David and Sonia’s stunning wedding brought Bollywood to Bearsden: a fairytale Scottish do that segued into a reception that paid homage to the bride’s Pakistani heritage
Sonia Razvi & David Grant
7th June 2021
Venue | Boclair House Hotel, Glasgow
Photography | ImacImages Photography
“David and I had our first date at a bar in central London. Something just instantly clicked – even before all the mojitos and negronis! We basically became inseparable pretty quickly after our first date.
We had talked about marriage so I knew a proposal was coming by 2019, but I just didn’t know when. We went on a surprise trip to Gleneagles and when we were walking the grounds of the hotel at close to midnight on the way back from dinner and no-one was around, David got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.
Back when we were dating, we would often drive past Boclair House on our way to visit David’s parents. I remember being struck by how beautiful it was, especially when it was lit up at night. When we got engaged, Boclair was the first venue I thought of.
We live in London, so my in-laws kindly went and saw the venue from the inside and sent us pictures and videos, and I spent a while chatting to the Boclair wedding team. Work commitments meant we couldn’t make it to a viewing, so in the end we booked it without seeing it for ourselves. But it was definitely the right choice – and when we did manage to visit for the first time, I was really happy with the decision.
I have to give special mention to the stunning honeymoon suite complete with rainfall shower, staircase and huge tub. This was included as part of our package and is the best hotel room we’ve ever stayed in.
Covid massively impacted our original wedding plans. We’d booked and planned our wedding for May 2020 before Covid came along. The only thing we had left to do on our list at that point was to pick what songs we wanted our band to play!
Then when Covid hit in March 2020, we had to postpone. We delayed by a few months to August (as we naively thought everything would be back to normal by then), and then we pushed it back again to June 2021. Thankfully, it was third time lucky!
The Boclair team were absolutely fantastic sending us frequent communications throughout the postponements, answering all our questions and providing as much guidance as they could. They really helped alleviate the stress of having a Covid wedding – I think my hair quite possibly would have been grey by my wedding day had they not responded to all my emails so swiftly.
We originally had 100 people invited, so restrictions meant we had to downsize. A few days before the wedding, the level changes also didn’t go in our favour which meant we had to disinvite four guests, cancel our string quartet and cancel our band.
However, we were so lucky to have 50 people there (if we got married on the same date in England, we’d only be allowed 30) which were all our closest friends and family.
For those who couldn’t make it, we managed to set up a Zoom live stream for the ceremony, which meant relatives from all over the world could join.
Humanist ceremonies aren’t common in England (where me, my family and friends are from) so it was a completely unique experience for them. We had George McLean from Fuze Ceremonies conduct it. (Click here to read about Sonia and David’s love story journey from their ceremony script over on Fuze’s website.)
He was brilliant from the outset; helpful with multiple postponements and wrote us the most perfect ceremony that included jokes, emotional moments and shout outs to our loved ones. So many of our guests commented on how the ceremony was one of their favourite parts of the day.
When David and I walked out of the ceremony room, we felt like a massive weight had been lifted off our shoulders and we held up our hands in an ‘WE DID IT’ gesture.
We really wanted to incorporate both David’s Scottish heritage and my family’s Pakistani background. The first half of the day was more traditionally Scottish, with David and his family wearing kilts, while I was in a white dress.
In the evening, we then brought in more of my culture: both David and I changed into beautiful, vibrant Pakistani outfits, as did my entire family and my bridesmaids. We had an evening entrance with our loved ones carrying in traditional Pakistani trays and dancing to a Bollywood song.
When guests arrived, we had the fantastic Dhol and Pipes play – a perfect combination of Scottish and Pakistani music! It really set the tone for the day and gave guests a taste of what to expect.
Boclair also embraced my theme of a ‘fusion’ wedding and allowed us to bring Pakistani elements in the evening menu. I was so impressed with the quality of food served at the reception (and throughout the day) – delicious kebabs, samosas and pakoras which kept our guests going all evening.
My vision for the decor was ‘fairytale glam’. Boclair provided us with a beautiful mirror for the table plan and we complemented this with a ‘welcome’ mirror sign from our wonderful styling company Supernova Wedding Design and Flowers. We made fun of our multiple Covid-related postponements by having all three of our wedding dates on the welcome sign, with two of them crossed out.
Supernova also provided the most romantic atmosphere for both the ceremony and the wedding breakfast with cherry blossom trees, floating candles and gold candelabras.
Hair and makeup artist Sandy Dosanjh was an absolute superstar. She actually did my make up for my sister’s wedding and the minute she left, me and my sister turned to each other and said she had to do me whenever I got married – I wasn’t even engaged at that point!
Three years later, I paid for her flights from London to Scotland to do my hair and make up. She made the morning of my wedding so relaxed and made me feel like such a princess. She also came back to Boclair later in the day to change my hair, pin my shawl to my head and redo my makeup for the evening.
We wanted a photographer who would make us feel relaxed, had a great natural style and didn’t take us away from our guests for too long. Iain from ImacImages was all those things – he’d been recommended by David’s cousin. He was wonderful on the day and the lead-up to the wedding. We’ll treasure the photos forever.
Our cake was from the fantastic Liggy’s Cake Company and we decided to stick to having it made for the original 100 people, despite the cut guest list. Each tier had a different flavour and included summer fruits, lemon and blueberry and strawberry sponge. We had leftovers for a week, which helped take away some of the post-wedding blues!”
Top tip: “I’d say setting a budget is really important and having a detailed Excel spreadsheet goes a long way. Set aside some time to do wedding stuff but don’t let it consume everyday. Try and make decisions quickly and efficiently rather than drawing them out for months as it’ll only make you less stressed.”
Venue Boclair House Hotel, Glasgow
Photography ImacImages Photography
Celebrant George McLean, Fuze Ceremonies
Bride’s dress Stella York
Bride’s and groom’s Pakistani evening outfits Monga’s
Bridesmaids’ dresses “I told my bridesmaids to wear whatever they wanted!”
Hair and makeup Sandy Dosanjh
Cake Liggy’s Cake Company
Flowers and venue decor Supernova Wedding Design and Flowers
Placecards handwritten by bride’s sister
Favours organised by mother of the groom
Engagement/wedding rings Samara James
Welcome entertainment Dhol and Pipes
Wedding film Brian Scott Weddings
Transport MET Wedding Cars
Gift list Prezola
