Tag Archives: scotland

Love Gets Sweeter

I’ve got a lot of submissions that I am struggling to get through at the moment so I’m really pleased that I have finally managed to put pen to paper (so to speak) and get this up on LMW, as it definitely worth sharing with you guys. When Charlene, from Love Gets Sweeter, emailed me and asked me what I thought of her work – gorgeous, enthralling and completely engaging were a couple of words that sprang to mind.

The first is the wedding of Evie (love that name!) & Jamie on New Years Eve, turn up the volume and enjoy…

“It’s always hard filming a wedding of a friend in the wedding business! Evie is a brilliant wedding photographer so we knew there would be a lot of imagination and creativity going into her own day as she’s seen so many amazing weddings! They got married in Jamie’s Mums local church which meant it was extra special for everyone. Every wedding has something go wrong and on this occasion the bride arrived before the bridesmaids as they got stuck in traffic! Poor Jamie looked ever so nervous at the front of the church but the vicar kept everyone informed about what was happening outside! But it was the reception venue that had the real wow factor! They took us to see their Uncles Nursery just before Christmas and we just couldn’t begin to imagine how they would turn the huge empty green house into a fabulous wedding venue. Needless to say, Evie’s amazing vision and the hard work of all their family and friends really did blow us away on the day! She had hand made so many things from her bouquet and hair band to the silver sprayed branches and table centre pieces. It really is enough to inspire any bride to be creative and add a personal touch to their day.”

The second film is from the wedding of Cristina and Mark-Paul who were married in Aviemore, Scottish Highlands – brilliant song choice

“This whole wedding was like a big adventure! We were unable to meet before the big day so we got to know each other by chatting via email and Facebook. We made the epic 6 ½ hour trip up to Aviemore-an adventure in itself-and over the next two days allowed ourselves to be completely swept up in the wedding! Their ceremony was held at the same church Christina’s Mum and Dad were married and their reception was held at a friend’s home down the road. It was great to see their personalities shine through and seeing different cultures of Spanish and British together was fascinating! A particular favourite Spanish tradition was when the groom had to remove the brides garter blindfolded…in front of everyone! The fun really began for me in the edit. I only get to see the groom’s footage at this point and what we got of him with his family and friends was hysterical! From being part of such an intimate day I really felt I had got to know them enough that I could try something a little different. I couldn’t resist trying Bjorks ‘It’s Oh So Quiet’ to reflect their different personalities and sum them up as a couple. It worked beautifully and Cristina even said ‘We absolutely love the video and Bjork is a perfect song, especially for the crazy man!”

* Where did you get the inspiration from to set up ‘Love Gets Sweeter’
What better inspiration than our own wedding film? We had never even seen a wedding film before we started our own, I just knew that I wanted to take advantage of some very talented cameraman friends! With my background in editing and love of all things wedding, the film came together very naturally and we even had a screening for our friends and family! Everyone loved it and I had friends of friends asking if I could do theirs. Before I knew it my husband Lee had surprised me with a web domain named after our first dance song, Love Gets Sweeter. He even got a web designer on the case to start creating our very own personalised web page!
Throughout my life I have been inspired by films and wedding films are no different. I love creating something so unique and personal for each film to really reflect the couples personalities. The whole process from the initial meeting, the chats in between and the wedding day itself is great to be a part of and I’m really passionate about making the effort to get to know each couple so I can really create THEIR wedding film. I really want them to be able to feel and relive the emotions of the day just by watching their film. Our wedding day was over a year ago now and we still get goosebumps watching our film on our phones. We’ve even had strangers cry while watching ours and I can honestly say our photographs haven’t had that effect! A beautiful wedding film should be more than just a camera filming your day. It should capture the atmosphere of the day and the personalities of the couple as well as being something that looks stunning for years to come. You only have one wedding day that you may have spent years planning, so having a wedding film is definitely worth the investment to complement your wedding photographs.
I’m what you could call the creative mind behind all of our work and my husband plays the very important role of being the business mind-as well using his design skills to create our beautiful DVD cases! We make a great team and after meeting couples they always comment on our joint enthusiasm and how they love hearing a different perspective on why they should invest in a wedding film.

* What are the costs involved for hiring you, and what about travel?
We found it hard to make a ‘standard’ package that would fit each couple. Every wedding is different so we created 3 packages starting from £900 up to £1600 with a list of extras to help each couple create a completely bespoke wedding DVD. We’ve had grooms film their arrival in a helicopter so we’ve added that to their final DVD and even out takes reels for all those bloopers and guest messages. It really is possible to add personality to your wedding film!
We don’t like to put a time limit on the day either and like to capture everything that is important to the couple in order to make the perfect film, from the bridal prep (and sometimes even the groom!) right through to the first dance and some of the evening entertainment.
We are based in Burscough, Lancashire but enjoy travel ling nationally and have covered weddings all over the UK. From Somerset and Oxfordshire to Altrincham and Aviemore! Some locations may require additional mileage costs or overnight accommodation so time is not limited on the day.

Do be sure to have a look at the site, Love Gets Sweeter and tell me what you think. Are you planning on having your wedding filmed? I didn’t but now I have seen these I sort of wish I had …..

13 Gorgeous Wedding Buttonholes

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I’m not sure if you know that I have a little obsession with buttonholes. Yes I have written about it before on LMW (buttonholes fit for a wedding), but I wanted to do an updated post with these photos as they’re really crisp and clear (just like a groom’s buttonhole should be).
BTW all of these gorgeous wedding buttonholes were created by Planet Flowers and photographed by Rankine Photography.

(1) Rose; (2) Eryngium; (3) Phalaenopsis Orchid

(4) Rose + Lily of the Valley + Stephanotis; (5) Rose; (6) Eryngium + White Heather

(7) Cymbidium Orchid; (8) Rose + mixed berries; (9) Lily of the Valley + Heather

(10) Rose + Berry; (11) Calla + Mokara Orchid

(12) Rose + Lily of the Valley; (13) Spray Rose

Gemma @ Planet Flowers – thank you for feeding my obsession with buttonholes (and talking us through all the different flowers involved). I have to say that Planet Flowers are one of my favourite florists and come highly recommended – I know many of the scottish photographers that I feature on LMW work with them regularly and speak very highly of them. Do make sure that you check out their site, Planet Flowers, for more examples of their work.

Which of these do you like? Please share with us what you are planning for your wedding…

Real Wedding *Belita & Rich, Edinburgh

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Ditte, from First Light Wedding Photography talks me through this gorgeous Scottish wedding that she photographed last summer. Lovely photos of the bride’s wedding dress from Pronovias and shoes by Emmy (- one of my favourite designers. In fact I wanted Emmy shoes for my wedding but I couldn’t quite stretch to that budget so I had to make do with a pair from Kurt Geiger!)

“The wedding took place on 31st July in Scotland near Duns, Berwickshire on Belita’s aunt and uncle’s farm. From the first time we met Belita and Richard we loved their closeness and the way they just make each other complete. They had such a vivid idea of how they wanted their wedding day to look. They had chosen a Midsummer Nights’ Dream theme to their day with lots of gorgeous touches. The attention to detail really blew us away!”

The flowers were by a family friend, Fiona, from Northumberland. I think that they are absolutely wonderful – she doesn’t have a company name (or website) so unfortunately I am not able to say anything more than I’m very impressed Fiona!

This has to be one of my favourite photos from their weddings….

Place names were luggage tags, attached to napkins with silk string. Each name was beautifully written in calligraphy by a friend of the family.

Rather than displaying a table plan, the couple had hung up little envelopes with guests’ names on them that also showed which table guests were seated at. The envelopes also served as favours, as inside each one was a lottery slip for that night’s lottery – Love that idea!

Flowers on the tables were displayed in old teapots, collected at flea markets by the couple.

Belita, the bride said, “Meeting Ditte and Chris was an unexpected bonus of getting married! We couldn’t have asked for two more pleasant, professional or talented people to photograph our wedding; they listened to exactly what we wanted, were on top of everything (including all the things we hadn’t thought of) and were faultless on the day. We will treasure the beautiful photos they took of our wedding for our whole lives.”

A big thanks to Ditte for sending me this gorgeous wedding to feature on my wedding blog and congratulations to Belita & Rich on a wonderful day. Do be sure to check out First Light Wedding Photography for more information on this fab scottish photography duo…..

Real Wedding * Marina & Peter, Glenfinnan, Scotland

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(I don’t know if you’ve noticed but recently I’ve been struggling to post regularly on LMW – there has been so much going on with work, babies, and tiredness during my pregnancy, that it seems there is never enough hours in the day. Am I the only one?!?? As a result I have loads of submissions and emails that I am struggling to keep on top of – this wedding I have had for a while – I’ve been desperate to share it with you, so finally I manage to put finger to keyboard and get it up on LMW – Yay!)

I LOVE this wedding, the scottish scenery is absolutely stunning, the couple gorgeous and the photos from Elemental Weddings are brilliant – they have captured some very special moments. Marina and Peter got married at St Mary & St Finnan’s RC Church and then had their reception afterwards at Glenfinnan House Hotel, Glenfinnan nr Fort William – joined by their daughters who were bridesmaids. Marina’s dress was from a local bridal shop called Ring o Roses in Sydenham, its a Davis dress by Pronovias and the tiara came from there too. The adult bridesmaids were in dresses from Debenhams, and Marina’s little girls’ dresses from Just Dresses in Tunbridge Wells (don’t they look cute!).Forget me Nots in Fort William did the flowers. I am loving the wedding car too (I want one of those) Marina told me, “It’s hard to say what the best thing about the wedding was as we had such a wonderful time, we wanted to do it again! Everything was just perfect! I guess, the weather was just truly spectacular, given that it hadn’t stopped raining there for two months straight. Both Pete and I lost our Dad’s in 2007, and believe they had something to do with clearing the rain clouds that day. To top it off, we actually saw a stag in the grass outside of the church after the ceremony, and heard the steam train in the church while we were taking our photo’s, both of which again reminded us of our Dad’s, it was like they were both there in a weird kind of way. In addition to that, my Mum, a native Italian, who is very hard to please, told us both that our wedding was the best she had ever been to (and my Italian cousins have had very spectacular do’s in their time).”Christina, from Elemental Wedding Photography, told me
“We were really excited about photographing Marina and Peter’s wedding. They are a lovely couple and Glenfinnan is located in one of our favourite parts of Scotland – the scenery is spectacular! The day itself was beautiful in every way – from the reactions’ of their young daughters when seeing their mum as a bride, to the emotion on Peter’s face when his three girls walked up the aisle. It was wonderful to be part of it.” I always like to ask about the wedding table names (because I wrote a post on popular wedding table names). Marina told me that her and Peter choose songs from their mutual favourite band The Stone Roses and had the following:
Top Table – This is the one, Sally Cinnamon, Fools Gold, She Bangs The Drum, Love Spreads, Elephant Stone, Waterfall

Aren’t these photos stunning (and the scenery just amazing)??. I have featured lots of real weddings photographed by Elemental Weddings so do have a look at those too (click here to view Elemental Weddings on LMW), or click here to have a look at all the Scottish Weddings that have been featured on LMW.

Real Wedding * Alexis & Gary, Loch Lomond, Scotland.

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I couldn’t resist but post this gorgeous wedding that took place in Loch Lomond, Scotland – The photos are stunning, the scenery breathtaking, and the happy couple seem to be having a brilliant day . Whats more Alexis, the bride, is a hair stylist and make up artist that I have known for a while, having featured her work a year or so ago on Little Miss Wedding (Wedding hair and Make up London).
Wedding photographer, Amy Murrell, who also happens to be a good friend of Alexis’s, took the photos at the wedding – she too is someone that I’ve featured earlier on in the year, with her lovely photos of Dan & Vicky’s Kew Gardens wedding.

Alexis’s make up and hair was done by Pamper and Polish. Lesley had a tall order in doing my hair and make-up as we share the same profession. In the end she got it spot on for me and I applaud her patience as I was even trying to control the proceedings on the wedding day! What a brave lady…..
Look at that amazing wedding dress in the photos below – it was from PAN PAN in Edinburgh and the designer was Lusan Mandongus (fab choice – I love his work), a Cambodian designer who uses amazingly rich fabrics. My dress made me feel beautiful, it was my dream dress.

The florist, Endrick Blooms, created wrist corsages for the bridesmaids which were a mini version of Alexis’ bouquet. Her bouquet included huge lime green hydrangea, berries, thistles, freesia and lots of bright pinks, blues and purples. The boys wore thistles and heather in their button holes. My mum passed away over 10 yrs ago and it was going to be hard for me on the wedding day. My husband sent me a bouquet charm of which he put a lovely picture of her in. This was a really emotional moment for me and the girls with even the hairdresser crying as I opened the box. It ment my mum was within my fingers all day, the most special touch! What a thoughtful husband you have Alexis (you can see the little bouquet charm in the top photo above)

The theme was classic black and white, sort of art deco inspired, but because Alexis also wanted colour she had the bridesmaids in jewel colours with with black netting and heels drawing them together. The dresses were mostly from Debut at Debenhams and one was from Lightinthebox.com
The head piece was bought on Etsy,(an online site where people can sell their handmade goodies), from Miami and originally came on a head band with a bird cage veil. “Due to worrying about crying and not being able to get to my eyes to wipe the tears, I took it all off and had it altered to be worn on its own. I thought it looked very 20′s. I love art deco which my engagement ring was inspired by”

Alexis tells me her wedding highlights
* Doing a reading to each other about marrying your best friend with the loch gently lapping beside us.
* The sun sending a strobe of light onto the water as we signed the register (a little wink from my mum I think)
* The organ not working and the guests singing really loudly and out of tune to compensate! Hilarious and very touching.
* The touches unique to our wedding was that it was on the banks of Loch Lomond in an open gazebo, we told our guests woollies and wellies were necessary and there were a selection of wellies, flip flops and golf shoes on display.
* A vintage inspired theme of black and white and our guests provided the colour in their clothes.
* Cake stands with black and white tea lights and pearl bracelets on the bottom adorned the top table with crystal candle holders and black candles.
* Huge black storm candles on the table centres and the table plan was a black canvas with little washing lines of mini luggage tags attached by wooden pegs which we didn’t realise the guests would take off the plan and wear! A great way for them to know everyone’s names and one very bare table plan!
* Little jam jars with black ribbon bows and tea lights, decorated the window ledges and lit the way to the lodges outside that our guests were sharing.
* We had a few scottish touches such as haggis and a cieldh.
* My synopsis would be that the wedding was lots of fun, laughter and that even guests didn’t want to end so proceeded to sing after dj ended to keep us on the dancefloor making it a magical day where we felt very loved!

I asked Amy, the photographer, what the best thing was about photographing the wedding
“Photographing Alexis and Gary’s wedding was an absolute pleasure. Alexis and I knew each other quite well before the wedding day, as we’ve worked together on other peoples weddings. As a result, she felt totally completely comfortable about me taking her photo which was brilliant, and it really shows in the photos.
Getting married outside is always a bit risky, especially in October – in Scotland! But Alexis and Gary had their hearts set on it, and I have to say it was just gorgeous. The wind whistled a bit, but it just added to the excitement and celebrations, and of course the photos!”
And Alexis and Gary were clearly over the moon with their photos, “I would love to say aswell that Amy is the most talented photographer, she was calm and fun and very unobstrusive whilst capturing all the key moments that tell the story of our day. Her photos were the first thing we looked at as soon as we landed from honeymoon and we laughed and cried as we re lived every moment again! I can safely say the best investment we made. It was an honour to have her at our wedding..”
To be sure to check out Alexis’ website, Hair and Beauty on the Big Day, if you are looking for hair stylist and or make up artist in London or the surrounding area – she does come highly recommended. Also Amy Murrell,the photographer, on Especially Amy Wedding Photography London, where you can view more of her work and information on booking her for your wedding. Thanks ladies for sharing these fab photos with me …..Oh and Alexis you looked amazing…. .
PS If you are looking to get married in Loch Lomond, check out this site, Weddings at Loch Lomond, which aims to offer advice on finding local wedding suppliers in the area.

1950′s wedding dresses – a sneek preview….

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At the weekend I was lucky enough to meet up with David and Grace from award winning designers, Lindsay Fleming, who were down from Scotland meeting up with brides. I got to chat to them about their gorgeous 1920′s inspired wedding collection, their celtic dresses and to have a sneek preview at the amazing designs for their new 1950′s collection.
I first heard of Lindsay Fleming, when I was sent some amazing photos of their 1920′s inspired wedding dress collection, photographed by Archibald Photography at House for an Art Lover, in Glasgow and The Voodoo Rooms in Edinburgh. This has gone on to be one of my most popular posts ever on LMW and you can see why – the photos and the dresses are stunning.
When we met last weekend I was able to have a look at their stunning 1920′s inspired dresses from the ‘All That Jazz’ Collection – each one beautifully designed, handmade by Grace and some with incredibly intricate detailing. These dresses are fantastic value, starting from £1150 and going up to £2400.
Unsuprisingly, the ‘All That Jazz’ Collection brought with it a good deal of PR coverage in many of the glossy bridal mags, with dresses from the collection featuring in bridal shoots, and all the wedding blogs (like mine) desperate to get a piece of the action. I hear from Grace and David that brides travel from far and wide (US, Holland, France, Italy) to come to their bridal shop in the tiny Scottish Village of Abington to buy the dress of their dreams.

Now Grace is hard at work on her new collection of 1950’s wedding dresses. It’s a natural move on from her recent 1920’s inspired collection, and something that she and Mark Archibald (the photographer) believe will be much in demand. I had a look at some of the sketches for the new collection (which you can also see on Love My Dress blog) and some photos from a recent fashion shoot. Grace and David are lucky enough to have a daughter-in-law that looks stunning modelling these dresses, again, photographed by award winning photographers, Archibald Photography.

I can’t wait to see the rest of the collection. Do make sure that you check out both their sites – whilst Grace is the dress designer, her husband, David, looks after all the marketing and the website for Lindsay Fleming – he is clearly a busy man as there is loads there, including photos and sketches of the new collection. And be sure to take a look at award winning photographers, Archibald Photography for lots of other gorgeous wedding photos and inspiration.

What do you think of the sneak preview – do you like the idea of a 1950′s dress??

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