A summer heatwave turned up the temperature at this south Scotland wedding

Alex Wood and Amy Cadden-Wood

13th August 2022

Venue | GG’s Yard
Photography | Nikki Leadbetter

“We met nine years ago while I was studying fashion and Alex was studying chemical engineering at the University of Manchester. I’m from Glasgow and Alex is from Devon, so we were both far from home.
Our paths crossed in a Manchester nightclub when I asked him to dance!

When Alex finished his degree, he moved to London while I stayed in Manchester to do my final year. I then joined him in London but, just four months in, Alex was offered a job in New York for two years. We managed to keep our long-distance relationship going. It was never an option to break apart.

We made it work, and travelled back and forth at every opportunity. It was tough at times but we shared some of our best memories in New York, it’s now a really special place to us.

We were together for five years before the engagement. In 2019, the year after Alex returned from New York, he proposed while we were in Cannes, France. We had hoped to get married in 2021 but we chose to postpone a year – to August 2022 – so that we could have the wedding we wanted without any covid-related restrictions.

We knew we wanted to get married in Scotland so we started to look at venues first.

I have a small confession… my mum and I got excited about dress shopping and I was home in Glasgow for the weekend and we decided to go try some on just for fun… but I wasn’t to know that I actually would find the one! So, I had ordered my dress (it was made to order) before I even had a wedding venue and date…

With the goal to move to Scotland one day, we chose Scotland to get married. GG’s Yard was like nowhere we had seen before. We viewed around 12 venues but as soon as we walked into GG’s with my parents, we knew it was the one. It’s a stunning venue and its neutral tones suited us perfectly.

We met four celebrants before choosing Kathryn Ross. Right away, Kathryn came across as someone who was super passionate about her role as a celebrant. She demonstrated such enthusiasm and kindness, and we knew instantly that she was the one we wanted to marry us.

We wanted all of our favourite people there from start to finish, so we had no evening guests – 107 all day including Alex and I.

I wasn’t really one of these girls that knew what wedding she would have, what the venue or theme would be like or even the dress. Everything just kind of fell into place once we found GG’s Yard.

We chose Nikki Leadbetter as our photographer. Her portfolio was beautiful and her style was so unique. She really captured amazing ‘moments’. When we spoke to her, she filled us with so much confidence. And she completely delivered! I would say our favourite thing about all the images is just the emotions she captured on the day – just so special to refer back to and reminisce the good times.

I have to say the planning was a LOT, I am lucky I work from home so I could phone suppliers in the week in-between work calls to try and free up my weekends. It is difficult planning a wedding as most suppliers you can only really deal with Monday to Thursday as they have weddings most weekends. If I needed to chat to suppliers I would do those tasks during the week and I did a lot of odd jobs like table plan on a Sunday.

However, my advice would be to try and keep your weekends to enjoy and relax as wedding planning can take a lot out of you. Always write lists!

Me, my mum, Alex’s mum and the bridesmaids had a lovely morning – we all gathered at 6am in the cottage that we were staying in while all the guys gathered to do a workout and went for breakfast.

We had breakfast in the cottage and I handed gifts to the bridesmaids – a pearl bag each from Zara, The White Company candle and small earrings for them to wear on the day and we just waited on the hair and makeup to arrive. Getting ready was lovely, it was so nice to be with my best ladies on that morning – it’s a really special time.

We had seven females including myself, the bridesmaids, the mother of the bride and groom and all the groomsmen and dads to get ready that morning and I can honestly say it was worth every penny having two dressers keeping you in check that morning as it can be a busy time.

We also travelled from Glasgow to Dumfries in 30-degree heat so we really needed all the dresses and suits steamed to look their best which the dressers did at our cottage which was across from the venue the night before.

Our favourite part of the whole wedding was the ceremony! It was filled with emotion, joy, laughter and love. It will be something we will never forget, and we have Kathryn to thank for her words and her delivery.

Alex and I are really passionate about food and we wanted to serve the best of the best, this was a huge reason why we went with GG’s Yard as we knew the food was outstanding.

‘Let’s Stay Together’ by Al Green was our first dance – we both have loved this song for years and just knew it was the right song, we wanted an upbeat song for our bridesmaids, groomsman and family to join in half way through – we knew it would get everyone going too.

We would change absolutely nothing! We feel like the luckiest couple to have had our perfect day.”

Venue GGs Yard
Celebrant Kathryn Ross at Humanist Society Scotland
Photography Nikki Leadbetter
Wedding video Boda Productions
Bride’s dress Martina Liana at Eleganza Sposa
Bride’s earrings Zalando
Bride engagement ring and wedding ring Queensmith London
Bridesmaid dresses Anne Priscilla Bridal
Dressers Dressed By Christine
Makeup Stephanie Mckinlay and Olivia McPike (bridesmaids)
Nails Blush Old Kilpatrick
Hair Denise Rea
Mother of the bride outfit Rinaldo Girasoli
Mother of the groom outfit Phase Eight and Coast
Groomswear Marks and Spencer
Cake Top Tier Cakes
Flowers Belles & Thistles
Stationery EYI Love Studio
DJ Luke Cadden (the bride’s brother)
Reception band WooHoo Band
Transport McCalls Coaches
Fireworks 21CC Fireworks