Wild Wedding Favours with McLean's Gin

We make lots of lovely kilt outfits for weddings, waistcoats for the bridal party and accessories for brides. You also have a product inspired by your own wedding. Can you share the story?

Something Blue was a recipe we’d been working on for some time, and one that was very popular with our family and friends. However, it didn’t fit with the more descriptive, conventional naming of the other expressions in our range, so we weren’t quite sure where to go with it. When we got engaged, we knew as a business that we’d have to do something to mark the occasion, and around a similar time we’d acquired a new botanical; Clitoria ternetea (originating from Thailand). Clitoria ternetea – better known as the Butterfly Pea Flower – has very little impact on a spirit’s flavour. However, it contains a high concentration of “anthocyanins”; water-soluble colour pigments that occur in nature and give many of our favourite fruits (strawberries, brambles) and vegetables (beetroot, carrots) their striking colour. In the Butterfly Pea Flower’s case, it exudes a stunning blue hue from the minute it touches a clear spirit; alcohol is a strong solvent and so extracts both colour and flavour from everything soluble that it touches. Jessica – the real brains of McLean’s Gin – suggested that we might just have cracked what our next expression would be named…we like to honour traditions in our own modern way, and so Something Blue was created to commemorate our nuptials; subtly and suitably named after the poem “Something Old”. A little known fact is that the poem is concluded with “and a sixpence for her shoe”, so all of our wedding favour orders come complete with a sixpence.

Something Blue was intended as a Limited Edition release; we created 150 bottles which – at the time – was about as much as our cash-flow would permit. When we saw them all laid out (on the living room floor – they wouldn’t fit in the cupboard!), we actually wondered if we’d gone too far. Will we ever sell all of these?

To our immense pleasure (and surprise), the initial release of Something Blue sold out in just 5 days. We took 6 cases (36 bottles) to a Gin Festival in beautiful St. Andrews…the event was scheduled to run from 12.00 – 18.00, but by 14.30 we were packing away our table cloth, every last bottle gone in just over 2 hours. If we’d brought double, maybe even triple, we’d probably have sold it all. There was a real buzz about Something Blue at the festival; more than a handful of people told us “We’ve been told your Something Blue is unbelievable” etc and our stall was utterly swamped for the 2.5 hours that we spent there. One customer bought 4 bottles! There was still a large crowd gathered round as we sold our final bottle and more than a few people missed out on grabbing one to take home…

Our wedding came around and we received so many amazing messages from our followers – all loving Something Blue. Even on the day of our wedding, we were receiving messages and emails from people enquiring about wedding favours for their own celebrations, and a week later we learned that Something Blue had made the finals of 2018’s Scottish Gin Awards. It didn’t win the award (our congratulations to Eden Mill who picked this up with their Original expression), but award-winner or not, we could certainly see that we were on to a winner with this one. It didn’t stay Limited Edition for long; Something Blue was added to our permanent range in October 2018.

I love the minis perfect for favours and gifts - you even offer to personalize which I know we love doing for customers here, as there is nothing like giving something really special that you will keep forever.

Personalisation has certainly become; understandably; very popular, so it was a no brainer for us to offer this to our wedding couples. The logistics of personalizing larger bottles are a little more tricky as these are machine labelled (with the minimum order quantity of a roll of labels being 200), but as our miniatures are still labelled by hand, we can cater to any order volume for these; personalized or not.

Celebrity customers…none for our wedding favours (yet), but we know of a few more generally (and there may be more that we don’t know about!). Pat Kane of Hue and Cry picked up a bottle of our Spiced gin from one of our local suppliers, and both Annie Lennox (Eurythmics) and Gavin Mitchell (probably better known as Boaby the Barman in the hit Scottish sitcom Still Game) both have bottles of Something Blue in their collection.

Tartan Wedding Favour Inspiration

It wouldn't be a truly Scottish Wedding favour without a touch of tartan, so we have put together a few of our favourite products that would pair perfectly with the mini McLean's Gins.

Scottish Tartan Heart Decorations

We have three different Tartan Heart Decorations for you to choose from; Scottish Tartan Heart, Clan Tartan Heart Decoration or Celtic Tartan Heart Decoration. So, whether you want to treat your guests to your favourite of the three designs, or go for a selection, lay them on the tables and let your guests choose a favourite for themselves to take home! With so many tartan options available, you are spoilt for choice, either choose a tartan that matches your colour scheme perfectly, choose your own family tartan, or really push the boat out and get each of your guests a decoration in their own family tartan, talk about personal!

Tartan Bow Decoration

We think this might be our favourite product for pairing with the mini McLean's Gin Bottles, each Tartan Bow Decoration has 2 satin ribbons making it really easy to tie around the neck of the bottle! However, the ribbon is so easy to use we think it would look equally as fabulous tied around a napkin or a mini bouquet! We have over 500 tartans in this product, so again whether you want to match the colour scheme or go down the more personal clan tartan selection the decision is yours. This year is all about sustainability and moving away from single use or throw away gifts. The great thing about our bows is that you can use them time and time again, decorate the Christmas tree, tie them in your hair, attach them to your purse....the choice is endless.

If you want to spend a little bit extra to give your guests a gift they will treasure forever, then you certainly will not go wrong with a Clan Crest Sporran Flask. What could pair better with a mini bottle of gin than a little hip flask to fit it in? The best thing about these hip flasks is that they are designed to fit neatly into a sporran, which also means they will fit into a handbag just as easily. Perfect for every one of your guests!

However, if you are planning on spending the budget on your dress, leaving less to spend on the wedding favours (we don't blame you!), then why not add a touch of tartan to your favours with some tartan ribbon? We have a choice of either Polyester Tartan Ribbon or Wool Tartan Ribbon. The polyester is our cheaper option, however it is only available in a choice of 18 tartans, whereas our Wool Tartan Ribbon can be custom made in over 400 tartans for a little bit extra. Whichever ribbon you go for, both would look beautiful tied around the neck of a mini McLean's Gin bottle, or even secured around a little gift box or bag of Scottish tablet!

And there you have it, our imaginative source of Scottish wedding favour inspiration! If you need any help choosing products or tartans for your wedding, our tartan experts are more than happy to help. Email us your questions or even book an appointment to have a more personal experience, where we can measure you for your dream garment, help you choose the perfect products for your wedding party or help you tartan match to your colour scheme!