Mallory and Will’s beautiful Scottish elopement wedding at Killiehuntly Farmhouse in the Cairngorms National Park was relaxed and romantic, and demonstrates that you absolutely don’t need over a year to plan a super-special wedding day! Will & Mallory contacted us during the first week of January…and they eloped on 5th February (the same year!) We hope their story will inspire any other couples currently considering a spontaneous elopement adventure in Scotland to go for it!

      Will & Mallory are from Dallas, Texas. They met at law school and dated for six years before getting engaged in Kyoto during a trip to Japan. Having explored the more traditional wedding venues in their area, they felt a little unenthused—none of the places they visited felt quite right for them. That was until they hit on the idea of a destination elopement in Scotland!

      We love to travel so we knew that we wanted a destination wedding. We looked at a lot of different places and times of year but we were having trouble narrowing it down. In the end, we decided that something small and low key would fit us best. We loved the wild and moody vibe of Scotland and finding a fantastic photographer that was available made the decision easy!

      Will and Mallory considered several Scottish elopement locations, but eventually settled on Killiehuntly, an artfully restored farmhouse, because they loved the simple Scandinavian decor and the stunning backdrop of the Cairngorm mountains. Having run the idea of an elopement passed their parents, who were super-supportive, their plans quickly began to take shape.

      Mallory’s parents and brother were excited to join them on their elopement adventure, and combine celebrating their daughter’s marriage with their first ever trip to the UK! Will’s parent’s would have loved to come, but due to an elderly relative who needed care, they opted to be there in spirit instead (sending some champagne to help them celebrate in style!)

      Mallory and Will’s elopement wedding was so stress-free, intimate, personal and fun. We hope that their story will help other couples, who might feel that a large-scale wedding isn’t quite right for them to envisage what a smaller, elopement-style wedding might look like! Scroll down to see the full story of their day.

      Mallory wore a gorgeous cream lace dress from Willow by Watters (one of the few brands that would work for her petite frame on such a fast turn-around).

      “As we planned the wedding in under a month, I was having trouble finding anything in stock in a size that would work. I was able to order a couple of dresses from BHLDN in my size in under a week and luckily one of them worked out. I knew I wanted something long sleeve and vintage inspired to complement the style of our wedding photos. I really loved the open back.”

      We walked through the woods to a quiet clearing in the tress – the only sounds were the wind stirring the leaves and the river tumbling over the rocks below. Mallory and Will had a beautifully simple and personal humanist hand-fasting ceremony conducted by celebrant, Ashton Easter.

      We knew that we wanted vows that felt unique and personal to us. We wrote our vows together and focused on us choosing each other as equal partners. We worked with Ashton to create the whole ceremony.

      One of our favourite parts was our interpretation of what marriage means to us: ‘Marriage is an equal partnership of love, support and respect for each other. It is a spiritual, physical, intellectual, and emotional partnership that is promised for a lifetime; a commitment to understand, to learn, to help and be helped, to love and be loved. In committing themselves to each other in marriage, Will and Mallory have promised to enjoy and grow their live together. They are not promising to forego their individuality, but to live and enjoy life in partnership together.”

       

      The Caryls were one of the major reasons for us picking Scotland for our wedding. We fell in love with the moody vibes and dramatic landscapes of their work. On the day of they were fantastic. They had scoped-out Killiehuntly a few weeks earlier and found a perfect spot for our ceremony, as well as some other places nearby for additional photos.” (Mallory & Will)

      Mallory & Will’s advice to other couples: “Plan the wedding that you want! We felt a lot of pressure to have a bigger wedding and wavered between an elopement and a mid-sized wedding for a few months. After looking at a few mid-sized venues we weren’t excited about we decided to go with an elopement. Once we made that decision we were able to plan everything quickly and got to focus on the two of us with minimal stress.”

       

      After the ceremony, we all gathered back in the farmhouse to warm-up, toast their marriage, and tuck-in to a three course meal prepared by local catering company, The Lunchbox Boys, who will rustle-up delicious meals using local produce in your own home. A great option if you like the idea of renting a house for your elopement week/ weekend, but don’t want to be cooking for yourselves on the day of your wedding!

       

      After lunch, we headed for the mountains will Mallory and Will to catch the last of the light and take some cool couples portraits. We love exploring our favourite corners of Scotland with our couples and seeing it afresh through their eyes.

       

      We love capturing unique and personal elopement stories, and we love helping the couples we work with to plan a day that’s truly individual and special to them. If you would like to work with us, just get in touch via our contact form—we can’t wait to hear from you!

      Get in touch

      Suppliers:

      SHARE
      COMMENTS

      Beautiful – quite simply – Beautiful. A good photograph ‘captures’ a moment — and you’ve done that time-after-time !! Superb. (And, by the way, that scruffy, unshaven Humanist – is my Nephew, Ashton … the photograph came as quite a surprise !!

      Thank you Bryan. Haha, we’ve very much enjoyed Ashton’s company at several ceremonies now, and have more we’re currently planning! We always look forward to working with him — ever well dressed part and often arriving with a car full of mountaineering equipment and bold plans for a climb the following day 😉

      wow, incredible. This entire day is a whole mood and I love it. Can I live in that farmhouse forever!? This is everything you’d imagine a Scotland elopement to be!

      This blog is really well done! I love that you’ve woven quotes from the couple throughout. It’s a nice touch and helps me relate to the images even more. I love how moody the vibes are here! The detail shots complete the gallery without question. The intimacy of the getting ready photos are really intriguing. Wonderful job!

      And now I NEED to go to Scotland immediately. Katy, this is quite possibly one of the most beautiful elopement galleries I’ve ever seen. You captured each detail and moment throughout the entire day so perfectly. These photos are intimate and big all at once. Stunning.

      SO pretty!! I love how well you used the light in the getting ready photos. Really used that dim look to your advantage to give it a really romantic vibe! I also love the way you intersperse detail shots of the location as well.

      These are stunning photos – what a magical day. The Cairngorms is one of my favourite parts of Scotland and you captured it so beautifully!

      https://linahayes.com/

      These are stunning photos – what a magical day. The Cairngorms is one of my favourite parts of Scotland and you captured it so beautifully!

      Just so stunning! Gorgeous images. It looks like such a heartfelt day. And the Cairngorms are such a beautiful setting for an intimate Scottish elopement wedding! 💛

      This is so gorgeous. I love looking at the build up of them getting ready and getting to their spot. It’s all so pretty and it looks like it was such an intimate and lovely day.

      Oh my goodness, what a beautiful setting 😍 The moody lighting is gorgeous and that dress!

      Absolutely gorgeous and so them. Truly an experience to remember for a lifetime for both them and their families. The bride and groom, the venue and the land are all beautiful. The photography is fantastic.

      Oh my gosh, these are gorgeous! You did such an incredible job capturing their story!

      This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.