Laura in Suzanne Neville Dali for a Romantic Scottish WeddingMiss Bush

Our real wedding feature today is a work of art; with an exquisitely crafted dress, breathtaking fine art photography and chic, elegant styling. The ceremony and reception took place at the Byre at Inchyra, Perthshire, Scotland, surrounded by stunning parkland that made for the most beautiful portraits.

Laura tells us about her Suzanne Neville dress and romantic Scottish wedding day, in her own words.

SUZANNE NEVILLE DALI

I chose the Suzanne Neville, Dali dress, on my first visit to Miss Bush. I immediately feel in love with the embroidered satin fabric as soon as I saw it, and when I tried it, I loved the simple structured shape, especially the necklace and bodice. The first time I put it on I felt like I was ready to get married right there and then! The material felt heavy and luxurious which I thought was a good fit for a March wedding in Scotland – I knew it was going to be a cold day. And it really was – minus 2 – with an even colder wind, along with flutterings of snow – but I felt amazing in the dress all day. A lot of people were surprised by how traditional a style I had gone for, but I knew I wanted to feel ‘bridal’ with a full skirt, intricate detail and a veil. I felt comfortable, happy and beautiful in the dress all day – and it even survived a night of Ceilidh dancing in one piece!

DRESS SHOPPING

When I found the dress at Miss Bush, I had my mum and sister with me. The reacted to the dress, as well as the expression on my face as soon as I walked out of the changing room. They could see i had immediately fallen in love with it and my mum burst into tears. My sister was equally as enthusiastic and I knew I could really on her to tell me the truth. By this point, I had tried on around 20 dresses in other boutiques – many I had liked, but none of them compared this one. We almost instantly had an unanimous decision – as cliche as it sounds – I had found ‘the one’.

It might sound obvious, but being able to try on so many exquisite dresses was a dream! Rosie who helped me, picked out some amazing dresses I didn’t think I would have considered before but getting a chance to try out so many different styles was a lovely part of the day and all part of the experience. Before I started looking for a dress I was nervous about trying on dresses – thinking I wouldn’t find anything I liked or it would be a stressful experience – but it ended up being an amazing day out, and memorable trip to Ripley from Glasgow with my mum and sister.

STYLING

As the Suzanne Neville dress I chose was more traditional that I had expected, I knew I wanted to style it up and have a bit of fun with accessories. I spent months searching for the perfect pair of white earrings – I wanted them to be glamorous, a little bit quirky but not ‘blingy’. I eventually found the pair I wore on my wedding day – beautiful white tassel drop earrings from Oscar de la Renta. I took them with to my first fitting at Miss Bush and I felt like they worked perfectly with the dress, along with a veil with a satin trim and my hair down.

My shoes on the other hand, I settled on quite quickly; I wanted a low block heel with a pointed toe in a simple style. Realistically I knew they wouldn’t stay white for very long as I was getting married in a barn in the Scottish countryside – so I found the perfect pair of ASOS own brand bridal shoes online, and like I suspected they were more mud than white satin by the end of the night!

I wanted any hair accessories to be lowkey and elegant and I had a pearl or mother of pearl hair slide in mind. I opted for a Simone Rocha pearl clip I found on Net-a-Porter.

A ROMANTIC SCOTTISH WEDDING

I fell in love with our venue straight away – the Byre at Inchyra – because it was relaxed, rustic and I knew that we could add our own style to it, and lots of flowers! Our main inspiration was the quirky boutique hotels and apartments we’ve stayed in while we’ve been traveling. We both love an ‘eclectic’ style with dark colours, patterned fabrics, lots of textures and materials. We didn’t want the table settings or decor to feel too ‘put together’ and wanted to include lots of foliage and flowers to bring some of the beautiful countryside inside. The tables had small poses of wild floors in various shapes and sizes of vases, with tall candles, with floral printed napkins on top of navy and gold menus. Our table plans focused on ‘our favourite people – our favourite places’ and were each named after a favourite city that Niall and I had visited together.

We got married in front of one of the original doors at the Byre, alongside lots of candles and flowers. The words ‘the wonder of you’ were printed on the door behind us after one of our all-time favourite songs by the Villagers.

THE BEST BITS

My favourite part of the day is almost impossible to choose – so I’ve broken it into my top 3 moments:

Walking down the aisle, feeling ecstatically happy to see all my friends and family and Niall waiting for me at the top with a huge smile on his face – just knowing then that this was it, everything had come together and I was about to get married!

Getting a moment of peace and calm when Niall and I went outside for our photographs; it was completely quiet and were were surrounded by fields, highland cows, horses and both wearing our finest! It was our first chance to really talk, hang out and have a laugh just the two of us after the ceremony and I loved it, even though it was FREEZING!

The first dance is all a bit of blur but Ceilidh dancing with my new husband, my best friends and family is something i’ll remember forever. Getting thrown around, twirled and spun in the middle of a barn while carrying my wedding dress train, is absolutely brilliant fun!

ADVICE FROM THE BRIDE

On picking the dress – don’t stress, go with your gut and most importantly pick a dress you feel amazing in right now – even without glam hair, makeup or months of gym sessions. That’s how I felt about mine and why I knew it was right for me.

It might feel stressful at the time, but enjoy the build-up to the wedding – it’s such an exciting couple of weeks leading up to the big day. I tried to be really organised in advance so I could relax the week before the wedding. I was also terrified about walking down the aisle but on the day it didn’t faze me at all – I wish i’d known!