This festival wedding blends Studio 54 glamour with Scottish tradition

Our real wedding inspiration section is packed with wedding photos and unique ideas from couples to help you plan your own special day. In this feature, we talk to Chloe and Fergus about their festival wedding at a historic family home in Scotland.

Seventies New York met the north-east of Scotland when Chloe and Fergus said ‘I do’ on a hot summer’s day. After a church ceremony in Forfar, they headed to their family's historic house, where the dress code was pure disco. “We asked all of our guests to embrace the Studio 54 theme, so the grounds were a sea of colour, feathers and sequins,” Chloe recalls. A theme like that needs a soundtrack to match, and as a former music supervisor who now runs her own wedding music curation business, Chloe's Tapes, she had it covered, from the walk down the aisle to the last song of the night.

We asked the couple to talk us through every carefully considered detail, from handwritten letters at every place setting to festival-inspired decor and the pieces from their wedding gift list that bring joy to their home.

When it comes to wedding planning, Chloe has some wisdom to pass on. “The best advice we got was to take a moment of the day just for the two of you. Before dinner, we walked around the pond behind the marquee and sat on a bench, looking back at everyone walking in. It was just five minutes, but we both said it was one of the best moments, as we got to sit back and really take it in. Stay by each other’s side the whole day. This isn’t a day you want to have different memories of! Experience it all together,” Chloe shares.

Her final piece of advice comes straight from her work with couples. “As I always say to my clients, when you’re planning the music, or anything else related to your wedding, think about how you want the day to feel as much as, or more than, how you think it will look,” she advises.

The house where Chloe and Fergus celebrated their special day has been in her family for more than 400 years and is now her cousin’s home, which made choosing their wedding venue easy. “We were very lucky to be able to use it. It holds so much history and felt like the perfect place,” she explains.

After the ceremony, the newlyweds drove up to the house in their open-top car, with guests throwing confetti as they came up the drive. “Our car was a mess afterwards, but it was great fun and made for some of our favourite photos,” Chloe says.

“We did all the decoration ourselves, inspired by festival tents, parties we’ve been to over the years, and the iconic Studio 54 photos, of course,” Chloe explains.

Disco balls and swathes of colourful fabric filled the marquee, and guests had a dressing-up box to dive into. “I scoured Vinted for vintage silver trays, which we used for the glitter station and cigarettes, and festival umbrellas to hang from the marquee, and vintage silver trays, which we used for the glitter station and cigarettes,” she continues. Chloe’s sister and her boyfriend designed the signage in the official Studio 54 font, set in the couple’s own colours.

The wedding flowers were a family affair. “Our mums made our confetti by collecting and drying flowers over the year before the wedding. Then my mum and her friends bulk-bought flowers from a local flower garden and did all the decorations for the church and the venue, along with our bouquets,” Chloe remembers.

The most personal touch waited at the tables. “We handwrote every guest a letter and used them as place names. Each one described our favourite memories with them and told them who they were sitting next to and why, so they had things to talk about if they didn’t know each other,” she reflects.

“I wore a backless gown from The Own Studio. It was very simple, and I felt the most like myself in it. I had a cathedral-length vintage silk veil from Jane Bourvis and a vintage wedding coat I found in Edinburgh,” Chloe says. For the evening, she changed into a sequin bralette and a sheer dress with a fur coat.

“Ferg went for a loose-fitting linen suit, and we searched our favourite vintage shops in London and found him a white silk scarf to wear as a tie,” she adds.

“It was one big party!” says Chloe. Guests arrived to nibbles and wines chosen by her dad, a drinks journalist. “We were very lucky to have his expert eye. Earlier in the year, we brewed our own beer at a local Scottish brewery, and my sister’s boyfriend designed the labels. They’re such a fun memento, something we’ll keep forever,” she recalls.

Dinner kept things relaxed. “We had a seating plan and a sit-down meal, but we hired a local hog roast van, which served vegetarian options as well as lots of sides and salads,” she explains.

Curating music for other couples’ weddings is Chloe’s day job, and she brought the same care to her own. “The music was so important to me throughout the weekend,” she says.

The weekend began on Friday night, when a piper welcomed guests to drinks at Arbikie Distillery, overlooking the coast, and the next day piped everyone into the church.

“I walked down the aisle to Nick Cave’s ‘Into My Arms’, and we entered the reception to Elton John’s ‘The Bitch Is Back’, which has the best intro. We had friends playing bagpipes and violins, and a wonderful ceilidh band who played us into the evening before our DJ took over and turned the wedding into a proper party that went on into the early hours,” Chloe adds.

Their first dance was to Confidence Man’s ‘Feels Like A Different Thing’. “It was a silly routine we made up. Neither of us is particularly good at dancing, but we love music and festivals, and we saw Confidence Man together at Glastonbury a few years before, so it felt really fun to include them,” the couple laugh.

On Sunday, everyone headed to the beach for a swim and games. “I mainly lay on the sand with an ice cream, nursing my hangover!” Chloe admits.

“Everyone singing ‘Sunshine on Leith’ in the church was magical and so emotional,” Chloe reflects. She adds, “Our last song was LCD Soundsystem’s ‘All My Friends’, and we had everyone in a circle, arm in arm, singing and jumping along to the full seven-minute version. Fergus proposed to me at Glastonbury, and seeing LCD there in 2024 is one of our favourite memories, so having them as our last song felt all the more special.”

When asked about the best wedding gifts on their list, Chloe has a quick answer, and fittingly for a wedding built around music, it starts with the mint green Roberts Radio. “We both grew up with parents who always had the radio on, and this one is so beautiful as well as useful,” she says.

Her picks then run from Le Creuset skillet pans and a full-length Umbra mirror to “lots of useful tools for the kitchen and lovely glassware”, plus a KitchenAid stand mixer she calls “a dream”.

The Pooky table lamps round things off. “I cannot stand ‘the big light’, so these are great,” she adds.

Get inspired by Chloe and Fergus’s favourites:

For Chloe and Fergus, the top reason to have a wedding registry was giving guests something straightforward. “We didn’t want people to feel obliged, but we knew some would want to give us a gift,” the couple share.

“The team at The Wedding Shop are super helpful and communicative,” Chloe says, adding that their guests found the list easy to use.

The couple chose wedding gift ideas to suit how they live. “We looked for things we could use around the house that would help our home feel like us. We love lots of colour and pattern, and there are lots of options that cater to that,” Chloe explains. 

Alongside the gifts, they added a honeymoon fund to their registry, and it took them to Italy. “We went to Tuscany and Umbria and stayed in some beautiful places thanks to the fund,” she recalls.

Thank you to Chloe and Fergus for sharing their wonderful wedding day with The Wedding Shop. All wedding images were provided by the couple and photographed by Anna Urban Photography.

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