Bryony and Gareth's 'Dried Flowers and Tartan' Autumnal Scottish Barn Wedding by Mike Cook Photography

Happy Wednesday everyone, I hope you are having a good week so far and that the sun is shining where you are! It’s glorious here in Sheffiled, all ready for my son Dexter’s 11th birthday tomorrow! He is soooooo excited, as am I! I have a gorgeous Scottish wedding to share with you today. Bryony and Gareth chose a barn wedding venue as it ticked all of their boxes, it gave them the freedom to add in their own personal touches and created the perfect backdrop for the autumnal wedding. They filled their day with dried flowers, tartan and the most fun looking ceilidh, that got all their guest up on their feet. Mike Cook Photography was there to capture the day for us.

The perfect day with family and friends. A ceilidh that will never be forgotten!

Bryony and Gareth were married on 21st September 2024 at Bachilton Barn in Methven, Sccotland. ‘We liked the idea of a barn venue that we could put our own stamp onto. This venue came with the bonus of accommodation on site allowing us to have most of our family and some friends onsite with us for the whole weekend, not just the wedding day. We did lots of research online and when we came across Bachilton Barn, it ticked all of the boxes. It was the first and last venue we saw as we loved it so much. We had 140 guests total – 65 day guests and 75 evening guests. We got engaged 2 years prior to the wedding, but only started planning and booked our venue 1 year before.’

How they met
Gareths best friend and now brother-in-law was dating Bryonys sister and they set us up. We have been together for 11 years.

The proposal
We were in our VW camper travelling around the French Alps. We went out on an alpine walk above the town of Chamonix, we had just about finished our walk and stopped to have a seat and admire the view of Mont Blanc. Gareth thought this would be the perfect time to get down on one knee but Bryony thought they were moving on so jumped up to head off, que Gareth running round in front of her in a not so graceful one knee/ power squat situation. Bryony grabbed the ring immediately and said YES! We checked what3words for our engagement location to find it was called Bedbugs.discount.farm – a truly magical location with amazing views.

How did you allocate your budget?
We had a maximum budget in mind and had a reasonable idea of how much each individual item costs from previous experience with our close family and friends. Our priority was to find a venue that ticked the boxes. Following from that, we prioritised things like the catering and band as we always had visions of our wedding being a good party, good food and surrounded by good friends.

Where did you splurge and where did you save?
We probably splurged most with the venue. We saved mostly through the stationary, decorations and flowers. Our invites were all made ourselves and we made it all digital so we didn’t have to print. The decorations were all done by us and our friends and we were lucky enough to borrow some decorations our family had used in their weddings. One of the great things with Bachilton Barn was that it had a lot of character already, so we didn’t have to do too much to create a look we loved. The wedding dress was also bought in a sample sale to save on some of the budget.

How did you choose your photographer?
Gareth had come across Mike on social media way before we had even booked the wedding. He showed Bryony and we both agreed we liked his style. When we met up with him to discuss our wedding, he seemed very professional and relaxed, and we really liked his candid approach to wedding photography – neither of us wanted to spend too much time posing for photos!

The dress
I bought my dress from Alison Kirk Bridal – It was made by Justin Alexander. My veil was from vinted. My shoes were from Rainbow Club. My accessories had a personal connection as the necklace was the first birthday gift Gareth gave me.

The suit and bridesmaids
Gareth wore his own family tartan kilt that he got for his 21^st birthday. Its difficult to hire Anderson tartan so we chose a different tartan for the grooms party that complemented Gareths Anderson tartan. We then hired the same blue tweed jacket from Eight Yards for grooms party and Gareth to tie it together. The bridesmaids dresses were from Wed2be

Theme or colour scheme
We went for an autumnal theme, so burnt orange and burgundy were the main colours.

Flowers
The flowers were a real variety – we wanted to save money on the flowers so we grew our own from seed. We didn’t want to be stressing about making bouquets on the week of our wedding, and worry about keeping them fresh etc so we decided to grow flowers that were good for drying. This meant we could use them to make the bouquets and table decorations a few weeks in advance. There was one special flower we had dried and put in Bryony’s bouquet from the exact spot we had got engaged in 2 years prior!
For our arch at the top of the aisle, we used a mixture of fresh flowers we had grown and others that our friends picked from their gardens. We then had our friend come and put this together the night before the wedding.

Decoration
We had a mixture of flowers, candles, glassware and pinecones

Food
We had a charcuterie grazing table during the drinks reception, which doubled up as a starter. We then had a BBQ for the main meal, followed by wedding cake for the dessert.
For the evening reception, we had stovies – the one thing Gareth was not willing to compromise on!

Wedding cake
We had a 3 tier wedding cake – lemon drizzle, carrot cake and white chocolate and raspberry – the one thing Bryony was not willing to compromise on!

Entertainment
We had a band that did a mix of ceilidh and covers.

Who supplied the stationery?
We did all of our own stationary

Where did you go on your honeymoon?
We had a minimoon in Scotland, where we had a night at Dunkeld House hotel and then attempted a few nights in our camper but got ill so came home early and lay in the house watching movies and eating a lot of food!
Our honeymoon is in August 2025 – we are going to Singapore, Vietnam and Qatar

Personal touches
We made our own wedding rings at a workshop run by a local jeweller called Scarlett Erskine.

Special moments
There are so many! Gareth started the day at Gleneagles hotel with the grooms party doing clay pigeon shooting wearing their full wedding attire. The ceremony conducted by Janine was full of laughter, which is exactly what we wanted. We did 3 things about each other – 2 good and 1 that we didn’t like, which had a good few laughs. We were also so lucky after waking up to mist in the morning, as soon as the ceremony was finished, the sun came out and allowed us to enjoy the sunshine next to the pond. Into the evening, one of our favourite memories is having a strip the willow so big that we ended up opening the doors at the end of the room and danced right out the building!

Advice for other couples
Don’t stress – you will be amazed at how smoothly everything runs on the day – and if anything does go wrong, you will either not notice it, or you wont care because you will be having too good a time!
It goes by so fast, take a moment for the two of you just after the ceremony.

Biggest surprise
How smooth everything ran and how fast the day passed.