There are weddings that feel especially close to the heart, and this is one of them. Ending 2025 with Chris and Barbara’s wedding feels like a genuine privilege, and a very fitting way to close another year at Love My Dress.
Artist, maker and college lecturer Chris married talented floral designer Barbara in Glasgow on 28 June, with a ceremony at Kibble Palace and a reception at Civic House. They were joined by their children, close family and friends who know them well.
Barbara is the founder of Wild Flower Workshop and one of our much loved and highly recommended Love My Dress directory members. She designed and styled her own flowers, working with the season and colours she has loved for years. She wore a mustard yellow dress created by tailor Alis Le May, made from fabric that was once a pair of curtains in the couple’s first flat – given a new life for the day.
Following a cancer diagnosis in 2022, getting married and celebrating with their loved ones marked the end of a very difficult period, and felt like a way of saying thank you for the support they had received along the way.
The day was photographed by the wonderful Caro Weiss Photography, who has been part of the Love My Dress directory for 14 years and whose work we have long trusted and admired. Seeing two highly respected wedding suppliers come together for such a personal celebration feels particularly special. This wedding brings together people who have helped shape the Love My Dress community over many years, making it a meaningful and heartfelt way to close 2025.
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The Dress
Alis Le May
I contacted amazing Alis Le May for my dress. She initially seemed a bit unsure because she’s a tailor and therefore doesn’t usually make wedding dresses. But I explained that I didn’t neces- sarily want a wedding dress and she was on board!
I had a clear idea of the style I wanted; but Alis brought it to life, her skill is incredible and the whole experience dealing with her was fantastic. The finished dress is a work of art. I felt amazing wearing it.
I never wear white, I don’t think I suit it. I also love colour. My favourite colour, since I was little is bright yellow, so I didn’t really think twice about it.
My dress was originally a pair of curtains my mum and I had made for a flat Chris and I stayed in. A few years ago we moved flats to somewhere that doesn’t have a bay window. So for years the cur- tains have lived in black bags the back of the wardrobe.
I asked Alis if she minded using the fabric that I loved so much and happily, she liked the idea of recycling it and giving it a new life.
As a child I watched ‘Gone with the Wind’ ALOT. Perhaps the scene where the old curtains are made into a show stopping dress infilt- rated my psyche!
Bright green suede, platform sandals. Bought years ago in a sale. Comfy, easy to walk in and give me a bit more height than my usual 5’2”.
There are some amazing Makeup Artists in Scotland and I’ve no doubt I could have looked much better with one on hand! But I did my own makeup partly because I wanted the morning at home to feel as normal and relaxed as possible for us and the kids. I also I alloc- ated the budget to the flowers!
My perfume was Celedon by Early Modern. I love this perfume, it’s fresh and not too sweet. I wear it most days. I also love that it’s a small, Glaswegian, female run brand.
There are worse things than having a jeweller as a partner. Chris has been developing a really beautiful range of pieces made from mother of pearl and resin. I asked if he would make me a pair of earrings and a head piece and what he produced were just gor- geous. Statement without feeling like they were wearing me. Really simple in form
I also asked if I could borrow a prototype pearl ring he’d been work- ing on. I should probably give it back, but I love it!
Chris’ Jewellery is available by commission.
I asked Chris to make me a headband from a mother of pearl terrazzo resin that he’d been working on developing. It felt great on and was statement without shouting too loud.
Our son Innes was best man he reluctantly wore a suit from Zara on the understanding that he could wear his trainers. He admitted to me later that he felt great looking a bit smart. – I’m not to tell any- one though!
Our daughter Ishbel wore a colourful checked dress that I found in the Boden sale. Her one stipulation was that it have a good skirt for twirling.
The Ceremony
Our ceremony venue was Kibble Palace at Glasgow Botanic Gardens.
The Botanic Gardens and the Kibble Palace in particular is one of our favourite places in our home city. It’s incredibly beautiful a real paradise for plant and architecture lovers.
We loved the idea that we can revisit any time we like. It’s some- where generations of our families will have visited and where our kids and maybe their kids will come in the future. The sense of con- tinuity really appeals.
Chris, the kids and I walked down the aisle as a foursome. The day was always about the four of us ‘getting married’. So having us all walk in together was very much a statement of intent.
We were accompanied by the sound of ‘All You Need is Love’, by the Beatles. The Beatles are our family singalong go to choice for long car journeys, so this felt perfect.
We chose the brilliant Claire Digance as our celebrant. She oozes warmth and fun and a good dollop of irreverence. We loved the ceremony she put together for us.
A Humanist ceremony felt like the right choice for us, it aligns with our beliefs and felt very inclusive. We each wrote our own vows. Which was much harder than I’d imagined! I knew I wanted to be concise, but trying to distil 20 years and an entire life together into a few lines was tricky.
This is what I came up with:
I love you for your creative energy and your calm, level head. I love you for your warm, kindness and your forthright values.
I love you for your relentless enthusiasm and boundless patience.
I love you because you are the best human I have ever met and I am so lucky to have you.
I promise to nurture us and the life we are building.
I strive for nothing more than happiness with you and our amazing kids.
Which of course, is everything.
Chris made our wedding rings. Simple bands made from gold that we’d inherited from our families.
We asked our friend and next door neighbour James to read ‘Marriage’, a poem by the Scottish poet William Letford. It’s about cel- ebrating the inane and everyday. So felt perfect for a couple who’ve been together for as long as we have.
Instead of making a speech at our reception, my dad read ‘Perfect Day’ by Brian Bilston. My dad is a retired actor and his delivery was just perfection. `I don’t think I was the only person with a tear in my eye.
As part of our ceremony we had a ‘ring warming’. Our daughter made little felt bag to hold the rings, this got passed around all our guests before we got them to give to each other.
We walked out of the ceremony to the sound of ‘Hey Ya’, by Outkast.
Photography
It was only ever going to be the amazing Caro Weiss. I’ve worked with Caro many times over the years. Her photography is always nothing short of breathtaking. Beautiful and creative; yes. But touching, joyful and energetic also. I’m her biggest fan.
On the day Caro was loads of fun but also managed to disappear into the background so that there were times where we were barely aware of her working her magic. So many of our favourite photographs are when the subject was completely unaware they were being photographed. Relaxed, silly, joyful, emotional. All the good stuff.
I cant remember where I first saw Caro’s work, but quite possibly it was through Love My Dress.
I did my own flowers…
I was really excited to design something specifically for us that reflected our tastes. It also felt like such a treat to get to try things I’d been thinking about for a while.
For every wedding I work on, the starting point is always seasonality. Late June is smoke bush season and this paired with the intense blue of cornflowers, for me is just a perfect combination of tertiary and primary colours.
Our son Innes requested carnivorous plants, which to be honest was something I’d been wanting to work with for a while. So I made sure his buttonhole had a Venus flytrap in it and the table flowers included the most beautiful pitcher plants.
The Reception
Our reception venue was Civic House. I’m lucky that in my job I get to visit so many gorgeous wedding venues. But there was something about Civic House that felt very us. It’s a former print works and so has the no frills industrial archi- tecture that Chris and I love. We wanted to be in Glasgow so that anyone attending the wedding from out of town would have no problem finding accommodation. Also somewhere near enough for our parents to get home easily.
Rachael and her team at Civic House were wonderful throughout the entire process. No question was silly and everything felt easy and exciting.
We absolutely see the value in good graphic design and stationary and if our budget had been more generous; this is something we could have really gone to town on. But we decided to diy because we both have some graphic design training.
Chris designed out invitations and I made a simple website to give our guests the information needed. For the menus and table plan I bought myself a fancy pen and some nice paper hand wrote them. We borrowed a factory clocking in board that a former bride had found in a junk shop and used for her table plan. It seemed perfect for Civic House.
Well, unsurprisingly flowers played a major part in the decoration. I have a set of plinths that I painted my favourite electric blue and dotted these around Civic House with floral arrangements.
I also made a hanging installation in the dining space with alliums, Amaranth and smoke bush.
For the bar I made a large arch shaped board painted the same electric blue and some colourful paper chandeliers.
In the dance hall, we hung some neon lights and home made, gold tinsel chandeliers. A bit kitsch? Definitely, but we quite like the 1970’s bowling club aesthetic!
Our caterer was the wonderful Reagan Hallett. I’d asked Caro who she wanted to cook her dinner and Reagan was top of the list. Again, a female owned small business based in Glasgow. Reagan was brilliant to deal with and the food on the day was beyond deli- cious! Our foodie guests were kept happy and we received so many positive comments about the food.
For the evening food our kids insisted on Pizza. We got a delivery from from a local place that had been recommended and it was delicious!
Evening & Dancing
We’ve been to so many weddings where people just don’t dance. We knew we wanted a ceilidh to start off the party, because you HAVE to join in! It doesn’t matter if you don’t know the steps, in fact it’s probably more fun that way. The ceilidh musician we’d hired had an injury and had to cancel, but a friend of a friend stepped in last minute and did a great job -despite not really being a ceilidh musician.
We had the Woo Hoo Band for the rest of the evening entertain- ment. They were great and really made the party!
They were really easy to deal with in the run up and it was easy to tailor the band and set to the sort of thing we wanted. We chose to have quite a large band despite our small guest number, but I’m so glad we didn’t scrimp on this because the music was fantastic and the sound was huge!
Chris has always loved country music. Me, less so. But Jonny Cash, I can get on board with. His duet with his wife June Carter; ‘Jackson’ has always been a favourite. Fun, irreverent and fast enough to dance to, without looking too awkward! After the first bar or so, the kids joined in.
The thing that makes me so happy thinking of, is watch- ing our kids really getting into the dancing. I knew our daughter would love this bit, but was less sure our 11 year old son would. But he loved the ceilidh and the band. He was dancing with so much joy and so unselfconsciously. It was just brilliant.
There’s a period in your twenties and thirties when you go to weddings all the time and get to see the friends who live in far flung places. But as you get older and kids start appearing, this happens less and less. I know getting married is quite a drastic way of getting everyone together, but it felt like the biggest gift to have all our fa- vourite people in one place for the day.
Words of Wedded Wisdom
Only invite people you actually want there! I’ve heard too many stories of guest list’s (and therefore budgets) spiralling out of con- trol because a couple feel obliged to invite certain people. We knew we wanted a small but mighty celebration. I’m glad we stuck to this.
I know that I’m at a slight advantage, already working in the wed- ding industry. But I would advise anyone planning a wedding to hire the vendors who’s work really get’s you excited. Not someone who’s work looks like generic Pinterest fodder or who churn out the same work time after time.
Allow your suppliers room to be creative; this will definitely allow them to produce their best work and give you something that feels truly personal.
It can be difficult to entrust something so important and personal as your wedding to another person. But if you’re not a creative person or find it difficult to visualise things. This is exactly the reason why you should! You are not just investing in the raw materials of your wedding; but the creativity and imagination of your suppliers too.
It was important to us that the budget didn’t get out of hand. We have bills, kids and not endless disposable income. We agreed early on that we wanted really good food and music, so focussed our budget on these. We are lucky that we are creative and could make and design a lot of the other things ourselves.
To be honest, I did overspend slightly on the flowers, but I’m only going to get to make my own wedding flowers once!
And we should definitely have practiced reading our vows to each other. On the day I started welling up whilst reading, which set Chris off which I think might have spread to half the guests. I spent most of that bit thinking ‘try not to cry, try not to cry!’ …and failing.
We set up a Prezola account. Having realised that as much as we insisted that we didn’t want or need gifts, people would probably ignore us. We used the money gifted on a honeymoon for us and our kids. We backpacked for two weeks round Europe. Not most people’s idea of a romantic honeymoon, but it was a real adven- ture!
Prezola was great, really straightforward to use.
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