Travelling all the way from Denver, Colorado, Jana and Jason chose the extraordinary setting of Glencoe for their intimate humanist ceremony surrounded by their favourite people and the mist-covered mountains.
We’d visited before and it’s just a wonderful place; we felt, and feel, so at home in Scotland.
We also got married as established well-into-our-30s-year olds and wanted to take the opportunity to do something different and special to us. We are completely in love with Scotland’s dramatic scenery. It’s moody and brooding and mysterious and we really wanted some incredible photos and videos of us in a location we love so deeply.
Planning from afar, dealing with a third of a day’s worth of time zones, and trying to get all of this done in an insane wedding year was a challenge. But with all of the vendors we booked, we ended up being in an amazing place and everything was exactly what we wanted and handled so professionally and wonderfully.
We were just in awe at every turn at how well things came out. Our hotel, The Kingshouse Hotel in Glencoe, was fabulous, and the manager Lindsay helped us through every bit of our day. The bartenders were perfect, our onsite wedding coordinator (Stephen) was also amazing.
Cinemate, our videographer, put together the cinematic masterpiece we hoped we’d get, and working with them and Carole Ann from Harper Scott Photography meant we had this dream team that had worked together before who just knew how to do the best things and get the best shots with ease.
Our celebrant, Claire Digance, was perfect. We knew from our first call that her good humour, attitude, zest, vigour, and passion for helping create memories meant she was the absolute right person for us. The ceremony was INCREDIBLE, jokes, passion, love – it was everything we dreamed of and more.
Our bagpiper, Grant of Munro Bagpiper, was a hoot, sneaking in some silly songs like the Top Gun and Jurassic Park theme songs, and was just wonderful to have with us for a bit of the day.
Our flowers from A Curious Arrangement – we’re still telling friends how blown away we were by how perfect all our flowers were- and our cake filled our bellies for multiple days in Scotland, and the bridal party’s makeup was genuinely fabulous.
The team really felt like a group of friends that took us in were here to support us and make sure we had the best day possible. They’d all worked together in the past and it really showed. It was this one big well-oiled machine all making sure our day was as perfect as we wanted. They were flexible, easy to work with, and truly cared about helping our vision for our day come to life.
Planning was hard! We worked with Cat Duthie of Fin Flukra, who worked her tail off with us. Every time we talked to Cat she was always excited and positive and happy and that really helped set us at ease even if it had been a week since we chatted.
Things weren’t planned out and set up and solidified weeks and weeks and weeks in advance; we were choosing our cake flavours two weeks before we left for Scotland. It was kind of a wild ride but Cat guided us through everything, and we couldn’t be more grateful.
We also had significant challenges with filing appropriate wedding paperwork and absolutely had to spend a few hundred USD on overnighting last minute paperwork to registrars offices and the like, but it all turned out fine, and everyone we worked with was just a delight.
It’s not easy to plan a destination wedding when it’s not single-site like an all-inclusive resort or something similar, but with our vendors, we were in fabulous hands.
We still talk about it all, honestly. From the flowers, to the scenery, to the food at the hotel, to how funny and touching the ceremony was, to just being able to be together for a wonderful time in a wonderful place.
It’s wild to look at the mountains of Glencoe and to think about what those hills have seen over the years, what events the mountains have safeguarded, and how my wedding got to be one of those things. We got to have OUR WEDDING in a place like that. It’s the stuff of dreams.
Go to Scotland!! We initially went in 2019 pre-pandemic and started with the idea of doing a week in Ireland and a week in Scotland. But we quickly realised that a week in each country simply wasn’t going to be enough time to do both places, so we decided on travelling to what was (to most Americans) the road less travelled. And it has made all the difference.
Edinburgh is a favourite city; art, restaurants, ghost tours, museums, pubs, pubs, and more pubs, castles, shopping, history. It’s an amazing place. We’ve done a bit of the countryside and found the Highlands to be among the most fabulous places we’ve ever been on the planet. Jason’s from the state of Maine in the United States, and as such has an affinity for the Appalachian Mountains. Turns out the Appalachians and the Scottish Highlands are the same mountain chain, separated by just a wee pond. The Appalachian Mountains are older than the Atlantic Ocean! And perhaps that special mountain bond helped create some of the feelings of home. So, yes, do the Highlands.
Play golf! Visit cities! Stop by random pubs. VISIT THE ISLE OF SKYE! (We honeymooned for a week on Skye (our second visit) and we STILL don’t feel like we’ve been able to see everything).
Drive, eat, embrace the rain, ride the wind, let yourself go with the flow and just be in Scotland. You’re never going to go wrong if you just visit as many places as you can, talk to people, roam because you have the right to, and be open to every experience you find.
GET A PLANNER if you’re getting married in Scotland. Learn to love whisky. If not, learn to love gin. DO visit the coos, DON’T forget to book restaurants ahead of time on Skye.
Do visit castles and gardens, don’t forget your raincoat. Do buy something made from real wool. Don’t worry if you miss a turn in a roundabout – Scottish drivers are incredibly polite as compared to American ones, and they’ll let you do a lap or two. Your turn will come around again in just a wee moment.
Force yourself to be in the moment as much as possible because you’re going to have a lot of moments you’ll want to be inside of while you’re in Scotland. Embrace your time, embrace each other, and put some heart and soul into the country because it’ll certainly give you as much heart and soul as you can handle in return.
Getting married in Scotland was incredible, we’re glad we did it, we highly recommend it, and our best advice is to use all the same vendors we did. It’s just a place of magic and wonder and it’s one of our favourite places on earth.
Suppliers:
Venue: Kingshouse Hotel, Glencoe
Photographer: Harper Scott Photography
Videographer: Cinemate Films
Planner: Fin Flukra
Celebrant: Claire Digance, Humanist Society Scotland
Florist: Curious Arrangement
Hair & Makeup: Bonnie’s Wonderland
Cake: Cakes by Sandra
