I’m beyond excited to share TV actress Zibby and graphic designer and photographer Adam’s Airlie Castle Estate wedding with you. The couple flew over from Vancouver and brought their mid-Century furniture to decorate the venue with. With the bride and groom both working within the creative industries, it was always going to be a beautifully crafted wedding day.

Now, over to Zibby…

“We did all of our wedding planning from Vancouver in Canada so we hired events planner Catrina Duthie from Fin Flukra for the last 4 weeks in the lead up to the wedding. We needed boots on the ground in Scotland and Catrina was absolutely amazing, communicative, resourceful and fun to be around. We’re so glad we chose to bring her on for the last and most important leg of the lead up.”

“It can be really easy to fall prey to thinking you must have this and that in order to have the wedding of your dreams. There’s so much pressure to make it the most spectacular and unforgettable day, however it’s super important to remember that the most amazing day doesn’t equate to things like more stuff, the most expensive dress, cars etc. We constantly had to take a step back and remind ourselves what was important to us about the day.”

“We didn’t want to follow all the wedding traditions we’ve all become familiar with, just for tradition’s sake. We wanted a wedding celebration that felt deeply personal, honest and tailored to us. That was freeing on the one hand, but it also posed a challenge as we got deeper into the planning of it all. We realised we had no other template to work from other than the weddings we’d already been to. So, we started with the template of tradition, and then questioned every element.”

“Do we need a cake and a cutting ceremony? What would it look like if we didn’t have that? Do we need a first dance? Or is there something we could do that’s more ‘us’? As we went through each traditional element, we realised quickly that some things we actually did really love and want to keep, and other things made no sense to us personally. What was great about our process in the end was that every element of our wedding was deliberate and made sense to us as a couple.”

“I picked out a pair of shoes from Nordstrom just a few days before flying to Scotland. They were comfortable, which was crucial, and something I’d wear again. For my hair I found a pretty little gold diamond hair comb for £17 on Etsy and had it sent to the castle a day before the wedding! My best friend, Yeardley Smith (the voice of Lisa Simpson!) lent me a pair of earrings as my ‘something borrowed’ to wear too and they were perfect; simple and elegant.”

“My dress was from BHLDN and I had it altered slightly to bring the back down a bit and add some satin buttons down the back for a bit of extra elegance. BHLDN has an incredible line of wedding gowns in almost every style and they’re very affordable. I chose my dress because it felt clean, classic, simple and honest to me.”

“I didn’t want a dress that wore me, I wanted to wear IT. I always got anxious when people would ask me what dress I was going to pick. There’s so much pressure on the bride to pick the best dress so I suppose as I was shopping, I rebelled a bit against that pressure and gravitated towards more simple dresses that wouldn’t necessarily upstage everything else.”

“Adam customised his suit with the company Indochino. He even had our names and the wedding date embroidered onto the inside of his suit breast!”

“We foraged a good deal of our florals from the castle grounds (with permission). Then we went through Triangle Nursery to supply the ferns, greens and a few special florals. They were delivered to the castle two days before the wedding and we decorated the tent and created the bouquets as a family. The exquisite wedding hoop that we were married in front of was created by Narcissus Flowers and Plants in Edinburgh.”

“In lieu of a cake we had Bespoke Catering, who also catered the wedding breakfast, create a dessert bar with 5 different and delicious desserts for our guests to choose from.”

After devouring the desserts, there was only one thing left for the couple and their guests to do, and that was party. Hiring 3 piece folk band Homecoming String Band did the trick, followed by a DJ set by a friend, but not before a first dance as husband and wife to Sweet Thing by Van Morrison.”

“We weren’t aiming for perfection, we were aiming for authenticity and we got that! We wanted everyone to feel the love we had for each other and to feel included, celebratory, uplifted, playful, well fed and surrounded by good music and people. Mission accomplished!”

“As we wanted the look and vibe of the day to feel minimal, classic and natural, we felt it was important for the dress, setting, guest count, music and food to feel really intimate and honest. We also wanted to maintain a balance between feminine and masculine visually, so we led with greens and made sure we kept an earthy wood component.”