Katrina & Carin
Katrina & Carin's Wedding at Ednam House
Carin & I met in Bannatynes Gym & Health Spa in September 2010. I started work in the Health Spa, Carin already worked as a senior fitness instructor in the Gym. We hit it off immediately, quickly becoming friends and soon we started to train together in the gym. We soon realised we loved spending time together and as they say the rest is history. I am originally from Edinburgh and Carin the Scottish Borders, so when we decided to take the plunge and move in together I relocated to the Borders in the summer of 2011. Being a city girl this did take some adjusting, however, I did soon adjust, helped along the way by making some wonderful friends and we settled into our life in the beautiful Borders.
Fast forward to the 27th of December 2018 while Carin & are on a walk up Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh, we stop to take in the views at our favourite spot, where we went on our first walk together years earlier, then Carin got down on one knee and proposed, i have to say I did laugh at first but I did then say “yes” Carin had the Champagne and ring already tucked away in her coat so came well prepared to toast our engagement, it was so a romantic thing to do and the perfect proposal.
Onto the planning....
The theme was Rally and Rose's!! Carin's a Rally fanatic, it's in the blood, taking her love of Rallying from her father and even has her own Rally Car she built with him, I have also grown to love it, so it had to be part of the theme, the roses were the elegant touch and my job was to marry them somehow together, everything was hand made, the table name cards were all created individually with different pictures of Carin and I and some of our guests in different rally cars, the table names were all taken from stages on her favourite Rally, The Jim Clark Rally. With roses I dressed the ballroom and birdcages outside along with handmade rose and eucalyptus table centerpieces with ivory candles, dotted around the edges of the room were lanterns, little glass tealigts and rose plinths with more candles set the soft lighting mood and created the romantic feel we wanted.
We decided on Ednam House as the venue for our wedding, we absolutely loved the riverside setting and the ballroom was exactly what we were looking for. Louise & Leonie the wedding co-ordinators were fantastic as were all the staff at the Hotel, the Head Chef Peter Carr and his team were just amazing, the food was spectacular infact all our guests commented on how much they enjoyed it. Bill the Manager often asked how we were and if there was anything he could do whenever we popped in, absolutely nothing was too much trouble for anyone at the hotel in the run up to the wedding and we can't thank them enough for helping make our day perfect.
Our wedding photographer was the extremely talented Alex Martin of Alex Martin Photography. We already knew Alex as a friend and she was our only choice as our photographer, we had only one brief for Alex, this was just to capture the day as natural as possible, she certainly did that, we hardly noticed her there throughout the day and night, she just mingled with our guests and captured some incredible moments, we absolutely love our photos, choosing our album was near impossible with the choice but we got there in the end and we love it.
Our flowers were from my favourite florist, The Flower Room in Kelso, our hand tied elegant bouquets were filled with Ranunculus, Ivory roses and Eucalyptus and were just stunning and having them hand delivered on the morning was a such lovely touch.
We had always planned on having a band and instantly fell in love with "Velvet Noir" from the moment we first heard them so quickly booked them for the day the lead vocalists Chelsea and Stephen along with the rest of the guys were just phenomenal our guests loved them, the dance floor was always full and they put on a fantastic night, our stand out moment was our first dance, we had asked Chelsea if she could sing our first dance song "Speechless" by Dan & Shay and it was such a special moment for us.
When it came to wedding dresses or as they say finding “the one” this was much easier for Carin than myself, she tried on 5 wedding dresses and found hers in a few hours at Wed2B in Edinburgh, I took a little longer and tried on quite a few more, I actually lost count, however I eventually found my perfect dress in a beautiful bridal shop called Reflections Bridal in Kelso, where the lovely owner Carol helped me find "the one" she was so patient and together we found my perfect dress. Carin and i decided at the beginning not to see one another in our dresses until the day which added to the excitement and we were so glad we did as it was just magical to see one another in our dresses on the day, Carin took my breath away, she was absolutely beautiful and looked stunning in her dress.
On the big day Carin arrived in style with her dad driving her to the venue in his bright yellow mk2 rally car, when planning the wedding this was the very first thing written in our wedding planning book it was the only way she was arriving! We exchanged our personalised vows and said "I do" infront of our family and special friends in the ballroom overlooking the fountain looking out to the River Tweed it was just perfect. During the ceremony our wedding bands were passed around our guests and they were asked to warm them with a wish for our future, we also had a traditional Scottish Handfasting where by our hands were tied together with a piece of tartan which we had embroidered with our names and wedding date, this is said to be where the saying "tie the knot" originates from, we have since framed this with a rose from each of our bouquets as a keepsake of our magical day.
To sum up our wedding day was incredible, full of love, fun and laughter, shared with our family and special friends, it was everything we hoped it to be. Married life is great, living in the countryside along with our 3 cats we couldn't be happier.
