Getting Real
Since booking our wedding date at Barra, we’ve had a few magical visits with close family: unsurprisingly they’ve all fallen in love with the venue too… Our recent visit marked exactly one year until we get married, and it coincided with Barra’s Taste of Winter weekend, where lots of local food and drink suppliers came together to showcase their produce. There was swing music under a fairy lit courtyard, with gold flecks of light coming from the large Christmas trees. Enveloped in the scent of winter candles and mulled wine, we shared a slice of Guinness cake in the cosy farm shop and talked through the next stage of our planning: getting our date out to family and friends.
A few people had begun to ask about the theme of the wedding – mainly our mothers wanting to begin their search for outfits! This was pretty easy: the combination of venue, location and time of year gave us an instant theme of Scottish winter magic, so we’re going with that. Early on we agreed that we want to keep arrangements as simple and eco-friendly as possible, so although we’ve discovered a whole new world of wedding stationery, we’ve opted for a mostly paper-free approach.
For the design, we’ve opted for velvety alpine green, with gold lettering, planets and stars. (Admittedly I had longed to incorporate a luscious flamingo pink, but I’ll get that in somehow…) The text is framed by tropical leaves as a nod to a place that’s very special to me- Center Parcs. A couple of years ago I was very unwell with depression, and I couldn’t see a way out. Cat knew that Center Parcs was my childhood safe place, and so for our ten year anniversary she took me away there, where I could float in the bright blue under the palm trees.
We’d had some cross words in the cafe at Barra that day. We’re discovering that however long you’ve been together or how happy you are, planning a wedding means that you’ll disagree on new things and have to find compromise in unfamiliar ways. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed because I am just a normal person who eats toast and goes to work, and I have absolutely no idea how to ‘be’ a bride- I just know how to love Cat. It also surprises people that I’m a details girl: I like to know every single measurement and costing before deciding anything, and despite Cat’s groundedness she’s more of a big ideas person, so she’s able to shape plans in a way that make them come to life so beautifully.
Somewhere between flamingo pink note cards and observing the whole night arriving there’s a middle ground- stars and planets- but a pathway too. I feel so lucky to be walking on it towards another new year with Cat, and can’t wait to see out 2023 as her wife ❤️
