Flowers

Natural flower petal confetti is hugely popular with Get Knotted brides, and Shropshire Petals are especially close to my heart, as they come from my home turf! What’s more, they’re offering Get Knotted blog readers a special deal of £65 for two of their lovely Shropshire Boxes (see pic below) if you mention the discount code GN2011 when ordering. This is a special ivory dispensing box with 25 floral embossed confetti cones and 2 litres of delectable natural confetti of your choice. The box is tied with satin ribbon, and makes a great keepsake for wedding memories and photos!

Shropshire Box of natural wedding confetti - special Get Knotted offer of 2 for £65 if you mention discount code GN2011!

They’ve also just launched a new range of exclusive colour confetti cones, which come in white, pink, blue and green, and are embossed with the Shrophire Petals flower, giving a lovely texture to the confetti cone. They’re perfect for any wedding theme, from an English country garden to chic Tiffany blue colour schemes.

Shropshire Petals offer a great pick & mix service, so you can choose colours to fit your own scheme and theme, whether it’s deep red roses, tangy clementines or fragrant lavender. Or you can go for their seasonal mix of the month, such as this ‘raspberry fool’ of hot pink delphinium petals, green hydrangea and yellow rose – so pretty, and would look great decorating your party tables, too! And there’s a special price of £50 for Get Knotted blog readers – just mention the code GN2011.

Shropshire Petals wedding confetti Mix of the Month - Delphinium and Rose/Hydrangea petals, 5 litres for £50 - just mention discount code GN2011!

You’ll also want to check out the Shropshire Petals Fields of Ideas page for inspiration and beautiful photographs of petals used in different imaginative ways – for table settings, as dessert and cake decorations, and as an extra-romantic bath fragrance! Do also look out for the cute presentation and keepsake boxes, handmade confetti cones and wheatsheaf decorations in their their online shop.

It goes without saying that all Shropshire Petals confettis are 100% natural, biodegradable and eco-friendly, and the site gives guidance on how much to order, and various packaging options.

Visit the Shropshire Petals website for more natural confetti ideas.

Lindsey Hunter of Get Knotted is a wedding planner for Scotland and the north of England. She’s the in-house wedding planner for four lovely Scottish wedding venues: Mellerstain House, Aikwood Tower, Hoscote Estate, and the Buccleuch Arms Hotel. For more wedding inspiration, visit our gallery.

Hoscote House near Hawick gave a sunny spring welcome to Alison and Paul for their houseparty weekend wedding in early April. Alison’s family originate from County Durham and Paul’s parents from Birmingham, and relatives came from as far as Berkshire and Somerset to the Scottish Borders for the occasion.

The couple met through work at NG Bailey and Paul proposed on the romantic Isle of Mull off the west coast of Scotland in May 2009.

Alison was very clear about the sort of look she wanted for her wedding, opting for a wonderful natural bouquet, including lily of the valley, magnolia buds, jasmine, dendrobium orchids, hellebores, beech twigs and a twine handle.  For her table decorations, we used vintage coloured roses, pale pink ranunculus and skimmia in silver teapots, with 19^th century hand-painted cups and saucers surrounding each teapot. Her dress was a Sassi Holford design found at The Bridal Gallery Finedon in Northamptonshire. Sassi Holford also designed the dress worn by Autumn Kelly, Princess Ann’s daughter-in-law, at her wedding in May 2008.

Meldon Catering provided sandwiches and cake for lunch, and then a delicious meal including black pudding and grilled goat’s cheese with sweet chilli dressing, followed by fillet of beef or salmon, and French apple tart. They were also up early on the Sunday to treat guests to a fabulous full Scottish breakfast.

Dominic Ibbotson from Duke Studios in Edinburgh – a VOWS nominee 2010 – was photographer for the day.  He has a great chatty, fun approach and always gets the best out of wedding guests.

Paul and Alison were really thrilled to have their parents and close family relatives with them.  Alison’s 91 year old grandmother, Margaret Howden, really enjoyed herself.  There was a special kiss for her as Alison and Paul walked out of the ceremony.  Margaret was found contentedly crocheting the night away in the conservatory, while the younger guests danced around her during the evening!

Paul’s brother, to whom he is very close, made a very moving speech and was a real support to Paul and guests. Unfortunately, Paul’s mum, Brenda, had a fall and broke her ankle in the gardens.  The weather was beautiful and she was determined for the photographs to continue, so everyone gathered round her for some lovely group shots.  Sadly she missed the meal, as an ambulance took her and her husband, Geoff, to Borders General Hospital. We wish her a speedy recovery.

Alison’s mum, Ruth Howden , did a brilliant job with a lot of the organising, and there were beautiful bouquets to thank mums for all their support.  Arthur, Alison’s dad, looked so proud as they walked into the ceremony.

All the guests had a wonderful time, and everyone loved the fact they there was time to chat over the weekend.

Alison and Paul have just returned from their honeymoon, which included Singapore, Malacca, Penang, Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi off the mainland coast of north western Malaysia.  They flew via Quantas and were treated to two bottles of champagne on the way and another one on the way back.

Suppliers:
Photographer: Duke Studios
Flowers: Get Knotted
Catering: Meldon Catering
Hair and makeup:  Katherine Milby
Piper:  Anthony Carson
Ceilidh band:  Stuart Anderson

Lindsey Hunter of Get Knotted is a wedding planner for Scotland and the north of England. She’s the in-house wedding planner for four lovely Scottish wedding venues: Mellerstain House, Aikwood Tower, Hoscote Estate, and the Buccleuch Arms Hotel. For more wedding inspiration, visit our gallery.

Hoscote House, one of our favourite our big house wedding venues in the Scottish Borders, was delighted to welcome Niccie and David from Cheshire for their winter wedding celebrations in early February.

These special house-party weddings for up to 40 are wonderfully intimate occasions, with nearest and dearest spending time together over the special celebratory weekend. We were delighted to welcome to Hoscote for the first time Mark Archibald from award-winning Archibald Photography, who provided us with these amazing pictures:

Niccie looked fantastic in a stunning lace Cymbeline dress from Paris which she found at The Wedding Shop in Alderley Edge, and her hair and make  up were created by Katherine Milby.  Get Knotted created the flowers with a vibrant red colour theme.

Julie from Falconry Scotland brought along the beautiful Bonnie the barn owl, who silently swooped in to deliver the wedding rings – always a wonderful moment. And there was a dusting of snow outside on the hills in the beautiful Roberton Valley, just as the clients had wished for (and all part of the service!!!).

We wish David and Niccie every happiness and a wonderful honeymoon to New Zealand later in the year.

Suppliers:
Photographer: Archibald Photography
Cake: The Cake Partnership
Flowers: Get Knotted
Makeup: Katherine Milby
Piper: Roddy McIntyre
Ring Delivery by Owl: Falconry Scotland
Dress: The Wedding Shop in Alderley Edge

Lindsey Hunter of Get Knotted is a wedding planner for Scotland and the north of England. She’s the in-house wedding planner for four lovely Scottish wedding venues: Mellerstain House, Aikwood Tower, Hoscote Estate, and the Buccleuch Arms Hotel. For more wedding inspiration, visit our gallery.

It’s been a busy time at Mellerstain recently – I’ve been seeing lots of new couples who are looking at this amazing venue with a view to booking their weddings. Mellerstain has just launched a very special package for up to 80 guests. The package includes exclusive use of the house, catering, drink, flowers, photography and a night’s complimentary accommodation in one of the four-poster wedding suites. This one-stop shop means couples only have one bill to pay – keeping the process nice and simple and a great price too! Visit the Mellerstain website wedding page for further details.

I never tire of showing people around Mellerstain. There’s always something interesting going on and it’s quite incredible to imagine all the people that have passed over the threshold of this fairy-tale Robert Adam house.

At this time of year the snowdrops are spectacular and Mellerstain has just celebrated it’s 5th year as part of Visit Scotland’s Scottish Snowdrop Festival.

Here’s Mellerstain’s resident daschund, Gertie, enjoying the snowdrops in the grounds!

Hoscote House in the Scottish Borders welcomed Guests from as far as Texas and Wigan for the wedding of Liz and Gareth on 26th February. Liz and Gareth have busy lives working on board chartered yachts in warmer climes, and were looking for a chilled-out relaxed weekend with friends and family.

Hoscote’s fabulous in-house caterer, Cathy Barker from Meldon Catering, supplied a Friday night supper for everyone and the following morning Gareth and the boys took off to Braidwood Sporting Clays while the girls enjoyed the whole process of getting ready in 5* luxury at Hoscote.

It was a particularly special ceremony as we said farewell to Mona Hope, our lovely registrar in Hawick who is off to enjoy a well earned retirement.

Liz looked amazing in an incredible dress by Tadashi Shoji with a feather skirt, which she bought from Bloomingdales in the States.

Head chef Tony was busy all day preparing a slow cooked Borders beef dish and fantastic smells eminated from Hoscote’s kitchen!

After dinner, Stuart Anderson’s fantastic ceilidh band had everyone dancing till late.

Lindsey Hunter of Get Knotted is a wedding planner for Scotland and the north of England. She’s the in-house wedding planner for four lovely Scottish wedding venues: Mellerstain House, Aikwood Tower, Hoscote Estate, and the Buccleuch Arms Hotel. For more wedding inspiration, visit our gallery.

Supplier links:
Dress: Tadashi Shoji Design from Bloomingdales
Flowers: Get Knotted
Catering: Meldon Catering
Ceilidh: The Stuart Anderson Ceilidh Band