Kindly friends and relatives have given us their secondhand Sat navs to use, in an effort to bring us in to the 20th Century of 'driving world', but they have been quickly shelved, after the monotonous voice that keeps saying, " Recalculating...recalcuating", gets too much to bear. I know, you should pay for a yearly upgrade, but let's face it folks, that aint going to happen, so as I drive in to the great unknown , with Robin as my co-pilot, we take the risk of bursting the marital bliss bubble with both hands and hope for the best.
Katrina and Sandy's wedding was Robin's 170th since his story of being a wedding celebrant began...you know, he really should write a blog! He reminded me of this fact, the day after as we were heading off to find Haddo House and it took me back to the very first wedding that he did.....
Stewart worked as a postie with Robin and decided to chuck it in to go and do Art History in Aberdeen. There he met the delightful Anny, from Luxemburg, and very soon he had dragged her back to Macduff ,to live in his 'man cave'.
In 2003 Robin had been asked to do a blessing of a couple who were friends of theirs and it was at this occasion that Stewart and Anny hatched a plan, asking him if he would get his licence thing going and marry them! To cut a long story short, he managed to fnd enough people who believed in his capabilties as a religious celebrant, form a small fellowship, write up a constitution and apply for a licence from Edinburgh. I can quite honestly say the only time I have seen him cry is when he recieved a letter from Edinburgh to say that his application had been refused! On calling the office, it turned out that there was a miswording in his application that made him sound like a cult leader and on changing it the first wedding could go ahead!
Because Anny's family were all coming from abroad they had planned things very meticulously. Everyone would stay the night before the wedding in a National Heritage house near Stirling and after dinner Stewart and Anny would reveal to them all where the wedding was to take place. This was to be in Castle Campbell a National Trust property that they had managed to get permission to use for a short while (very relevant...take note!!) for the service.
Robin and I had kindly been put up in a lovely hotel in Stirling where the wedding meal was to be held and were really looking forward to the weekend, pretty nervous too as it was Robin's first time as a celebrant and I had been asked to sing ( No, I don't take bookings!)
We drove up to the House on the morning of the wedding and found all the guests in various states of dress or undress after a a very heavy night of 'celebrating'. I was a nominated driver as our car had 8 seats at the time. Robin was to go with Stewart, wanting to get to the castle in plenty of time to set up, so I was taking the mother of the groom, his granny, his sister and friends.
As the boys disappeared in Stewart's car, I got all my passengers on board and turned to ask who had the directions, as I knew that part of the revealing of wedding destination included a set of directions for each guest. Robin had taken ours with him.
There was a brief silence and a few laughs as they all admitted having lost the important piece of paper , reassuring me that the castle was really easy to find, I mean how hard can it be to loose a whole castle?
Really easy is the short answer to that! We ended up an hour late after almost going to the Wallace monument and having to stop at least two locals for directions. Thankfully we weren't the only ones, Robin and Stewart had got lost too as well as most of the other guests and despite Anny having to hide behind a car in the carpark for quite a while, we all managed to find our way there.
Everything went ahead, just as planned, just a little later.......a wonderful day for all.
Matt and Gilly had settled on Haddo house for their nuptials. It is a National Trust stately home near Methlick...Methlick, isn't that mentioned in a Proclaimers song? Apart from singing about it, I have never even been close, so we set off with me driving and Robin following google maps, shouting, " Turn left here" or "It's definitely straight along here" while I see the sign for Haddo house flash before my eyes, pointing in the other direction!
We did eventually make it ,on relatively good terms, and proceeded along the drive at 15mph as per the speed limit. We were bombarded with signs along the way, warning us of our speed and the death toll to red squirrels!
By the 6th sign I was starting to wonder if this wasn't a bit biased, I mean what about the grey squirrels, are they just fast of foot or harder to hit? What about other wildlife?....
As we approached the house it was obvious that Sunday was a busy day for tourists and we felt mildly out of place in our wedding gear walking through the car park. I had decided to wear a dress I had got last week from the clearance section of Next that looked quite fetching with my lacy black heels. I felt black was in order after the abysmal marking of the UK's entry in Eurovsion the night before...poor old Electro Velvet....I thought it was a great song!
I wore my flatties, as I was driving, and popped my heels in my one size fits all bag. I decided to keep them on as we walked through the grounds, hoping for an opportunistic moment to swap from comfort to glamour. Then we hit chuckies ( small stones for those of you not from the North East) and the flats stayed on. Then we entered the house and there was a sign up informing us that if you wanted to wear heels you needed to wear specially supplied heel guards. Now, I don't know if you've seen these before but they look like you've got small spaceships on the bottom of your shoes.
I decided against the aforementioned fashion statement and the flats stayed on for the whole day!
We were guided by men in kilts to the library where the action would happen and as I've just downloaded a new collage app, I thought I'd show you a few views of how great it all looked.
Matt and Gilly had a very definite idea of how they wanted the day to go and everything was planned to perfection. There were instructions for a 'Haggis hunt' for the children to read while the ceremony went along.
I was sitting at the back with a very tempting row of books to my right that I was deperate to pull out and browse. Especially as their friend Alex read 'A red red rose' by Robert Burns, I'm sure I would've been able to read along.
We passed the rings down through the guests with each one being asked to bless them as they came by. How lovely for Matt and Gilly to know that each of these special people in their lives had held their rings and asked blessings over them before placing them on each others' fingers.
We sang a very up beat version of 'Amazing grace' and 'Make me a channel of your piece' and as the couple held hands to partake of a handfasting , they asked each person in the room to hold the hand of the person next to them as a symbol of their joining together. ( Slightly awkward as I was a wedding crasher..but hey, you have to go with the flow!)
The new Mr and Mrs Rinaldi kissed and walked down the aisle to the cheers of their loved ones and a trumpeter playing the wedding march.
We followed outside to the spectacular front of the house where champagne was on constant refills and various Scottish canapes on offer.
Matt had been practicing uncorking a champagne bottle by slicing the top with a sword. Apparently he managed first time with all his attempts at home, but after the 4th or was it 5th attempt, he managed and even took a swig out of the broken bottle!
Not happy with this amazing feat, the owls appeared! The folks from the falconary centre had brought along two of their happiest owls, who were very calm and transferred from trainer to Bride and Groom with only a small amount of wing flapping. We were right up the back, so I couldn't snap this amazing sight, but I did manage to get the grand fountain in the middle of the grounds that they filled with rubber ducks, so the kids could fish them out...good enough?
The photographer was catching all the family groups, so we decided to head inside the house and relax while listening to Hazel the pianist on her keyboard . Gradually everyone came in to escape the chill and enjoy sitting in the splendid sitting room and all that the house has to offer
Matt's Mum, Jacquie, came over to chat and told us that the day had been one of bizarre coincidences.
Introducing Matt's Godfather to Gilly's Godmother for the first time, they realised that their gardens back on to each other in the same town! She also told us of the first time that Matt went to visit Gilly's parents in London. He had never been there before, but his parents had before they had children. The hairs stood up on the back of his neck as he approached their house and he called his Mum to tell her. On describing the road, she was able to tell him that Gilly's parents lived opposite the place where she and Matt's Dad, Sean, had first met!!
We followed the piper down to the hall where everything was set up beautifully for the meal. Matt's Aunt, Kate, had made the cake(s) and they looked beautiful with all the flowers placed around.
We had a fabulous meal of Cullen Skink tartlets and chicken in a pink peppercorn and champagne sauce, followed by Cranachen shots and a delicious cheese board. Wine, white or red was continually refilled and so thankfully was the water and the delicious elderflower cordial that kept me hydrated.
Matt and Gilly had taken instamatic pictures of themselves with a chalk board bearing the name of each guest for the place names. They propped these up with clothes pegs, such a great way to mark each place..
The speeches were after the meal, which is unusual these days, but worked really well. Matt's friends had a sweepstake on how long the best man, Gwyn's speech would take and despite the story of Matt having stripped down to a leopardskin thong from George, when he was 15, for a laugh in the boy's changing rooms, it only took 12 mins 45 secs, pefectly guessed by Jacquie!
Despite the lack of alcohol I was pretty shattered and as Robin had a funeral to conduct the next day we decide to head for home before the ceilidh could start. We said our farewells to Matt and Gilly and they promised to catch up when they got back for honeymoon.
We trundled back up the avenue to more warnings of squirrel danger, hoping that the total hadn't increased since we had driven down earlier. To our relief all was good in squirrel world.
Robin has another wedding to do in Haddo house this summer, so we are now fantastically equipped to lead the way and show the guests how to get there.
Thanks to Matt and Gilly for allowing us to join in their day and to become much better aquainted with places like 'Gight' and 'Cowbog' and of course the beauty of Haddo house. I hope that their Satnav skills as husband and wife develop continually as they start this wonderful stage of their journey together.
This is really a wonderful post.
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