Delaying by a year just made Jenny and Karina’s day all the sweeter when it finally rolled around. Here’s how they kept costs down but still had the day of their dreams
Jenny Wells & Karina Mclean
2nd October 2021
Venue | Friars Carse, Dumfries and Galloway
Photography | Cara Frew Photography
“Karina and I had been together for two years pre-engagement. Our engagement, on a visit to Loch Uaine in the Cairngorms, was incredible! We were lying cuddling on a sandy part of the shore, when Karina and our dog Leroy went off for a little walk. A few minutes later, they came back with Leroy wearing a bandana asking me to marry Karina! Turns out she had been carrying the ring for a while until she found the perfect place and moment to propose.
When it came to getting wedding plans underway, the most important thing to us was to book Lindsey Mason Ross as our humanist celebrant. We didn’t want anyone else – so much so, we changed our original wedding date to one that Lindsey was free. Our families loved her and we had so many comments from guests afterwards saying it was the first wedding ceremony they’ve sat through that wasn’t boring.
Covid then forced us to change the date – again! We had to push our wedding back by a year, but all our vendors were brilliant and we managed to reschedule with no issues at all.
We chose to marry at Friars Carse in Dumfriesshire. It’s a wonderful venue that offered everything we wanted: amazing accommodation and stunning grounds that include a forest, a river and marquee. Even better, it’s only a few miles from our home and halfway between both our families. Kelly Muir, the venue’s wedding co-ordinator, was fantastic.
We had 33 people for ceremony and reception – our closest friends and family only. We had our dog Leroy by our side throughout the whole day too! We even opted to give up the honeymoon suite as it wasn’t dog friendly. He’s our baby and we can’t praise Friars Carse enough for everything they did to accommodate him.
We desperately wanted to be married in the forest at Friars Carse. We envisioned our whole wedding amid the trees, surrounded with fairylights and candles. However, in good old Scottish style, it started pouring down a couple of hours before our ceremony, so we were forced to move everything indoors.
We found out afterwards that rain on your wedding is apparently very good luck, so we’ll take it as a bonus. And the photos of us in the rain were amazing!
We lined up the incredible Jessica Sharpe to sing during the ceremony. We are both laid-back people who are completely in love and wanted people to feel this during our day. I walked down the aisle as Jessica sung It’s Alright by Lady Gaga, then Karina walked down the aisle to Hold My Girl by George Ezra. Jess’s singing was a real stand-out moment for us both.
Not only is photographer Cara Frew unbelievably talented, she’s also a lovely human. She made us feel so at ease; that was important to us. She captured the day brilliantly. We both sobbed with joy when we received our photos!
Looking back, the only thing we would’ve changed about our wedding is booking our photographer and videographer for a full day, instead of just half a day. We didn’t think there would be anything worth photographing or filming but, in hindsight, we wish we’d had them at our reception too – as there was certainly a lot on the go.
We bought a paddling pool from Tesco for £5 and filled it with balls we bought for £10. The kids (and big kids!) absolutely loved it. Playing in our DIY ball-pit during the reception with my wife, granny, nieces and nephews is a moment I’ll never forget.
Our band The Moot were sensational. They even allowed Karina a shot of their instruments – a big highlight of her day.
Our wedding flowers were a total bargain. I made all the bouquets and centrepieces myself using reduced-price flowers from ALDI. They cost a grand total of £36 for three bouquets and all the centrepiece flowers.
We spent around £5,000 on our wedding. We didn’t keep a strict tally on the budget but we knew we didn’t want to start married life worrying about finances, so were adamant to keep a small budget.
We had two ‘guestbooks’ that went down a storm. We had the obligatory Polaroid for guests to take their own snaps and stick in a book along with a message. We also had a small business called Wagtails Wood Art make an alternative guestbook from the lid of an old whisky barrel that everyone signed. It’s now on the wall of our office and makes us beam every time we see it.”
Celebrant Lindsey Mason Ross, Humanist Society Scotland
Jenny’s dress Wed2BE
Bridesmaids’ dresses ASOS
Hair Isobel Finlay, Station 49
Makeup Aoife Argue and Marie Argue-Haslam, Athena Beauty
Cake Gail Bailey
Flowers ALDI
Stationery Designed on Canva, then printed via Freeprints
Venue decor The Wedding Room
Ceremony music Jessica Sharpe
Reception music The Moot
Filmmaker RMH Productions – Wedding Films
