* Sarah, Program Development Manager & Steven, Attorney * Photographer: Lauren McGlynn (APW Sponsor) * Soundtrack for reading: “Somewhere Over the Rainbow / What a Wonderful World” by Israel Kamakawiwoʻole *
The Info—Photography: Lauren McGlynn (APW Sponsor) / Secondary Photography: Kristen from What Kristen Saw / Venue: Howie’s Waterloo Place / Celebrant: Kate Buchanan, Humanist Society of Scotland / Dress: Oxfam / Suit: Already owned (new tie and shoes though, hurrah!) /Flowers: The White Petal Company / Cupcake Cake: Cuckoo’s Bakery (Sarah’s mum made the amazing top layer of the cake though!)
Other cool stuff we should know about: We rented the most amazing place to stay in over the weekend: Edinburgh’s Old Observatory House, set on a hill above the city. The wedding itself took place in a restaurant at the bottom of the hill, which we loved as eating out together is one of our ‘things’ and it felt like the wedding was just one big meal out with friends and family. Also, we get to go back any time and have a meal right on the spot where we got married—brilliant!
Our wedding was a mixture of hand-made, already-made and recycled. Sarah’s wedding dress was from Oxfam, the same charity we registered with for gifts (for chickens! and water purifiers! and schoolbooks!) which was a happy coincidence. We made paper bouquets for the bridesmaids, and Sarah’s mum and sister scoured charity shops for weeks prior to the wedding to source a collection of vintage-y vases, sugar bowls, etc. to hold simple white flowers on the tables. We kept a small china gravy boat from that lot which we joke is our wedding china!
We tried to honor our different backgrounds as well as who we are together, and to that end we had a Celtic handfasting and signed a ketubah. Our first dance was a Scottish ceilidh dance (Strip the Willow) which involved all our guests (to their surprise), and the wedding ended with everyone in a circle surrounding us singing (unplanned!) first ‘New York, New York’, followed by ‘Auld Lang Syne’… that memory is amazing.
Oh, and even though there was a delayed start (due to an ultra-conservative rally outside our wedding venue, along with yelling anti-fascist protesters and hordes of police!), our guests were fab and simply sipped champagne while they waited, and then cheered when Sarah finally got to walk down the aisle!
Favorite thing about the wedding: This surprised us as we are both fairly private people, but the ceremony. We wrote every word, including our vows which we heard each other say for the first time that day. Our celebrant was amazing, and the whole ceremony just felt so honest, relaxed and intimate (everyone else seemed to fade away—which we’d read can happen, but didn’t really believe!).
But while that was our favourite part, our favourite thing about the wedding was the fact that even though most of our friends and family had never met they all threw themselves into having a great time together. Being from two different countries it can sometimes feel like our worlds are a little separate, but seeing all our people come together made us feel like we had united not only our own lives but a community.
One sentence sum up of the wedding vibe: A relaxed, laughter-filled, emotional day with a Scottish/American/Steve-and-Sarah theme, pretty things and good food.
This post includes Sponsors, who are a key part of supporting APW. For more information, see our Directory page for Lauren McGlynn Photography.
I love it! Congratulations. :)
January 19, 2012 9:49 am
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So so so beautiful! Lauren, you make me want to move to Scotland. :)
January 19, 2012 9:59 am
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Oh Edinburgh, the only other place I’d considered getting married. Wonderful location!!!
January 19, 2012 10:11 am
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Amazing photos, Lauren. You killed it.
January 19, 2012 10:17 am
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Love the photos with the police!
January 19, 2012 10:42 am
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THANK YOU to Lauren and Kristen for taking our beautiful pictures! Can’t recommend you enough! Everyone – they were so awesome with our delay and stayed later than planned just to make sure they got pictures of our first dance – lovely, generous and talented ladies! Quick, book them!
January 19, 2012 10:46 am
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Thank YOU Sarah. We loved you and we wouldn’t have missed your first dance for all the fascist riots in the world. Thanks for having us at your most beautiful of weddings and for being so lovely. x
January 19, 2012 11:18 am
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As Lauren says, thank YOU! We had such a great day taking photos for you and Steven. Loved reading this post and finding out how your wonderful day came together. x
January 19, 2012 2:29 pm
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Edinburgh! Woo! How nice to see some Scottish skies :)
Nice one on the Oxfam dress – gorgeous!
January 19, 2012 11:08 am
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I love that you did Strip the Willow– we did too, and that was one of my favorite parts of the reception– it got so many different friends and family members out on the dance floor together.
January 19, 2012 11:08 am
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Totally – I was so impressed with guests who had no idea what was going on just kicking off their shoes and getting involved! Good ole Scottish dancing!
January 19, 2012 1:30 pm
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This feels transcendent. I have such a huge smile on my face.
January 19, 2012 11:11 am
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Both bride and groom look so radiant and happy! And I love how the photographer captured the joy and fun all the guests seem to be having. Beautiful wedding.
January 19, 2012 11:53 am
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i’m registered at thneokt.com, you can choose from a list for what you need to make an online checklist, the checklist will give you a list of things to do and take care of based on how far a way the wedding is. like a countdown it’s got tons of stuff including merchandise for the ceremony, reception, bridesmaid’s gift, bridal shower stuff and sooooo much more. it’s been helping me out a lot. give it a shot, i think you’ll like it best of luck to you and congratulations to you and your luck guy
March 19, 2013 1:59 pm
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This is one of my favorite weddings I’ve ever seen Lauren shoot. I loved reading more about the day. Beautiful, beautiful!!
January 19, 2012 1:23 pm
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Gorgeous! Everyone looks so happy and perfectly at ease, which is wonderful!
January 19, 2012 1:40 pm
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So loved the photos! Photographer did capture the most radiant smiles of the guests!
January 19, 2012 1:50 pm
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I would love to hear more about the handfasting – I’m intrigued by this and google only provides some half-arsed descriptions.
Beautiful wedding, beautiful bride, beautiful groom, beautiful party. I used to live in Edinburgh and Calton Hill was one of my favorite spots.
January 19, 2012 2:01 pm
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Our celebrant actually talked us through it (the first time she showed us how it worked she used Steve’s tie to demonstrate!) but basically we just stood as you can see in one of the pics, while she wrapped our cords around our hands in a certain way, and we repeated the following after her:
These are my hands,
One is free and one is tied,
As I am free to love you,
As I am willingly tied in my love for you.
With these hands I will hold you
In joy and excitement and hope,
I will love and cherish you
Through all the days given us to share
Then we pulled our hands free and the cords formed a knot, which we now keep framed in our house! We chose the material for the cords ourselves (we chose a type that we thought represented each of us) but I couldn’t tell you exactly how she wrapped them I’m afraid, wasn’t paying good enough attention!!
Hope that helps a bit!
January 26, 2012 6:55 am
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That’s beautiful. Thanks for sharing! I’m going to ask our officiant about it.
January 26, 2012 6:57 am
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Um wow! Gorgeous, beautiful, fabulous… My heart sang when I recognized Calton Hill. As a bride getting married in Edinburgh, I’m now kicking myself for not realising that people can hire the observatory, and I kind of want to throw away our existing wedding plans and start over with that in mind… Hehe.
January 19, 2012 2:06 pm
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“Being from two different countries it can sometimes feel like our worlds are a little separate, but seeing all our people come together made us feel like we had united not only our own lives but a community”
LOVE THIS!!! i just got engaged over the holidays, and my fiancé and i are from different countries as well. I AM BEYOND THRILLED FOR OUR SEPERATE WORLDS TO COLLIDE! this post just got me so pumped!! weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
January 19, 2012 2:08 pm
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Congrats!!! And yes – your worlds colliding is a wonderful feeling, enjoy it!!
January 26, 2012 7:00 am
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Awesome!! Love the riot pics, but such beautiful photos all around!
January 19, 2012 6:14 pm
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What a beautiful wedding!
…and has anyone ever told you that you look like Marion Cotillard?
January 19, 2012 10:55 pm
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No they haven’t, but wow thanks, I’ll take it!!!! (I had to google her as I’m rubbish with names but I was seriously flattered haha – I think that’s more a result of Lauren and Kristen’s photo-taking abilities than what I actually look like in real life!!)
January 26, 2012 7:02 am
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photography blogs
January 24, 2012 2:50 pm
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