Hannah Mackereth & Matthew Logue
18th June 2022
Venue | Balbirnie House, Fife
Photography | Andy Hamilton Photography
“Matthew and I got engaged in December 2018 after almost five years together. We’d had a romantic night at The Dome in Edinburgh and he proposed back at the hotel we were staying in.
We planned a beautiful winter wedding in St Andrews for 30th December 2020. Covid, of course, put a spanner in the works and forced us to postpone. We pushed to 27th December 2022, then changed again to 30th December (I had my heart set on that date).
Due to some family ill health and simply being desperate to get married, in January 2022, we decided to pull the wedding forward by six months! I overhauled our entire plans and booked a different venue for June 2022. I think I must have been mad but, hey, fourth time lucky?!
When rescheduling, we aimed to find a venue that would be close to some original accommodation we’d booked. My friend came across Balbirnie House on Instagram, so we went to see it and completely fell in love.
As it was such short notice, I only had a handful of dates that would work with my job as a junior doctor. When one of the only Saturdays they had left for the year was the only weekend that suited my work schedule, I felt it was fate – so we booked it!
The team at Balbirnie House made us feel special and unique the entire time. Nothing was a bother. Every email was answered within hours and anything we asked for, they delivered. I honestly could not rave about them more.
When I started wedding planning, I dreamt of a rustic, ethereal barn wedding with lots of DIY touches. In the time we’d been engaged, my taste had changed significantly and I wanted a wedding that reflected that. I’m now a fan of classic and timeless wedding trends such as black tie (which we ended up having), a monochrome scheme and an overall more minimalist vibe.
We kept some suppliers, but almost everything else had to be rearranged – even my dress changed! Due to Covid, I hadn’t looked at it for over a year and when I eventually tried it back on, it just wasn’t me at all any more – much to my mum’s dismay! We went to The White Closet in Manchester, where I found my dream Halfpenny London dress.
Celebrant Fiona Flanagan helped us create a ceremony that was personal and filled with humour. We incorporated our grans into a surprise quaich ritual during the ceremony. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Matthew’s gran sadly passed away 10 days after we were married, so we treasure that memory.
We didn’t want lots of traditional, formal photos; we wanted lots of candid pics with an artsy/modern touch. Andy Hamilton was incredible. He immediately put us at ease and even when our couples portraits were being done, he just had a laugh with us. I’d pestered him on Instagram with lots of ‘inspo’ and he didn’t moan once, haha. He took it all on board and delivered memories to last a lifetime.
My bridesmaids’ and I’s preening wouldn’t have been possible without my best friend, Dr Katie Aesthetics, who had us all botox-ed, glycolic-peeled and plumped for the big day. The girls threw me a Selling Sunset-inspired botox-and-burger party a couple of weekends before the wedding which was amazing.
The night before our wedding, we had a BBQ at the venue to bring all our friends and family together. My uncle DJ’d and it was the perfect start to the wedding weekend.
We really made our reception our own. Aperol Spritz is my favourite tipple, so we had an Aperol bar as part of our drinks reception as a nod to that. We also had an hour-long set by a band called Drums N’ Roses, a drum and pipe band that perform dance music. All the guests were dancing with glow sticks and flashing glasses on! Having all our favourite people around us having the time of their life – it doesn’t get much better than that, does it?”
Top tip: “There are thousands of each type of supplier and it can be quite overwhelming thinking about it all, so if you find someone in your budget you love, just book them. Otherwise, you could spend forever searching and picking them apart – and that’s just not worth the stress.”
Venue Balbirnie House
Photography Andy Hamilton Photography
Celebrant Fiona Flanagan, Independent Humanist Ceremonies
Bride’s dress Halfpenny London at The White Closet
Bride’s shoes Jimmy Choo
Bridesmaids’ dresses Angelique Lamont
Bridal party hair Sophie Mullen at The Artistry Glasgow
Bridal party makeup Megs McLellan Makeup and Laura Shirley Makeup Artist
Bride’s aesthetic treatments Dr Katie Aesthetics @dr.katieaesthetics
Groomswear Moss Bros
Cake Crumbdidilyumptious
Flowers Cora Anderson Floristry
Stationery Made by the bride using Canva
Ceremony and drinks reception music string trio, booked via Encore Musicians
Reception bands Circus, booked via HireaBand and Drums N’ Roses
Wedding film Paper Street Productions (see highlights here)
