So what’s stopping you eloping to Scotland for an intimate, coastal ceremony, enjoying the romantic, historic scenery so abundant in Scotland? Well, I guess there could be a couple of reasons…:

• you don’t like scenery

• you have no sense of adventure

• you clicked this link by accident and you’re not planning to get married.

  All of which are valid reasons ;-)

If the thought of doing your wedding a little differently does float your boat however, let me tell you a little story:

I arrived in Aberdeen for Amber & Tony’s wedding having never met either of them. They had travelled here with only 4 of their nearest and dearest, for their adventure wedding en route to a city-hopping tour of Europe. As you can imagine, planning a wedding from overseas is probably no-ones idea of fun, so Amber had enlisted the services of wedding-planner extraordinaire Sara Jane, who gave them all the information and contacts that they needed to make sure that their day ran very smoothly, and very happily. And I’m very pleased to say that, as I set about working, we all had a relaxed time joking, and enjoying the bridal party’s reminiscences. It was pretty clear to me at that point that, even if the impending gloomy weather tore into us at the beautiful cliff-edge ceremony location, we were still going to have a great time!

Talking of the ceremony location…wow. A 13 Century castle ruin, still standing proud atop a rugged cliff top and looking out into the North Sea. Situated in Stonehaven, just south of Aberdeen, Dunnottar Castle makes for a totally unique and rustic ceremony location, giving a sense of Scottish history and displaying breathtaking views all around. In a stroke of luck the rain clouds parted just in time for our ceremony and the beautiful (and somewhat emotional!) wedding passed with exceptionally fine weather!

The cliffs stand maybe 150ft above a lovely pebble beach with a whole heap of steps heading down to it, and then back up to the castle walls. Some couples might be slightly nervous about the walk down, adorned in their wedding finery. See when the bride’s wedding shoes are her former US army boots? Not only do you know that’s not going to be a problem; you know it’s going to be damn good fun! :-D

So after a little time exploring Dunnottar and it’s surroundings (and extremely grassy grass! ;-) ) we headed back to the beautiful Ardoe House Hotel where I joined the bridal party for a lovely quiet meal and some good banter. We even talked trans-Atlantic politics and all stayed friends! ;-D I can honestly say that you were one of the nicest and most welcoming wedding parties I’ve worked with, so thank you guys!

So there you have it: Destination elopements - they ARE all they’re cracked up to be! :-)

And one final thing that stuck in my head about this awesome wedding: the choice of music that Amber & Tony made for Amber to be piped toward the ceremony was Zombie by the Cranberries. Yes, Zombie on the bagpipes. Sublime.

See their wedding film here!