This couple had a gorgeous autumnal theme at their wedding which featured plenty of personalised touches
Lauren Bunnage and Matthew Prichard
2nd September 2022
Venue | Ednam House Hotel, Kelso
Photography | Janine Kirkwood Photography
“We’ve been together since we were 16, and got engaged after three years. We got engaged on New Year’s Eve 2017 at The Refinery in Edinburgh. We had a table by the window overlooking the Christmas lights and he had a bouquet of red roses brought over after.
Our engagement was originally meant to be 2.5 years as our date was going to be September 2020. However, due to Covid we had to postpone our wedding twice and our date ended up being 2nd September 2022.
We decided we didn’t want to wait to be married so we secretly eloped in Edinburgh in September 2021 with just our photographer and Lauren’s granny as our witnesses. This meant that we actually spent over four years planning our wedding!
The first decision we made was hiring our band The Sleekit Beasties and band member Sam MacAdam to play the harp for us. We had seen them at another wedding and just knew we had to have them (and picked our date changes around them).
We got married at Ednam House in Kelso because we felt like the venue had everything – somewhere elegant with beautiful grounds and accommodation for all of our guests as most of them were travelling quite far for the wedding.
The bridal suite at Ednam House is such a beautiful space for getting ready and our wedding morning was very relaxed. I think just having two bridesmaids kept the morning nice and chill. We made sure to steam the dresses etc. the night before.
Jenny Ross Makeup Artistry is truly one of the best bridal makeup specialists in Scotland. Not only was our makeup flawless but Jenny is so much more than that on the wedding morning. She coordinated our morning and was so helpful drying off our bouquets, and ensuring everything was running smoothly.
We loved that we were able to use one of the smaller event rooms for a welcome dinner with our bridal party the night before, and then we had a post-wedding lunch the following day.
We chose a humanist celebrant Andy McSorley as we wanted the ceremony to be personal. We wrote our own vows and all of our guests said one minute they were crying and laughing the next. We also had two readings. We loved having Andy conduct our legal ceremony and then our blessing ceremony one year later where we could remake our promises in front of our loved ones.
Our favourite moment was exchanging vows again. They felt even more meaningful the second time and it was so emotional.
I am the co-founder of wedding blog From Brides With Love and now run wedding content creation company Social Brides Club, so we found most of our inspiration from blogs or magazines.
Due to the amount of time spent planning, my Pinterest board grew and grew. However, we always knew we wanted an autumnal theme with deep red roses inspired by the engagement bouquet and for the day to feel like an intimate fairytale.
We had lots of personal touches including personalised calligraphy bouquet ribbons by Maria Elizabeth Designs. We also had a ‘generations of love’ table with frames we collected from charity shops showing family members on their wedding days and all the love that came before us.
Maria created our incredible stationery, including signage and a mirrored table plan, vow books, place names, menus. Everything was hand-made in her signature calligraphy. Maria also styled the wedding for us, sourcing candles, table linens, and made sure that everything looked perfect on the day. She has such an incredible eye.
Our wedding stationery all matched so beautifully with a custom crest with our initials. We even had calligraphy on the candles on the tables, and the bridesmaids’ bouquet ribbons were personalised with ‘Today my bridesmaids, forever my friend’.
Our overall favourite is the cake display because of the story behind it. Nicola from Ruby and Pearl Cake Art created the most beautiful cake for us and we bought a bar cart on Facebook marketplace to display it.
Maria created a calligraphy tablecloth with one of our readings and styled the cart for us so beautifully on the day. Unfortunately, our original photographers pulled out of our wedding with just six weeks to go which was incredibly stressful. Luckily, Janine Kirkwood Photography stepped in and was wonderful on the day. We wanted modern photographs that incorporated trends but would still be timeless.
Despite it being a small wedding, the dancefloor was filled the whole night, and Sleekit Beasties were amazing at teaching our English and Spanish guests how to ceilidh.
We also had the Blushbooth Photobooth, which was the same one we had at prom, so the photos match. Raven and Wolf Films were absolutely amazing and made us the most beautiful wedding film which we will watch forever.”
Watch Lauren and Matthew’s first look, which Raven and Wolf Films captured on the day and bride Lauren edited:
“For our drinks reception we served mini burgers as canapés and had our harpist playing modern songs outside. It was such a beautiful day we got so lucky with the weather so wanted to make the most of it.
We had a posh barbecue with mini fillet steaks, salmon, chicken, and salads. We had a buffet style which worked really nicely and some guests even went up for third portion.
We had a sweetheart table which was really nice as it meant we got to spend time together just the two of us. We then had two long tables which worked really nicely and was styled beautifully with lots of candles and fresh flowers.”
Top tip: “A lot of trendy things we thought we wanted at first we eventually realised we didn’t really want. Friends and family will tell you that you ‘have to do’ something but there are no rules when it comes to weddings.”
Photographer Janine Kirkwood Photography
Wedding Dress David’s Bridal
Shoes Aldo (Manolo dupes)
Bridesmaid dresses ASOS
Mother-of-the-bride outfit Hobbs
Groomswear 8 Yards
Celebrant Andy McSorley, Caledonian Humanist Association
Cake Ruby and Pearl Cake Art
Catering Ednam House
Flowers Feathergrass Florals
Stationery Maria Elizabeth Designs
Engagement/wedding rings and jewellery Chisholm Hunter
Ceremony and drinks reception music Sam MacAdam Harpist
Reception music The Sleekit Beasties
Photobooth Blushbooth Photobooth
Filmmaker Raven and Wolf Films
Hair Signature Hair by Kirstie
Makeup Jenny Ross Makeup Artistry
Nails Well Gel Nails Edinburgh
Candlesticks and tableware Alba Tableware
