She’s German, he’s Scottish, they’re both designers, and it turned out that James and I had connections through an ad agency I used to work for in Amsterdam, Weiden & Kennedy, for whom – in a previous life – I produced this award-winning spot.

But that’s by the by. I loved Anna and James’s story, which ran for seven years, and involved three countries, one ocean, a lot of hellos, goodbyes and thousands of Skype calls that led them all the way from their present home in Portland, Oregon to Carberry Tower just outside Edinburgh in August 2013. 

He was standing there in his baggy jeans, grey sweater and a grey beanie, as you all know, James’s normal uniform. He looked at Anna and had the biggest smile on his face, she couldn’t stop smiling back at him. At this point… he used an insanely cheesy line. “Hi, you look fantastic.” Not his coolest moment! But he meant it. Funnily enough Anna didn’t find that line so bad… It was his next line that caused her concern. “I love your outfit…“   

Because (as I said earlier) Anna is German and James is Scots, their initial conversations were a bit challenging. Anna called James the day after the party, but when he answered, she had no idea what he was saying and thought she’d got the wrong number! Once she realised it really was him she couldn’t believe how she had missed the accent. After many times asking James to repeat himself he finally said “I’m reeeally baad on the phooone.”

Being such a multi-national wedding, with guests from all over the world, there were some nice bits in another incomprehensible language: German. Anna’s sister Nora read a poem called Die Hochzeitskerze Spright (The Wedding Candle Speaks) 

And of course, they created some really personal vows. Here’s just a taste of what Anna promised James. “I love you
because of your need to do new and crazy things. I promise to support you and
hold your hand wherever our future takes us, to let you jump off things and let
you inspire me to be a bit crazy too because that is what makes you wonderful.”

James gave as good as he got. “You are my chosen one. I promise to always make you feel
beautiful and to make you feel like the most special and desired person in the
world even when you think you are having a bad hair day”.

I remember thinking that it was one of the happiest weddings of the year: I think you can see that from these great photos by Neil Thomas Douglas who really knows how to compose a shot, as you can see at his website here

A few months after the ceremony, I got a lovely card that used the picture above as the cover image. It said, “Thank you so much for helping us have the most incredible and best day of our lives. You were absolutely perfect and made us feel so special. It was a true pleasure to have you involved from the absolute beginning. We were so lucky to have met you and have you involved in our special day. We received so many compliments for the ceremony and everyone said it was the best they had ever seen! 

Even my 10 year old nephew said “i usually hate weddings but that was the best one ever, it was so funny”. He is a very hard boy to please, so I took it as real praise. I think part of what he was laughing at could have been me and how sweaty and nervous I was! Thank you again, James and Anna”