Hayley and Paul’s Scottish Highlands elopement – 20.10.20

Hayley and Paul 
20th October 2020 | Eilean Donan Castle

For this budget wedding I am beyond excited to share Hayley and Paul’s Scottish elopement. Hayley was one of the very first people I followed on Instagram and she’s been a dream to talk with ever since. I knew her wedding would be beautiful but when she first started sharing pictures, I was blown away. I’m a huge fan of elopements, I think there’s something so romantic about them. And if you’re going to elope what better place than a Scottish castle to elope to?! I hope you love this wedding as much as I do. Here’s Hayley to tell us all about her wedding and why they decided to elope.

We worked backwards with our budget, we decided what we wanted and pulled out an average price for the things we were having, as we weren’t having a traditional wedding we knew there were areas we could save on. We thought it would cost around £7000 but managed to get married for just over £5500. This included a 6 night break away in Scotland.   Having a big wedding was never on the cards for us, we’re pretty antisocial people. Happy in our own little bubble, there’s nothing wrong with spending lots on a wedding but because we’d been together for such a long time, we felt we could put the money to better use.  

  We decided to elope for the following reasons; we wanted the day to be about us, we didn’t want our special day to be overshadowed by others. My Mum and Dad separated and my Dad remarried. I don’t have a particularly close relationship with family members. When we had Amelia, we became our own family so the focused shifted to the three of us. We could also have a little bit of extravagance because we weren’t paying for the usual things such as a wedding reception.   We are quite shy people and hate any attention being on us, I go bright red and Paul jumbles his words. Having a crowd of people would have never worked for us.

When we first got engaged people were asking about wedding plans and we said we were having no guests, we knew even before then we would always have a “small” wedding. We were lucky that close family understood our decision. As awful as the pandemic has been Covid regulations also hit at the perfect time, people didn’t push for invites we kept our wedding plans off our personal social media so people forgot. It cemented it even more so that we were leaving 2020 as husband and wife and we could do it without any fuss.

The couple of weeks before the wedding left me on edge, not because of wedding jitters but would it go ahead because of Covid? I eagerly awaited each of the First Ministers announcements waiting for her to cancel weddings or close borders. Then the added pressure of Amelia going to school, do we take her out after so much time homeschooling or do we hold out hope that nobody in school will have a case in the lead up. We decided to keep her at school and we were so lucky she got through it with no cases.  

The day of the wedding was amazing I was like a kid at Christmas and was awake at 4am. We rented out a house which had two bedrooms and the night before the wedding Amelia and I had a girly night and I slept in her bedroom.   The morning of the wedding the rain was pouring, we had breakfast and a cuppa together and around 11am the rain stopped and the sun started to shine.   The hairdresser arrived at 12 and then the make up artist and photographer at 1. Paul literally hid in the bedroom and got ready as Amelia and I were having our hair and make up done.  

In typical Hayley style despite getting up at 4am I was rushing around at the last minute when Cameron, our driver arrived. Paul was ready but me and Amelia still had our pjs on.   I rushed getting ready and threw my dress on, which decided it wasn’t going to zip up. It was like I’d put weight on overnight. I forgot my garter and struggled to open the clasp on the necklace I was originally going to wear. I ended up choosing Paul’s gran’s other necklace. She sadly passed away in April after a battle with Covid-19 so it was a nice little nod to her. I also forgot to grab my flowers as we left the house.  

We did a first look, Paul stood out on the decking overlooking the Loch with Amelia and I walked out, there were tears from all of us. We’re such an emotional family once one of us cries it sets us all off.   We had all of our photos before the actual ceremony we wanted to make the most of the light that we had as we knew by the time the ceremony had finished it’d be dark.   We visited some beautiful spots, lots of hills, mountains, lochs and woodland. I wasn’t particularly bothered about getting muddy I bought wellies for the occasion. We were in the Highlands in October. It was either going to rain or be muddy, and I knew to get some beautiful shots it was going to involve a bit of mud along the way.  

We made our way to the castle and Paul waited in the Banqueting Hall. Amelia and I walked up the castle steps and as soon as I saw Paul we all had tears again. Rona our celebrant wrote the most beautiful script which told the story of us. Amelia and I read The Giraffe and The Monkey, and once again we were all in tears.   We also decided to have a traditional hand-fasting ceremony and Amelia helped us tie the knot. As she was doing it she came out with a brilliant one liner “woah mum you stink of Prosecco” which had everyone in stitches.  

After the ceremony the rain came belting down, we had the sun all day and we were so lucky. Cameron our driver drove us to pick up our food. The restrictions at the time meant that restaurants had to close at 6pm and only offered take out food. We picked up our steak and chips and drove back to the house. I took my hair out, Paul put some comfies on and Amelia got into her PJs and we had our meal as husband and wife without the fuss and just as The Cartman’s.

At the end of the day your wedding is about what you want not what the “traditional” wedding should be. We did it our way and loved every minute. We weren’t worrying about guests, or perceptions on how our day looked to others. We went with the flow.   Even with the restrictions on restaurants we had the best day. Nothing else was really impacted and there’s no point sweating the small stuff. If you’re like me and would forget your head if it wasn’t screwed on you’re going to forget things. But don’t worry about it. Your day will still be perfect without it.  

Hayley and Paul’s suppliers:

  Venue – Eilean Donan Castle
Accommodation – Arras Beag
Photographer – Jessica Stott Photography
Celebrant – Rona Burstow
Dress – Bridal Reloved, Wakefield
Suit – Ted Baker
Amelia’s Dress – Monsoon
Alterations – The Stitching Station, Elland
Food – The Plockton Hotel
Hair – Alyce Fraser
Make Up – Eilidh Matheson Makeup
Brownies – Ridiculously Rich By Alana
Car – Cameron MacRae/ Scottish Car Tours

OK, can we all agree that running off to the Scottish Highlands to get married is just a fantastic idea?! Not only were Hayley and Paul able to get some gorgeous wedding photos (hello castle and loch you beauties) but they could do the day exactly as they wanted as they only had themselves to please. I honestly can’t think of anything better! A stunning wedding a a stay in a beautiful cottage on the loch all for £5,500. Now that is a seriously good thrifty wedding too!

If you would like your small budget wedding featured on the blog then drop me an email at hello@thethriftybride.co.uk