They contained a mixture of small posies of flowers and candles.

www.mirrorboxphotography.com

On other dining tables glass domes were used to hold the bridesmaids bouquets.

www.mirrorboxphotography.com

www.mirrorboxphotography.com

Andrea used pretty frames for her seating plan and we added small posies of flowers to add colour to the table.

www.mirrorboxphotography.com

The room was finished off with sets of tall glass vases containing a myriad of twiglights to add warmth and sparkle to the outside of the room.

Adrian Gould / Borders Photographer

We wish Andrea and Iain every happiness in their married lives together.

www.mirrorboxphotography.com

Many thanks to Andrea and Iain (and  Sam at www.mirrorboxphotography.com) for allowing us to use their lovely images.  Also a big thank you Ralph Brooks at The Ednam House Hotel for allowing me to take images of the dining room during the set up.

January is a great time to recharge and plan the next adventure, but it’s also a chance to look back and recall the old year.  So before the moment passes, here are some great memories of 2011 and some of the lovely Borders wedding venue couples. I feel very lucky to have been able to work with them and see them celebrate the start of the next chapter of their lives.

Things got off to an early start in February last year with David and Niccie who came up from the Manchester area to celebrate their fabulous wedding weekend at Hoscote.

Hoscote also made the perfect location for Alison and Paul’s spring wedding.  All the spring flowers were out and we put lovely magnolia buds, beech twigs and small orchids in her natural bouquet.

www.dukestudios.co.uk

Hardeep and Ives married at Mellerstain in May.  A fabulous Sikh-Christian fusion wedding, there were beautiful saris in abundance!

www.parmindermatharu.com

Susan and David celebrated their special day (with more traditionally Scottish attire on show) at Mellerstain…

www.brianrobertsonphotography.com

… we couldn’t resist this shot of the bride dancing in more modern footwear!

www.brianrobertsonphotography.com

Nicola and Paul had a really lovely house party wedding at Hoscote in June. The garden was bursting with colour and a wonderful Barn Owl delivered their rings.

www.sheilascottphotography.com

Wendy and Bernie organised a two day wedding extravaganza at The Buccleuch Arms! An intimate wedding ceremony with closest friends and family and 100 guests for a party with Scottish dancers and local haggis the following day.

www.jimcarrollphotography.co.uk

Michelle and Johnny brought along a tandem to their wedding!

www.craigsandersphotography.com

And Michelle and Alan married in the beautiful St Andrews church in Kelso and then celebrated the rest of their day at Mellerstain.

www.jimcarrollphotography.co.uk

Candy and Anthony put their medical studies on hold while they also celebrated at Mellerstain.

www.dukestudios.co.uk

And it was great to welcome Jody and Simon up from London for their Civil Partnership at Hoscote.

www.malinwidstrand.com

Rachel and Jose Maria celebrated their Scottish/Argentinian wedding at Mellerstain and guests sang and swayed to Elvis songs during their humanist ceremony.

www.sheilascottphotography.com

Hilary and Barry celebrated their wedding at Hoscote in style, with Hilary wearing a gorgeous red dress.

Louise and Dan came all the way from Australia to celebrate their vows – we all wanted those fabulous yellow shoes!

www.paulraeburn.co.uk

Becky and Nick’s wedding was split between Mellerstain and Hoscote and was our final celebration for 2011.   Becky got her wish with a fairy-tale dusting of snow.

www.johnbanks-photography.co.uk

To all the Borders wedding venue couples whom we had the pleasure of meeting, and seeing married at one or more of our venues in 2011, a huge thanks for having us be part of your day, and the very best wishes for 2012 and beyond.

A Hoscote House tipi wedding with a green theme was a summer highlight for Get Knotted! This was our first tipi wedding, and the atmosphere was very special and individual. Tonia and Ben, our lovely couple from Newcastle, had a clear idea of what they wanted, and the whole day was very laid back and relaxed – as you might expect from a couple who have been together for 15 years!

The tipis are absolutely magical, and made a wonderful alternative to a wedding marquee. Tonia and Ben had two Sami-style ‘kata’ tipis joined together, making a spectacular silhouette against the backdrop of Hoscote House. Inside was friendly and welcoming, with soaring tipi poles, wooden tables and pretty natural flowers from Wiggly Wigglers carrying through the rustic theme, and a fantastic fire pit which was lit after dinner and threw beautiful flickering shadows on the canvas. The tipis were provided by Highland Tipis, who are bringing a wow factor to weddings all over Scotland with their unusual ‘hat’ tipis.

Tonia and Ben chose to get married under the sweeping copper beech in the Hoscote gardens.  ‘We’d been looking for beautiful wild scenery, a long way from anywhere,’ says Ben, who is a craftsman and cabinetmaker based in Newcastle. ‘Enough modern comforts for older guests, but relaxed enough to throw a great big party for all our friends, where they could all feel at home.’ Solicitor Tonia came across the website after looking for a special wedding venue in the Scottish Borders. Lovely scenery was also a factor when Ben decided to pop the question: ‘4,200m above sea level in the Peruvian Andes, looking down a stunning valley, with a diamond I’d brought out to South America – not perhaps totally spontaneous, but very memorable!’

In keeping with the natural, artisanal theme of the day, Ben also made the cake stand and the cake table, and Borders-based Sizzling Piggy provided a succulent hog roast from their quirky rotisserie trailer with its pigtail-shaped chimney and on-board computer! The Settledown Café in Newcastle manned the barbecue and provided delicious salads, desserts and accompaniments, while the bar was provided by Wilson from the Lauderdale Hotel in Lauder. Excellent music came from The Fabulous Shire Boys – superb multi-instrumentalists who can play everything from ceilidh to funk and have supported top rock and pop artists including Texas, Hue and Cry and Fish.

Tonia and Ben spent their honeymoon travelling around Italy by train, taking in Florence, Pisa, Venice and the northern Tuscany mountains, where, as Ben describes, ‘we kicked back under the clear blue sky for a week in a little stone hut, scrumping fresh figs from the trees. Dumped the hire car and took the train to Venice for a few more days of ‘Bling’ before a slow train back to Paris, England.’ Their ‘little Yorkshire dumpling’ is due to arrive in November, which they say will be a breeze compared to organising a wedding!

All the best for the future to a lovely couple from Get Knotted!

Suppliers:
Wedding tipi: www.highlandtipis.co.uk
Flowers: www.wigglywigglers.co.uk
Hog Roast: www.sizzlingpiggy.co.uk
Catering: www.thesettledown.com
Bar: www.lauderdalehotel.co.uk
Music: The Fabulous Shire Boys, available through www.ceilidhconnections.com

Lindsey Hunter of Get Knotted is a wedding planner for Scotland and the north of England. She’s the in-house wedding planner for four lovely Scottish wedding venues: Mellerstain House, Aikwood Tower, Hoscote Estate, and the Buccleuch Arms Hotel. For more wedding inspiration, visit our gallery.

Mellerstain House, Scottish Borders wedding venue

Warm congratulations to newly-weds Hardeep and Ives, who got married at Mellerstain House in the Scottish Borders, in a gorgeous spring wedding. The couple are from Watford, and met at college 11 years ago when they were 18. Hardeep works with children with behavioural difficulties, and Ives is a painter-decorator and fabulous artist. I was so impressed that romantic Ives went to Paris to buy the ring!

Hardeep’s family are from Kenya and Ives’s family from the Congo, and it was lovely to have the chance to work together on a wonderful Sikh-Christian fusion wedding. Get Knotted has built up considerable experience organising Asian weddings, and we were delighted that Hardeep was impressed with our knowledge of Sikh traditions!

The wedding started on the Friday evening with the Choora ceremony, a pre-wedding Sikh bangle ritual where the bride’s maternal aunt and uncle place red and white bangles on her wrist, with ornaments made of silver and gold tied to the bangles.

On the day itself, London and Manchester caterers Payal provided tea and samosas for all the guests before the ceremony, which was followed by the civil ceremony at 1pm.  Hardeep’s mother had made a special ring cushion, which was exquisitely embroidered.

After the ceremony, photos were taken by talented Parminder Matharu in the beautiful grounds.  Family and friends enjoyed  more of Payal’s fabulous Indian canapes and drinks were served on the lawn.

After the drinks reception, the Payal team provided a delicious Asian meal.  It was great to be working with them again – their food is always cooked freshly on site and is outstanding. They set up outside gazebos and cook with clay ovens and burners, and the smell of the curries is just mouth-watering.

There was also a feast for the eyes with everyone’s gorgeous outfits in such a lovely setting. Hardeep’s beautiful coral saree came from Santoshi in Southall, and she changed into a stunning green outfit for the evening. Her colourful bouquet was by Fiona Halliburton, who did all the flowers and supplied the large pedestals.

Speeches were all heartfelt and moving, and a painting of Hardeep’s grandparents was presented by Ives to Hardeep’s mother.

After the meal, there was a break in the proceedings – some guests went for a walk in the glorious gardens, while others went back to the self-catering accommodation in the grounds of Mellerstain. The West Lodge, Clockhouse Cottage and Courtyard Cottage are only moments from the main house, giving plenty of accommodation on-site for immediate family – 14 in the self-catering cottages and four in the fabulous main house suites –  which is important as lots of couples like to have their close family by them.

Festivities continued into the evening with DJ Bobby Singh from GTown Desi, who played a great mixture of Bhangra and British music. GTown Desi are Scotland’s No. 1 club DJs, and pioneers of the Scottish UrbAsian sound. They’re used to travelling to gigs in Cyprus, Italy and Majorca, as well as Glasgow, Edinburgh and Newcastle Mela, so it was fantastic to welcome them to a Mellerstain wedding!  Payal continued to please guests with their final gourmet menu and the evening ended with the cake cutting of vanilla and chocolate cupcakes.

Photography was by Parm Matharu, who is based down in the south of England.

Inge of Cupcake & Cookie, based near Kelso, provided cupcakes.

Wedding stationery was designed and printed by Rikesh Majithia

Hardeep and Ives spent their honeymoon in Barbados, where they completely switched off for 11 days and enjoyed the beautiful beaches, weather and food – together with a spot of marathon training!

Mellerstain House, Sat May 28 2011

Suppliers:

Photographer: www.parmindermatharu.com
Flowers: www.flowersbyfionahalliburton.co.uk
Catering: www.payal.co.uk
Cupcakes: www.cupcakeandcookie.com
Music: www.gtowndesi.com
Stationery: www.rickydicky.co.uk

Lindsey Hunter of Get Knotted is a wedding planner for Scotland and the north of England. She’s the in-house wedding planner for four lovely Scottish wedding venues: Mellerstain House, Aikwood Tower, Hoscote Estate, and the Buccleuch Arms Hotel. For more wedding inspiration, visit our gallery.

Hoscote House near Hawick gave a sunny spring welcome to Alison and Paul for their houseparty weekend wedding in early April. Alison’s family originate from County Durham and Paul’s parents from Birmingham, and relatives came from as far as Berkshire and Somerset to the Scottish Borders for the occasion.

The couple met through work at NG Bailey and Paul proposed on the romantic Isle of Mull off the west coast of Scotland in May 2009.

Alison was very clear about the sort of look she wanted for her wedding, opting for a wonderful natural bouquet, including lily of the valley, magnolia buds, jasmine, dendrobium orchids, hellebores, beech twigs and a twine handle.  For her table decorations, we used vintage coloured roses, pale pink ranunculus and skimmia in silver teapots, with 19^th century hand-painted cups and saucers surrounding each teapot. Her dress was a Sassi Holford design found at The Bridal Gallery Finedon in Northamptonshire. Sassi Holford also designed the dress worn by Autumn Kelly, Princess Ann’s daughter-in-law, at her wedding in May 2008.

Meldon Catering provided sandwiches and cake for lunch, and then a delicious meal including black pudding and grilled goat’s cheese with sweet chilli dressing, followed by fillet of beef or salmon, and French apple tart. They were also up early on the Sunday to treat guests to a fabulous full Scottish breakfast.

Dominic Ibbotson from Duke Studios in Edinburgh – a VOWS nominee 2010 – was photographer for the day.  He has a great chatty, fun approach and always gets the best out of wedding guests.

Paul and Alison were really thrilled to have their parents and close family relatives with them.  Alison’s 91 year old grandmother, Margaret Howden, really enjoyed herself.  There was a special kiss for her as Alison and Paul walked out of the ceremony.  Margaret was found contentedly crocheting the night away in the conservatory, while the younger guests danced around her during the evening!

Paul’s brother, to whom he is very close, made a very moving speech and was a real support to Paul and guests. Unfortunately, Paul’s mum, Brenda, had a fall and broke her ankle in the gardens.  The weather was beautiful and she was determined for the photographs to continue, so everyone gathered round her for some lovely group shots.  Sadly she missed the meal, as an ambulance took her and her husband, Geoff, to Borders General Hospital. We wish her a speedy recovery.

Alison’s mum, Ruth Howden , did a brilliant job with a lot of the organising, and there were beautiful bouquets to thank mums for all their support.  Arthur, Alison’s dad, looked so proud as they walked into the ceremony.

All the guests had a wonderful time, and everyone loved the fact they there was time to chat over the weekend.

Alison and Paul have just returned from their honeymoon, which included Singapore, Malacca, Penang, Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi off the mainland coast of north western Malaysia.  They flew via Quantas and were treated to two bottles of champagne on the way and another one on the way back.

Suppliers:
Photographer: Duke Studios
Flowers: Get Knotted
Catering: Meldon Catering
Hair and makeup:  Katherine Milby
Piper:  Anthony Carson
Ceilidh band:  Stuart Anderson

Lindsey Hunter of Get Knotted is a wedding planner for Scotland and the north of England. She’s the in-house wedding planner for four lovely Scottish wedding venues: Mellerstain House, Aikwood Tower, Hoscote Estate, and the Buccleuch Arms Hotel. For more wedding inspiration, visit our gallery.