GG's Yard
Laggan Wedding – Alice & Kane
After having to cancel their original date because of lockdown, Alice and Kane were finally married at GG’s Yard earlier this year. Here’s what Alice and Kane had to say about their wedding and our wedding venue.
Tell us about yourself….
Kane is an electrician and Alice is a prosthetist. Kane is from Nottingham and Alice is from Dumfries, they matched on a popular dating site 7 years ago and haven’t looked back since! We live in Nottingham and are proud parents of a lockdown puppy, a very handsome not so miniature dachshund called Bertie who was purchased to cheer us up when our original wedding date was cancelled due to the first lockdown of the pandemic. Kane proposed at the top of Arthur’s seat at Sunrise on Easter Sunday in 2018, knowing that Scotland has a special place in both our hearts led us to booking the wedding venue GG’s Yard in Dumfries & Galloway!
Why did you choose GG’s Yard as your wedding venue?
To start with the fact it is stunning! We wanted to get married in a location that allowed our loved ones near and far join us to celebrate over a couple of days and we felt GG’s Yard wedding venue was the perfect location for this! It really had the wow factor for us and our guests and our families were thrilled we choose to get married here, they all felt like they were on a mini holiday in the Med. GG’s yard allowed us to spend well needed time post lockdowns with our friends and family in the perfect backdrop. We had introductions and catch ups in the glorious Gather, pre wedding dips in the hot tubs and the sea and the most perfect weekend!
What was the wedding colour scheme or did you have a theme?
We wanted to incorporate Scottish vibes for our English guests by including some thistles and greenery in our flowers and with our homemade favours of tablet and shortbread which was kindly made by Alice’s Mum and Auntie Marlene. We did not require a lot of decorations and trinkets as the venue itself is so breathtaking.
Tell us about the dress and kilt!
Alice’s Dress is by designer Sottero and Midgley and was purchased from the “Bridal Suite” in Nottingham and lay on our spare bed for over a year (Kane was under strict instructions of no peeking) and Kanes wedding party suits were purchased from Next, Alice attempted to get Kane into a kilt but a compromise was made that he wore a faint tartan tuxedo.
What flowers did you go for?
We used Jo Beth Floral from Derby for our bouquets, corsages and button holes and these were all artificial so we could treasure them afterwards.
For our fresh flowers on the day we used the lovely Maybelle Thomson who matched our existing flowers to make a delightful top table display and dressed candelabras and matching greenery for some gin bottle decorations, we are a group of enthusiastic gin drinkers and toasted our first drink of a G&T from a quaich in our ceremony choosing the local hills and harbour gin!
What food choice did you go for?
The food and canapés were Devine! We know we are biased but it is the best food we have ever sampled at a wedding and our guests were very complimentary of just how good the food was!
Starters:
- .Chicken and apricot terrine with Arran oat cakes and homemade chutney
- .Slow roast Pork Belly with Creetown black pudding bon bons, calvados jus and bramley apple puree
Mains:
- GG’s Yard “Balmoral Chicken” – Creetown haggis bon bon, crisp smoked pancetta with whiskey cream sauce
- Port braised Scotch beef rump with puff pastry shard, steamed beets, petis pois puree and ale sauce
Finally for the Desserts:
- GG’s Eton Mess – homemade meringue with soft fruits, mascarpone cream and raspberry gel.
- Bitter Callebaut 70% dark chocolate and Contreau tart – With Glen Urr mandarin sorbet and freeze dried rasberries
Are there any suppliers you used that you’d like to get a mention?
Our photographers travelled up from the Midlands, Rosie Kelly photography and Fraser McGee Foto and they captured our day perfectly as did Julian Voigt our videographer who has provided an outstanding cinematic film of our day and given us memories of our day we can cherish forever.
Shades of sax the saxophonist was a real highlight of our day,We can’t thank Ewan enough for helping to make our wedding day so special. Everyone was so impressed with him, he created the perfect chilled vibes for our drinks reception and brought the party in the evening despite the restrictions that were in place!
We also had Callum Watson pipe our ceremony and he was also amazing!
We had Gary Smith from the humanist society of Scotland conduct our ceremony which was actually written by David Smith who due to our ever changing dates couldn’t attend on our wedding day. Gary was fantastic and we incorporated traditional hand-fastening and drinking from the quaich and Kane’s dad also read a touching rendition of Bob Marley’s He’s not perfect, our ceremony was tailored perfectly to us as a couple.
What was a wedding highlight?
This was our 4th date we had planned to get married and all our previous dates were cancelled due to the pandemic, we both felt like we would never get there, GG’s Yard were fantastic in facilitating our ever changing plans and ensured we managed to have the wedding day we both so badly desired. We also spend our wedding evening star gazing with friends which was an unexpected bonus as it was such a clear night and we were unaware that GG’s yard is in a renown area for stargazing!
What advice would you give to other Brides and Grooms planning a wedding?
Take some time out with your new husband/wife to take it all in as your day will fly in. Start early to secure and book the suppliers you have your heart set on and don’t sweat the small stuff, you will be so overwhelmed by the entire day you won’t notice if the little details you stressed about are perfect or not!
What advice would you give to those writing a speech?
Advice from Kane- writing a groom speech I would advise to thank all people that have contributed to the day, print off the speech in a large font, make each sentence a paragraph with a large gap between so if you lose trail of thought you can always find where you are. make sure you check it over and staple the sheets together so you don’t lose track of where you are.
Don’t get too nervous take your time and remember everyone is there for you and they don’t want you to fail and even if you go wrong they will cheer you on or help you through it.
If you’re searching for your dream wedding venue and are interested in GG’s Yard, get in touch with our team to find out more about how we can host your special day.