Budget Scottish wedding at a self-catering cottage

[StrongInside]

Hi,

I’m trying to figure everything out before pitching it to my fiance. In my mind, I would like a small wedding (around 15-20 guests) somewhere in Scotland with a nice backdrop for photos where we will need only minimal decorations. Somewhere modern looking.

I can’t stand expensive formal hotel weddings with tartan carpets, boring white table linen and bog standard decorations. My idea is hiring several self-catering cottages for everyone to have their privacy, with an on-site place for the ceremony and maybe gathering around a chimenea in the evening (relative can bring theirs) or having lawn games. I want to choose my own suppliers so not keen on venues offering packages.

To give you an idea, I initially wanted a destination wedding on a beach with bright pops of colour where the sun, palm trees and blue sky provide a beautiful backdrop in themselves. We have now decided on staying put as it will be easier for us with a young baby and two toddler nephews. When I look at Scottish wedding ideas, they all look so boring, expensive or gloomy in some field where guests are in wellies.

Any location ideas that could bring a relaxed destination wedding vibe to Scotland? I can obviously put pops of colour around if the venue is plain, but would be nice not to spend two days on decorations.

Also, I know we could just find a big lodge with cottages next to it and have the ceremony in the lodge’s living room with re-arranged furniture if it rained. Just don’t know how to find such a place.

I know the weather is a hit or a miss so no preference on time of the year, hopefully next year.
Thanks!

So are you really just wanting 3-4 holiday cottages in a group, then the majority of the guests pay for accommodation elsewhere? Do the ceremony in the cottage grounds? But then you wouldn’t have a property large enough for everyone to gather in.

I guess we would just scale the guest list down and maybe just stay one night because I find it stupid to spend that much money on one day

The thing is that accommodation like that you’re talking a 3-day short let anyway. Not many self-catering places do one-night only.

Will a lot of your guests have to travel far to Scotland? We were invited to a brilliant wedding in Scotland on my DH’s side & would have loved to attend but with transport (flights needed as it was an early Sat wedding in term time so we couldn’t get the train, and if we drove it would be through the night and same again to get home for school Monday) and accommodation alone for our family of 4 was around £1,000. So my DH went alone. If you’re Scottish and most people won’t need to travel then fair enough.

It rained on our wedding day but it added something that was unexpectedly beautiful. We went back a couple of days later on a sunny day for pictures!

We got married by the side of the river in Glencoe under a £20 Argos gazebo this June. My cake was £30 from M+S. It was the most beautiful and perfect wedding. It can be done cheaply but beautifully in Scotland.

Family style dishes at the table same price as plated as you need the same number of staff to serve. Buffet cheaper as everyone goes up and collects their own food.

Have you got anywhere particular in mind (region wise)? Would you go to the islands (additional costs). How many properties/rooms would you need?

When you say modern, does the accommodation have to be modern or just where the ceremony/reception will take place.

What dates/season are you thinking about?

Noroof, that looks great and would fit the approximate guest number I have in mind but I think several separate cottages would be better because some of the guests have kids of different ages (noise levels, different routines etc.), also not everyone will know each other well and knowing some if the guests, they won’t be comfortable sharing a house with complete strangers.

DianaT1969, haha, thanks! Will be pricing up hire vs buying/ making decorations. Will definitely make my own artificial bouquet that I can keep forever (found good online suppliers) and could have some of them on the table.

NoSquirrels, yes, just 3-4 cottages nearby so that we could hang out with each other outside or in someone’s living room but not live with each other. Would need one of the cottages with a big enough table to sit everyone for the meal. In my dream destination wedding, we would be eating al fresco on the beach. Big sigh.

I think 2 nights will work better than one (1 before to set up decorations and the night after the reception), and although most places have a min 3 night policy, if we chose off-season I’ve stayed in some places for 1-2 nights. If the price was reasonable, I would book three nights but wouldn’t want to pressure anyone into taking time off because it’s not exactly a destination wedding where you travel too far for the sake of just two nights.

All guests live in the same town, so no one will need to travel more than others.

MintToBee, I could kiss you right now for giving me hope! That’s exactly what I think- and when I hear people spend £30-50k+ on one day, it makes me wonder if they take out second mortgages, or have really highly paid jobs. I couldn’t spend that much on a house deposit, let alone a party. But most suppliers and venues hike up their prices because they know someone will pay.

Can you tell me more about your wedding please- how many guests, how did you cater, what sort of accommodation etc.?

Bear in mind that internal flights to some parts of Scotland only run a couple times a week, especially In winter if you are heading to inverness and car hire is expensive. We regularly drive the 550 miles to see my family in Scotland but only if there's two of us to share the drive. You might need to look at the flight schedules before booking accommodation etc

All guests live in the same town, so no one will need to travel more than others.

But is it in Scotland, or reasonable travel time to Scotland? Unless you’re north already, for many people Scotland is a big travel time for a weekend/2 nights.

For cottages, if you need one that will seat everyone you are really looking at a large house somewhere with additional cottages for those who want to stay separate. That will be expensive, tbh.

I think the things you want are slightly incompatible so you need to decide what the dealbreakers are and go from there.

Lonecatwithkitten, at a wedding a few years ago, a local caterer brought in the food and left the dishes on the table where we sat and served ourselves, like at a Christmas meal. She brought a helper to get the food set up and then took all her cutlery and plates with her so no washing up for us.
But I don’t mind if it’s a buffet or a family-style meal, whatever is cheaper, and I won’t want too many dishes, just enough for everyone to fill up.

Chergar, I’ve been thinking, we will need to draw the line at mainland Scotland for the ease of it, preferably North/North East, Perthshire or Highlands, not much further west than Inverness (so not on the West Coast) and not much further south than Perth.
We haven’t finalised a guest list, 12 adults and 4 kids for sure, the rest will be added if we can accommodate them. I won’t want more than 20 people there ideally, because where do you then stop- multiple aunties, cousins and non-close friends won’t get an invite to keep the wedding affordable and intimate enough.

I would prefer modern for both the setting and accommodation, well, at least for my partner and I. Less stuffy oldfashioned carpet/ floral sofas and more of an airy modern feel. Hot tub and fireplace would be romantic but optional.

It will have to be towards September 2020 because I want our baby to be a bit older (apprx 12 months) and the other kids in the group too.

I'm not sure if someone has linked it already but Three Sisters Bake!! They have a village hall and cafe set up in Kilross in particular which sounds like what you are after.

Ah...princes point is in Skye but it's beautiful!

SheWoreBlueVelvet, DH and I have been admiring that house at Garlieston for years, from our tiny caravan on the other side of the bay......

We went to Gretna Green and stayed in the Travel lodge up the road instead of Smith's hotel. Had the ceremony, and went to Smith's bar and had sandwiches and drinks through the afternoon and then dinner at the restaurant in the evening before a taxi back to the much cheaper accomodation.

A dozen people totalled into about £1500 for the marriage, 3 hotel rooms for 2 nights (parents paid theirs), sandwich platters with coffees at lunchtime and a sit down meal where nearly everyone had steak in the evening. We didn't pay for their drinks. We spent another 500ish on paying for people's travel as well, rings and our outfits. Whilst our wedding comes in at your budget, it was VERY basic. We also had a big party when we got home for our friends which added another 1000ish on (function room, buffet and DJ for 60).

We got married at Conroe Croft which is maybe more rustic than you were thinking but worked really well. The “hostel” is actually rooms of around 4 so young families had a room each family.
m.comriecroft.com/

Oliver’s Travels website has some amazing places but you may be limited with your budget. Have alook at Big Sand, Gairloch. V.modern, lovely views.

Bowchicawowwow, everyone will be driving their own cars and hopefully no more than 1-1.5 hours, but would be worth two hours even if the place was right.

NoSquirrels, sorry, it was clearer in my head. We are all in Scotland.
We don’t have to eat at the accommodation. It can be at a nearby restaurant if we could hire the place out or somewhere else, I don’t know what’s possible.

Toffeepinklady, yes, looks so airy in there and it’s a great set up! Wonder what their prices are like, will contact them. I suspect if they have been featured in the Knot and somewhere else, they could put their prices up.

Skyejuly, shame, Skye is beautiful but with several babies and restless kids in our party, it won’t be feasible, the more I think about it.

StrippingTheVelvet, did you end up DIYing a lot? Would you change anything, eg. Spend more on anything?

Museumum, heard Comrie Croft is expensive. Is that so? Also, how big is it?

Thanks Littlebluetin.., it’s too far for us to go to the West Coast, but I’ll have a look at that website.

How about Anstruther in Fife?
Fish and chips as your wedding meal and you could get married on the beach or in the front garden of this beautiful house.

If doing it all again dh and I want to go here

www.thearranlodge.com/

Hire the place out and invite guests to stay with us or could rent their own place as plenty on the island.

A friend hired a cottage on the Fife coast and got married in the garden. Guests came for the ceremony and a hog roast. Most lived driving distance away. It was a perfect day.

LizzieMacQueen, we’re after separate accommodation for the group, but I’ll have a look at what’s around there. Would like something a bit classier/ healthier than fish and chips, neither myself, my partner nor my parents eat it. But I get the idea, informal and relaxed.

Mustbeoriginal38, shame it’s too far and not mainland, looks pretty! Do you know the name of the cottage in Fife? Sounds like what I want to do even if guests had to get taxis to their accommodation.

@StrongInside we are having family style at our wedding dishes brought to tables and then everyone serves them self as I say the price is no different to plated food, but the food is different. As a good caterer who is able to serve everyone quickly will need the same number of staff to get all the food to every table quickly as they do with plated.
Buffet is cheaper as they only need a couple of staff to man the buffet.
We found the biggest differences were in what food you actually choose to have burgers are cheaper than roast beef.

We didn't have to DIY anything really other than invites for the reception. No I had the best wedding ever! Everyone always mentions ours when talking about great ones 😁. We couldn't afford to have everything so we chose what was most important to us; making sure the really special people were there and that everyone was well fed. Sometimes I think we should have had a photographer but others I think that would have taken some of the fun away if we had to spend ages posing for shots.

Littlebluetinofdorcaspins Ha, Really? My mother thinks we should rent it one Christmas as if the expense of the festivals insn’t enough already.

StrongInside We had no connection to any venues in the U.K., hence we got married in a place abroad that was special to us. ( and warm in October )Found the perfect villa with outstanding sea view so no decoration required.
It had four bedrooms, four bathrooms.infinity pool and a jacuzzi. One bedroom was separate with it’s own back stairs to the pool area - so I could shaft down with bridesmaids.
The main bedroom was downstairs overlooking the pool and had a large seperate wardrobe /study area for hair and makeup. We then snuck up the back stairs into my seperate room to get dressed.
Guests arrived into the kitchen living room on the upper floor with a balcony overlooking the sea and pool. Perfect for tossing the bouquet.
It was those handy features that made it work well...we hadn’t even thought of where I walk in or get dressed when we chose it.

The problem is that anywhere big enough to host 20 guests has usually twigged people might want to get married there and wants more for it.

Even places that are big enough for just the ceremony and room for half the guests to stay 3 or 4 nights minimum stays ( as opposed to hotels)