* Lauren, Wedding Photographer & Aidan, Philosopher * Photographer: Gabriel Hacker * Soundtrack for reading: “Strangers” by The Kinks *
One sentence sum up of the wedding vibe: A Scottish wedding, homegrown with lots of love, and a few confused/amused/eventually very drunk Americans in attendance (They had whiskey for the toasts! What were we to do? We were overwhelmed!)
The Info—Photography: Lauren’s former roommate, Gabriel Hacker / Ceremony Venue: Govan Old Church / Reception Venue: Govan Cross Church / Lauren’s Dress: J.Crew / Aidan’s Suit: Kilt hired from Slaters in Glasgow
Other cool stuff we should know about: This wedding was mostly put together by Aidan’s family (especially his sister) and members of his mum’s church. I was a little freaked out ahead of time because it was nothing like what I imagined my wedding to be. I am not religious, I wanted a simple outdoor quaker style wedding, with all of my friends and family there, and with food and booze and dancing. When we agreed to get married in Scotland I had to do a lot of letting go. I wasn’t keen to get married in a church, but Aidan’s mum (a truly wonderful woman) is a minister and most of his family is religious, so it would have been hard for a lot of people if we hadn’t been married in a church.
Most of my family and close friends couldn’t make it to the wedding, so it was scary to walk down the aisle with one hundred people looking at me, only ten or fifteen of whom I had ever met before, and I was sad that a lot of people who were important to me couldn’t be there. However, I’m really glad that I had a traditional Scottish wedding even though it was foreign to me in so many ways (though fortunately it did include food and booze and dancing), because it really pleased so many people. To this day Aidan’s father gets emotional talking about what a beautiful day it was, and a lot of people declared it the best wedding that they had ever been to. To me that is more important than getting the exact wedding that I thought I wanted. In the end I realized that our wedding wasn’t about me or even us, it was about being welcomed into Aidan’s family, and it was about showing us what a generous and caring community we have supporting us and cheering us on. (Aidan would like for me to clarify that while this was not the wedding I had in mind, it was exactly the wedding that he had in mind—so there you go.)
Favorite thing about the wedding: We didn’t have any money to spend on our wedding. None. So the outpouring of generosity from friends and family was incredibly moving. Aidan’s sister planned the entire day as well as all of the decor, his mum married us, his sister’s boyfriend (now husband) was our piper, his aunts cooked the food and baked cakes, church ladies that I never met bought flowers for the church and sewed table runners, my mother paid for my dress, my father paid for my airplane ticket, one of Aidan’s cousins brought tons of food and loads of really nice wine, our guests all pitched in to do the dishes and help clean up, Aidan’s brother and sister sprung for us to have room at a castle-y hotel, the Russian choir from the Russian congregation of Aidan’s mum’s church came and sang at our ceremony as a gift, my grad school roommate flew himself from L.A. to Scotland to photograph our wedding for free, and the list goes on.
