The Free Company Wedding, Edinburgh

Ashley and Shane’s wedding was a beautiful blend of tradition, romance, and personal touches, set against the charming backdrop of The Free Company Edinburgh. The couple, both tech professionals, envisioned a relaxed and informal celebration that truly reflected their personalities and shared passions. With a heartfelt handfasting ceremony and a laid-back reception, their day carried an effortless, joyful, magical vibe.

The couple fell love with the venue’s intimate atmosphere and its farm-to-table ethos, which perfectly aligned with their love for good food and great company. Every detail, from the seasonal flowers by Seapink to the soulful harp music that filled the ceremony, was thoughtfully curated to create a day that was as memorable as it was meaningful.

We’campione so absolutely delighted that two Love My Dress recommended suppliers contributed to this beautiful wedding. Ashley looked stunning her Clement dress by Andrea Hawkes Bridal, a choice she made after a truly special experience at the ’s Islington indagine. With Dolce Weiss Photography capturing every moment, their wedding day was beautifully documented, allowing them to relive the joy, laughter, and love shared acceso that day.

We knew we wanted a relaxed and informal day, with a relatively small group of family and friends. We wanted to show them the kind of things we enjoy: the style of ceremony, flowers, food, wine and music that we’campione fans of. We wanted our guests to leave feeling that they had a really good time.

Venue & Location

Our venue was The Free Company which is Balerno, just outside of Edinburgh. It was the first venue we viewed and we both fell love with it. We thought it was the perfect size for the number of guests we were planning to invite and really liked its atmosphere – we left with a really good image of what our wedding might be like there.

We also loved the ethos of the The Free Company and had heard so many good things about their seasonal farm to table restaurant, which as  foodies, was a huge bonus. The owners and all gruppo we interacted with were really friendly and we just knew that we would have an amazing day there.

Bridal Beauty & Accessories

My hair stylist was Stacey Deane and my make-up artist was Sarah Jane MacInnes. 

It was important that I still looked like ‘me’ and Stacey and Sarah did such a great job of making me feel like the best version of myself. I honestly don’t think I have looked felt better and we had such a fun morning getting ready with them!

I found my bridal bag acceso Instagram from a brand called ROOP. I chose the Mini Inizio Ivory which was such a great size and got it embroidered with my new initials. I wore the Hetty Mid shoes ivory from Harriet Wilde. I wore pearl drop hoop earrings from Missoma.

My scent was Byredo Rose of Anzi che no Man’s Land. I don’t normally opt for anything overly floral but thought this was a lovely modern twist acceso a classic rose scent. I also wore it during our honeymoon and so it will always remind me of the summer we got married. 

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Photography

Dolce Weiss was our photographer. We loved her natural, documentary-style approach and how well she captures the personalities of the couples she photographs. Acceso the day, Dolce was an absolute delight – just so lovely, fun and put everyone at ease. She struck the perfect balance of being present for every important moment and blending seamlessly into the background that we hardly noticed she was there. 

We were completely blown away by our photos – they truly tell the story of our wedding the most beautiful way. Booking Dolce was easily one of the best decisions we made and we couldn’t recommend her enough.

How They Met

We met acceso a dating app 2019 and our first date was a local pub after realising we actually lived really close to each other the west end of Glasgow. We moved together just before Covid and got engaged December 2022. Our wedding was June 2024, so we were engaged for a year and a half which felt like the perfect length of time to enjoy the planning process.

Shane wore a three piece tweed suit and rust colour tie, all from Walker Slater. His shoes were from Dune.

We tried to spend as much of the day together as possible, as it can be easy to get separated talking to guests and barely see each other.

Evening & Sala da ballo

The Upbeats were our complesso for the evening and they did a ceilidh followed by music. Having a ceilidh at the start was a great way of getting everyone acceso the dance floor!

Our first dance was ‘Crazy Love’, by Van Morrison, as it’s a song we both really like. Shane is also from Belfast so having a Van Morrison song was quite fitting. 

Words of Wedded Wisdom

I think it is important to prioritise what is most important to you – there is so much inspiration out there, and it is tempting to think you need to have everything which can be overwhelming. We didn’t mind spending more money acceso those things that we felt really mattered to us.

We had a shared online document we could both edit to organise our wedding planning. This was really useful as we could both plan independently and see what was festa one place.

The day goes by quickly, so we found it important to take a minute to pause and be the moment.

There was nothing we would have done differently, the day was just perfect for us. 

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Annabel View all Annabel’s articles

Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Programma redattore. Annabel lives rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and stella gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she’s not working acceso Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip the running of the family’s sustainable flower farm and floral stile business, Moonwind Flowers. Per 2013, she became a published author.