A TRULY MAGICAL PERFECT DAY

Hello everyone, a big welcome back to you all. WOW what a whirlwind couple of months we have had. I have to admit I am still totally in wedding mode a month and a half later, listening to my wedding playlist whilst I type this, IT has to be done. It was my turn to be on the other side of the wedding which felt incredible. Usually I am there to work for my client’s which is equally incredible, but this time I got to enjoy being the bride. I have to say I soaked up every second. It was the most perfect, beautiful happy day we both had in our minds.

Me and my now husband o la la :) planned our intimate wedding to be just the two of us in our favourite place, which is the Cairngorm National Park in Scotland. We have a lot of very happy memories here, from visiting over the years. Therefore it was the natural place for us to choose to tie the knot. We have planned a fabulous party for family and close friends in 2021 at The Skybar In Edinburgh, which boasts beautiful views of Edinburgh Castle. Our original wedding date was 19th June 2020 which was the exact day we met 10 years prior, due to Covid we pushed it back to 19th August 2020. We did not have to wait too long and we were still able to get married on our 10 year since meeting.

We chose the stunning Glentruim Castle & Cottages

We had previously stayed in one of the cottages on the estate (The Laundry Cottage), which was back in 2018 for Ben’s birthday. whilst on this trip we had a look around the castle and fell in love with it. We then knew this was the venue we wanted, not only was it a beautiful place but the location means so much to us. The two together made complete sense.

Ben enjoying the view from the drawing room

THE WEDDING DAY….

I knew I would be up at the crack of dawn on the wedding day and boom 6.20am I am wide awake. The first thing I see is my dress hung up. And that was me fully awake. I am surprised I even got any sleep. I did take a Nytol to help me sleep, which helped a little. I had a couple of hours to myself, I grabbed a couple of brews and enjoyed them in bed. The castle was super quiet at this time of the day as I went down to the kitchen. I definitely got some steps in, walking back and forth, my bedroom was at the other end of the castle, therefore it was certainly a leg stretcher. It was so nice to walk around the castle and enjoy all the beautiful decor.

We had separate bedrooms the night before. Me and Ben communicated by text, as we did not want to bump into one another downstairs. At just gone 8am our chef arrived, we booked Private Chef Giuseppe. More details on his fabulous services to come. I enjoyed a roll top bath at 8am, oh wow what a bathroom.

Absolutely stunning bathroom Glentruim Castle

After the bath I lathered myself in my favourite body cream and shower gel, if you have not tried this Caroline Herrera range, oh my goodness it is absolutely beautiful, highly recommend. I then headed downstairs for my breakfast. I have never had an omelette like this before it was DELICIOUS. I have since been inspired to cook better omelettes since chef made me this. I also had a beautiful fresh smoothie packed full of Vit C.

It was then makeup time at 10am. I had a beautiful makeup area, which I planned before I arrived. I obviously :) had to know I had good light and a table to lay my products on. I looked out over the Cairngorm mountains while I got ready. Not to bad a view :)

The rock/mountain you can see in the view there is absolutely stunning, on of my favourite views in all of the Cairngorms.

Such a happy time. I loved every second of getting ready..

I had some issues with my skin during July and August. My skin really changed when I was 28, since then it has been very up and down. It was in great condition January 2020 to the beginning of July 2020. The nearer we got to the wedding it broke out badly. Which was just typical. Even the night before the wedding I got 2 more spots. I woke up on the day, and they had thankfully gone down. But I still had the redness, slight bumps and scarring left. I hid this with my colour correcting skills, good applications of products and good products. The difference was amazing from this in covering the redness

My makeup lasted all day with no touch ups. I used a blot powder later in the evening to take a little shine of my forehead. This is what you want from your wedding makeup, longevity, glowing and enhancing makeup that lasts all day and night and photographs beautifully. Makeup that stands the test of time never goes out of fashion. This is what I love to teach in person and with my online courses. It really does make such a huge difference to your work.

Below was my last makeup preview I did for myself a week prior to the wedding. I was super happy with the colours. I used a range of browns, golds and plums.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE.....

Makeup Preview a week prior to the wedding

For my hair I booked Caroline Stewart, Caroline came to the venue around 11.30am. I was in full party mode at this point. Champers was cracked open at 11am. I did have quite a few but I did not feel it so much, I was just in the best mood, dancing, singing and having a whale of a time The music was definitely on LOUD. I asked Caroline for a very loose dishevelled hair style.

Enjoying a champers :) while I have my hair done

Hair done, time to get in my dress. I actually got into my dress a little early. I was quite keen. The ceremony was 2pm. It was around 1.30pm when I put my dress and overskirt on, I thought it would take me a while to get into the dress, but as it was a zip up it took literally 2 minutes if that. I had time left, so I opened Ben’s gift and card to me. The necklace is a beautiful hummingbird, rose gold and silver. He calls me the colourful hummingbird as I am always on the go and a happy soul :)

Is it time for me to go and meet my groom now, oooooo not before another stylish bathroom picture. I swear these look like they belong in a magazine. Absolutely beautiful.

I am ready now, ooo not before I put my detachable overksirt on and have another fizz, plenty of time :) Caroline helped me with getting in my dress, attaching the overskirt and putting my jewellery on.

Time to leave the champagne, and head down to my groom……

I am not quite sure how I walked down the stairs in the heels I had on. I had to hand over flowers, and my little touch up bag to Deirdre the estate manager. No way I could have done this with things in my hands, I do not think it would have ended well. I took one step at a time very very slowly

And we are off, you will see below just what fun we had. The whole day was an absolute blast, we never stopped laughing, smiling and just enjoying every single second of the day. The suppliers we booked made the day so special for us. Nothing was to much trouble. They all went above and beyond our expectations. I wish I could do it all over again. Links at the bottom of this post, for suppliers we chose for our special intimate wedding.

And wow did the weather change for us, the night before and the day of the wedding we got glorious sunshine. Which meant we were able to get married on the lawn overlooking our favourite views. We did have a couple of back ups just in case the weather turned. After the ceremony we had lots of images taken as you will see below, cocktails, champagne and enjoyed every second of the day and night.

I had no idea what the aisle was going to look like until the day, as long as I had something pretty to walk down I was not overly fussed about what it was. I remember getting my hair done, I then received a text from Deirdre, she asked me to look out of the window. Deirdre was setting out the aisle and was asking me if it was ok. I shouted back “STUNNING” it was so beautiful. Pretty lanterns lined the aisle, a beautiful chair and table ready for the signing was surrounded by gorgeous flowers and candle holders. Not to bad at all for arranging this on the day :)

Please do click on any small images to enlarge throughout this blog post.

We booked Lesley Simpson as our humanist. She was so lovely, and made the ceremony so special. Every word she said felt so genuine and heartfelt. Thank you Lesley.

Trying not to cry seeing my man. I had no idea what he was wearing until I saw him on the day…

Click on the images to enlarge….

Overlooking the beautiful Cairngorm Mountains…

This was the last shot we had one. The sun broke directly on me, which meant Ricky was able to get this magnificent shot.

Getting ready for our feast made by the lovely Private Chef Giuseppe…

On the evening we spent a lot of time in the drawing room, and the dining room. Once all suppliers had left, we cranked up the music. Glentruim have a super sound system which runs through the whole of the ground floor. We downloaded an app, chose what room we were in and put our favourite music on. We had a couple of slow dances to our wedding song as well as having a party for 2 with some of our favourite dance music. We both had a great dance overlooking the view.

We retired to our bed around 1.30am, I honestly do not know how we both felt ok the next day. We both started sipping champers before lunchtime and carried on through the day, with strawberry mojitos, more champagne and whisky. Mind you we did eat a lot of food provided by the wonderful chef. Delicious.

When I woke the following morning, I saw my dress hung up which really made me smile and we had the stunning views of the Cairngorm mountains to look at. A few fighter jets flew over the castle and we spotted some buzzards far away in the distance. We had a whole day to ourselves the day after the wedding which was lovely, we are both so pleased we booked a good block of time at the venue, so we could relax a little after the wedding day. I will let you in on a little secret, we got back in our wedding attire for the last evening at the castle. Round 2 was well under way, music whisky dancing. What a great time…

We then packed up, and headed to The Torridon for a 2 night mini moon. We both has such an adventure. Perfect does not come around that often, but our wedding day was perfect. It was just how we both imagined it would be.

Showing off the beautiful detachable overskirt…

Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope you enjoyed reading and taking a step inside our beautiful wedding trip. I thoroughly enjoyed writing this blog, it has been lovely to relive the day. I am very excited to meet all my 2021/22/23 brides, you are all going to have an absolute ball. If you have just got married, I hope you had the absolute best time and I wish you all the happiness with your marriages.

Sarah xx