Joanne and Nick’s Vintage Glamour Meets Mod Wedding By Crofts & Kowalczyk Photography

Todays wedding takes us off to beautiful Scotland. Glen Coe in Scotland has a very special place in the hearts of todays bride and groom, which is why they decided to get married in this stunning location. Taking in this breath taking backdrop is quite something, what a spectacular location for a wedding! Joanne and Nick mixed Joanne’s love of vintage glamour with Nick’s love of all things Mod and created a wedding day that was personal to them. Bringing in some homemade elements they really have created a super glam wedding while keeping the budget in check. Thanks to Simon and Sylwia from Crofts Kowalczyk Photography for the fab images.

‘Best. Day. Ever’

Joanne and Nick were married on Saturday 4th April, both the ceremony and reception were held at Glencoe House in the West Highlands of Scotland. The ceremony and reception were held in the house itself. Dinner, drinks and dancing were held in the Stables marquee. ‘We decided to have our wedding where we did because of our love of Glen Coe. Having spent several holidays in the here come sun, rain and midge, Glencoe has a very special place in our hearts, the scenery is just stunning, whatever the weather. Though we did chose April to avoid the midges. We were engaged for just over a year. After the engagement we got the big items sorted then we took the summer off! We spent about 6 months before the wedding getting the rest of the details sorted.’

How they met
We met at university in Liverpool, where Nick had been since his undergraduate days. I had just moved there to start my doctorate. We’ve been together for 11 years

The Proposal
It was my birthday. We’d both been at work all day and then had to walk our border collie pup, Fionn. In early February in Aberdeen it wasn’t just dark but wet and miserable outside too. We got home more than a bit soggy so Nick asked me if I wanted to open another birthday present, I thought, in an attempt to cheer me up. He gave me a small jewellery box, which I thought must have some earrings in it or something (we’d been together 10 years remember, I hadn’t pinned my hopes on marriage!), but in it was a diamond ring. Nick on one knee, asked me to marry him.

How did you allocate your budget
We decided to spend our money on the things we thought were most important – for example the amazing Stax of Motown band, and to try to save on things that were less important such as table decorations

How did you choose your photographer
We got lucky – one of my bridesmaids Heidi told me about her friends Simon and Sylwia (Crofts and Kowalczyk) who had done a wedding shoot in Glen Coe the year before. We checked out their website and loved their pictures. When we got in touch they were so excited about Glen Coe it was clearly meant to be! They did such an amazing job, especially as neither of us are a fan of being in the spotlight. They worked so quickly and professionally with a real personal touch – they spent a couple of hours with us the day after the wedding taking photos of us on our first day of marriage surrounded by the dramatic Glen Coe scenery, another day we’ll never forget!

The Dress
My dress was ‘Carmen’ by Maggie Sottero, the colouring was just gorgeous. I actually found my shoes before the dress (!) they were by Rachel Simpson. I found my vintage fur stole on eBay

The Suit and Bridesmaids
Nick had his suit hand made from English tweed by the brilliant tailor Stephen Purvis in Glasgow. I didn’t want a colour theme as I know that can be difficult when you have five girls (6 including flower girl Orla) and I didn’t want them to end up hating what they had to wear. The brief was ‘fifties florals, no black’, they all chose their own dresses – Rebecca made her dress and Grandma (Nick’s mum) made Orla’s flowergirl dress. As the girls were all in different cities, from Aberdeen to Vancouver, I think they did an amazing job at choosing such stunning dresses! They looked gorgeous

Theme or Colour Scheme
We just chose things we liked; I love vintage glamour, Nick loves Mod Style – though they may not be the same era we didn’t care! We wanted the day to reflect us as a couple

Flowers
I love flowers, but I didn’t want them to feel structured so we decided to do the arrangements ourselves. Together with my Mum we chose several blooms that we knew would be in season such as lisianthus, ranunculus, spray roses and carnations; we added a hint of spring with some narcissus and tulips. The day before the wedding my grandmothers helped with the table flowers, Mum made the buttonholes and my bridesmaids put the bouquets together

Decoration
We used rose and ivy garlands with fairy lights, as well as lots and lots of flowers, tealights and candles

Food
We wanted to show what Scotland has to offer as many of our guests had never been to Glencoe and the West Highlands before. We had ‘Scotland on a plate’ to start – a small selection of smoked salmon, scallop, venison carpaccio and haggis. Our main was Surf’n’turf with slow cooked Scottish beef and locally caught Langoustines.

Wedding Cake
We just love the cakes from The Mountain Café in Aviemore, so rather than serve dessert we got four Mountain Café cakes (each different) to have as our wedding cake and as dessert. We also asked three of our good friends to bring along some home baked petit fours to serve with coffee

Entertainment
We are big music fans and made a series of playlists to play throughout the day but we saved the best for the evening entertainment when we had the most incredible Stax of Motown play a three hour set. We just couldn’t leave the dance floor! We cannot recommend them highly enough, simply awesome.

Stationery
I made our save the date cards, but when it came to the invites things got a bit more serious and we enlisted the help of Nick’s big sis Cath who is an amazing professional graphic designer

Personal or Handmade Touches
The music playlists was a big thing for us, and a great thing for us to do together in the weeks before the wedding, it made the day so personal having our favourite songs playing in the background like a soundtrack to the best day ever. We made cocktails for our guests to enjoy at the reception and our great friend Lorna who manages Oddbins on Hyndland road in Glasgow helped us select our wines and arrange for their supply and delivery. For our guest book we asked our guests to take Instax photos of themselves and write us a message – the guest book is a most fantastic memory of the day, shame we forgot to get a picture of ourselves

Special Moments
The ceremony itself. We wrote our own vows and saying them to one another was brilliant.
Our first dance was also extra special, Stax of Motown learnt our favourite song ‘Baby, I Love you’ by the Ronettes and dancing, just the two of us on the dancefloor, to that song, sung so beautifully, was like a dream.

Advice to other couples
It’s your day, don’t worry about what other people want – do what you want and don’t be afraid to say so. Don’t be afraid to ask your friends and family to help out, many hands make light work

Biggest surprise
How late I was in getting to the ‘altar’, I had no concept of time on the day. Although I had no intention of being late, it is clear to me now that hair and makeup for seven ladies takes a long time.

Supplier Shout Outs

• Venue – www.glencoe-house.com
• Photography – www.croandkowlove.com
• Bridal Shop – www.bridesdelight.co.uk – Dress Designer – www.maggiesottero.com
• Shoes – www.rachelsimpsonshoes.co.uk from www.arabesquedirect.co.uk
• Suit – plus.google.com/107297344477069108995/about?gl=uk&hl=en
• Shoes – www.church-footwear.com
• Hair and MUA – www.missdixiebelle.co.uk
• Evening Band – www.staxofmotownband.com
• Flowers – www.flowerbox-grantown.co.uk
• Caterer – www.facebook.com/pages/Bayleaf-Catering/256915067681047
• Wine selection – www.oddbins.com
• Beer selection – www.riverlevenales.co.uk
• Cakes – www.mountaincafe-aviemore.co.uk

For more information on Simon and Sylwia’s work please go to:

www.croandkowlove.com
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