SUMMER WEDDING AT FRIARS CARSE COUNTRY HOUSE HOTEL IN DUMFRIES – AMY AND NEIL | Wedding Photographer in Dumfries and Galloway

IF YOU’RE PLANNING A WEDDING AT FRIARS CARSE COUNTRY HOUSE HOTEL IN DUMFRIES, YOU’LL LOVE THIS WEDDING FOR INSPIRATION!

Amy and Neil got married at Friars Carse Country House Hotel, which is a beautiful hotel in Dumfries with a view of the river Nith.

The ceremony was a lovely outdoor service held on the lawn leading down to the river and the reception took place in the large purpose built marquee. It was really special.

Friars Carse Country House Hotel is one of my favourite places to have a wedding in Dumfries – it is really peaceful and secluded, and offers an onsite hotel accommodation so guests don’t have to travel home. There are so many beautiful spots that are perfect for photo ops. Weddings at Friars Carse Country House Hotel are amazing because the surroundings are incredible and the staff make sure that they do all that they can to ensure that the wedding day runs smoothly.

“I always knew, that if he was free, I would hire Dan as our photographer. I’ve seen so many weddings that he’s worked on pop up on facebook and they have always been consistently beautiful, so for me, the photography was a no brainer. And as a TV editor, there was no way I could get a videographer to make a video because it would never be as amazing as how I have filmed and cut it myself so I knew Dan was a sure bet to give me the best photography.” – Amy & Neil

Amy tells me that she met Neil at an end of year uni flat party. They did similar degrees and some of their friends overlapped but they didn’t meet until the end of first year. They did 3 more years at university in Dundee, moved down to London, progressed well in careers, bought a house and got engaged on their 8th anniversary at a lovely restaurant in Soho called Bob Bob Ricard which has “press for champagne” buttons on each table.

Amy said “I kind of had an idea Neil was going to propose as he booked the restaurant without me (Which he would normally never do), and when we were getting in the taxi, I notice him putting his hand over his chest (like touching inside his breast pocket of his suit, which is also a out of character thing to do). What he didn’t anticipate was that he asked for a table in a corner of the room, but they had put us in a raised booth, so when it actually came to getting down on one knee, it was more of a lunge as if he got fully down, I probably wouldn’t have been able to see him! We set our wedding date for 12 months later.”

They both said that they decided to get married back home in Scotland because its a lot cheaper than London,, their families live in Scotland and they wanted a venue that they could have all to themselves. They chose Friars Carse because we could book out all the bedrooms and have the whole place to themselves and it had a lovely secluded and traditional Scottish feel to it.

Sara at Together Forever Bridal made Amy’s wedding dress shopping such a special occasion. She has a small shop which means that you to have an appointment. She then shuts up shop so you have her undivided attention which really makes a difference. Amy says that she was so kind and considerate and that if she had tried her dress on in another shop, she may have not bought it. Sara didn’t just try her in the dress, she would do hair, put accessories on and a matching veil before the big reveal in the the mirror.

Neil went back home to buy his kilt and outfit and he hope to get plenty more use from it over the years to come.

I asked Amy a few other questions about her wedding day:

What made you choose your decor and styling?

Because we were getting married near where I grew up, I just wanted to pick local businesses that I’ve known for a long time like Jeni at the Florist, Una at imaginations and Shannon at Calypso. I wanted to keep the decorations simple and natural, with a couple of traditional Scottish elements. Like little hints of tartan, tablet for favours, Thistles in the flowers, a Scottish sweet stand etc Because I live in London it was quite hard to imagine how the reception room was going to turn out because we don’t have a car so whatever we had in London, we would have to carry on the train and we already had our dress and kilt to carry! So I mostly bought things online and got them sent to my mums house and she would take pictures of them once they arrived to make sure they were not rubbish in quality. So I do think I overbought on somethings- like twine and wooden pegs, I think I ended up with about 10 rolls of twine and 300+ mini wooden pegs. I printed and handmade all the wedding invites, table numbers, seating plan, place names, which helped with cost and they could be exactly how I wanted them.

What was your first dance song and why?

We always knew our first dance was going to be Angels by the XX as its been a song we have slow danced to in the kitchen so often . Its just very soft, slow and gentle song about not being able to be more in love with you as I am now.

What was your favourite part of the day and why?

Our favourite part of the day was finding out that one of our English friends who had never wore a kilt before, spent the entire ceremony wearing the kilt back to front. I had 2 favourite parts – the beginning of the day and the end of the day. I really enjoyed waking up and having breakfast with Neil in the morning, going into the marquee and together going through and making sure everything was how we wanted it before running up to get ready. It’s how we have an will always be – a team, I wasn’t going to put the pressure on Neil for all the last minute checks just because it’s traditional not to be seen the morning of and it was just a nice little moment of calm before the day started. And then in the evening and after we left the marquee, Friars Carse kept the bar open in the main lounge so around 20 of us all sat and had a proper good chinwag. It was nice to take my dress off, take my make up off and just have a proper chat with people as the whole day, I didn’t really feel like I had the time to have an in-depth conversation with everyone, and we didn’t go to bed until 3:30 just talking!

If you could impart any words of wisdom to a couple planning their marriage and wedding day, what would they be and is there anything you would do differently?

I think planning a wedding is as stressful as you make. We kept on having people ask us when they saw us “Are you stressed with all the wedding planning?” But in reality – we were not. For example, Yes, we could have gone to 5 different cake makers and had tasting tests and pondered over the thought but you don’t need to do that if you don’t want it either, we just picked one with good reviews and lots of examples of their work and it was wonderful. There was a few funny anecdotes that I have thought of since that I wished I had put in my speech but apart from that no.

If you’re planning a wedding at Friars Carse Country House Hotel and you are looking for a photographer, get in touch!