Cocktails and champagne were the order of Aussie-based Lisa and Will’s small but perfectly formed celebration at Andy Murray’s hotel. The bride tells us what her wedding-planning secret was… her mum!
Lisa McCartney and William Singleton
21st July 2023
Venue | Cromlix House, Stirlingshire
Photography | Wild Bracken Photography
“William and I both live in Melbourne (where we met in a bar back in 2017), but I’m originally from Dunblane and he is from London. We got engaged in Florida in September 2019, but not long after that the pandemic kicked off, so we didn’t get underway with any wedding planning until that receded.
We needed to decide whether we wanted to have our wedding Down Under or back in the UK. We settled upon the latter and were won over by Cromlix House, the hotel that Andy and Kim Murray own near my hometown.
It’s a gorgeous, small country-house venue with only 16 bedrooms, which meant that all our family members could take a room. We’d essentially have the place to ourselves. It has beautiful grounds and gardens, endless photo opportunities and its charming chapel was the perfect setting for our ceremony. Katie was our wedding co-ordinator at the venue, and she really made the experience completely stress-free.
I’ve never been one of those people who’ve dreamt about my wedding, so I was pretty laid-back when it came to planning it. All I knew was that I wanted it to be small and intimate – we had just 34 guests, seven of which were children – and I enlisted the help of my mum to keep us on track. She’s so organised and we couldn’t have done it without her.
My wedding dress is a bespoke design from a label called Chasing the Sun Bridal that I discovered at SoHo Bride in Melbourne. Dressmaker and label owner Jesse helped me sketch out my dream dress on paper, then brought it to life. She was amazing.
The night before the wedding, William and I stuck to tradition and went our separate ways. I hadn’t seen my best friend Jill for four years, so had dinner with her and her partner at Cromlix, before we went back to the room with my sister for a girlie night of facemasks and chatting. Meanwhile, William went to the pub for dinner with his family.
The morning of the wedding was one of my favourite parts of the day. We started on the champagne at 9am and had so much fun getting our hair and makeup done.
My parents are quite traditional, so it was important that my dad walked me down the aisle. I wasn’t overly fussed about having a piper play us in, but my parents insisted, and it actually was the best thing ever – it was so atmospheric!
The ceremony itself was great. Neither William nor I are religious, so we had a humanist ceremony led by Melanie K. Leckie from Humanist Society Scotland. It was very relaxed and had lots of banter and laughter – which was exactly how we wanted it to be.
After the ceremony, everyone had canapés and champagne on the lawn, while we got some pictures taken. Photographer Julia Graham from Wild Bracken Photography is a friend of mine, so I knew it would be relaxed and lots of fun. We didn’t want anything posey and Julia absolutely nailed it. I think my favourite images of the day are the shots of William and I in our element behind the bar making drinks. We love making cocktails at home at the weekend.
The speeches were very emotional as sadly both William’s parents are deceased. We’d given each guest customised tissues with our names on them, so they got used for the tears. Our other favours were little personalised minis of the fittingly named Singleton malt whisky.
After the meal, we went upstairs to the billiard room, and had a silent disco. We didn’t bother with a first dance. I think because the wedding was so small, we didn’t feel a DJ or live music for 30 people was quite right. Having a silent disco was a great way of having a party without making too much noise. It was awesome. We rounded the evening off with square sausage and bacon rolls at midnight.”
Top tip: “We are big advocates of a smaller wedding, so if it’s possible for you to have one, do it, as it really allows you to spend quality time with everyone.”
Venue Cromlix House
Photography Wild Bracken Photography
Celebrant Melanie K. Leckie, Humanist Society Scotland
Bride’s dress Chasing the Sun Bridal from SoHo Bride
Bride’s shoes Gucci
Bride’s necklace Sarah and Sebastian
Bridesmaid dresses Bec and Bridge
Makeup Ambriene Makeup Artistry
Hair Meigan Alessandra Bridal Hair
Cake Katie Bakes
Flowers Secret Garden Florist
Piper Roddy the Piper
Silent disco Silent Knights
