Carol & Jonathan’s laid-back log cabin beach wedding

The Offbeat Bride: Carol, Office Assistant at a Christmas pudding factory

Her offbeat partner: Jonathan, Data Center Technician

Date and location of wedding: Ravensheugh Log Cabin, Tyninghame, Scotland, — June 14, 2012

Our offbeat wedding at a glance: We live in England, and you have to get married in a permanent structure there, and we were hoping to be married outdoors. We decided on making a holiday of it and got married in Scotland.

Our venue was a small log cabin overlooking the beach in southern Scotland. We had a small wedding with around 25 guests. We arranged accommodation for our guests for two nights, and everyone met up the night before the wedding for a meal and some drinks, so on the wedding day, everyone was already friends!

I didn’t have any bridesmaids as I felt that everyone at the ceremony was just so very important to me (though I did have my little niece as a very cute flower girl!).

We had a BBQ for our main meal, which was expertly grilled by Jon’s best man, Richard. We had all the normal BBQ food and it fit perfectly with the relaxed atmosphere of the day. I can also happily report that I didn’t spill tomato sauce down my dress! We also had a selection of cheese (we had about 10 different kinds) with olives and breads and other tasty, nibbly things.

In the evening we had an iPod disco and dancing. In the run up to the wedding, we had asked our guests what they would like to dance to and we tried to make sure we had something to suit everybody. Our playlist ranged from The Time Warp, to Bon Jovi, to Rammstein, to Shakira.

Tell us about the ceremony: As we were getting married in Scotland, in order to get married anywhere (as opposed to a licensed venue), we needed to have a religious ceremony, so we chose to have a Humanist ceremony.

Our celebrant, Tim Maguire, helped us to write a ceremony that was extremely personal and reflected us as a couple and what we felt marriage was about. My Sister, Caroline, read Dr. Seuss’ “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!”

Our biggest challenge: We did a lot of DIY for our wedding, and finding the time for all of it was tricky. We made a lot of bunting, which we put up on the inside and the outside of the log cabin, as well as down the tree-lined walk. We also collected and painted a lot of jam jars which we strung up around the main outside area of the log cabin. We used these as candle holders as it went dark. We also painted lots of tin cans, which we used as vases for flowers and candle holders.

We used three long pieces of wood wired together to make eight tripods, and then tied material around the wire to match the bunting. From this we hung a painted glass bottle filled with water and flowers.

We also made the flowers, favors, hair accessories, wedding cake stand, and wedding cake (which I was still making the day before the wedding), so time was a little short. But with help from friends and family, we got there in the end!

My favorite moment: I walked down the aisle to Led Zeppelin’s “Thank you.” I love the lyrics of the song, and Jon and I felt that it would fit our wedding perfectly. One of my best memories is when I first heard the song as I walked down the aisle towards the sea and saw Jon for the first time that day.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

• Photography: Vanishing Moments
• Bride’s dress: Mimi Toko (I actually ended up giving up my Ian Stuart sample dress to another bride whose dress order went wrong at another branch of the store. So I ended up getting a new one for the sample price!)
• Venue: Ravensheugh Log Cabin
• Celebrant: Tim Maguire

Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!