Jana Kramer Marries Allan Russell at Scotland Castle — with Kilts and Tartan Ribbon Cake! (Exclusive)

• Actress and singer Jana Kramer has married former soccer coach Allan Russell just more than a year after they got engaged June 2023
• The pair said their “I dos” at Carnell Estate in Scotland on Saturday, July 13
• PEOPLE has all the exclusive details and photos from the “intimate” event, which featured only 35 guests and plenty of Scottish traditions like kilt-wearing, tartan ribbon on the cake and ceilidh (Scottish music)

Jana Kramer and Allan Russell have tied the knot!

The actress, singer and Whine Down podcast host, 40, and the former soccer coach, 43, exchanged vows on July 13 at Carnell Estate in Scotland in a nod to Russell, who hails from the country. 

The couple was joined by 35 of their closest family and friends, including Kramer’s two children, daughter Jolie, 8, and son Jace, 5, Russell’s son Troy, 16, and their son Roman, 8 months, whom they welcomed in November. 

“I just knew that I wanted to marry him. We had talked about just going away and doing it ourselves, but it was important for me to have the wedding for Jolie and Jace, so they can see that we’re married now,” Kramer tells PEOPLE of the decision to have a traditional celebration.

“I’ve also never been so excited to walk down the aisle to someone, and it didn’t need to be this big thing. It’s going to be very small and intimate and everything that we wanted,” she says. “We’re getting married in Scotland, so the background is already stunning as it is. I just want to marry him, and I want my closest friends there. That’s all that truly matters to us and our family.”

Russell echoes his new wife’s sentiment, adding that she’s “really respectful towards my heritage in Scotland,” and he firmly believes that “more importantly, Jana thoroughly deserves that [special] moment.”

The couple’s love story starts in a place familiar for the twenty-first century — online — after Russell messaged Kramer on Instagram from England, where he resided at the time.

“He was very sweet and very kind in his message, and we started to talk on WhatsApp. And then when I Googled him, I was like, ‘Oh, he’s really cute. I was like, maybe if he happens to ever be in the States, I’ll go out on a date with him,'” Kramer recalls.

Shortly thereafter, Russell was headed to Tampa, Florida, and stopped in Nashville for a date with Kramer on the way around Christmastime 2022. After meeting at the 1 Hotel, Kramer says she knew it was “game over.”

The pair got engaged six months later.

In June 2023, Kramer and Russell announced they were expecting, and after some pregnancy complications, the couple canceled a trip to Jamaica they’d had planned (where Russell was set to propose). 

Instead, Russell popped the question in front of the family’s new home, and Kramer says the turn of events was “even better.”

As far as actually planning their big wedding, however, Russell says his bride is “the most organized person in the world” and he’s “just been hanging onto her coattails for the ride.”

The wedding featured numerous nods to Russell’s Scottish heritage, including bagpipes, kilts, haggis pie, ceilidh (traditional Scottish music) and customary Highland Games, which, according to Russell, included cable toss and stone throwing the day before the wedding.

“We’re turning on the caveman for two hours basically,” he says with a laugh. 

As for the location itself, “we really wanted it to be like everyone was together in one place. That was just super important to me,” says Kramer.

Trying to find a venue that fit all of their criteria, however, proved to be a challenge.

“We were running out of options and everyone kept asking, ‘What are you doing?’ And everything was expensive, so I just went on Airbnb. I Airbnb’d the weekend we wanted and found the stunning Carnell Estate.”

A few emails and a phone call later, and Kramer and Russell had successfully booked their wedding venue — a true Scotland castle — on Airbnb. 

For the nuptials, Kramer wore a strapless Pronovias dress with a sweetheart style neckline and “beautiful train” that she says still felt “traditional” to keep with the theme of the wedding.

“I wanted to love the dress, but I also wanted Allan to like the dress, too, as I walked down the aisle, so it was kind of a marrying of both the things that we love. It’s got some beautiful lace on it. I have a beautiful veil. It’s perfect,” she says.

Kramer’s children had important roles in the ceremony, too: Jolie as the flower girl, Jace as the ring bearer, and Russell’s son Troy served an usher.

And, son Roman — who was born in November 2023— donned a kilt just like all of the other men at the ceremony, thanks to vendor “MacGregor and MacDuff,” says Russell of the kilt store. “They start the kilts at one year old. Now, Roman is not one year old yet, but he’s the size of a one-year-old. He eats like a five-year-old, so he’s fine.”

The bridal parties, for their part, dressed in “a twilight color,” says Kramer, that simply matched the men in kilts.

“I really just wanted Scotland to be the background, and that’s why I didn’t really care about having a certain color or a bunch of flowers. It’s such a beautiful country and that is what the spotlight should be on,” she says. 

The couple also wrote their own vows for the ceremony, though they took different approaches. Russell opted to memorize his, while Kramer, who admitted she was “nervous about the vows because I don’t feel like I’m going to be able to get through them without bawling my eyes out,” jotted hers down on a piece of paper to recite. 

As for the food, Russell describes the menu as “really good,” with classic options like chicken and steak to balance the haggis pie.

For dessert, Kramer and Russell agreed to let his parents handle the cake, with Russell adding that “the top part is fruit, the middle part is chocolate, and the bottom part is vanilla.”

In a personal touch, the cake also had Russell’s family tartan ribbon decorating it as well. 

And, while Kramer was insistent upon Scotland being the star of the show, she did have a single non-negotiable for the reception.

“We’ll do speeches and then eating, dancing. And then one of the main things I really wanted was fireworks. I am just a sucker for fireworks. I just think they’re beautiful. I get emotional. That was my one thing,” she admits. “I’m just really excited about that because there’s just something so celebratory about them.”

After the wedding, the newlyweds will depart Scotland for Italy, where they will enjoy their week-long honeymoon while the kids head back to the States with Kramer’s parents. 

“We’re doing three nights in Ravello, which is just south of Positano, and then we’re three days on the island of Capri, so it’ll be beautiful,” says Russell, who took the lead on the planning.

Kramer says she’s perhaps most excited for all of the “gelato and pasta,” but the mom of three admits that she did struggle with some “mom guilt” over the honeymoon logistics.

“I had a good conversation with my therapist about it because I was telling her that my biggest anxiety of the whole thing is then saying bye to the kids. A part of me feels sad for them that they’re like, ‘oh, now that they’re together, they’re just leaving us now.’ That’s just where my brain takes it if I’m a kid,” Kramer says.

Thanks to her therapist’s advice, however, Kramer was able to broach the topic with her children and ensure they felt included.

“We had a conversation like ‘this is where mommies and daddies go after a wedding. This is called a honeymoon,’ where I just explained it to them and also made them a part of the conversation like, ‘What should we do? Do you want us to call you from this building?’ So they feel like they’re a part of it with us, as opposed to us just being like, ‘all right, you’re going off to Michigan with your grandma and grandpa right after we just got married.'”

“And, we told them that Michigan is Disney World,” quips Russell. 

Given that the two are so family oriented, the question of whether or not they want to have more children together is one that weighs on them. They’re grateful for Roman after Kramer’s complicated pregnancy, so the final verdict regarding adding to the family remains unclear. 

“I think we’re done. But I don’t want to be, so it’s just so hard. We’ll just keep going back and forth. I did mention the other day, I was like, ‘Can we just have one more? Just, we’ll knock it out real fast,’ says Kramer.

“There’s nothing about nine months of pregnancy that’s fast. Nothing,” Russell adds.

“I’m happy and it’s just nice to just be enjoying the season we’re in, and just loving each other and being a family,” Kramer says. “It’s chaotic, but we make peace in all of it, too.”