Congratulations Graeme and Rose!
Today was the big day – the day that motivated the entire trip to the UK for us. Today was Graeme and Rose’s wedding. In a word, it was fantastic…
Last night we were out late at dinner with Graeme and several of his friends. Rose and her friends had a quiet evening at their house. Since we were up late, we slept in, had a good breakfast, and went out to the Dalhousie Castle at about 2:30pm. It was the wettest day of our trip, so I didn’t get any photos of the castle as we were all dressed up, and didn’t want to get soaked just for a chance to get the camera wet – it was raining pretty hard. You can check out their web site for some photos.
We were welcomed in by a piper and had brief chance for a couple photos before the wedding started promptly at 3:00.
It was a lovely ceremony that was short, sweet, and not that much different than an American wedding. The biggest difference really was that they signed the formal paperwork at the front of the chapel before being introduced as Mr. & Mrs. Malcolm. The photo above was as they walked out after the ceremony.
They had hired an antique Rolls Royce for Rose and the bridesmaids to travel from their house to the castle. After the ceremony, Graeme and Rose went for a short drive – we figured this would be their only quiet moment together until very late into the evening. The castle has a Falconry, which they hire out for displays, and for some weddings, the birds can even deliver the rings. Graeme and Rose arranged for us to have a falconry display while they went for their ride. It was quite a sight to see owls in flight through the same chapel where they had just been wed. The best part was that both Dan and I had a chance to fly owls during the display. The birds were very tame and what surprised us both was that they were extremely light for their size. Sure, it makes sense when you write it down, but when they’re flying at you with wings spread, they look like they will be a bit more substantial than they actually are.
As is likely the tradition, the piper who welcomed us to the castle also piped the bride into the chapel, piped the married couple out, and then piped the attendees to the dining room. He was quite good and it seemed fitting to follow the piper while wearing a kilt!
After everyone was seated in the dining room, it is the tradition for all of the speeches to take place prior to the meal. We heard from the father of the bride – who only spoke for 15 minutes even though he joked he had prepared 33 pages. He told some amusing tales about Rose growing up. It was particularly fun because we were sharing a table with one of Rose’s childhood friends who had come the farthest for the wedding – she lives in Brisbane, Australia. Then Graeme toasted the bridesmaids with the traditional introduction “On behalf of my wife an I…” which resulted in quite a cheer! We were extremely surprised and flattered that during his speech he spoke about those guests who had traveled a long distance to share their day with them. Then he introduced Mary and I and told the crowd it was our anniversary. It was very sweet, and we were even more surprised when he paused, and walked over with a card and a bottle of champagne! Finally, the best man, Charles, gave his speech which had good tales of his days meeting and working with Graeme. Here is another kilt photo of Dan and I with Charles.
After all of the speeches we had a lovely meal of fried brie, stuffed chicken breast, and sticky toffee pudding. We shared our table with Dan, Rose’s brother Steve, Jodi (Rose’s friend from Australia) and the partners of the two bridesmaids and Karen, the wife of the best man. After the meal Graeme and Rose cut their cake – which was chocolate inside…
Following dinner, the party got started. The Scottish tradition is to have a Ceildh dance. This involves a traditional ceildh band, and traditional dances. The band leader (who happened to be their drummer) introduced the dances, taught us all the steps, and then they played the songs. Dan and I found it surprisingly like a Wisconsin polka band. We also heard some folks from England compare it to a tradition in England, and even Jodi said it was similar to a dance they have in Australia. They was much spinning, twirling, and hopping about. And it was very clear that the Scottish folks in attendance must do this quite a bit as they all seemed very good at it! Here are some photos of the band and the dancing:
Graeme and Rose have a small stuffed bear called Beanie who we met while they were in Seattle a few months ago. Beanie travels with them and they enjoy getting photos of him in all of the exotic places they’ve traveled to. Thus it was no surprise that not only was Beanie in attendance at the wedding, but that he was in full Highland dress like the other Scottish men.
The dance had an intermission about two hours into the evening where there was more food, and to my delight – haggis yet again. This time there was another Scottish dish called Stovies They were both fantastic, and as Graeme had explained, they did well to help offset the drinks we had been having. This was also the time when the cake was served, and it tasted as good as it looked.
To start the second half of the dancing, Graeme surprised the guests with a tradition of his own – it seems that at the weddings he’s been to in the past, he has done some entertaining of his own by playing his guitar and singing a few tunes. It was quite a treat that the drummer in the band allowed me to use his kit to sit in with Graeme on guitar and vocals and his friend George on bass. We played two tunes (Eric Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight”, and the Counting Crows “Mr. Jones”). After the “gig”, Graeme and I decided we should officially start an intercontinental cover-band that has gigs whenever we’re together.
It was a fantastic day, and a great way to cap off our time in Scotland. We didn’t see quite as much as we had thought, but had a wonderful time with good friends, and wouldn’t change a thing about the visit. Tomorrow it’s on to London.
