31

Mar

2021

Kirsty & Jannik’s Micro Farm Wedding at Home

Today’s post is an example of what can be done when circumstances force you to rethink your plans. Where better than home to stage your micro farm wedding when the world around you is seemingly laying chaos to your plans?

‘Even with social distancing, love fills any room!‘ wise words from Kirsty today’s beautiful bride. Kirsty and Jannik got married last year. After postponing their original May 2020 wedding, they moved the wedding to September, thinking by then, like most of us, that Covid would be a thing of the past. Instead of postponing again, they kept their date and cut their guest count from 120 to 18! Sounds tough, but Kirsty says, ‘We knew we just wanted to marry regardless of the situation and decided to go ahead with a micro wedding.  It was the best decision we ever made!  It is so relaxed and you still get caught up in the moment regardless of the number of people around you.’ I love Kirsty and Jannik’s attitude to the day. They put their heart and soul into their wedding plans, even though they had to follow Covid restrictions.

They held the most beautiful day, so full of love, strength and some amazing decor. This stunning wedding is living proof that micro weddings really are as amazing, love is what really counts in the end! Big thanks to Emma Lawson Photography for the gorgeous photos.

An intimate, micro farm wedding packed with love and homemade touches! It truly was a moment of utter bliss in a year of complete chaos!

Kirsty and Jannik were married on 18th September 2020 at Kirsty’s family farm – West Foulden, in the Scottish Borders.  ‘We were lucky to get a sunny day (in Scotland in September!!!) and had the ceremony outside before having the reception in a small, intimate traditional poled tent, decked out with as many fairy lights and candles as we could fit! Growing up I had always dreamed of getting married at home.  The farm was always my favourite place to be and so peaceful.  It certainly helped me stay calmer on the day!! It was also very important to both of us that my grandparents were able to attend and as they were no longer able to travel, having it on the farm made perfect sense. We had 18 guests. We initially planned to have 120 guests but we had to adapt to the restrictions. Our family and friends were so understanding and we hope to have a mega party to celebrate all over again as soon as we can. It took a longer to to plan than we had initially hoped!!  We got engaged in September 2018 and wanted to have a spring wedding (to fit in with my dad’s farming calendar!!).  So, we planned for 9th May 2020 to give ourselves time to get everything organised.  We live in Luxembourg so knew we needed extra time to be able to travel back and forward to Scotland to get things organised. In March 2020, we realised that with the virus, May was looking very unlikely so we (rather naively) moved the wedding to September thinking this gave us plenty of time for COVID to be gone.  How wrong we were!  But come September we knew we just wanted to marry regardless of the situation and decided to go ahead with a micro wedding.  It was the best decision we ever made!  It is so relaxed and you still get caught up in the moment regardless of the number of people around you.’

How they met 
We met when we were both working for the same company in Edinburgh in 2015.  After months of being friends and a LOT of brownies being delivered to my desk whenever I was having a bad day, we got together in May 2016.  #Jannik moved to Luxembourg later that year and we decided we didn’t want to be apart so I relocated shortly after and it was the best decision I have ever made, although I do miss the farm…

The proposal
Jannik proposed while having a picnic at our favourite spot (MUDAM in Luxembourg) on a cold September evening.  I did wonder why he was so desperate to have a picnic on such a cold night!! We called our immediate family while drinking our favourite red wine, watching the sun set over the city.  We then celebrated with a weekend in Brussels before sharing our news with the rest of our family and friends!

Where did you splurge and where did you save?
Having the wedding on the farm allowed us to have a lot of personal, homemade touches.  This wasn’t so much of a budget decision but I have always loved the boho, cute elements of weddings and wanted to incorporate them in our day.

How did you choose your photographer?
Emma was the photographer at one of my best friend’s weddings and I knew from that day that she was exactly who I would like to be the photographer at my own wedding.  Not only are her pictures beautiful and capture the emotions of every moment of the day, but she is also so much fun to be around and feels like another friend.
Which with a guestlist of just 18, was an added bonus on the day too!  Her second shooter, Charlotte Kinsella, was amazing too and just as much fun to be around.  Emma also kindly recommended the videographer who was equally as fantastic and we are so happy to have all of their pictures and videos as the perfect memento of the day

The dress 
My dress was by Calla Blanche with adaptations and a bespoke veil (with the lace leaves from my train falling down the edges of my veil too) by the amazing team at Sophia Grace Couture.  My shoes were LK Bennet and jewellery were vintage family pieces.

The suit and bridesmaids
Jannik (who is German) decided to add a Scottish touch to his suit for the day so wore Trews from Archie Hume. The bridesmaids wore sage green Sorella Vita dresses also from Sophia Grace Couture.

Theme or colour scheme
We wanted to stick with the garden theme incorporating lots of eucalyptus and ivy so we had a sage green theme with gold accents.  A family friend gifted us two eucalyptus trees which have been planted in my parent’s garden as a special reminder of the day!

Flowers 
Soft peach avalanche and spray roses with eucalyptus, berries and some Scottish thistles added.

Decoration 
The ceremony didn’t have the need for huge amounts of decoration as we were able to have it in my parents’ garden.  The arch my brother made was adorned with the same flowers as in the bouquets, as was the cute, vintage signing table. We added some whisky barrels and lanterns to finish off the setting.
The marquee for the reception was filled with trees and all the fairy lights and candles you can imagine.  We wanted to create a really cosy, romantic setting.  Our table was one long table and it had a flowers arrangement running down the centre too.  We added a sweetie table and ‘Generations of Love’ table with pictures of our parents and grandparents at their weddings!  We put everything together ourselves and loved the cute, magical set up.

Food
We had initially planned to have a sharing menu as a fun way for our guests to interact.  As they were coming from all over the world, it was a good way for them to get to know each other.  Of course, this wasn’t possible once we had to follow restrictions and cut numbers etc so we adapted the menu with the help of our caterer The Orde Food Company.
Starter: Individual Charcuterie Platters
Main: Braised Border Venison Casserole
Dessert: Mini Dessert table including: Nutella Sandwich cookies, Chocolate & orange mousse, White chocolate cups filled with raspberry mousse, White chocolate blondie, Glazed Lemon Tartlets, Pistachio Macaroons
Supper: German Pretzels & Roast Ham – these went down a treat later in the evening.

Wedding cake
The wedding cake was a semi naked cake made by a family friend with the same roses as my bouquet added.  It sat on a floating platform surrounded by ivy and eucalyptus.  It was 3 layers of heaven (white chocolate & raspberry, lemon, and white chocolate and coconut) and made for 120 people as I couldn’t decide what to cut!!

Entertainment
Unfortunately, we had to cancel our band as live music was not permitted indoors in Scotland.  It was however allowed to have a bagpiper for our ceremony as it was outside so that was a perfect touch.  They played ‘highland cathedral’ for the bridal party walking down the aisle and ‘Can you feel the love tonight’ as we signed the register.  For the rest we made last minute playlists, blasted the music and our 18 guests partied (safely) like there were 120!

Who supplied the stationery?
I provided the designs and a local printer (Sheil & Morrison) created them!  Again with the eucalyptus theme.

Where did you go on your honeymoon?
Surprise, surprise – our honeymoon was also postponed!  We had two short weekend trips though (one to the Champagne region in France and one to a Chateau in the north of Luxembourg, they were both so romantic and relaxed which was just what we needed.  And a lot of food! Our honeymoon should be in Santorini in May 2021 but that is not looking overly hopeful either… We will get there one day!!

Personal touches
We did most of the decoration and design ourselves.  My mum even made confetti from her roses in the garden and made homemade sloe gin and raspberry whisky as favours for the guests.  My brother and dad made the arch for the end of the alter and a sign to list the countries where our guests should have been coming from (the perfect way to remember those who couldn’t make it) which my friend and bridesmaid hand painted (along with the order of ceremony sign).  We improvised a lot as were very limited with access to decoration etc but all the small personal touches made the marquee so special on the day, including using my great grandfather’s ladder as a display.

Special moments 
We truly laughed the whole day!  Our guests made so much effort as they knew we had gone through so much trying to make our wedding happen.  Everyone was just so happy to have a reason to celebrate and smile after such an awful year.  What we thought would be a small and quiet day, turned out to be the best day of our lives and anyone questioning whether a micro wedding is worth it – I promise you, it absolutely is!  We need to keep celebrating love!  We also had a humanist ceremony which was so different for Jannik’s family and friends who came over from Germany and we have had so many lovely comments about how special and personal the ceremony was.

Advice for other couples
If you are planning a micro wedding – don’t compromise!!  Initially we thought we would cut back on various parts of the day (speeches, first dance etc) as the wedding was so small.  But after speaking to Emma Lawson, she made us realise we would only have one official wedding day and we should go for it exactly the way we had originally planned! So we did!  In fact, I think we even added more elements last minute after speaking with her.  And a cake for 120 guests was not an awful decision either!  Always remember the reason you are getting married and the love you have for one another as, even if all your other plans have to change, that is one thing that won’t!

Biggest surprise
How much fun 18 people can have in a tent in a garden after being in lockdown for 6 months!!!  Even with social distancing, love fills any room!

 

 

 

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For more information on Emma Lawson Photography go to

www.emmalawsonphotography.com /  www.emmalawsonphotography.com/blog / [email protected] / FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM

Emma Lawson is an Aberdeen based wedding photographer. Specialising in relaxed & creative documentary style wedding photography throughout Scotland and the UK.

 

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