Their story…
Peggy and Dave both work in technology in the US, which is actually how they met 8 years ago. They love travel and exploration, trying new kinds of food, cooking, scuba diving, long hikes with their gorgeous rescue dog and spending time with friends and family. Peggy has Scottish family and spent her childhood travelling between Scotland and the US but Dave’s first trip to Scotland was extra special- he proposed!
What were you looking for when you started planning your wedding?
When we started planning, it was really important to both of us to have a wedding with a few days of events rather than just one evening. We really wanted to spend lots of quality time with everyone and for our wedding to be an experience for all of our guests. We love travel, and so do many of our family and friends, so we thought a destination wedding would be a great way to accomplish all of this. This made Scotland a really easy choice for us! The number and availability of castles made it easy for us to select one where all guests could stay onsite, and the affordability of Scottish vs American weddings meant we could throw a 3-day party that remained within our budget. Plus, who would say no to getting married in a castle?
Throughout our planning process, we focused really hard on making it a positive experience for our guests who were traveling around the world to see us get married, and it really paid off. Our icebreaker and welcome activities were worth every penny. Since most of our guests flew from the US on Friday night and arrived the Saturday before our wedding, we hosted a casual welcome reception at the Kimpton Charlotte Square in Edinburgh on Saturday night. It was a great way for everyone to get to know each other.
Building off that, we had the Highland Games on the back lawn of the castle once everyone arrived on Sunday. It was such a great way for everyone to get to know each other and the whole crew felt like a family by the end. Also, we highly recommend considering a Sunday or Monday wedding if your guests are coming from the US! Folks were able to take just one week off of work, come to our wedding, and then have many more days to explore Scotland.
Tell us about your wedding dream team…
Our vendors absolutely made our wedding. We have to start with our fearless planner, Lisa Bauer of Tartan Weddings. Lisa is a force of nature, a kind shoulder in times of anxiety, and an expert on all things Scottish weddings. She helped us find all of our other incredible vendors, who were amazing. From the backyard Highland Games thanks to GladRags Events, to the rehearsal night hog roast thanks to Oink!, to the vendors who helped us capture the day (Chris Henderson Photography, Jst Married Wedding Films, and Anne Gavin at The Scotland Diaries social media coordination), every single vendor we worked with was exceptional. I could write paragraphs about each of them individually.
I (Peggy) am a control freak and a freelance wedding planner myself, and I still could not have done any of this without Lisa. She was great at helping us find and secure vendors, coordinate payments between countries, and executing our vision when it came to the actual wedding.
Generally speaking, I found our vendors receptive and familiar with working with foreign couples. Our biggest challenges were the time difference and not being able to see things in person, but all of our vendors were open to zoom calls and space tours. We were also extremely fortunate to travel to Scotland to tour castles and then a second brief time to meet vendors in person. If it is at all within budget to make it over at least once, this alleviated a lot of my concerns and allowed us to do a lot of in person planning. The paperwork was also a challenge – the marriage visa process is extensive and came with many hiccups for us. If I could do it all over, we probably would have gotten legally married in the US before we celebrated in Scotland.
What were your favourite moments on the day?
Everyone says their wedding is the best day of their lives, but honestly, our wedding “weekend” was phenomenal start to finish. Our vendors worked so hard and so seamlessly together that there were practically no hiccups, and those that did occur were quickly dealt with. We both agree about our favorite memory – it was Sunday night after the Highland Games (our icebreaker activity) watching friends and family all sit around a roaring fire together and eat pulled pork and just enjoy each others’ company. It made the Monday of our wedding feel like a family event, instead of a bunch of strangers meeting for the first time.
There are so many highlights, but our guests to this day still talk about Claire, our hilarious humanist celebrant, who delivered a ceremony that was both funny and sincere and kept things on the rails even when the room got too hot and one of our groomsmen almost passed out!
Oh, and The Oysterman. If he ever decides to create a US branch, he has practically a cult following among our guests.
Your wedding sounds amazing and also exhausting!
We chose not to take an immediate honeymoon and instead do a “mini moon” around Scotland. We were so exhausted that we wouldn’t have been able to enjoy much of anything else!
We spent a few days after the wedding in Glencoe and Skye, which was fun because we got to catch up with guests who were also travelling around. We did schedule a post-wedding photo shoot with Jst Married Films and Neil Thomas Douglas, and it was one of the best decisions we made. Not only did we get incredible photos in the majestic highlands (and had an excuse to wear our wedding attire again), but it allowed us to focus on our guests and having fun the day of our wedding instead of taking a million photos.
Venue | Melville House
Melville Castle Photographer | Chris Henderson Photography & Barry Robb Photography
Glencoe Photographer | Neil Thomas Douglas Photography
Video | Jst Married Wedding Films
Celebrant | Claire the Humanist
Planner | Lisa Bauer, Tartan Weddings
Social Media Co-ordinator | The Scotland Diaries
Florist | Stockbridge Flower Company
Pre-wedding Highland Games | Glad Rags Events
Music | WooHoo Wedding Band & The Pickled Piper
Kilt Rental | McCalls
Audio Guest Book | Calleo UK
Food | Oink! Hog Roast & Oysterman Events
