Angela McIntyre & Lisa McLean
31st May 2019
Venue | Argyle St Arches, Glasgow
Photography | Grant Parfery Photography
“Lisa has never been known to refuse chocolate in her life, but it was sod’s law that I had planted an engagement ring inside a Kinder Surprise (her favourite) on the one day she knocked it back!
We’d been having a picnic in the woods near Crieff Hydro and she claimed she was too cold to eat it. I presented it to her again at various points throughout the day, but to no avail. There came a point when I had to pretty much force her to take it! After she said yes, we had such a laugh about the whole scenario.
We originally thought about eloping and having a party when we returned. Neither of us had wanted a big wedding at all, but as you can see, our plans changed quite dramatically.
We entered and, amazingly, won a competition to hold our wedding at Argyle St Arches! It was a place we were considering anyway, seeing as – in its former incarnation – it was the location for our first date. We loved how different it was from other venues we’d looked at and how handy it was in terms of location.
We asked a wonderful celebrant called Rachel Middleton from Middleton Life Celebrations to lead our service. She is simply born to do what she does. Not only did she make our ceremony so personal, she also had our guests laughing and crying throughout. We decided to light a candle of remembrance at the start to commemorate those who couldn’t be there on the day, and included a handfasting as well.
Before the wedding, she asked us both to send her five things we loved about each other. These were kept secret until we read them out that afternoon. We had no idea what the other had written and we felt so emotional when Rachel shared these with us. There were some laughs in there too, mind!
The ‘big white wedding’ wasn’t for us. In the dark, subterranean setting, we thought an enchanted forest-type vibe would work well instead, with lots of fairylights, flowers and a blossoming ceremony arch. The venue’s staff were fantastic and went above and beyond, adding extra lights and decorations to make the place look amazing.
We entrusted the design of both our dresses to the talented Wendy Harman at Flossy and Dossy. My rainbow underskirt and multi-coloured buttons on the back of my sleeves made the look more me and I totally loved it, while Lisa said that swooshing around in her blue skirt and fluttery sleeves made her feel like Stevie Nicks!
Gordy is a DJ helped to give our guests a night they wouldn’t forget. We asked them in advance to send us three songs they would like played at our reception, meaning that there was music for every taste.
Top tip: “I used checklists! I say ‘I’ because I planned most of the wedding! Lisa just turned up on the day (haha). Checklists were a great help though as I could keep track of what I had done and what I still had to do.”
Brides’ dresses Flossy and Dossy
Celebrant Rachel Middleton at Middleton Life Celebrations
Flowers and venue decor Dainty Pig Designs
Cake Three Sisters Bake
Stationery Eden + Always Wedding Stationery
Favours LaB6 Candles
Transport Ecosse Classic Wedding Cars
Entertainment Gordy is a DJ
Hair Carol Zarebski Hair
Flowers Mitchell & MacInnes Makeup
