Nic and Ali - A beautiful Oran Mor Wedding

Nic and Ali – A beautiful Oran Mor Wedding

August 18, 2014 Real Wedding Features

Today I am excited to share the beautiful Oran Mor Wedding of Nic and Ali, with some personal elements and a touch of the Botanics.

Images of the couples Big Day were captured by Jill Cherry Porter Photography.

Jill Cherry Porter specialises in Fine Art Creative Wedding & Lifestyle Photography.

Originally hailing from Ayrshire, she now lives in the beautiful Fife coastal town of Dalgety Bay, which is literally just over the water from Scotland’s amazing capital, Edinburgh.

She is a hopeless romantic who loves what she does and creating beautiful photography featuring real people is such a joy for her.

She works all around Scotland & the UK as well as Destination celebrations too.

I now hand over to beautiful Bride Nic…

How did you meet?

“We met through a mutual friend, when I first moved to London in October 2007.”

When did you get engaged?

“Ali was originally planning to propose whilst we were holidaying in Antigua in April 2012… Unfortunately the ring didn’t arrive in time.”

“So on Saturday 5th May 2012 after a lovely meal at Loch Lomond and on the drive back to Stirling, Ali suddenly stopped the car in a lay-by announcing he wanted to take pictures of Stirling Castle.”

“He then dropped to his knee and produced a gorgeous ring.”

Tell us about your wedding planning journey

“Ali is originally from Stirling, I’m originally from Nottingham. ”

“My family is quite small and having quite a few friends who love a weekend away, it made sense to hold it in Scotland and plan from afar. ”

“Before we booked anything, we tried to understand what parts of the day were most important to us and what we wanted to focus on.”

“For us, it was having a relaxed unique venue, great live music and fantastic photos. Our venue Oran Mor, fit the bill straight away.”

“It’s centrally located, offers amazing food, unpretentious service and Louise our Event Co-Ordinator was great throughout the whole process.”

“Music for the ceremony and drinks reception was provided by Cappella String Quartet who played some great versions of modern songs.”

“Ernest were our band for the evening, who were awesome. They played a few Celidih songs at our request and somehow just knew what songs would work for the audience.”

“Both Ali and myself are natural planners and organising the Wedding 400 miles away from the venue, meant we needed to be super organised.”

“We started our collection of Wedding bits & bobs at Ali’s parents’ house about a year before and practically filled their spare room.

“There was no theme and no set colours, we just wanted to incorporate elements of our personalities into the day such.”

The simple touches we used were a Wooden Surfboard (purchased off ebay and spray painted with a stencil of our names and the date).”

“Guests signed and left messages and is now hanging in our spare room at home.”

-“Wealso had an American style post-box (using the same stencil) which was used as our post box for Wedding Cards.”

“We used jenga blocks as placecards and the table numbers were significant numbers to us, each guest then had a postcard asking them to guess the meanings.”

“We used the Botanic Gardens across the road for photographs. Jill did such an impressive job on the day and we’re so thrilled with the photos she produced.”

When did you get married?

“We were married on Saturday 21st September 2013 at Oran Mor, Glasgow.”

What was the best bit of your day?

“Just having our closest friends and family in one room was pretty awesome and enjoying celebrating with them.”

“The first and last songs of the reception. Ernest played a version of ‘Mae’ by The Gaslight Anthem for our first dance, which we loved.”

“Their last song (although not so much of a dance, more of a sway) was ‘Good Riddance’ by Green Day.”

“Having a truly personal ceremony was really important. We created our own vows (with a little help), found our own readings and with assistance from Sheena (our Humanist) we managed to create a unique ceremony.”

What advice would you give to other couples getting married?

We do have loads, but to name just a few…

“If you’re in doubt about hiring a videographer – don’t be, just do it!”

“We debated about it for a long time and it was one of the best decisions we made for the Wedding.”

“There is so much going on during the day that you either won’t remember or won’t see it. Steven from Gryffe Weddings did a fab job for us.”

“Brides don’t walk too quickly down the aisle. I panicked when everyone turned around to look at me and practically sprinted down the aisle in my Choo’s.”

“I left my poor Bridesmaids behind me, almost in the doorway and they can’t be seen on the DVD!”

“Don’t feel like you need to take loads of time off before the Wedding, if you don’t have much annual leave.”

“We only had the Friday and Monday off that weekend and then went on Honeymoon a week later.”

“We made a few trips to Scotland over the 18 months where we tried to cram in as much as possible in terms of meeting suppliers etc.”

“A lot of tasks for us were completed a lot earlier in the year than most couples, so that we weren’t rushing around near the day. ”

“Get a nice notebook and/or whiteboard and list, list, list!”

Thank you so much to Jill for sharing thsi fantastic Oran Mor Wedding.

I love how the couple didn’t feel they had to be confined to a theme or colour scheme, instead making it about what was personal to them, such as the numbers in the table numbers and table plan.

Oran Mor is so lovely already, everything in addition would just to compliment its natural uniqueness.

I also love the very elegant Wedding Cake and the very clever Surfboard Guest book, you don’t often see that.

Wedding Suppliers

Venue: Oran Mor

Photography: Jill Cherry Porter Photography

Celebrant: Sheena Johnston

Decor – Diy – Surfboard for Guestbook – Ebay, Jenga Blocks for place settings

Videography: Gryffe Weddings

Ceremony and Drinks Reception Music: Cappella String Quartet

Wedding Band: Ernest

Hair: Divine Hair by Karen Rider