I’ve been incredibly tardy in getting this out, but where to begin? I’ll skip most of the build up as the day itself was far more fun. However, I will flash my lovely cakes that my sister, brother and I spent several hours making the day before and I’m super-proud of them (although apparently my bro was going around telling everyone that if they’d had a good one, if was one of his!). And here are my OODs too as I spent hours on them and I think they look fab (plus they were great fans given the heat on the day)!
The morning - highlights
So, I woke up to the sound of bird song around 7ish (a major lie-in for those of you that remember my terrible sleeping dramas) and the sun was already beaming through my curtains. I’ve been racking my brains trying to work out what I did in the morning, but I only have vague recollections of doing a crossword….
Go go go – arrival at the venue
We raced to the venue in my Dad’s car about 40mins late. I wasn’t dressed at this point, as I didn’t want to crease my dress by sitting in the car – but it was funny waving to lots of passers-by in my jeans and hoodie as we hurtled past them. When we arrived, it was a real covert operation sneaking me into the venue without anyone seeing, and my sister and brother did a sterling job with texts and hand signals – although apparently we forgot to tell Jumbly Boy when I was in safely, so he was holed up in his room for ages by himself, getting more and more nervous – woops!
Getting ready
I spent the next thirty minutes or so prancing around in my much talked-about super-hot pants (https://www.johnlewis.com/) drinking champagne (unfortunately my poor brother bore witness to this and I fear I may have scarred him for life).
The room I was in had a view over the lochside and where the ceremony was all set up (so utterly beautiful) and I got annoyed as I saw more and more of my friends sitting on Jumbly Boy’s side and my sister had to hold me back from hollering out of the window at them to move to my side!
A tip for those of you still to get married – I deliberately didn’t bother with a watch all day as I figured people would chivvy me along when I needed to be places. They didn’t. Oblivious me, I was actually about 20 minutes late – apparently Jumbly Boy was getting really worked up and the heat really didn’t help!
The ceremony
Dad was really nervous, which threw me, as he is normally is a very collected person, but we had only walked about a metre when the venue manager hissed at me ‘Jumbly Girl, lift your bouquet up!’ – I had been holding it like an unopened umbrella by my side. Thankfully, that made us both chuckle.
As I walked down the aisle all I could focus on was Jumbly Boy. But he didn’t turn around as I approached. I found out later that as soon as the harp player started playing Sigur Ros’s Hoppipolla, the poor lamb was struggling to keep it together (he will fervently deny this though).
The ceremony went really quickly. Our readers did an amazing job ("epithalamium" by Aonghas Macneacail and “No Matter What” by Debi Gliori – v. appropriate as JB is over a foot taller than me – so we’re “small” and “large”). Apparently, nearly all of the guests were in tears by this point! The latter reader was a friend who had flown over from the US and I hadn’t seen in years – so it was so fantastic to have him there, I couldn’t stop grinning as soon as I’d spotted him: it just made my day.
JB struggled a bit with the vows, but I was pleased that I managed to smile through mine. And then it was all over. We walked back down the aisle as husband and wife to ‘I believe in a thing called love’ by The Darkness – but on the harp, which was wonderful!
Reception and the fun begins
I felt like the drinks reception whizzed by, but everyone seemed to enjoy guzzling champers, canapés, and playing croquet in the sun - however, we did have time for a few photos!
Speeches (very entertaining – especially when JB handed the floor over to my Best Woman, and she hadn’t prepared anything but managed to make up a wonderful speech on the spot), dinner (scrumptious), first dance (not too bad, especially as people thought we’d practiced tons!), ceilidh (a mess, but they always are, that’s the beauty of them!), and band (amazing and no cheese!) soon followed. The evening was still hot and there was a phenomenal sunset, so everyone stood outside during the buffet enjoying the beautiful evening.
Right, I’ve gone on for a bit long so here are the highlights from the rest of the evening:
Our best man wore a homemade kilt made from a material with skulls and crossbones all over it.
One of the guests ripped his trousers during the croquet (I think it must have been a rather energetic game) and ended up in shorts and t-shirt for the rest of the evening!
It was so hot that several guests stripped down to their pants and went swimming in the loch. There are a lot of pictures of amusing pictures of me in my dress chatting to half naked wet men.
My Dad does not dance. Ever. But he did.
All of the boys tying their ties around their heads and taking it in turns to chest bump on the dance floor (we have some fab action shots of boys toppling over).
Our friend hijacking the microphone and singing some songs with the band!
Final dance was “500 miles” by the Proclaimers, where JB and I danced in the centre of a huge circle and then took it in turns to spin with a guest then each other, another guest and then each other and so on until we collapsed in a heap on the floor at the end!
After the guests had headed home, JB and I headed out for a walk as we were still buzzing at about 2am. Donned in JB’s size 11 flip flops (I’m size 3), some jeans and a hoodie over my fancy nightie ? , we thought it might be nice to let off a sky lantern by the lochside as we hadn’t had a chance to let them off during the evening. However, we couldn’t find them. It didn’t matter though as this was a real highlight for me – spending time with my new husband by moonlight and just talking about how wonderful the day had been. The perfect end to a perfect day.
So, all that remains is N&Ps:
Hair – Rachel at Josef Hair Design, Helensburgh
Venue – Ross Priory, Scotland
Hair accessories and jewellery – Victoria Fergusson
Photographer – lighthousestudios (Seppi)
Band – DDW (can’t recommend them enough)
Clarsach (harp) player – Rachel Hair (amazingly talented!)
Hope this hasn't bored you all! Thanks for reading!!!
