Lennoxlove House has recently (and unsurprisingly) retained it’s 5 star status awarded by the Scottish Tourist Board.  The house provides luxurious accommodation available for exclusive hire.  With gorgeous grounds and beautiful interiors, it’s one of Mark’s favourite wedding venues.  Sue and Chris opted for the amazing floral designers, Planet Flowers, to dress the venue.  Planet Flowers are always guaranteed to come up with something dramatic and different from the norm – read our feature Planet Flowers here.  Charlotte from Heritage Portfolio provided all of the event design for the wedding including linens, glassware, cutlery, menu planning, wines, menu cards etc (apart from flowers, which Planet Flowers executed perfectly).  Heritage Portfolio also ran the wedding reception at Lennoxlove House.

Mark has never met a couple who have laughed so much as Sue and Chris on their wedding day – it was completely infectious and the couple, their guests and Mark just giggled all day long.  You can see some of our favourite images in the slideshow below (turn down the volume if you are at work!).

Chris and Sue – we have loved being involved in your wedding and can’t wait to produce an amazing album of your favourite images.  Mark would also like to say that he loved watching your guests who had never ceilidh danced before making a great attempt!

Venue – Lennoxlove House

Flowers – Planet Flowers

Dress – The Bridal House

Kilt – Slanj Kilts

Band – Reel Time Events

Planet Flowers are a mother and daughter team who have always had flowers in their lives.  Mum Rachel had been involved with flowers from a young age as her father was a keen gardener which progressed to her training in flower shops in Australia.  Gemma, her daughter, always went along with her Mum to work and so it seemed like a natural progression to also start working in the flower business.  After Gemma left school, she trained in Holland and received a Dutch Masters Diploma in floral art and shortly after began work with her Mum, Rachel.

Planet Flowers has now been trading for just over 12 years.  After Rachel gained a wealth of experience managing flower shops over 25 years, she decided to start an Event Floristry business that would specialise in event, wedding and hospitality flowers only.  Planet Flowers offers a team of highly trained florists that strive to deliver the highest quality of flowers and design without compromising traditional floristry skills.  As Gemma told me “We think outside the box and constantly try to inspire our clients to move on with floral design and try something different. We want each and every wedding to have a different look and feel.  Each wedding should be unique to each bride and groom – it is their special day so the flower design should be designed just for them.  No matter whether it is designing or executing the design we are passionate about our work and we think this shows through to our clients.”

I wondered what their favourite arrangement or event had been.  Gemma said “This is such a hard question! There are so many memorable events for all different reasons! One of the most amazing experiences was designing and executing a wedding at Hotel de Paris, Monaco back in 2008. It was a lifetime experience that we will never forget. More recently we designed the flowers for a wedding at the stunning venue Mansfield Traquair in Edinburgh. It was a truly magnificent wedding – it was such a modern, sleek design. For the last five years we have also supplied the flowers for the Queens Summer Party at Holyrood Palace – which we are very proud about – sadly we have never seen a Corgi in the grounds… maybe this year!”

So what do Planet Flowers foresee for the next few years?  They plan on continuing to provide the very best in Event and Corporate floristry.  They would also love to continue traveling further afield to experience the rewards of tackling the most challenging work.  Check out some of their stunning designs on their blog.

One of our favourite couples from last year (Jen and Derek) chose Planet Flowers to provide gorgeous arrangements on their wedding day.

Jodie & Rob ended up emailing back and forth a couple times and then Rob asked for her telephone number.  Jodie called him and they spoke for a few hours…about everything that newly acquainted people probably shouldn’t talk about..religion..politics..etc.  Rob ended up asking Jodie to dinner and they went out the next Saturday for sushi.  They had great conversation and after dinner, Rob didn’t know what to do because he didn’t have plans past dinner (in case it went badly)!  They ended up going to another restaurant near Jodie’s apartment for drinks and dessert. They talked another hour or so and then he took her home.  They started dating exclusively about 2 weeks later.  Jodie and Rob went to Lisbon that summer and Jodie thinks after that trip they knew they’d be together for life!

Rob and Jodie dated for eight months before Rob asked Jodie to marry him.  They were married eleven months later.  What Jodie found really funny was that at the time Rob was working from home and didn’t go to bars, so he thought online was another way to meet people.  But he said that had he read the other posts that people had, he would have never posted there…and if Jodie’s friend hadn’t been looking on there, she would have never looked there …… it was meant to be!

Rob had plans to propose in Washington, D.C. but it didn’t work out that way.  As Jodie told us “we were dressed up for a work-related meeting and we were at a nice restaurant…but they could only seat us after the meeting at the bar. I said okay but Rob didn’t want to do that. I didn’t really get it..but agreed and we tried to figure out another place to go that was close…but we couldn’t decide on anything and I was just like like…well…let’s just go home…There is no reason for us to spend the money in DC when we can eat somewhere close to home cheaper. Rob resisted a bit as he wanted us to walk afterward to the memorial or somewhere romantic…but of course I didn’t know that! We got in the car to go home and then he decided that no matter what he was going to ask me that night. He thought about pulling over and pretending that we were having car trouble to and asking me on the side of the road…but then I got a call and ended up talking to my aunt almost all the way back home. When we were close to home, Rob asked where I wanted to eat and I told him we’d just order sushi. He seemed bummed and I thought…well..we’re dressed up…do you want to go to Capital Grill (a nice restaurant in downtown Baltimore)? He agreed. We got a back room seat and there were other tables that took forever to finish and leave. He ended up getting the waiter to dim the lights a bit which I thought was kind of strange..but finally he said some really sweet things and asked me to marry him! I was totally shocked and felt terrible that I had put him through so much frustration! I was thrilled and the ring was a beautiful antique diamond and sapphire ring in white gold which was incredibly thoughtful since he knows I love antique jewelry!”

Jodie and Rob chose Dalhousie Castle near Edinburgh (www.dalhousiecastle.co.uk) because they decided that they wanted to honeymoon in Scotland – they decided to have a small ceremony there instead of a large wedding in the US.   Jodie ended up doing Google searches of places to get married to Scotland, which ended up evolving to looking at castles to get married in.  As Jodie said “I didn’t even realize that was a possibility but I loved it because it was even more romantic than getting married abroad. I stumbled upon Dalhousie and read several reviews that were pleased with their wedding day.  Their prices were reasonable for such a small ceremony and we were the only wedding of the day which was really wonderful as well.  All in all, planning went relatively well, especially since I was doing everyone online. We were thrilled with the day, the ceremony, the dinner and the treatment we received from Dalhousie and their staff. I wrote a glowing review for them and would again. They were great on the day of the wedding and the day was truly wonderful…even with the rain. Our guests told us that our wedding was the best they had ever attended because we had so much fun.”

Jodie got her wedding dress on ebay.  She wanted to save as much money as possible and bought it for $50!  It was a sample dress from a wedding boutique and they were selling it online so she got a $900 dress for $50, had it altered a bit and it was ready to go!  Jodie had it as a carry-on on the plane. She thought she could just iron it before the wedding, but Dalhousie sent it off for her and had it steamed which she really appreciated.

Jodie and Rob used Planet Flowers (www.planetflowers.co.uk)and were really pleased with them.  Jodie found them online and thought their pictures were wonderful.  They only needed a bouquet, a button flower for Rob, and flowers for my hair and the cake but they were beautiful.

Rob and Jodie chose Archibald Photography because they had read a recommendation from someone else that used Mark and had nice things to say.  Jodie said “the couple said that they wanted a natural look and that Mark made the bride feel beautiful and natural etc. Also, and probably more importantly, we had to option with Archibald to get a disk of pictures so that we could make our own album and copies for our families.  Rob is a photographer and I am very artistic so we wanted that option.  They were very flexible with choices and ultimately we decided that we wanted to work with them.   Again, scheduling everything and making all arrangements online went very smoothly as well.  On the day, Mark was wonderful.   He was fun to work with and Rob and I…and all the guests thought he was great. We even asked him to stick around and have a cigar with us before dinner!  We had a wonderful time and the pictures were gorgeous. All of our friends and family have been very impressed. We knew we had made the right choice!”

The best thing for Rob and Jodie about their day was that it was truly about the two of them and they got to share it with our friends and family.  Not only was the day about them getting married, but everything they did….where they did it..how they did it etc…was about them and their style.   Jodie and Rob didn’t compromise anything and were thrilled with everything.  And to top it off…they have a wonderful story about where they got married that doesn’t sound like everyone else’s story!

Jodie and Rob don’t think they had a bad thing to say about their day.  It rained..but they even had fun with that!  When we asked Jodie what the funniest thing was she said “probably that I was so goofy, I was just smiling from ear to ear and probably just looked goofy.  We also put the wrong hand forward when we went to put the rings on!”  However, I think you can see for yourself that Jodie only looks beautiful on her day – certainly not ‘goofy’!!!