Natalie Walls & Chris Forrester
2nd July 2022
Venue | Enterkine House, Ayrshire
Photography | Daryl Beveridge Photography
“It took Chris 10 whole years to propose. When he did, the setting couldn’t have been any better: he got down on one knee in front of other tourists at the Grand Canyon in Arizona. We gave ourselves three years to organise and save for the day of our dreams.
We set a budget of between £15,000 to £20,000 – but let’s just say we strayed a little! Weddings are an expensive business, but even looking back, we think it was worth every penny.
We started out looking for barn venues. Then we came across Enterkine House that offers a new barn-style wedding space built onto a hotel. It gave us the best of both worlds: modern accommodation and amenities with a rustic twist. The oak-framed glass barn’s wooden beams looked stunning adorned with white flowers and the views out to the surrounding Ayrshire countryside were beautiful.
We decided upon a humanist ceremony. Our celebrant was the brilliant George Smith from Fuze Ceremonies. He helped us tailor our ceremony to suit, including a handfasting using Chris’s tartan and a piece of my dress. I tied both my grans’ wedding rings around my bouquet as they sadly aren’t with us any more. (You can read more about Natalie and Chris’s ceremony choices over on this blog post by Fuze Ceremonies.)
We also organised a personalised ‘time capsule’. It’s a box engraved with the details of when we met and the date of our wedding. It contains our three promises we made to each other during our vows and a bottle of our favourite champagne which we will open on our first anniversary.
I wanted a mixture of candid and posed shots. Having timeless wedding photographs was important to us; they had to be natural and not too heavily edited. Daryl Beveridge was superb, and we had such a laugh getting our pictures taken by him.
I found my dream dress at Eleganza Sposa in Glasgow. I also visited Aimee Bridal Couture and even though I didn’t buy my gown there, I had the loveliest appointment trying them on. I accessorised with gorgeous shoes from Charlotte Mills and had a bespoke headpiece designed and made by Katie Mangan.
Aside from the speeches (everyone done us proud despite the nerves), our bands Shades of Sax and Sneaky Treacle were the best parts of our day. We got so many compliments on their performances. Our first dance was to All of Me by John Legend which the band sang amazingly.
There were no bums on seats when the saxophonist played. Later, Sneaky Treacle wound up the reception with the obligatory Loch Lomond and Chris and I got thrown up in the air. Talk about ending the night on a high!
We couldn’t have asked for a better day. We were just so happy with all our friends and family coming together to celebrate our marriage.”
Top tip: “My top piece of advice would be to not stress about the trivial things as, chances are, you won’t notice them on the day. Go with what you want and don’t stress about keeping everyone happy!”
Celebrant George Smith, Fuze Ceremonies
Bride’s dress Eleganza Sposa
Bridesmaids’ dresses David’s Bridal
Flower girl’s dress Six Stories
Mothers of the bride and groom outfits Catherines of Partick
Hair Megan Lindsay Bridal Hair
Makeup Jacqui Harrow
Groomswear MacGregor and MacDuff
Cake The Cakerry
Flowers Flowers at 7
Stationery The Village Invitations Company
Venue decor Winton Weddings and Total Entertainment
Reception entertainment Sneaky Treacle and Shades of Sax
Kids’ entertainment TeePee Parties and Events
Wedding film Something New Bespoke Wedding Films
