Warning this is a long read! I will post photos in a second post as I get too confused with all the photos! J
How we met
We met on an internet dating website at the end of 2010, his friends had set him up after he split up with his long term girlfriend. I was on there on and off, met a few people but nothing serious. I had mentioned on my profile that I had seen Mumford & Sons, and he contacted me to say he wanted to see them. He gave me his number as he was deleting his profile, but I sent him mine as I wasn’t going to contact a total random person first! He text me a few times and then called me. We met in a local pizza express on our first date… very romantic! I actually nearly didn’t turn up as I didn’t want to go. During the evening, I got a little stroppy with him for interrupting me to tell me how weird it was that his phone had gone off, so I said I wouldn’t talk any more as he wasn’t listening to me!
We both left feeling like it wasn’t going to go any further. But a few nights later my shift at work was cancelled and I found myself going over to his to watch a film. The following day he went home for 2 weeks for Christmas, but we spoke nearly every day via facebook and texts, then I collected him from the airport when he returned.
After a rocky ish start, we finally called it a relationship, and I moved in around 18 months later.
The Proposal
His sister and brother both got engaged towards the end of 2014. He had already started thinking about it, unknown to me. We had booked a big holiday to the USA, San Francisco, Las Vegas and New York for my 30th in May. Not long before we left, someone made a comment on facebook about a proposal (we had upgraded to upper class on the way out!) and he went ballistic, how it was nobodys business and he didn’t want me hoping it would happen as he had no intention of it etc etc.
I was quite upset but just thought to myself well maybe he is bluffing but just in case, I will not think about it. We boarded our flight, had dinner at a little table set up in my cubicle and a little while later made our way to the bar. He heads off to the toilet while I try to get a drink. The crew were saying they were out of red wine while I could clearly see the bottles! A bit odd I thought… and they were all very chatty and friendly. Suddenly they stopped talking and looked behind me… I turned round to see OH on one knee with a ring in his hand! My first reaction was what the FFFFF are you doing??? After calling him an idiot, and asking if he was serious a few hundred times, I said yes and the crew opened a bottle of champagne for us! What a start to our holiday J
The Wedding Planning
The night we landed in San Francisco, I couldn’t sleep so I was already researching venues. Well, we had been together 4.5 years, been to many many weddings and we already had a good idea of what we wanted! We went up to Scotland for a weekend to visit a few venues, we went over to Loch Lomond and down to Edinburgh but just couldn’t find something in our budget that we truly loved. We had booked a visit to Balbirnie House, but just to have a look as we figured we couldn’t really afford it, but wanted to look anyway. When we had our walkaround, I purposely didn’t look at it much or allow myself to enjoy it as we were not going to be booking it. However, their winter package didn’t work out any more than the other places we had been looking at and so we pencilled in the 16th January 2016 for a date!
His mum tried to talk us out of it, what about the views of the Loch, what about accommodation and everyone being together…. But we decided we loved it and went ahead and paid the deposit!
The guest list was a bit of a pain, the venue required a minimum of 100 adults on a Saturday. This wasn’t difficult to achieve, but it was difficult trying to keep it as close as possible. There are people even now we wish we could have invited. We were very lucky, and only a few we invited were unable to make it… we ended up with 110 day guests and another 30 or so in the evening.
Luckily OH and I agreed on most things, and we soon learnt to keep things to ourselves. Even the smallest detail could send ripples of contention across both sides of the family. We wanted some true Scottish style but I also wanted to have a little bit of vintage/non Scottish in there too. The planning wasn’t the most stressful part, it was people that stressed me out! Trying to help, but actually just making it so much more difficult for me!
My bridesmaids were one of my best friends, OHs sister, my sister who is 14 and came over from California with our dad and my cousin.
The Day Before
We had a few people to my in-laws for lunch which was nice, then it was off to the salon to have our nails done (no photo unfortunately but a pale pinky colour with subtle glitter on the ends) and the boys went off to have their kilt fitting.
As so many of our guests were travelling from down south for our wedding, we decided to have dinner at a local restaurant the night before. There was over 50 of us! It was lovely to see everyone, and worked well as it meant most people got to meet others that would be there on the day. Quite a few of our friends came along but didn’t know many others. At 9pm I left and went to the venue and had a drink with a few others staying there, then headed upstairs and had a bath to try and relax.
The Wedding Day
I woke up around 6.50am and felt excited! We had ordered breakfast to our room which
arrived at 7.30am. The calm before the
storm!
The bridesmaids, my MIL and the MUA and Hairdresser all arrived between 8.30am and 9.30am. I had an 80s playlist playing and we opened some bubbles. It was so relaxed, and just lovely being with them all. I gave them all a team bride t-shirt, a little frame with a word cloud in a heart shape to say thank you, a necklace and pair of earrings, a hair clip and a pashmina.
The photographer and videographer arrived around 11am to do some getting ready bits. We had arranged for our videographer to do a marryoke video to I Believe in a Thing Called Love so we recorded some of that too! My flowers arrived around 12 ish and they were beautiful… she managed to get some fresh sunflowers in my bouquet which was amazing as they mean a lot to me.
All of a sudden, it was 12.40, I was trying to get dressed and my dad wanted a word… fine, except I’m naked!!!!! He will have to wait!!! I managed to get my dress on and have a quick word with him, he just wanted to say that I looked wonderful and he is proud of me (he wasn’t giving me away). As I get ready to leave the room, I remembered boob tape to stick the top part of my dress down but sadly forgot to pop my bracelet on.
All the girls go downstairs in front of me, and as I’m walking down, the piper is playing and everyone is watching me… suddenly I feel really nervous and struggle to not cry or shake! I will probably look miserable on these photos! As we wait to go into the room, I just remember saying oh my god, oh my god and trying not to hyperventilate! The girls are going in before me, and the music starts playing. We walked down to an instrumental of The Cave as a surprise for OH. Someone said I looked like I was heavy breathing walking down… I wasn’t, I was just trying to control it and my nerves! OH isn’t looking at me as I walk, he is watching me in the mirror… but has the biggest grin when he turns around.
We had a humanist ceremony, and it was so personal and lovely. I nearly lost it reading my vows, but the stories during the ceremony soon made me laugh again. OH tried to put the ring on the wrong fingers as I had moved my engagement ring! We had a handfasting (sadly the hotel untied this!) and a sharing of the quaich. My dad did a lovely reading, and our two oldest school friends were our witnesses.
Before I know it, we are Mr and Mrs and out we walk! We go on to the front steps for a group photo, and I show OH my tartan shoes that were made with the same tartan as his kilt… he LOVED them! Sadly, we were taking photos for so long that when we went back in, we had missed most of the mingling time. However, we should have some amazing photos. I was lucky enough that it had snowed during the week and stayed frozen so there is snow on the ground for the photos. When we were sat on the swing, there was a robin in the tree watching us, and when we moved to a different area it followed us! It was watching us for around 15 minutes… I’m convinced it was my aunt coming to say hello!
We get called down for dinner, and we get piped in to the top table. Favours were charity pins, british heart foundation for women and the sepsis trust for men. Children had activity packs and bubbles.
Table decorations were silver table runners, mirrored plates and candelabras draped in ivy with pearl strands. We had giant love letters, a candy cart (won in a competition) and the top table had lanterns with the bouquets in vases and mini love lights. We had whisky (OHs name is on it!) and sparkling wine for toasts. The food was haggis parcels, pork loin and sticky toffee pudding. We also had a photo booth set up, with a suitcase full of props and a camera on self timer. I also popped a box of bits in the bathroom, which was apparently well used! There were also tartan fleece blankets which were put to use while photos were taken, and pairs of flip flops which were also used.
Our guest book was a signing frame, and a cute little emma bridgewater book for longer messages. Our cake was a beautiful chocolate creation and it was amazing!
During dessert, OH was up talking to some friends and I sent my maid of honour to get him, the best man to get him… eventually I went up myself and dragged him back to the table to eat his dessert. While he is moaning at me for interrupting his conversation, the surprise singing waiters burst into song behind him and scare the life out of him! They did a 20 minute set which was fab, ending with most of us doing a conga line around the room!
We head outside for more photos, in the dark this time and our guests are served coffee and tablet in the foyer as we are running behind time. Our evening guests arrive and I try to say hello to all of them. Around 30 minutes behind schedule, we are piped in for the cake cutting and our first dance (Kodaline, The One). Everyone joins us for a second slow dance and then we have the first ceilidh. I had some blingy plimsolls but ended up taking them off as I kept slipping on my dress even with the train bustled up! One last surprise for OH was the band getting him up to sing Dignity as it’s his karaoke favourite.
Before we know it, the final two songs of the night are on… Loch Lomond followed by Auld Lang Syne. All our guests are in a circle around us and it’s just amazing! I headed upstairs to get out of my dress and into my pjs before returning to the hotel bar for a few more drinks with my tiara intact on my head.
Sadly, someone fed OH a dirty pint which meant he had to be taken to bed at midnight where he passed out but I stayed until the bar shut at 2am!
It was such a fabulous day, everyone enjoyed it. I’m just sad now that it’s over so quickly, I want to redo it at half speed please!!!!
