10 THINGS I LEARNED PLANNING MY SCOTTISH WEDDING
My winter wedding was in December 2019 at the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh, Scotland. We were engaged for about 15 months and booked the venue one year before the wedding. We managed to secure most of our suppliers by the January before.
I wanted to share some of the things I found most important in the process, or that I learned along the way. If you want any supplier suggestions just send me a quick email.
1. Enjoy the food tasting
Before I even get to the actual wedding … anything pre-wedding, make the most of. We loved our food tasting, it was just the two of us, and we got quite tipsy to be honest. Looking back we wished we had known and taken the next day off so we could have gone for cocktails after and really made the most of it.
2. Plan those memories!
On the lead up to our wedding I sent our photographer; moodboards, a photo list ( as in formal pictures and who was to be in them ), indoor locations and decided on an outdoor location for just me and my husband to go to.
However, we never actually went to the outdoor location before the wedding and properly scouted the options. It all went well on the day and I love all the photos, but I think it would have been even more efficient if we had been more precise in our plans.
I would suggest taking the time to go and photograph the locations you like ( in and around your venue ) and send those to your photographer too.
Plus … if you can afford it, I would say a videographer is as essential as a photographer. Don’t worry about being camera shy, you don’t even notice them being there on the day and it’s so good to watch after. We couldn’t wait for our video to arrive and absolutely love it!
3. Prepping your clothes
Buy a hand held steamer, steam from a shower does not work! Even the nicest of hotels don’t have them, plus you can practice with it before the big day if you are worried about using it. I bought one for around £30 and it was perfect. I spent a good 30 / 40 minutes steaming my dress and veil the day before, so plan in that time. Also work out where you are going to hang your dress beforehand. Same goes for suits, shirts and kilts - prep them the day before.
4. A stand for readings
About 2 weeks before the wedding we decided to hire a lectern / stand for our ceremony. It was placed at the side of the room and held a microphone too. My brother was very nervous about doing a reading and I think being able to stand behind something, place his notes down and not have to worry about a microphone really helped. It was a last minute decision, but one I’m very happy we made.
5. If there are kids, give them some entertainment
I organised snacks and craft bags for the young kids during the drink reception and dinner. A lot of people forget about the drinks reception, that’s a good 1 or 2 hours where kids need something to do. Everything was as mess free as possible; foam cut-outs, tape dots, stickers and pencils instead of pens. The kids seemed pretty happy - since it was December I made them all Christmas themed which I think helped even more.
6. The big one … plan to be late
I’m normally a late person, only 5 minutes or so, but still I know myself and getting dressed for an event is always a little rushed. My husband joked about it before, that I would be an hour late … well I was just under 45 minutes late.
I had planned and prepared the best I could, scheduled the order in which the wedding party would get their hair and makeup done and added an extra 30 minutes of faff time before the ceremony. It was all very relaxed and seemed to be running to schedule, but the last hour, who knows where it went.
Luckily I had secretly built extra time into the order of the day. I said the ceremony was an hour long, when I knew it was only 30 minutes. We had planned in a greeting line, knowing we could ditch it if we ran over. Which all meant that we still did the speeches on time, had dinner at the right time, greeted evening guests on time etc.
7. Get a confetti cannon
This was the only surprise I didn’t tell anyone about, even my husband. I spent about £50 on it, though I was quoted up to £800 by some companies which is crazy. I found an events company in Glasgow and picked it up myself, and the band plugged it in on stage and set it off as we danced.
It was a total success, no-one knew it was happening and the kids loved it. I bought metallic and paper tissue circle confetti and it floated down like snow. Check with your venue that they allow this before you book it though.
8. Plan your drinks
Firstly, if you are struggling to decide on wedding favours and the environmental impact of them, consider a charity donation or a drinks token. We donated to charity in honour of loved ones who had passed and asked everyone to raise a glass to them during the evening. So we also included a drinks token. This meant our favours were fully recyclable, everyone got a drink they liked, our money went to doing good and nothing was wasted. I have similar drinks tokens in my shop here , or they can be custom made in the wedding suite style of your choice.
Secondly, if your venue has the space, have a water station during the reception. We learned this from other weddings, as it cuts down the bar queue quite a bit. Especially during a ceilidh and dancing, everyone gets very thirsty!
Last of all, if you can, consider those who don’t / can’t drink. I got my venue to make a signature alcohol free cocktail for my pregnant friends to enjoy during dinner instead of wine and prosecco. A lot of venues charge you per adult for drinks, so if they aren’t drinking make sure you get a replacement rather than being charged for a drink they won’t have.
9. Save your centrepieces
If you don’t give your centrepieces to guests or take them home they will just be thrown out, so I had planned on telling my guests that lived close to the venue to take a centrepiece at the end of the night, but of course on the day I forgot.
I think the last two guests took one each, and the band took a couple. Most of the wedding party stayed in the hotel. So the next day we had about 8 centre pieces in our taxi home, which I rearranged and gave to my family and friends.
I enjoyed doing that, but if you don’t like flower arranging just give them away at the end of the night, it’s much easier.
10. Do as little as possible the next day
This is difficult to do if you are having a barn or DIY wedding, but as much as possible ask favours, hire people, whatever you can to not do anything. We had a relaxed breakfast with guests, chilled in our room until the last second of check-out and then got a taxi home with all our stuff ( ... mainly flowers ).
A nice brunch/ lunch or BBQ is also good. But you don’t want to spend your day cleaning up, driving about or organising stuff. Honestly, once we got home we had a nap, got a take-away and opened presents. We were so tired from staying up late the night before!
If you want more details on anything I mentioned feel free to send me an email!