Alex and Rich’s Lavish Destination Wedding At Cameron House

Working with Rich and Alex on their dream wedding in Scotland was one of the most exciting jobs we have ever taken on. Grooms Alex and Richard live and work in Bermuda, but with Alex’s Scottish heritage, the obvious choice for their wedding destination was beautiful Scotland.

After putting together a list of possible venues, Alex and Rich flew over from Bermuda to spend a few days with me looking at their shortlisted locations. Although we saw some wonderful options, it was really paramount to Alex and Rich that they put together a destination wedding that was not only perfect for the wedding day itself, but that offered the chance for their guests to enjoy Scotland at it’s best with plenty to see and do locally.

The obvious choice of location was the five Cameron House Hotel, situated on the beautiful Loch Lomond about twenty minutes North of Glasgow. This beautiful venue offers state of the art wedding and event facilities, along with five star accommodation, stunning scenery and a vast array of outdoor activities and local sights.

Alex and Rich were really keen to put together an extensive programme of events for their guests, and their wedding celebrations spanned over several days and included: A welcome cocktail party, A private chartered champagne cruise of Loch Lomond, A private pre-wedding dinner event with a traditional Scottish ceilidh, A hike on Ben Lomond followed by a traditional pub lunch, A tour and tasting at a local whisky distillery and a traditional mass loch jump on the morning of the wedding.

The theme of the event was “Vintage Travel”, so each guest received a beautifully bespoke designed wedding invitation with vintage map theme; designed for Rich and Alex by Canadian Anista Designs. The weddings was photographed by the incredible team at Elemental Weddings, with videography from Swift Productions.

On arrival in Scotland, guests received a bespoke designed welcome package, designed to look like an old fashioned gift parcel complete with vintage stamps and distressed post marks. Inside was a selection of Scottish welcome treats, from traditional tablet to shortbread, as well as a wedding rescue kit with everything they might need to get them through the week’s festivities.

Throughout the week, Alex and Rich provided their guests with a private lounge at Cameron house to act as a “base” for them to meet and relax – providing snacks, drinks and cosy seating with the room adorned with sentimental family photos. On the wedding day itself, we organised a full creche service for the kids with their own Disney’s Braveheart themed party, complete with their own custom gifts and a banquet fit for young Princes and Princesses.

The Grooms and their wedding party were expertly dressed by local Kiltmakers, Houstons, with both Grooms having their attire custom-made for the day. On the day Alex wore a traditional Scottish Kilt outfit, along with his brothers and Father, while Rich opted for a rather dapper top and tails outfit, which his groomsmen also wore. Their beautiful Matron of Honour, Kali , was dressed in an Aubergine dress from Two Birds Bridesmaids and their beautiful flower girls carried custom made baskets from our wonderful Florist, Rose Parks.

Alex and Rich made quite the spectacular entrance by arriving on the banks of the loch by private sea plane. As well as creating a pretty one-of-a-kind entrance, their private flight before the ceremony was also a wonderful chance for the couple to enjoy a few private moments before the ceremony.

The ceremony took place on the banks of Loch Lomond against the stunning back drop of hills and water, and the couple chose to keep the ceremony decor natural and minimal to not detract from the natural beauty of the setting.

Guests were seated on rustic wooden chairs, and the flowers were predominantly natural heathers and greenery with rustic accessories. The grooms were piped into the ceremony by a traditional Scottish bagpiper and the guests enjoyed music from the Wonderful Korda String Quartet.

The beautiful, humanist ceremony was conducted by the wonderful Ross Wright, and included a traditional hand fasting ceremony and the Scottish tradition of drinking from the quaich. Their very personal ceremony was extremely warm and touching with tears both at rehearsal and the day itself.

The wedding cake was custom designed for Alex and Rich by one of the country’s best cake designers; Suzanne Esper, who perfectly translated their brief of a fun, Phileas Fogg style cake into reality, with detailing including luggage tags from Glasgow and Bermuda.

The seating chart was designed as an old world map, with tables named after places the couple had travelled to and the guests itineraries and welcome letters were created in a vintage airmail style complete with vintage stamps from all over the world.

For the reception, Alex and Rich chose a combination of Aubergine and Gold in a Vintage Travel style and the Lomond Suite at Cameron House was completely transformed. To create a sense of depth in the room, we used a mix of square and round tables along with damask and sequined linens.

Behind the head table was an ivory backdrop and overhead, the table was framed with a custom made canopy of greenery with floating gold candles. The stunning canopy and floral work from top florist, Roseparks, featured custom made vases and bases designed with vintage maps decoupaged on them to compliment the theme as well as an array of gold candelabra and votives throughout.

The beautiful table print work was custom made by Anista Designs in Canada, to match the bespoke invitations and beautifully complimented the elegant table decor.

The place settings included a beaded charger plate, damask aubergine napkins, stunning gold rimmed glassware, a vintage luggage tag-style place card and a vintage compass, personalised as a wedding favours and a keepsake for each guest.

The majority of the decor hire was cooridnated by the fantastic team at Supernova Wedding Design, who took our design and expertly matched it with the right materials, as well as organising the lighting, dancefloor and beautiful linens.

The guests dined on Shetland Smoked Salmon, Haggis, Ayrshire Chicken, Sea Bass and Sticky Toffee Pudding while enjoying beautiful music from harpist; Sarah MacNeil before being whisked outside to enjoy fireworks on the banks of the loch as well as sparklers for the guests.

For the evening reception, we transformed the Lomond Suite with a white LED dancefloor, light up letters, beautiful mood lighting complete with a chillout area of white chesterfield sofas and illuminated LED tables. Guests were served signature cocktails and traditional Scottish evening food and danced the night away to wedding band, The Brightside.

We absolutely loved working on this incredible wedding with Alex and Rich, as well as getting to spend an entire week with their family and friends celebrating the lifelong commitment between Alex and Rich. All the way through the planning process, everything Rich and Alex envisaged was all about their guests and creating memories that they could cherish forever.

The week spent together at Cameron House was a wonderful opportunity for Alex and Rich’s family and friends from various locations to enjoy some wonderful time bonding together, with their friends from Bermuda, the US, the UK and Canada all there to enjoy the experience. From the moment they arrived, every guest was excited and happy to participate in the festivities and really embrace every moment and what Alex and Rich created in the end, was not only the wedding of a lifetime, but also the holiday of a lifetime.

We got to spend so much time with Alex and Rich over two years of planning this wonderful celebration, including two visits to Scotland before the wedding and plenty of fun chats over video and we loved every minute of it. A big congratulations to Alex and Richard and all our warmest wishes for a wonderful future together.

As wedding on this scale takes a great deal of planning and organisation, we’d also like to offer thanks to the fantastic team we worked with. We were able to put together this beautiful event with so many beautiful details thanks to the wonderful team we worked with. A huge thanks to the fantastic Wedding Coordinator at Cameron House, Louise; Ruth and her wonderful team at Supernova who worked with us for over a year on sourcing all the right items to create this beautiful design, The fantastic Suzanne Esper for the exceptional cake she designed for us, The infallible Lianne and her team at Roseparks for translating Alex and Rich’s vision into a floral masterpiece; The fantastic staff at Houston’s kiltmakers for dressing the couple so beautifully, The wonderful Ross Wright for working with Alex and Rich on a ceremony which truly reflected who they are as a couple and the fantastic photographers, Christina and Jay who captured the event so beautifully.