Having spent part of her childhood in Scotland – the country where Rosie’s mother, the TV presenter Lorraine Kelly and father, Steve Smith, were born and raised – they had set their hearts on getting married there. At the end of last month they fulfilled that dream, tying the knot in a magical ceremony which contained touching nods to Rosie’s family heritage.
“I’ve always wanted to get married in Scotland,” Rosie tells HELLO! in this exclusive interview, as she and Steve share their wedding photos with us. “We looked at a couple of places in London online, but they just didn’t feel right.”
Rosie, 32, a journalist and content creator, and Steve, an insurance operations manager, immediately fell in love with Sir Andy Murray’s Cromlix hotel, near Dunblane, after viewing it on their first holiday to Scotland when their daughter, Billie, was just two months old.
It was there that they were later declared husband and wife on July 25 in front of their closest family and friends, hiring all 20 of the resort’s rooms for their guests to ensure absolute privacy.
Taking over the venue
“We picked Cromlix as it’s in the middle of Scotland but it’s also very remote,” Rosie says. “You can’t see any other buildings when you look out the windows so it feels like you’re in the Highlands, which is quite nice. We wanted somewhere we could take over and have as our own.
“My mum always tells this story about how she was covering a beach wedding on GMTV and you could hear the bingo in the background. I didn’t want that. We wanted people staying on site and feeling like they were on holiday. My mum was very excited and it was easier for my grandmother Anne Kelly [Lorraine’s mother] as well.”
“It was the perfect day,” Lorraine tells HELLO!. “I think the word I would use to describe it was joyful and it was also really relaxed. I kept saying to Rosie: ‘I remember my wedding and everything went by so fast. Once an hour you’ve got to stand and take it all in.’ Of course, I didn’t heed my own advice and it all went by in a flash.”
Famous guests included Lorraine, of course, plus Dr Amir Khan and Dr Hilary Jones, current and former health experts on ITV’s Lorraine respectively and stylist Mark Heyes.
“I had two doctors there in case anyone fell over,” Rosie jokes. Steve’s mother and father, Helen and Andy, brother Simon and sister Jess also travelled to Scotland for the big day alongside Rosie’s matron of honour, her best friend Amber Macleod-McBrien and the groom’s joint best men, Ryan Collier and Dom Hindson. The only other member of their wedding party was Billie, who was given the very important job of flower girl.
© In the Name of Love PhotographyKicking off the celebrations, Rosie and Steve travelled with their daughter to Edinburgh a few days before the wedding to tie up any loose ends, including obtaining a marriage licence. They arrived at Cromlix the day before the wedding, hosting welcome drinks for their guests there on the Friday night.
An exquisite lace dress
On the morning of the big day, Rosie, Billie, Amber and Lorraine – in a dress by Coast – got ready in the bridal suite. The bride’s exquisite lace dress was from Suzanne Neville, featuring full-length sleeves and scalloped detailing as well as a small train and buttons down the back. She accessorised her look with a bespoke Italian-style lace veil, also by Suzanne Neville, as well as Jimmy Choo shoes and Dinny Hall earrings.
The elegant gown captured Rosie’s attention as soon as she saw it online, where she immediately placed it on her moodboard. After trying on dresses in other stores, she still couldn’t get the Suzanne Neville number out of her mind – so she arranged to visit the label’s Knightsbridge atelier to finally try it on.
“I had been manifesting it and when I tried it on, I knew straight away that this was it,” she says. “I had looked at so many styles but this one was always in the back of my head. When my mum saw me in it, she cried.”
Lorraine adds: “I was crying at every single one she tried on, saying, ‘That’s gorgeous, that’s gorgeous,’ and she would say, ‘Mum, that’s not really helping!’”
The look, Rosie says, was inspired by a certain royal bride. “Until Kate Middleton got married, I had thought you couldn’t do long sleeves without being much older. But she looked beautiful, so I wanted to wear something elegant like that.”
Scottish pipers welcome the guests
At 2pm, the humanist ceremony began with traditional Scottish pipers welcoming everyone in. The room was decorated with flowers supplied by the Edinburgh-based florist Fiona Hay, who hails from Broughty Ferry, where Rosie also lived as a child.
The blooms were all pastel coloured including light pink, lavender and lilac and featured peonies and roses; and in a nod to their British and Scottish heritage, the buttonholes sported by the wedding party featured both a thistle and a rose.
© In the Name of Love PhotographyIn a touching tribute to her mother and father’s wedding in 1992, Rosie also chose to wrap her bouquet with a piece of the same Douglas tartan that Lorraine featured in her own wedding invitations. “That’s my daughter, pure thoughtfulness,” Lorraine says of the touching gesture.
The bride was preceded down the aisle by Amber, who wore a dress by Rat & Boa as she carried Billie toward the altar. In an ivory sateen ruffle dress by Angel & Rocket and a matching floral headband from Monsoon, Billie looked adorable, having thrown her flower petals just before her mother walked down the aisle.
Waiting for both Billie and Rosie was a nervous Steve, who wore a traditional tuxedo from Suitsupply. As a small string ensemble began to perform a rendition of the traditional Scottish folk song Caledonia, Rosie made her way down the aisle on the arm of her father, Steve.
“When I saw Rosie, I just thought, ‘Wow,’” the groom tells HELLO!. “I was incredibly nervous but I was very relieved to see her. It felt like there was this whole symbolism of her walking down with her dad and I was close to tears at the moment where she was handed over to me. I could see that Steve [her father] wasn’t crying either but we were both silently emotional.”
“She just radiated sheer happiness”
One person who did cry happy tears – all day! – was Lorraine, especially when she saw Rosie dressed as a bride for the first time.
“It was a mixture of, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe my baby is a bride and a mother and she looks so beautiful.’ The dress was perfect and she just radiated sheer happiness,” Lorraine says. “I was so proud of her. When I saw her standing there looking like that, all the emotion came out. I did cry quite a lot; that was a beautiful, beautiful moment.”
Seeing her husband walk their daughter down the aisle was another moment when tears were shed. “I think that’s the moment when I really did completely lose it. Amber had carried Billie down the aisle and it felt like nothing could top that. But then Rosie walked in with her dad, and he just looked so proud and happy. It was lovely.”
The ceremony was conducted by Susan Mathieson, who, in keeping with humanist tradition, told those gathered the story of Rosie and Steve’s romance. Traditional vows were then recited before the couple exchanged rings, which were both by the designer Elizabeth MacDonald; Steve’s was made of plain gold while Rosie’s also featured diamonds. Steve’s mother, Helen, and Lorraine both served as witnesses.
© In the Name of Love PhotographyAfter being declared husband and wife, the newlyweds walked back down the aisle to the song Bonnie Dundee – the same song Lorraine also picked on her big day too.
Celebrations then moved into a marquee erected in the hotel’s grounds for the reception. Drinks and canapes including chicken satay skewers and truffled mushroom arancini were served before everyone sat down to dinner at four long tables decorated with small flowers in glass jars and brass candlesticks holding white candles; Rosie, Steve, their parents, Rosie’s matron of honour and the groom’s siblings were on the top table.
Guests enjoyed starters of ham hock terrine, chicken Caesar croquettes or heritage tomato salad, and main courses of corn-fed chicken breast, braised lamb en croute or pesto roasted aubergine. Dessert was a choice of chocolate torte, lemon torte or white chocolate mousse, all catered by the hotel.
“So proud of his girl”
The groom, his best men and both his and Rosie’s fathers all delivered speeches, which left everyone in tears. “[My husband] Steve’s speech, it was from the heart, like my dad’s at my wedding,” Lorraine says. “He welcomed everybody from all four corners of the earth, because my brother had come from Singapore and we had relatives from Germany and people coming from all over the UK as far away as Orkney.
“He was so proud of his girl. I don’t think there was one person that wasn’t having a wee tear when he spoke,” Lorraine said.
Rosie says she struggled to keep her emotions in check when her new husband spoke about how much he loved seeing her as a mother to Billie and also paid tribute to her uncle Gordon on her father’s side, who passed away last year.
After Rosie slipped into a white silk Rixo minidress and Zara shoes – and Billie had changed into a tutu-style outfit from Rhyme – it was time to cut the two-tier wedding cake, which was from Liggy’s Cakes with the help of Billie. Featuring one layer of red velvet and another of lemon and blueberry, it was decorated with a tiny iced figure of the couple’s beloved dachshund, Ruby, which Rosie organised as a surprise.
The band Killer City Sound then started the party, with the couple choosing the song Birds Of A Feather by Billie Eilish for their first dance. Billie joined them on the dancefloor during the song, swaying with her parents as Rosie held her in her arms.
A traditional Scottish dance
Guests also took part in a traditional Scottish ceilidh, with Rosie having put up a video tutorial on the couple’s wedding website so guests could practice ahead of the day. Towards the end of the evening, the bride gave her grandmother Anne her bouquet to take home.
“It was so wonderful to have four generations there,” Lorraine says. “My mum’s not been too well, she’s got a terrible kidney illness and she’s very frail now compared to what she was. But on the day, she looked absolutely incredible, and she felt incredible as well.
“She lasted until about 10pm and she was so touched that Rosie gave her the bouquet. She had an audience with Dr Amir and Dr Hilary; she was a wee bit like the Queen Mother, with people coming up and paying homage to her, which was great. I don’t think there’s many families these days that would have a great-grandmother, grandmother, daughter and granddaughter together. We are very lucky.”
As the festivities carried on, the DJ Jonny Ross took over the music duties, spinning tunes until the party ended at 1am. For anyone flagging in energy, a pizza van from Dough Man’s Land arrived at 10pm for some late-night snacks.
The newlyweds then spent the night together at the hotel before enjoying a special farewell breakfast with all their guests the following morning. From there, they spent two days in Edinburgh before returning to their Berkshire home; they plan to honeymoon in Ravello, Italy, at the end of September.
A perfect love match
The couple got engaged two years ago while holidaying with their families in Spain, where both their parents own homes near the same resort. They wanted to wait until Billie was a bit older before making their union official. “I wanted her to be a bit more aware of what was going on,” Rosie says. “I didn’t want to get married straight away because I was postpartum and didn’t know what time or day it was, so I was prepared to wait until I felt like I could put on a wedding dress and be a bit more with it.”
Are they considering adding to their family? “I think we found the first year really challenging, so we’re TBC. We’re not closed off but we’re just taking it day by day, because Billie’s getting to the terrible twos,” Steve says. “We are definitely open to more, but haven’t fully decided.”
What they have done is amalgamate their surnames, to match the one taken by their daughter. “I’m the last Smith,” says Rosie, who is an only child. “So we’re doing Smith White.”
The couple first met on Hinge in April 2023. Although unsure if the other one was interested after their first date, Steve says a “vibe” between them prompted them to meet again. “We agreed to go on a few more dates and see what would happen,” he says. “I think we were both quite shy initially and then it grew from that. A couple of months in, we had really open and honest conversations, so we knew we were on the same page.”
Six months later, Rosie fell pregnant with Billie. “I’ve always said that Steve – and I don’t want it to sound boring, because it’s not – to me, he feels very safe. I know people talk about fireworks, which are also there, but all I need is that steady calmness.”
That demeanour has helped the couple navigate a busy life chapter, with Rosie having also published her debut book, Mother to Mother, earlier this year. “We’ve done a lot in three years and now we want to slow down and enjoy it. We had a baby, moved out of London and got married, but we’ve gone through lots of big changes, so now hopefully there will be a period of calm.”
Photography: In the Name of Love Photography inthenameoflovephotography.com
Rosie and Steve’s full wedding album will be available in your VIP portal later this week.
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