The Wedding of the Year!

I’ve been off on my travels again, starting with the Wedding of the Year, a week ago last Saturday! !  As Bee herself put it, the geriatric wedding of the year! Huh!  Bee’s not yet 60 and Donaidh, Gaelic spelling of Donnie, has a couple of years till he collects his pension!

It was a beautiful wedding- in Dunkeld cathedral,  Bee wore a beautiful ivory coloured dress with a long train,  pearl buttons and flowers down the back, and a chiffony over-blouse in – well I don’t know what colour you’d call it, but you can see it in the photograph and leave me a comment telling me what colour it is, if you like!   Anyway, she looked great and very very happy!   Her tall willowy, long legged daughter was a bridesmaid, one of four, and they were followed down the aisle by four little flower girls in matching summer frocks, and two young kilted pageboys!

Donaidh, resplendent in tartan trews and black highland dress jacket, actually looked nervous as he waited for his bride-to-be to join him, but by the time they exchanged vows, his nerves seemed to have gone.  There was real depth of  feeling there as they spoke their vows, gazing into each others’ eyes.  At last Fraser declared them to be man and wife,  and after his blessing, the bride and groom sealed their marriage with a long smoochy kiss at which everyone clapped with delight!   Some of my photos turned out quite blurry so I added filters to improve the look.  Hope you like this one!

Both Bee and Donaidh have sung in Gaelic choirs in the past, and have a big love for the language and culture so included in their wedding service were a blessing, a Bible reading and a song in Gaelic.  The latter was sung in four parts by a quartet, and was a song I could hum along to being one that I sang in the Lothian Celtic Gaelic choir in the 70s – an t-eilean muileach, the Isle of Mull.  More interestingly, a Romanian friend gave a “together” type of poem in her own language, translated verse by verse by her Scottish husband, and Bee’s son and daughter, with two of their friends, played on their fiddles a very poignant little tune written by their mum in memory of their younger brother who died at birth.  It was very beautiful.

Later, as the bride and groom returned from the vestry having signed the necessary legal documents, the waiting piper inflated his bagpipes and began to play, and accompanied by a  drummer,

 

 

 

led the new Mr and Mrs back up the aisle.  The tune was a popular one and related totally to the location - Highland Cathedral.   (Click here to find website then click Play Now)

We all filed out behind them and followed Brenda and Donnie to the bank of the River Tay for photographs.

 

The two enjoyed every moment of the photography session, ribald comments flying back and forward between friends and the couple.  I think it was the happiest wedding I have ever been to. 

So eventually Mr and Mrs McC climbed into the wedding car and headed off to Amulree for their “Hoolie in the Hills,

 

 

with the tin cans tied to the back rattling along the road behind them!

  We all followed along the lovely road to Amulree.  What a beautiful setting – and what a lot of cars!  They were parked everywhere spilling out of the car park and away along the road to Kenmore.

 

It’s quite an isolated hamlet in amongst the Perthshire hills, but it was here the couple had decided to hold their reception.  

 I wish I could remember what quip Donaidh came out with as he brought his new wife through the doorway!   By the look of things it was aimed at Bee!

After a lovely meal there were the speeches – and as  Donaidh is a great speechmaker, raconteur and comedian, we were soon all laughing at the stories he told about Bee. However, he did add later that he’d married his best friend!  After the best man had made almost as amusing a speech about Donaidh, Bee took her turn.  She wasn’t going to let the guys away with all their nonsense, she said.  Her words were in a song, she told us, and  to the tune of " O Danny boy”, she gave us a very funny” O Donaidh boy”, in which she mentioned all his bad habits – the snoring, his love of football, and sport on TV, how he had turned her hair grey, etc. but at the end, “I’ll live with that, fur Donaidh boy, I love – ye - so!”  Awwwwwwww!

and this was Donaidh’s reaction!  Up on his feet as quick as wink, arms about his wife, and a long smooch!

Again, awwwwwww! 

 

Well, the tables were cleared and the dancing began!  Of course the bride and groom took the floor for the first waltz, soon followed by other guests. 

The band was terrific – just a group of youngsters on fiddles and guitars – but what a sound!  They played for the first half of the night for various Scottish dances like  The Gay Gordons" (Happy Highlanders!) and Strip the Willow, or more likely the version called Drops of Brandy – usually a bit of a riotous affair -  as well as the Military two Step, Barn Dances  and waltzes.  It was a lot of fun.

Later there was a disco and lots of 60s and 70’s music. which everyone danced to as well.

Normally the bride and groom leave their reception early to head for their honeymoon, but Bee and Donaidh weren’t going away anywhere,  so eventually guests began to leave, and I went home with Bee’s Canadian cousins.  She was planning on throwing her wedding bouquet just after we left so I didn’t see which of the youngsters caught it.  I rather hoped Cally, the young lass I sat opposite at the meal, would be the one!  She and her fiance will be getting married this autumn.

Well, I am sure it was a night to remember for a while in Amulree – the night of Brenda’s and Donald’s wedding.  Sounds like there should be a song there somewhere!  And if you don’t already know the two dances I mentioned above then watch them by clicking their names and finding them on U tube.  Next Scottish wedding you go to you could be the expert!

Talk again soon.