We love this couple’s intimate gathering in Scotland that took place in a 16th century tower…complete with warm candle light, elegant flowers, an exquisite Zoog Studio wedding gown…and the coolest, most fantastical ring bearer we have ever seen! A beautiful barn owl swooped in to deliver Cat + Nigel’s wedding rings. Talk about enchanting! Enjoy!
Cat + Nigel | October 2014 | Aikwood Tower, Selkirk, Scotland | Dress Listing: Zoog Studio by Sigi
The Ceremony
We had an intimate ceremony in the Laich Hall at dusk – the only modern part of the Tower, which was built some time in the 1540’s. The room was lit by candles and fairy lights and I made my entrance down stairs in vertiginous Manolo Blahnik shoes. The bouquet was made in part from my favorite flower ‘celosia’ which I love because they look like little brains. We wanted the ceremony to be relaxed and reflect our sense of humor. So I walked down the aisle to the intro to ‘Cherry Pie’ by Warrant, before switching to ‘Must be an Angel’ by Eurythmics. We had a beautiful barn owl fly in and deliver our wedding rings. It was a surprise, and only the best man (who had to put on a gauntlet at the appropriate time), our registrar and us knew. Afterward, our guests got to meet and greet the owl.
The Reception
Guests had drinks in front of the fire in the Great Hall before moving to the cart shed for dinner where we had lots of tea lights hung from the wooden beams. Our approach to food was focused on quality over quantity and all the produce (with the exception of the Jamon Iberico) was sourced locally. We didn’t want people to have dessert and then wedding cake straight afterwards, so, we arranged for our caterers to make a multicolored, mufti-flavored macaroon tower for us with a small cutting cake on top. After dinner, the macaroons were boxed up for people to take home. We had a number of cocktails created specifically to reflect what we like (me: sweet things, Nigel: things that taste like swabbing alcohol). The cocktails had some cute features, one was served with a thistle frozen in ice, and another had dry ice in it so it smoked.
Cat’s Dress Search
Buying my wedding dress was the most stressful experience of the entire process and took far longer than I ever imagined. It was such a drama, that my husband’s wedding speech (which included a PowerPoint presentation) actually revolved around my search for the perfect dress. Originally I wanted to buy my dress second hand – but just couldn’t find anything I liked. I really loved Israeli designers because their dresses are feminine, sexy and timeless, but so many of them were far, far above my budget. I went to four stores in London and two, which were quite far outside of London and stocked a range of designers, including Israeli designers such as Berta, Inbal Dror and Galia Lahav. In spite of the price tags nothing felt right. Every time I came back from a shop deflated, Nigel would become increasingly worried. I was concerned that I would end up with just something that was ok, rather than something I really loved and couldn’t wait to wear. When I stumbled across Zoog’s dresses on a wedding blog, I loved so many of them immediately but they didn’t have a stockist in London and although they post dresses to brides, I wasn’t comfortable buying a dress that I hadn’t tried on (especially since I’d been surprised at how picky I was!). It came to a point (with only four months to go before the wedding) where I either bought a dress in London just to have a dress, or flew to Israel to see Zoog. I took the latter option. My fiancé thought I had lost my mind. Nevertheless, he was supportive. I went to Israel (and to Zoog which is about 90 minutes on the train from Tel Aviv) by myself for 24 hours, just to look at the dresses. As soon as I walked in and meet Gal, the client liaison and Sigi, the designer, I knew I had made the right choice. I could have bought every single one of Sigi’s dresses – they were incredible. Of the ten dresses I tried on, Sigi and I both liked the particular design I choose because it showed off my best features – highlighting my waist, camouflaging my hips. Importantly, it was snug but also really comfortable and easy to walk in. My fiancé and I went back to Israel for my final fittings and alterations and to collect the dress a few months later and had a mini-holiday at the same time.
How Cat Felt in Her Wedding Dress
Like a movie star!
Why Cat Decided to Sell Her Wedding Dress
The dress is very special to me and so much time and effort went into finding it. At the same time, because it was such a labor of love, I can’t fathom the idea of letting it sit in a wardrobe forever. Zoog dresses are so hard to get and I’d like someone else to be able to feel as beautiful on their wedding day as I did on mine. The perfect dress plays a large role in that.
