The Scottish weather has been even worse that normal, but on Saturday at the Dalmahoy Hotel, the sun was shining as Nikki walked down the aisle. This was one of the quicker planned weddings I'd done, as the couple had had to change their venue/date fairly late on and were struggling to find a celebrant. Thankfully a couple who had booked with me a year ago decided to put their wedding back a year and so I was able to step in and help Nikki and Russell.
I would usually meet a couple 2-3 months before their ceremony to plan all the details and decide on things like music, symbolic gestures, readings, vows and well wishings. But this time we met only a month before. However, they had worked hard and given a lot of thought to what they wanted their ceremony to be like which made my job so much easier. And like all the Humanist weddings I conduct, we discussed the small touches that would make it all the more personal to them. Nikki's teenage son was going to be an Usher and has also agreed to do a reading on the day.
It all came together great, and the vows they had written to each other were fantastic - a really good mix of serious and lighthearted - whether it was a little joke about watching each other's dodgy TV favourites, or which of them was the funnier one, by the time they had finished there were few guests who didn't have a tear in their eye.
At the end, they joined hands in a traditional Scottish handfasting, binding their hands together in their marriage, and then to show that twist of tradition and modern, they then walked down the aisle to "Do it again" by the Chemical Brothers!
A great fun ceremony and thank you for letting me be a part of it!
