GILLIAN LONEY
I hate big, flashy wedding cars and I want the bridesmaids to wear shoes they can move in
DON’T Tell the Bride is back on TV tonight – and with it comes those weird, wacky and downright ridiculous ideas on how to make your upcoming nuptials unique.
Underwater wedding? They’ve done it. Skydiving into the venue? Been there, done that, bought the harness to go over the bridal T-shirt. And who could forget the classic Kirkintilloch episode when the groom bought kitten toilet seats to tart up his local miners’ club and reception venue?
Granted, few of us will go to those lengths without a camera crew watching – but, literal rollercoaster ceremonies aside, is there such a thing as a “traditional wedding” nowadays?
Our big day rolls around next year and budget, taste and absent family members mean we’ll be sidestepping a few of those must-dos.
Three of our parents are no longer with us so the question of who walks me down the aisle has come up, not to mention the speeches.
It’s an issue I’ve sidestepped a few times when speaking to excited caterers and dress shops and it rules out so many of the traditions some take for granted on their wedding day.
It goes without saying that we’ll miss lost loved ones greatly before and after saying “I do”. And their absence means we’re having to rip up the rule book.
But how many other couples really follow those rules to the letter – and would I have done, were circumstances different?
I hate big, flashy wedding cars. I want the bridesmaids to wear shoes they can move in, not matching sky-high heels. I want my nearest and dearest to share a first dance with their loved ones, not awkwardly shuffle along with
the groomsman they’ve met a handful of times. If the many, many bridal blogs out there show us anything, it’s that couples are no longer bowing down to the shouldhaves, opting for more personal and unique touches over tradition. New figures from the National Records of Scotland show the Humanist Society are now the country’s most popular choice for wedding celebrants – not exactly the church do your gran would have taken as gospel. Who marries you, like the many, many other choices to be made when planning a wedding, is a personal decision – and our generation are rewriting the rule book. I headed to Edinburgh this week and picked out The Dress with my bridesmaids and future mother-in-law – not the traditional bridal party, but a group of women whose opinions mean the world to me. As did the bottle of prosecco we popped after saying yes to The Dress. And, without giving the game away, The Dress isn’t a standard-issue gown either because, like every bride out there, I’m anything but ordinary. My wedding day should reflect me. So here’s to the biggest party of our lives, done our way – kitten toilet seats and all, if that’s what you’re into.
The absence of lost loved ones means ripping up the rule book