Serena Durante and Calvin Kayes

1st October 2016

Venues | St Mirin’s Cathedral, Paisley and Gleneagles, Auchterarder
Photography | Blue Sky Photography

“Calvin and I both adore Gleneagles. It was the setting for the proposal in 2015 and is our favourite place to visit, so it was the only venue we contemplated for our reception. Our ceremony was held at St Mirin’s Cathedral in Paisley. It holds lots of memories as it was the location of my parents’ wedding and my brother and I’s christenings.

My family run Porrelli, a luxury ice cream company based in Paisley, so we nodded to Italian traditional ‘millefoglie’ layered wedding cakes by having individual strawberry millefoglies, with specially-made strawberry sorbet for the ladies and a chocolate fondant with salted caramel ice cream for the guys.

For the evening reception, we also had an ice cream cart which I had customised for the day to blend in with my colour scheme. It looked so pretty! We organised a cheese station from George Mewes on Byres Road in Glasgow. Our wedding cake was out of this world. I wanted it to be taller than Calvin and I! The designer at Liggy’s Cake Company managed to put it all together.

I wore a custom-made Caroline Castigliano wedding dress. I visited London in January 2016 to shop for it and although I knew exactly what I wanted, it was hard to find ‘the one’. My sixth and final appointment was at Caroline Castigliano’s Knightsbridge boutique and, thankfully, they were able to help me design exactly what I wanted.

We had the most amazing day. I loved it all from start to finish – I just couldn’t believe it was all happening so fast. I only wish I’d managed to have more photos taken with my mum while getting ready. The morning flew by and we ran out of time.”

Top tip: “Make a spreadsheet of everything you need for your wedding. Note down exactly what the supplier is providing, cost, contact details and a tick box at the end to make sure you have spoken to them a month before the wedding and you are happy that everything is under control.”

Dress Caroline Castigliano
Headpiece Jenny Packham
Shoes Manolo Blahnik
Bridesmaids’ dresses Christie Couture
Groomswear Tom Ford
Flowers Ruby Flowers
Cake Liggy’s Cake Company
Cheese station George Mewes Cheese
Ice cream cart Porrelli
Stationery Intricate Creations
Venue décor 88 Events
Entertainment Roberto Enzo, SOS Singing Waiters and Storm
Filmmaker Cherry Tree Films
Transport Ultimate Private Hire
Hair Sian Hair
Makeup Louise Ballantine