Inside: An Elegant Wedding At Waddesdon Manor

Join The Wedding Edition as we sit down with Facial Aesthetics Specialist, Kotryna Whiteside, and discover the thoughtful details of her wedding celebration at The Dairy on the Waddesdon Manor in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.

The Story So Far

Myself and Angus met in 2020. We got chatting over Instagram and decided to meet for a date on the same day. After a month of seeing each other we were then officially together and have been inseparable ever since.

I had known that a ring was likely to be coming soon. We had spoken about getting married and visited jewellers to see what I might like. As soon as that inkling started, I thought about the ring all day everyday. I couldn’t wait to be engaged. Just before the proposal, we had three holidays back to back, each time I was expecting that maybe it might happen. It was on our last holiday of the year, in Dubai on the 19th December 2023 that he proposed. Angus is very romantic, so would often write me love letters. He sat me down on a bench that was surrounded by a large Christmas bauble and read me this love letter. At this point I still didn’t know it was happening until he said “will you marry me”. He proposed with a 5.53 carat radiant cut diamond, with a gold band. Teary and excited we called all our family and friends together that evening to tell them the news.

Almost straight away after getting engaged, I knew I wanted to marry the following year. I wanted to organise the wedding as late as possible in the year, without it being wintery and cold. In January I began conversations with my wedding planner, Constance who came highly recommended.

The Venue

Initially, there were plans for me to wed at the family home, however we realised the logistics of putting together a wedding this way, as everything had to be brought on site. I was scrolling through Instagram and saw the courtyard of The Dairy at Waddesdon Manor on Instagram and fell in love with it. I knew after visiting the venue with my mother-in-law that it was the one.

I wanted the wedding to focus on being uber slick and modern, rather than whimsical. We had crisp, clean wedding invitations and that theme continued throughout all decisions for the day.

The day before the wedding, I wanted to feel really relaxed and be with my girls. We had family and friends who had flown in from all over the world so we settled in at the house on-site and then went out for an intimate group dinner.

The wedding was just how I had envisioned it to be. I had a string quartet for the ceremony and a female vocalist performed as I and walked down the aisle. She sang Young and Beautiful by Lana Del Rey. My dog Maverick was supposed to walk down the aisle to bring us the rings, but he ended up running alongside it and up to us. Not everything goes to plan on your wedding day but it was such a special nod to us as a couple. We said personal vows during the ceremony and walked back down the aisle to Sign Sealed Delivered I’m Yours by Stevie Wonder.

The day after the wedding we hosted a South African BBQ at a family friend’s estate. We decked out a yurt shoot lodge and had a DJ playing our favourite music. Our family friends put on such a wonderful day for us and we continued the celebrations on.

The Fashion

I went to 9 stores. The first store I visited was a low price point and I could tell the quality wasn’t quite right. I then visited The Wedding Club in Knightsbridge because they were the only UK store to stock Berta. Unfortunately after trying Berta, I realised it wasn’t my style. As I was getting ready to leave the store, they pulled out the dress, my dress. I didn’t expect to find it in that way, but I fell in love with it as soon as I tried it on. Still keeping an open-mind as I was early on in my search, I tried more brands, even travelling to Barcelona to try on dresses from Pronovias. I landed and I drove straight there to try on the dresses they had pulled for me. I went there and using Google translate tried on 15 dresses. Unfortunately they weren’t quite right for me and were too heavy. Trying on more lace dresses helped me to realise I needed to go back to the dress I had first fallen in love with. I ended up with a one of a kind long-sleeve lace dress by Zuhair Murad. Angus wore a bespoke Charles Campbell suit.

For my legal wedding at Goodwood Kennels, I wore a Self-Portrait dress with accents of lace and diamontes, a nod to my main dress. I swapped out the short slip that came with the dress for a long white slip that was a part of my Zuhair Murad dress and wore Jimmy Choo heels. I tried on so many shoes to go with my main dress and I thought Jimmy Choos would be a natural option. I ended up wearing Gina silk shoes for my main day.

Kotryna & Angus Whiteside - Alice Bradley Photography

The Jewellery

I wanted my jewellery on the day to be timeless. I was gifted diamond stud earrings from my mother-in-law and gifted an emerald cut diamond necklace to wear on the day by my parents.

I had a custom designed wedding band to sit around my engagement ring and Angus chose a Cartier love ring as his wedding band. He wore Mont Blanc cufflinks in the shape of worlds and wore a Rolex watch.

The Bridal Party

One of the hardest parts of the wedding planning process was finding the right bridesmaid dresses. It felt like we had exhausted all options and tried on everything that we could find in-store and online. With two weeks until the wedding day, we managed to find asymmetrical dresses from Coast and had them tailored so they fit each of my bridesmaids perfectly.

Each of my bridesmaids had customised Bridesmaid boxes given to them on the eve of my wedding, with blue silk pyjamas (my something blue), under eye patches, a handkerchief that said ‘Happy Tears’ and personal love letters to them all.

Transportation

Guests close to the wedding party arrived by Rolls-Royce. Angus and his ushers flew in on the family helicopter, and was a nod to the family business in aviation. I was staying on-site so didn’t require transportation.

The Tablescape

I wanted the decor and tablescapes to really wow. Working with Amie Bone was a dream come true. She went above and beyond for me and captured my vision completely. For the ceremony, I had florals down the aisle and an arch at the end of the aisle that had one side higher than the other. I wanted it to be breathtaking and the mirrored aisle was a non-negotiable for me. Whatever the weather it looks stunning and reflects the beauty of the floral arrangements.

The vision of the wedding breakfast was to cover the inside of the building with white linen draping, this continued around the room and across the entire ceiling. We had thin tables to accommodate the amount of guests in the space and used mirrored tops to create the illusion of more florals, as we wanted to maximise as much space as possible on the table. We had a silk scripture on the wall with the table plan by Luca Studios so guests could find their seats. The menus and placecards were a focal point on the table around the glassware with florals cascading down the ends of every table. We decided to opt out of doing favours for the guests as they can be wasteful.

For the evening, there was a huge shift as we wanted the evening to have a totally different vibe. The theme of the evening party was 80s disco. We had different sized balloons in blue, silver and white by Bubblegum Balloons. We wanted to step away from the feminine, floral fairytale of the day and into an inner child party where everyone could have fun. We worked with Luminaire to create a custom bar and custom stage with our Monogram K&A. The men had their own men’s club, with lounge chairs so they could enjoy their cigars and whiskey.

Food & Drink

We had a cocktail reception after the wedding ceremony which featured personalised cocktails which included Kangus, The Maveritini, and the Biteside (our dog Maverick’s surname).

The food was carefully chosen during tasting visit with Host, who prepared everything for the day. Angus is a foodie, so he selected the canapes for the reception. We picked all the canapes for our cocktail hour and the three-course wedding breakfast. There were vegetarian and vegan options for guests who wanted to make that choice. We had a sommelier who helped us select the wines and champagne and the owner Josh was present during the tasting to ensure we had a carefully selected range of wines.

Host catering looked after us throughout the day. They catered a bespoke breakfast for myself and the bridesmaids as well. They then served canapes, the wedding breakfast and late night burgers wrapped in monogrammed foil. We wanted it to be a fun way to end the evening.

Our Wedding Cake was a beautiful bespoke 4-tier lemon cake by Cake Boy. He is a family friend, so it was made with lots of love.

Entertainment

The entertainment was a really important part of our wedding day, We had musical performances throughout the day. The string quartet played modern songs in the Winter Garden during our reception drinks. During the wedding breakfast we had female and male vocalists playing on piano. For our evening party we had an incredible 12-piece band called Gatsby with two male and two female vocalists.

Our first dance song was Can I Call You Rose by Thee Sacred Souls and was sang by Ryan Shaw. We then invited the bridesmaids and guests to join the dance floor. After the first dance song, I changed into my second look for the evening, a Nadine Merabi dress and white Chloe trainers. We split the dancefloor down the middle and surprised our guests with a second dance, something more playful and a nod to our personalities. We choreographed a dance to Keep The Fire Burning by Gwen McCrae.

Beauty Regime & Wellness

I used Jordan Morgan Fitness for my diet and training plan in the lead up to the wedding, in order to get as toned as possible. I had Emsculpt on my abdomen to make sure my waist was as snatched and I also increased my water intake so that I was hydrated and dewy on the day.

For facial treatments, I had regular Hydrafacials by Cosmed Wellness, as well as microneedling sessions and chemical peels. I had regular Profhilo treatments. My lips were also enhanced slightly with dermal fillers two months before the wedding. Alongside this, I was on a bespoke home skincare plan from Skinbetter Science, Obagi, Epicutis and Hydrinity. For my body, I got laser hair removal done at The AL5 Aesthetic Clinic to remove unwanted hair and prevent any dark folicles on my arms and legs.

Favourite Wedding Gifts

We listed our wedding registry with The Wedding Shop, where guests could select from our wishlist. We were very fortunate to be gifted a sofa for our home, Peloton bikes and beautiful homeware pieces. I was also gifted a Cartier Juste Un Clou Necklace in yellow gold from a guest at the wedding and Angus was gifted Cartier cufflinks.

Honeymoon

We had our mini-moon following the wedding and spent the week in Turkey on a yacht. One of our wedding gifts was a round-the-world honeymoon for 2025. We haven’t planned the logistics yet, because I have been opening my aesthetics clinic, but we hope to explore China, Japan and then fly to the US and go on a long road trip.

Advice

I learnt so much throughout the whole journey. When you find your dress, I would advise you to step off the podium and walk in it as much as possible in your dress trials, especially if you’re choosing a bigger dress. You need to be able to move in it so it is helpful to see what it will be like.

You should start early with finding the right bridesmaid dresses. Do not leave this to the last minute, as pieces sell out really quickly and you might end up having to pick a second or third option just to get all your bridesmaids in a dress.

Alterations are more expensive than you think, but are important to the overall look of your dresses. Have your bridesmaids dresses altered too so they all fit perfectly on each bridesmaid.

If you have the means to plan within the year, why wait? Marrying within 9 months of my engagement prevented added stress. I didn’t want to prolong it.

The best thing I did was find a wedding planner. My planner, Constance, made my day run seamlessly so I could relax and remain present. If your budget is more limited, you can opt for a partial wedding planner who will alleviate the pressure of organising everything.

Choose the right photographer for your day. I wanted to make sure no moments were missed during the day, so we had a couple shooting the day. I wanted my photos to have a real editorial feel, so it’s important your chosen photographers can give you the look you want.