New bride Michelle throws a glitzy party
Sussed in the city
EVENING Times columnist and former Pop Idol winner Michelle McManus held a party to celebrate her recent wedding.
The 37-year-old married boyfriend Jeff Nimmo in Mallaig, Lochaber, last month and threw the bash in Candleriggs last night to celebrate with more than 300 friends and family.
Michelle announced her engagement last May after the couple got together the previous September.
She tells in her column in today’s Evening Times how she knew “in the blink of an eye” that she had fallen madly in love with Jeff and he is ‘truly is her soulmate’.
IT’S something I’d thought about my whole life. Would it be big or small? Would it be very lavish and grand or just a small modest affair? As I entered my mid 30s I actually just started to wonder if it would ever happen at all? But then, I met Jeff.
It was clear from the moment I met him that he was like no other man I’d ever encountered and in the blink of an eye I’d fallen madly in love with him and knew without a moment’s hesitation that he truly was my soulmate.
When he got down on one knee back in May 2016 and asked me to be his wife my body felt like it would literally explode with the sheer euphoria coming from within me. We decided that we didn’t want to wait too long to get married so we began to talk and plan out our perfect day.
When I was growing up I always thought I’d get married at my local chapel and have a big old party in our parish hall but a lot has changed since I was that freckly wee 14-year-old day dreaming about big white dresses.
Now that I am grown up and also that I’m lucky enough to do a job that involves me being in the public eye from time to time, the one and only thing I wanted on my wedding day was privacy.
Just one day with no social media posts, no camera phones or worrying about potential nasty comments online from people who don’t know me and who I’ve never met before. I just wanted a day with our families and closest friends to marry the man I love and to have one mother of a party afterwards to celebrate.
I had spoken to my dear friend John Joe, who is the headmaster of a school in Fort William, and he had suggested a beautiful chapel in Glenfinnan and a gorgeous hotel in Mallaig called The West Highland for our reception. From the moment I laid eyes on St Mary and St Finnan I knew there was no other place on earth I wanted to get married.
Situated right on the edge of Loch Shiel it was like something from a movie set and it truly took our breathe away.
Next stop was to visit the West Highland Hotel and owners Sine and Gavin were just so incredible to deal with from the word go, especially when I was asking to take over their entire hotel for four days and closing it off to the public, as well as booking most of the available B &Bs roundabout to accommodate all of our guests. The staff, the food, in fact the whole experience at the hotel in Mallaig was just simply out of this world.
My next task was to transport almost 100 guests from Glasgow and beyond up to Mallaig.
I contacted ScotRail and it suggested hiring an entire carriage on one of its trains to take all my guests up for the wedding weekend.
Jannine Russell and all her team were just fantastic and they took such great care of everyone who had, shall we say, quite the party on the five-hour and 45-minute train journey. The sight of them all coming off the train in Mallaig singing and dancing is something myself nor the locals will ever forget.
MY lovely friend Natalie Roger had said to me that there was only one bridal shop to go to when looking for my gown and she was absolutely right.
I walked into June Brides in Glasgow and within 30 minutes owner Carol and her daughter Holly had selected the dress of my dreams and I knew my quest to find the perfect dress was over before it had even began.
Over the next few weeks I found the perfect photographer in Roddy MacKay and the loveliest videographer called Lee, owner at PV Films and lastly Tell Design in Baillieston to do all of my print and artwork.
The big day arrived on Saturday September 23, and as I walked down the aisle towards the man I’ll be spending the rest of my life with, the tears started to stream down my face because, to be completely honest with you, I just never thought I could ever be this happy.
The day, in fact the whole weekend, was like a fairy tale and I’ll never be able to thank our friends and family for making the journey up to celebrate with us. It was so private, so personal, just exactly what we’d spent months hoping it would be and so much more.
huge thank you also to everyone at Taylor Ferguson, Shiels Buses, McDonald Bros Florist, Helen McEwan, Paula, Mark and Robert from DeMilo and a very special thanks to Brogan at the West Highland, John Joe MacNeil for organising the music, Gary Innes, Ewen Henderson and the boys and to my darling friend Derek for our beautiful cake.
We had the weekend of our dreams and I guess it’s true what they say, all you really do need is love.