Alastair and Kathrine had been together for five years and got engaged on their six-year anniversary. The couple goes on holiday in the Scottish Highlands every year and, with Alastair’s family having a long Scottish heritage, a destination wedding in Scotland was the perfect way for the couple to to say “I do.”

After deciding Scotland would be the place for their big day, the couple had to start planning their destination wedding. Finding a venue for where their wedding would take place brought some issues for them. The couple lives far from Scotland, so finding a good venue location was hard when they weren’t there to see it in person. “We did a few trips up to look at places we found, but it was exhausting,” says the bride. “We kept finding that the places we looked at had all-inclusive packages and we wanted to do a lot of this ourselves, like bringing in our favorite wines, beers, food and décor and also we found that a lot of places came with hidden expenses that we’d discover after falling in love with the place. In the end, we booked Comrie Croft without seeing it solely based on the fact that we booked the barn and the rooms as a shell. Meaning we paid one price for a room and 60 beds to accommodate some of our friends and family and we could do whatever we wanted with it. We just put our faith in the universe and when we saw it, we couldn’t have been happier!”

After finding a wedding venue where the couple could implement all of their do-it-yourself projects, it was time to start creating. “We did almost all of it ourselves – sewing and hanging draping, Kathrine did the table chart and stationery, we had the table runners handmade from Kenya,” says Alastair. “We had a whole crew of about twenty people hanging fairy lights and pinning ivy and butterflies to make the barn look a bit like a beautiful abandoned building. Everyone wanted to chip in and help, and they did and it was a lot of fun.”

With the do-it-yourself projects done, the couple had to think about the other details of their wedding. When it came to guests and travel logistics, the couple found that to be less stressful than other details for their big day. “We had a website, which was amazing because we could give full travel information and wedding and pre-post wedding information there,” says the couple. “The website address was on the invites and so it was an incredibly useful resource for people coming from far who had no idea where to go or what to do or expect.”

With everything planned out for their W-day, the couple shared that they were happy to have spent less money than they expected to spend. Even better, they got a wedding that was exactly what they wanted! “The estimated prices for weddings is quite shocking, but I can totally understand how it gets so high,” says Kathrine. “Also, we spent more than we could have, but we got exactly the wedding we wanted, full of personal touches for the price we wanted.” The best part about having a wedding in Scotland was that the couple got to spend two weeks with all of their friends and family, something they wouldn’t have gotten with a traditional wedding, because a two-week holiday was made out of the wedding.

As for advice, the couple suggests giving your wedding guests notice well in advance. “We sent out invites over a year in advance, so people could get holiday leave booked in and save for flights,” says the couple.

Vendors: Photographer: Kaleigh Turner, Ceremony/Reception Site: Comrie Croft, Florist: Bluebells Florist, Cake: Liggys Cakes, Hair & Makeup: Natalie MacKenzie, Gown Designer: Mori Lee, Bridesmaids/Groomsmen’s Clothing Designer: ASOS