Smoke bombs and splendid solitude at this cool Highland elopement

Gemma and Laurence

20th July 2020

Venue | outside in Glen Affric
Photography | Allan Law Photography

smoke bomb elopement bride and groom kissing by river affric

“Gemma and I met on Tinder having both just moved back home from university. We were at the same stage of our lives and everything just clicked. After three years together, I asked her to marry me on holiday in Iceland, by a waterfall at sunrise.

We had our original wedding planned for 18th July 2020 with all of our friends and family in attendance. Coronavirus meant that this had to be postponed indefinitely, but we are still planning a reception at Bogbain when restrictions allow.

When it became clear that we couldn’t have the wedding we set out to, we decided that we would elope – just 20 minutes before the deadline for submitting the forms! It was always Gemma’s ideal kind of wedding and, although I wouldn’t have considered it pre-Covid, it was absolutely perfect.

We both love hiking and being outdoors, surrounded by mountains. We Googled Glen Affric and it looked beautiful – we couldn’t think of a better venue.

Just four humans and two dogs attended our wedding! We had a humanist ceremony with Halde Pottinger as our celebrant. We wrote our own vows and also had a lot of input into Halde’s speech. It was all about our story from each other’s perspectives. When he read it, he had us all in stitches. We loved how intimate it all was. Our parents looked so proud and my dad said it was the best wedding ceremony he had ever been to.

Gemma’s dress was such a bargain: she found it five days before the wedding on Little Mistress. Her mum picked blooms from the garden to make the bouquet and Gemma completed the look with a flower crown from Amazon.

We really rated Allan Law Photography’s dramatic and atmospheric style of photography. I think it resonated with the setting. Also, he was the most chilled, lovely guy.”

Top tip: “Try not to stress too much about wedding planning (especially the small details) and be prepared to let go of what you think your ideals might be – because the end result could be even better.”

Celebrant Halde Pottinger
Bride’s dress Little Mistress
Groomswear ASOS
Wedding rings 77 Diamonds
Flower crown Amazon
Bride’s bouquet picked from mum’s garden

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