Heather & Lewis, a blessing stone passed around the kirk, and confetti on the glen
Heather & Lewis · Summer 2025 · The Kirk
Written by Mhairi Preston, Wedding Coordinator
A blessing stone passed hand to hand around Clova Kirk, Pimms in Heather's own vintage teacups, place settings her dad made by hand, and a confetti walk out onto the glen.
The day
Heather had already cried over this place once. She came to the open day the week the barn opened, took one look and welled up, and that was that. On the day itself she walked down the aisle of Clova Kirk to a church full of their people, the morning spent getting ready in the lodges with the bridesmaids and a hairdresser who arrived before seven. Around 85 guests filled the little church. Barbara Campbell, an interfaith minister and a favourite of ours, married them.
Why the kirk
A kirk wedding in Scotland can sound formal. This one wasn't. Clova Kirk is non-denominational and sits about a hundred yards from the barn, so the ceremony and the celebration stay on one site with no cars in between. The kirk is booked through the Kirk Trust rather than the hotel, and it welcomes religious and humanist services alike, which is how Barbara Campbell came to marry them.
A stone passed hand to hand
The moment people still talk about was the stone. Heather and Lewis had a stone that meant something to them, and during the ceremony it went around the kirk, each guest holding it for a second to add a quiet blessing before it came back to the couple. It's the kind of thing you can only really do in a room where everyone knows each other. They left it behind in the happy chaos afterwards, so we kept it safe, and they came back for it later, blessings and all.
Three days, starting with a barbecue
Like a lot of Glen Clova weddings, theirs wasn't a day, it was a long weekend. They put on an 85-guest barbecue on the Friday, married on the Saturday, and came down for breakfast on the Sunday before heading home. Because everyone stays on the estate, nobody was watching the clock for a taxi.
Teacups, and place settings made by hand
The detail was all theirs. Heather brought her own vintage cups and saucers, proper 1950s china, and the drinks reception was served in them, Pimms and Prosecco and beer in teacups, with tea and coffee later from the same set. Her dad, a carpenter, had made an individual wooden stile for every guest as their place setting, the little step-over kind you cross between two fields. The two of them sat together at a sweetheart table to take it all in.
Out to the glen, and into the barn
After the vows came the confetti walk, the bridal party out onto the glen, portraits by the water that don't look like anyone else's. Then dinner moved to the barn. As Heather and Lewis came in, the whole room stood and waved their napkins to welcome them, which is how we bring a couple into their wedding breakfast here. The night built slowly and then didn't stop.
“Thank you again for the perfect weekend.”
With thanks to
- Photography East Side Photography
- Ceremony Barbara Campbell, interfaith minister
All photography and film from this wedding remains the work of the creators above. See our full credits.
Featured in this wedding
