Lorinda & Jean-Francois, Kintail Lodge, Kyle of Lochalsh

Their story…

US-based Lorinda and Jean-Francois know Scotland well and love the landscape and the people. They wanted their wedding to be somewhere special to both of them and to share their favourite place with their friends and families.

How did you choose your dream team?

We loved how Lynne Kennedy is able to capture the wildness of the landscape with the softness of the couple. She was brilliant in the leadup to the wedding and knew some really dramatic out of the way spots. Lynne stuck with us all day and she had found out the names of all the key people (our close friends and family) so when the speeches were happening she knew who to look at to capture the emotions. We have some wonderful photos. 

Helen and all of the staff at The Kintail Lodge Hotel were truly amazing. We were the biggest wedding they had done and they just pulled it off so smoothly. Our friends are a pretty relaxed bunch of people and there was a lot of joking around and laughing with the staff. They really made us feel comfortable and accommodated all of our requests. 

The actual ceremony we held on the banks of Loch Duich (very brave we know, rain we were prepared for but we spent weeks worrying about the midges – luckily it was just breezy enough on the day that they weren’t around at that time). The Kintail Lodge let us carry a bunch of chairs and other furniture down from the bar and helped us set up. 

We chatted to a few celebrants but knew we wanted to work with David Smith as soon as we spoke to him. He was really easy to talk to and one of the best parts of the day was David telling our story to our friends and family. His lovely dog Ella accompanied him to the ceremony and she was a big hit with some of our friends from Australia who were missing their dogs back home. 

We organised the wedding at relatively short notice and so had a bit of trouble finding a florist. We ended up working with Flo’s Flowers from Inverness and we are so happy that we did. Her flowers were absolutely gorgeous and she took my very vague thoughts of “pink and red with eucalyptus” and made us some stunning bouquets and table pieces. The flower crowns that she made for our flower girls were adorable and my only regret was that I didn’t ask for one for me! 

We got our cake from Creatures of Habit Cakery who were really easy to work with. We actually forgot to eat the cake on the night (too busy dancing) but we took it with us on the group walks that followed over the next few days and it was delicious. 

Planner or did you tackle it by yourselves?

We organised it all ourselves and didn’t really have any troubles. We holiday in Scotland a few times each year and we already knew the area. Earlier in the year we spent a few weeks on holiday so we were able to visit Kintail Lodge and scout out the area to find where we wanted to do the ceremony. We also went to Campbelltown (our favourite whisky region) to pick out some whisky for the after party.

Although we didn’t have an official planner, we had asked our friend Dean to help us with some of the on-the-day jobs and he took it very seriously. On the day, it felt like nothing went wrong but I put a lot of that down to Dean getting involved and solving problems before we knew about them. 

What were your stand out moments?

We were both most looking forward to the ceremony, but my favourite memory was the ‘first look’ that we did in the garden at the hotel before going off for our pre-ceremony photoshoot. I had been pretty excited about J-F seeing the dress because I knew he would love it. I don’t like being the centre of attention and this was a lovely quiet moment with just our closest friends and family there to see. 

After dinner we had a ceilidh which was highly chaotic and great fun. The Iconic Ceilidh Band were great and it was a riot. 

One thing our guests are still mentioning to us months later was how beautiful Scotland is and how we had picked such a great spot. We already knew this of course and they aren’t wrong. 

Tell us about your post-wedding adventures…

One of the great things about a destination wedding is that you can stretch it out for days because no one is travelling that far just for one afternoon. The following day we took most of our guests on a hike up to the Falls of Glomach, not everyone made it all the way but everyone loved it and we had great weather that day.

The next day we packed up and took 28 people over to walk up to the Old Man of Storr (the most difficult part of wedding organisation for sure). There was a cloud inversion that day and it was just breath taking. We really wanted to make sure that our guests got to see the beauty of Scotland and we were so lucky with the weather. 

We had spent a few days on Skye before the wedding with our Australian guests just doing some sightseeing and visiting the distilleries.

After the wedding we took the family with us to the Outer Hebrides where we visited the Calanais standing stones, Luskentyre beach (definitely go there), and a local weaver by the name of Seaforth Harris Tweed. It was amazing to see the old looms working! 

Any words of advice for couples thinking of a Scottish lochside wedding?

Pack waterproofs, umbrellas are useless in the wind. 

Scotland has some of the best nature anywhere in the world, it’s so worth seeing but beware of the midges!

Pick a photographer and celebrant that you are comfortable with. They are so important to a wedding that they can make or break, and in our case they definitely made our day. 

We think we made the right decision not to hire a planner, but I’m really glad that we had Dean to rely on. We can’t thank him enough for bringing everything together. If you don’t have a planner make sure you have a bunch of friends you can rely on.

Venue | Kintail Lodge Hotel

Photographer | Lynne Kennedy

Celebrant | David Smith, Humanist Society Scotland

Florist | Flo’s Flowers

Jeweller | Sheila Fleet

Cake | Creatures of Habit

Ceilidh Band/Callers |The Iconic Ceilidh Band