Diary of a Bride - Lochside House Hotel

Bethany & James, Summer 2011

We were married at Lochside House Hotel in New Cumnock on the 9th July 2011 and were thrilled to have Nick join us to photograph our day.  

The best thing about our wedding and the planning for it was that it was all in the one place.  Lochside house hotel is set in beautiful grounds in the ayrshire countryside and was the perfect backdrop for our day. It is very private yet accessible and in easy reach of motorways and airports. The hotel also has plenty of accommodation for family and friends so this made it a great option for us with both our families traveling from all corners of the country. 

Lochside offers a beautiful room for the ceremony with a floor to ceiling window that looks out onto the afton hills and loch providing a stunning backdrop. The reception room was  the perfect size with the bar in the room which kept everyone mingling together and ensuring a great atmosphere.  It also has French doors that opened up onto the hotels grounds enabling kids to run around and others to enjoy the beautiful views. Perfect for our summer wedding!

We can't praise the staff at Lochside enough. It was so relaxed and the day was totally seamless. From getting ready in the morning right through to the next day. Lynsey and the staff at Lochside did a fantastic job of ensuring that it flowed without any hitches and that everything was on time. 

We're lucky to have many friends who are excellent musicians who helped to provide all the entertainment for the day. Our fabulous string quartet played for the ceremony and drinks reception and were led by violinist claire mctaggart. Chris Waite was our piper would did a fantastic job of welcoming our guests and playing the wedding party in for the evening reception meal. 

We wanted to make sure the evening entertainment catered for all ages and abilities and got everyone involved so we opted for a ceilidh and disco, finishing the  night of with everyone on the floor for an orcadian strip the willow, unforgettable! It was also a great way to get everyone together at the end of the night. The ceilidh band were fantastic and were led by Stuart Cameron. So good in fact they have since been booked by friends for their wedding! 

Local company Cover the Big Day provided beautiful chair covers and table centre pieces and our beautiful flowers were provided by Ann at Hollowpark florists in Ayr. 

We wanted to have place names and favours that were a little different, something you'd want to treasure and without spending a lot money. For the place names we collected and washed pebbles which provided excellent place names that were pretty too! For the ladies favours we spent a few months before the wedding collecting teacups from charity shops, decorated them with a pretty napkin and filled them with fair trade toffee. These were fun to make prior to the wedding and got family involved in wedding preparations of an afternoon! 

We were delighted Nick was able to photograph our wedding. The reason we chose nick was that we felt that as well as the staged shots, we wanted our photographs to capture the feel and ambience of the day. His photographs are really special and  unique and offer something a little different.

Thanks a million Nick!