Gareth Robertson & Graeme Brown
11th May 2019
Venue | Myres Castle, Fife
Photography | Karol Makula Photography
“We chose the first venue we visited, Myres Castle, for both the ceremony and reception. It is stunning. Nothing else we saw compared to the building and its grounds. It boasts a unique ‘barnquee’ to host the wedding supper and dancing in. We also appreciated the fact that it does not hold a lot of nuptials, and couples have exclusive use of all areas from Friday to Sunday.
We wanted our wedding to be ‘us’: bold and unique. It was a high priority that every guest felt looked after. Our plans constantly changed though, because we kept finding more inspiration and ideas.
I arranged an Elvis impersonator as surprise for Graeme, while he arranged for our cats, Albert and George, to attend. I was flabbergasted when they turned up for our photos.
Our ceremony was inspired by an Indian-style format, so all of our immediate family walked up the aisle before us as part of the entrance. We had backing music as well as a mini-orchestra playing.
We chose celebrant Maggie Kinloch to lead the ceremony. Graeme is a musician and was taught by her at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, so there was a connection there. She was fantastic.
After our ceremony, a pipe band played us back up the aisle. We also had an Egyptian tanoura dancer to pay homage to the culture of the country I had lived in for two years. He performed during the day and then again later for our evening guests.
The most unique part of our wedding was our outfits. They are very ‘couture’ and our guests had never seen anything like it. We had our tailor Ansar Rahman join us as a guest on the day, as we became close friends during the design process.
The speeches were pretty emotional. My dad’s was surprising as it was very funny. He did so well. Meanwhile, Graeme’s dad’s speech was emotional as he spoke eloquently about his late wife Susan – tears were flowing!
We had a choreographed routine for our first dance which has since went viral online (view the video here). We did it with some help from the Pamela Logan School of Dance. It went so perfectly – the cheers from the guests were worth it alone.
Our day was like a fairytale. From the second we arrived at Myres Castle on the Friday night, to the moment we left on the Sunday morning, it was everything we wanted and more. The weather, the morale, the suppliers, the food, the atmosphere: it all came together like a dream. Were we to do everything again, we would do it all exactly the same!”
Top tip: “The amazing thing about a gay wedding is that you make your own traditions. We’d recommend other couples do the same; do not try to stick to a formula. Make your wedding about you. Guests and suppliers alike have said how different our wedding was. In fact, many mentioned it was the best wedding they have been to!”
Grooms’ outfits Atelier Rahman
Groomsmaids’ dresses Bridal Glee
Celebrant Maggie Kinloch of Humanist Society Scotland
Flowers Flowers 4 Hours
Cake and cat-macaron favours A Bonnie Wee Cake
Catering The Edinburgh Catering Company
Entertainment Paul Thorpe (Elvis impersonator), Walid (tanoura dancer) via Contraband Events and Dunfermline and District Pipe Band
Reception music Borrowed Blues
Filmmaker Eleven Six Films
Transport Stagecoach Dunfermline
Hair Hair by Jamie Lovell and Laura Anderson Bridal Hair
Makeup Karen Bowen Makeup and Helen McNeill Bridal Makeup
