Kirsty and Glenn
How did you meet?
We met at university, and we worked together.
Describe the marriage proposal.
We decided to get married while standing outside a jeweller’s shop in the high street. We went for a coffee to mull it over and to make sure we weren’t being hasty. Glenn got down on one knee in the coffee shop and asked me properly. I was so embarrassed and said ‘yes’ immediately! We went back to the jeweller’s and ordered a ring. It was Valentine’s Day.
How long did you spend preparing for the day and how was it?
We got married two and a half years after getting engaged. We kept being told that as we were having a millennium wedding, we’d have to book everything early. So we did! No-one had booked a wedding for 1999 when we booked our July 2000 wedding at our local parish church. The minister thought we were mad!
Glenn didn’t get all that involved in the preparations. Every now and then he got annoyed, saying that he wasn’t being included in the decisions, but then when I asked him his opinion about certain things he’d say ‘oh I don’t know, you decide’! The one thing that we did not agree on was that Glenn was insistent that we have a disco for the reception, but with my family it is traditional to have a band, and they were horrified at the idea of a disco. So I had to promise to find a band that played modern music, but right up to a few weeks before he was still moaning about there being no disco! In the end the band we chose played everything from Ceilidh to pop and there were people up dancing to every song! The few days before were completely mad for me, there were so many little things that I wanted to do to make it special and unique, like putting disposable cameras on the tables, and I wanted helium balloons at the reception to tie to all the children’s’ chairs. I was left to do them all myself and had a really stressful few days. But then on the morning of the wedding I had everything done and I was so relaxed it was unbelievable.
What type of wedding ceremony did you have and where?
The wedding was held in the local parish church, where I was brought up. It’s a very small Scottish village and lots of the local people turned up to watch! It was weird being the centre of attention! The ceremony was traditional Church of Scotland, which was lovely. The vows are lovely. During the ceremony, one of the flower girls decided she’d rather sit with her mum (she was three years old). So she went and sat down and to keep her quiet her mum gave a Jelly Tot. She dropped it and it plonked into the umbrella stand at the end of the pew. She said very loudly (at a particularly quiet part of the ceremony) ‘Oh dear’! It was very funny!
Where did you hold your reception and what was it like?
The reception was in the Savoy Park Hotel in the town of Ayr. It is a very Scottish hotel with tartan everywhere, which was good as half the guests were English! The staff were brilliant and very accommodating with all my little requests. We turned up an hour late as everyone got lost going to the park where the photos were being taken, and they didn’t rush us, in fact they made sure we were relaxed and happy. We started the meal nearly two hours late and the food was wonderful, there is no way you could have known that it must have been ready for ages!
The speeches went well, everyone laughed at the jokes and the only annoying thing was that my dad got my name wrong – yes that’s right, my dad got my name wrong, he used my sister’s name when welcoming everyone to ‘the wedding of his daughter Karen to Glenn’ instead of his daughter Kirsty. I couldn’t believe it, but everyone pretended it was a joke! We did a Pride of Erin waltz as our first dance. It is a traditional Scottish dance and we taught ourselves from a book. Neither of us can do a traditional waltz so we though something totally different would be better than the usual shuffle! We were quite nervous as it is quite complicated but it went really well, and it looked fab – or so everyone told us. Everyone danced all night long and Glenn and I stayed until the very end – which was 2am! Both sets of my grandparents, the bridesmaids and the ushers were all still there! It was quite nice to be there and to wind down with people close to us. They were all drunk of course but it was still nice!
Thinking back to the ‘big day’ what things did you especially enjoy?
My dad decided to ‘surprise us’ with an old Model T Ford car. It was open top and could only do 15 miles per hour. It was a lovely day but it was still quite windy up there and we were getting blown around like mad. It was also 10 miles to the reception so it took far too long – and then it broke down half way there and we had to hitch a lift with one of the guests that were following us. We should just have gone in the Rolls Royce with the Bridesmaids!
What advice would you give to couples currently planning their wedding?
For the Bride – if there is any chance that it is going to be very hot, don’t wear hold up stockings – they tend not to stick to perspiring legs and there is nothing worse than stockings round your ankles!! Sorry for being so graphic, but it is an important detail! For both – you can never do too much planning beforehand, make sure everything is prepared and then leave yourself to relax and enjoy the day.
