I met Chris when I was one a night out in Edinburgh. He had travelled to Edinburgh for a stag do and I was out with my friends. It was an instant connection. We started a long distant relationship that carried on until he moved up a few years later.
We both have kids, so Chris decided on a home proposal when we had a child free moving. It was bliss and of course I had to say yes!
When I came to planning the wedding, I was quite calm about it. I am a very organized person and enjoyed the challenged. I was pretty relaxed about everything but did find it a little hard to envision everything coming together and looking cohesive. We didn’t have a theme for our wedding but knew we wanted to be married at Cairns Farm Estate, Kirknewton. As soon as we saw the venue, we fell in love with the located, so much so that we booked even before the Venue was actually built! It was a gamble, but it really did pay off and we couldn’t have asked for a batter place to get married.
I had a rough idea of the dress I wanted. Somethings simple and elegant, with a fuller skirt and some sleeves to help cover my arms. I went to three bridal shops and love the whole experience of trying on dresses. I think it was much easier for me because I knew what silhouette I wanted, and the ladies a Gwenne’s were amazing.
I picked the beautiful Ronald Joyce Dawn dress, which I think was went to be as my name is Dawna!
The Dawn dress was stunning, and really complemented my figure. Its was a romantic off-the-shoulder organdie ballgown wedding dress. I was a little worried that the dress would drown me as I’m only 5ft tall. But it fit perfectly and made me felt like a princess bride. I loved the simple elegance of the dress and that the material had a little bit of shimmer. The silhouette was exactly what I was looking for, a gave me a stunning figure. I felt beautiful and confident and didn’t want to take it off.
We had decided that we wanted to have a humanist ceremony, which was a little unusual, but we loved it. We both wrote our own vows and kept them a secret so first we time that we heard each other’s was on the day. it was such an emotional and moving experience.
The whole day was perfect and ran so smoothly _plus we just didn’t sweat the small stuff. It was so lovely to have all of our family and friends with us, and being able to share this special moment, especially as it was after lockdown.
If I had to give a little bit of advice to any future brides I would say, try to be as organised as you can the night before. Have a list of the ‘must do photos’ with shots or poses that you want. Neither of us are very natural in front of the camera and missed a couple photos that we really wanted. I would also say to just enjoy it, everyone says it will fly by and it really does
Special thanks to our photographer