lydia & daniel’s applecross wedding
Monika officiated our wedding ceremony in Applecross - and we couldn't be happier! She was very responsive, helpful, and easy to work with - especially as we left a few things a little last minute and our wedding went through different phases of style/size. But she was always relaxed and supportive, and she took the time to get to know our story and put together a beautiful ceremony for us (with some lovely surprises and many personal touches!). We were both so pleased with how she conduced the ceremony, that we asked for a copy to remember the occasion. Overall, we are so happy we chose Monika! Thank you again, Monika. It was wonderful - a really special moment for us and our friends and family that we will always remember!
lydia & daniel
Many of my weddings are close to my home in the North-West Highlands, but every so often I spread my wings and conduct ceremonies further afield, like Lydia & Daniel’s microwedding (XL) in the stunning Eagle Rock Lodge in Applecross.
The lovely couple had gotten in touch just after New Year to talk about the small, intimate ceremony they had started planning for late May, with just a handful of close friends, as part of a weekend with lots of outdoor activities.
We quickly built a rapport via a video call and emails and some ideas started to emerge. From initial ideas more developed plans grew, around handfasting and Lydia & Daniel writing their own vows. What grew wasn’t just the ceremony ideas, but also the wedding plans. The elopement with close friends expanded to a microwedding and then a microwedding XL with more friends and loved ones becoming part of the exciting plans, including Lydia’s parents from the US. Alongside the size of the wedding party the ceremony also grew… I always love making guests part of the ceremony rather than being just the audience, so I was delighted to hear there would be contributions by both Lydia and Daniel’s mothers and a good friend mixed in with the other elements.
Having four months to plan a ceremony is an excellent time frame, long enough to not rush but allow time to ponder, but also short enough to focus the mind and work at a good pace. The big day on the beautiful west coast soon arrived and the atmosphere was buoyant and full of cheerful anticipation. The weather was bright and sunny and the views stunning and once the beautiful bride arrived everybody settled into the proceedings on this lovely spring day in Applecross.
After the welcome words a first highlight was Kitty, Lydia’s mother reciting beautiful song lyrics, followed by their story and another reading, a poem by Robert Frost delivered by a close friend from their early days as a couple. My words on marriage were built around a food theme, with references to sandwiches, croissants, two helpings of scallops, monkfish, chips and sticky coffee pudding, among other culinary delights, all taken from the smorgasbord of their stories. Lydia and Daniel are both scientists and for a while, as I had been working on the ceremony, it had looked a lot more likely that my angle would be science, or maybe the great outdoors, as they play such a big role in their lives. But their joy of eating and drinking, in each other’s company, stood out and it mirrored their joy of life and joy of being with each other.
I usually like to add a quote or two to my own words and searching for something that fits is an enjoyable part of ceremony crafting. In this case it was a quote by Ursula Le Guin that was the perfect fit: Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new. It fitted the food theme, provided a perfect connection to the thought of marriage as something that needs working on and remaking, AND I thought it would be an author that Lydia and Daniel would relate to. One of their special memories was a Philip Pullman book that Daniel had sent to Lydia during a time of geographical distance, so genre wise we were in the right space. I knew that I had chosen well when I saw Lydia reacting to the words and the mention of the author. A happy moment we all shared.
After so many words by me and it was time for a faster pace of actions and a change of voice. Lydia & Daniel shared the vows they had written for each other during a handfasting ritual. Daniel’s mum Pat had gifted them the beautiful handfasting material embroidered with their names as a surprise – a wonderful touch not just on the day, but also something to always cherish as a memento of the day. After tying the knot and speaking the legal words while exchanging rings it was a very happy moment when I could share with them and all their guests that they were now husband and wife.
These last photos share their joy so perfectly… Thanks for letting me be part of that joy. Celebrants don’t have favourite couples or favourite ceremonies, but we have moments when we feel truly in tune with everybody and everything and your wedding day was one of those moments!
