Raych & Stu's Boho Wedding At The Secret Herb Garden, Edinburgh

Raych and Stu are both creatives and weren’t afraid to let their imagination run when it came to their wedding plans. Inspired by A Midsummer Night’s Dream, their vision was an ethereal, boho, garden, magic type vibe.

They spent their first date drinking rum in City Cafe in Edinburgh and laughing over stories about llamas. That was back in March 2013 and they have been together ever since.

We met Stu a couple of years back when we worked on a Visit Scotland/STV advert together and hit it off right away – so we were very excited when he got in touch to ask if we’d be available to photograph their wedding.

“We were on a budget, and I wanted to have a very DIY approach, so we started with a venue filled with greenery and flowers, and just went from there’, says Raych. “I wanted it to be eco – all reused, recycled, environmentally friendly, and where I did buy stuff, it had to be from small businesses. So I had glass bottles, eco plant cups, paper straws and flower petal confetti.”

Stu’s mum turned her wedding dress into the most gorgeous bunting to hang over the tables. It looked amazing and meant so much to them. And they spray-painted old beans cans and coffee jars to hold flowers and candles, Raych made the seating plan from her mum’s bathroom mirror with lots of string and luggage tags, and they used old crates to hold confetti packets and cards.

The incredible custom wedding sign was made for them by Raych’s cousin’s fiancée, Cecily, who is a signwriter. They are planning to hang it in their new flat (a gift that keeps on giving!). You can get in touch with Cecily over on Instagram if you’d like to commission your own bespoke sign.

What we loved most about Raych and Stu’s wedding was that every element of the day was about the two of them and their family and friends, not about tradition.

“We didn’t want to do what was expected unless it worked for us. We had a string quartet who played the theme song from Jurassic Park while my girls walked in, we had 100 pizzas because it’s our favourite, my little brother was my Maid of Honour and did a Best Man’s speech for the Bride, we had 5 wedding cakes because we couldn’t choose just one flavour, my flower girl wore a tutu, Converse and a leather jacket with ‘Girl Power’ painted on the back, and we had a silent disco late at night in the middle of a greenhouse with some of our best friends DJing for us.”

One of Raych’s favourite memories is turning around during the silent disco at the end of the night to see three of her closest friends, all heavily pregnant, dancing away in their dresses and trainers, with a box of pizza in hand – she says she wouldn’t change a thing about that.

It was an incredible day to be part of and we loved getting to capture it for them! You can probably tell from the photos, but these two are so much fun to be around and they have hearts of gold.

“It might rain, something might fall through a few weeks before, your sparklers and custom guestbook might not turn up in the post until the week after the wedding… but it doesn’t matter. The day will be incredible no matter what, and you won’t notice at all if something doesn’t quite go to plan. Just enjoy the organising, don’t feel bad about splashing out on the things you really want, and try to get as much of your personality into the day as possible. It’ll be over in a flash, but it is absolutely worth every second.”

You can see more of Raych & Stu’s alternative wedding at the Secret Herb Garden, Edinburgh over on Rock N Roll Bride .