I’ve always loved chic, contemporary city soirees so when I clapped eyes on Mel and Nicoll’s elegant wedding I was more than a little envious.
For a start this sweet duo were married on The Royal Mile in Edinburgh (one of my favourite cities) and you can’t ask for a more elegant beginning than that now can you. They then skipped on over to the Missoni Hotel for their oh so sophisticated wedding reception – so far…so good.
But folks it gets even better…if that’s even possible.
There are flower wands for the smallest maids, beautiful bouquets, a vintage wedding dress and a romantic stroll through Edinburgh’s historical streets.
Come and take a look.
A Family Affair
Mel The Bride: Nicoll and I knew we wanted a small family affair and decided on the registry office in Edinburgh. Its a lovely building on the Royal Mile and when one of the rooms available was the Melbourne Room, we knew it the right choice as I am from Melbourne, Australia! Across the road is the Missoni Hotel. We had our ‘babymoon’ there when I was unable to travel when pregnant and had such a great time it was decided we would have our meal there. All of this took less than an hour!
A Bit Of Serendipity
I think a bit of serendipity happened with the dress. I had been to try on some lovely white wedding dresses, kinda felt nice but not me. One afternoon I popped into a fabulous local vintage shop Those Were The Days. I tried on a number of frocks, not looking for my wedding dress, before an 80’s number, it fitted perfectly, pale pink lace with grey silk slip. I wasn’t sure if it was my wedding dress but I had to have it. After a day, showing it to Nicoll and trying it on for a friend I realised it was THE dress.
I decided to do my own make up and hair so went along to Chanel at Harvey Nichols and had a wee splurge on new products.
I wore a gorgeous amethyst ring, that was Nicoll’s mothers. From my mum, I borrowed a pearl bracelet and wore a pair of Donna Barry earrings I love. My bestie had bought me a floral belt from Alannah Hill in Australia and I got my shoes from LK Bennett, they were so comfy and have worn them loads since!
A Happy Accident
My bestie Nicole flew out from Australia which was so fabulous. She chose a dress and accessories from Alannah Hill, I wanted her to choose something that she would wear again and the silky tea dress she wore was had a lovely print with pink and black. Our daughter Matilda and niece were flower girls, my mum had made them tutus with floating sequins in gray and pale pink and I got them printed leggings from Vixen (another oz designer).
We didn’t have a set colour scheme although soft greys and pinks featured with all the girls outfits, which was another happy accident!
Family Tartan
Nicoll had his brother Ali as best man. They both wore their kilts in the family tartan and instead of flower boutonnieres, they had fishing fly pins. Nicoll’s is called the Matilda, after our daughter and created by my step dad.
Foraged Flowers
Throughout our planning, Nicoll and I both wanted to stay as local as possible and use as many of our talented friends as possible. This is how we met the girls from Pyrus. Natalya and Fiona have a passion for foraging and using seasonal, local flowers.
Not having any idea of what I wanted, I showed them a photo of my dress and left it up to them really! My bouquet was full of white blooms and smelt beautiful. Nicole’s had splattering of pink flowers amongst the whites, while they created flower ‘wands’ for Matilda and Isla. They also made up a flower pin for my hair.
Keeping Things Simple
I always dreaded a big ceremony and luckily so did Nicoll, so there was no argument on a simple registry affair. We chose Elbow’s ‘One Day Like This’ to walk in to. I had actually felt fine, no nerves till it started playing and I was grateful Matilda wanted me to carry her as it helped lighten the mood!
After the ceremony, we went to Missoni Hotel for a few drinks in the bar then had lunch upstairs in the restaurant Cucina, letting our guests chose their own seats. There was no need to have any table decoration as the interiors are so full of colour and pattern.
Being an artist, I have a plethora of artisan friends and colleagues, one of these such people is Emily Hogarth. She designed our fabulous invitations with a springtime botanical theme.
As we love our food and wine, we had been to choose the menu and wines early in the week. Cucina had a small selection from the restaurant menu for our guests to choose from, including our favourites pasta with pork ragu, zucchini fritters and tiramisu.
Homemade
One thing Nicoll and I did that means so much to us was making each other’s wedding rings! We went along for a day in the ‘Make your own wedding rings’ studio and was guided through the process by Hannah and Donna and at the end we had beautiful rings for each other. I love looking at mine and knowing that my husband made it for me!
I didn’t want to get completely stressed out planning our wedding. It had been an emotional year before with the passing of Nicoll’s wonderful mother. Our main aim was for a relaxed day with our families and closest friends and children, eating lovely food, drinking fine wines and having a lot of laughter around!
Also a big thank you to RMW as you definitely helped me feel it was ok to have a small wedding and keep our day ours! Also for introducing me to Lillian and Leonard, the only photographers I showed to Nicoll!
Click here & view all images from this wedding
Venue – Hotel Missoni
Dress – Those Were The Days Vintage
Rings – Make Wedding Rings
Florist – Pyrus Flowers
Photographer – Lillian And Leonard Wedding Photography
How gorgeous is this wedding folks and is anyone else loving the exquisitely wild florals as much as I am?
And are any of you lovely ladies choosing not to wear white? I think Mel looks just as bridal in her beautiful pink lace frock as she would in a more traditional ivory gown and it so works with the venue too.
All my love Lolly xxx