Dunkeld House; JimJen!

Photo: Rob Thomson @ lifetime Photography

I first met Jim and Jen at a wedding fair at the Rothes Halls in Glenrothes on the 21st of February 2016, where I was manning the HSS Stall with colleague Gillian Stewart,  they said that they were looking into having a Humanist ceremony had been in touch with a celebrant near their venue at Dunkeld...so I asked if it was the 20th of August next year, and with raised eyebrows they said yes! 

I had replied to their e-mail that morning confirming I was free, and asking if they wanted to meet up....

We met for a cuppa a couple of months later - and got on like a house on fire!

Paperwork done, and set aside for the time being...

Sent them a happy new year & bundle of questions in January...which they printed out and scribbled all over in the pub.

Then we met to actually plan the ceremony at Loch Levens Larder at the End of January, and they handed me their notes as they hadn't had time to type them up!...and again we could have stayed there all day chatting...

...and this is one of the points at which things vary from the norm...I went home and started typing up my notes from the meeting & their scribbles from the pub, and only realised about 2 hours later that I had pretty much constructed the whole thing! 

It still needed a fair bit of work to get it ready to send, but I think it may have been one of the easiest weddings to write EVER...not because it was particularly simple or straightforward, just that I had a really good feel for who they were and what they wanted, and the words just flowed. (If I could bottle that stuff, life would be a LOT easier - and yes, celebrants can suffer from writers block!!)

So, I'm all pleased with myself, and thinking that I must be awesome at this stuff...but it turns out that while I might be a bit awesome sometimes, I'm will never be as awesome as Jim & Jen...

We did a LOT of drafts, but there was good progress on every one, and TBH I pushed them a bit to make a few things more 'them' rather than using versions or examples that I'd sent...which is pretty much my top advice for any wedding.

So when the big day arrived I was really excited, and the weather held so we got to be outside, and one of my first thoughts was that the flowers were awesome...and just a bit mad, and pretty over the top too (flower special to follow).

So I'm setting up, and the waiter who is helping move chairs starts chatting away about how awesome the Groom was last night at dinner, and how much fun the day was going to be working with them again...and then the photographer is there, saying how awesome their engagement shoot was to do...and after the ceremony was all over I chatted with the florist as well, who was moving some of the huge mad flower displays around, and she said how awesome it was to get to go crazy like this, and how it was all their ideas and plans, and how much she loved them both...and had even stayed just out of sight and watched the wedding - which if course the florist very rarely gets to do...

The lesson of the story?

Be yourselves at your wedding.

Look around and spend the time to find folk to work with on your day who get who you are.

They will be far more likely to enjoy it all, and get on board with all your ideas.

Want mad flowers? Find someone who would love to do mad flowers!

Want the celebrant to wind your Dad up? Find a celebrant who is happy to wind your Dad up!

Want the back row of the guests to secretly form a percussion section & chorus with added French horn for a sing-along?? If you have friends mad enough to do so? Go for it!

Want the celebrant to photobomb you even though she usually doesn't? Make sure you get one with right (lack of) decorum for the occasion!

Thank you to the truly awesome JIMJEN who took the time, and made it their very own.

From all of us who had so much fun being dragged along in your wake!. xxx

Photo: Rob Thomson @ lifetime Photography