This week’s real wedding pictures are from The Great Gatsby inspired wedding of Sarah and Pete, which took place at Kirknewton Stables in Edinburgh. Photographed by Craig and Eva Sanders Photography, their gorgeous wedding was styled with the help of their very creative friends and family…
“I was really inspired by the 1920s and I wanted the feel of a Gatsby-esque garden party. Kirknewton was the only venue we visited — we instantly loved the feel of the place with the walled garden and chickens running around! Duddingston Kirk was an obvious choice for the ceremony because of its beautiful location, warm and friendly minister, and great pub across the road!
“We were on quite a tight budget as we paid for the majority of the day ourselves, so we enlisted the help of all our family and friends and took the DIY approach to a new level! We had the wonderful Be.Eventful sisters there on the day to help pull everything together.
“My sister-in-law, Beth, made our gorgeous, original invitations, and my mum was my florist and did a wonderful job with all the bouquets, church and reception flowers. We went to the Glasgow Flower Market at 5am (!) a few days before the wedding and bought the best seasonal blooms we could find in soft, neutral colours. She also hand-picked, dried and sorted all the flower petal confetti!
“My mother-in-law, Gill, made our beautiful ombre coloured cake and I hand-stitched the heart toppers. My friend Allana made the cupcakes and my other friends Katie and Jen made the macaroons and brownies. Pete made all the canapés, starters and main course side dishes with some help from his dad, and Sizzly Piggy did an amazing job with the hog roast.
“My Father-in-Law, Phil, drove us all the way to France to find the wine and the ‘Moineaux’ Champagne, which he discovered many years ago. It is made by a wonderful small family-owned vineyard near Epernay, and in my humble opinion was better than any Krug or Bolly you could buy!
“My dress was from Sassi Holford and the veil was Caroline Castigliano. I loved the soft, elegant style, but I was worried after buying it that it was too simple, so I added the corded lace detail around the middle from another vintage dress I found in Armstrongs in Edinburgh. The headband came from a piece of material that was destined to be a sash in a dress shop called PanPan, but I asked them to stitch it on to ribbon for my hair instead. I made my pearl necklace and bracelets, which had a little plaster cast of a Sparrow skull; a bit creepy but I love it!
“Pete got his tweed jacket from Hackett, and the best men all just wore a mix of other tweed jackets, with their pink and blue club bow ties (a silly Uni boys’ club). I made the buttonholes the night before with some feathers, striped ribbon and left over flower materials!
“I kept the colour scheme faded and soft with some hints of glitter on the table decorations etc. I generally love anything old/antique/vintage (or crap as Pete would say!), and so I absolutely LOVED spending my weekends and days off work rooting around car boot sales and second hand shops to find our old wooden deckchairs, antique cut glass vases, old patterned teacups and vintage silverware. I made paper chains, heart garlands and origami cranes out of old music sheets and books, which Pete despaired at me cutting up!
“I continued the lace idea from my dress with lace decorated candle holders, and my Aunt Jackie made 60 feet of the most glorious lace bunting; I wish you could have seen it close up, it was just unbelievable!
“I had other little hints of The Great Gatsby in the decor; there were some quotes on the table and the pages behind the LOVE framed letters were from the book. As you will see the other big theme was birds! I think I got a bit carried away with this one! Our table plan was my favourite thing, with the little Victorian print birds nestled on the tree branches with the guest lists! I hand-stamped the guests’ names on old luggage tags along with a little sparrow stamp I found for place names. The Victorian print birds decorating the tables and on the seating plan were from a book on Audubon’s Wildlife. I got the idea from the amazing jewellery designers Rust — how they use old animal prints to display their goods.
“As a budget alternative to a photo booth I set up my own camera on a tripod, bought some fancy dress gear and some fabric for a backdrop; there are some great shots from that!
“We had The Staves’ ‘Mexico’ for our first dance. They are a relatively new band, but I love them! They are coming to Edinburgh soon; if you get a night off you should check them out. Pete’s Mum got us dance lessons as a ‘present’ to stop us shuffling around the floor!
“We really had the most wonderful day and we were lucky enough to have the only bit of sunshine seen in Edinburgh all summer! We were so blessed to have such an incredible bunch of friends and family to help us out with our plans and to keep smiling during some minor hiccups which inevitably came with the territory of a DIY wedding. Pete and I have been together for 8 years now, but our day was still the most beautiful, romantic, special day of our lives. It was everything we could have wished for and more.”
Images © Craig and Eva Sanders Photography
