A Scottish winter wedding at Salt House in Staffordshire, with quaich cup and ring warming ceremony

Hannah Presdee
13 hours ago
5 min read

2025 1: Stephen and Cristopher (22nd Feb Salt House)

Steve and Chris have been together for a long time - their wedding was about 10 years after their engagement! They were also my first booking for 2025, taken way back in April 2023. They were keen to have a big day of celebration with their son present, once he was old enough to remember it and get involved. Steve is Scottish. so a lot of friends and family had travelled down to Staffordshire for the big day. There were many many men in kilt, I wore my tartan Mary Benson dress, and we included some traditional Scottish elements in the ceremony, too.

This was my first visit to Salt House (although it was in its final week under its former name of Standon Hall when I visited). As soon as I saw disco balls hanging from the trees as I drove up the drive I knew it was going to be cool. And it’s such an unusual venue! It has real traditional grandness and charm but with fun, unexpected quirky elements everywhere you look. One of my favourites was the gorgeous staircase with huge decorative windows… and a giraffe’s head holding a chandelier in its mouth. There are plenty of little snug rooms scattered around for people who want to chill, and there’s even a kids playroom to keep the littles entertained. The staff were fantastic, so friendly and welcoming and it was obvious that they had every aspect of the day under control while also being chilled and able to go with the flow.

The Ceremony:

They entered the ceremony to Griogal Crìdge - by Manran, with their son and Steve’s sister walking down the aisle first, followed by the two best men, and finally Steve and Chris walking in together. Both grooms had already been greeting and mingling with guests before we started, but they still wanted that big ceremony entrance moment.

They’d chosen to include a ring warming in the ceremony (and, as I joked on instagram, the instruction to ‘warm their rings’ got a very raucous reaction from the guests!) Their son was the ring bearer and had them in his sporran ready to take out when we were ready to pass them. But he took his job incredibly seriously, and didn’t want to hand them over!! He agreed eventually but kept a keen eye out for them as a song played and the rings were warmed, before taking charge of them again until the ring exchange. At that point, the best men were supposed to be bringing up a ring each, but little Lucas stole their job and insisted on doing it himself. He even wanted to be the one to come and place them on his dads’ fingers!

A Story Snippet:

"Chris likened the two of them to a pair of peafowl. Chris is the female - also known as a peahen - a bit plainer and happy to just blend in. Steve is the male, AKA the peacock, with the flamboyant ‘hey, look at me!’ feathers.

But despite his extravagant and outgoing nature, their engagement was pretty low-key because Steve would have found some big PDA or a grand romantic gesture in public far too cringey. Steve found out that Chris was, in fact, planning a proposal, and that he wanted to make it a big thing. Steve told him in no uncertain terms that he mustn’t. Chris says he was just trying to do something nice and special, and Steve says he did do something nice: by doing what he was told, and keeping it simple instead. They can’t remember exactly when it was. Maybe it was 2015. Maybe it was Christmas time. They’re not sure. All they know is that it was dark outside. There was no ring - Chris was too skint and ended up asking quicker than he had planned - but as they sat on the sofa in their apartment he casually asked, ‘Do you fancy getting married?’ and Steve replied ‘Yeah, go on then’. It only took them 10 years to get around to the actual wedding day."

A sneak peek at vows:

“I promise I will never challenge our love, and always be by your side till the end. I will also be there with my bank card for when you supposedly run out of money again.”

“I promise to never buy you Christmas presents from Poundland although I appreciate there is a high risk of you doing this to me AGAIN!"

"I really do appreciate and love you for everything you do for us and our son. My life is so much better with you in it."

"And so finally I promise to always be your best mate and love you until we pop our clogs… however, with the amount of take-aways we have it could be any time now really…”

Ceremony continued:

Earlier in the ceremony, I had revealed how Steve likes to splash the cash a little on whisky, but always pretends that it was cheap… but Chris knows the truth. But for a Scottish groom it seemed only right that they should end their ceremony by drinking from a quaich, which is a historic Scottish wedding tradition which represents love and trust as the couple take their first drink as a married couple together.

Their friend Leonie was tasked with opening the bottle and pouring some out into the quaich, which they then shared a drink from. They used whisky, as is traditional, but not a Scottish one - instead, went for a Kavalan whisky (because if you can’t be boujee and splash out on one of the world’s top-rated whiskies on your wedding day, then when can you?! Although obviously if you ask Steve he will say it was only £50) After they’d each had a sip, I introduced them to a world as a married couple and they walked back out to Sky Full Of Stars by Coldplay.

The rest of the day:

Steve and Chris had quite fancied a chilly wintery wedding - I think they were envisaging log fires and cosying up in their tartan shawls. But although it was the 22nd of February, the weather was gorgeous! We had confetti outside after the ceremony, and they were able to take full advantage of the gorgeous grounds in the sunshine. The house looked incredible under those blue skies, and their photographer Jarek took some wonderful photos of the grooms and their guests.