It’s not often my stories lead with the honeymoon, but this one is special! I hadn’t come across the ‘Trash The Dress’ idea before, but Stuart Craig who shot the wedding travelled all the way to the Hebrides with Lauren and David to record this as well, and here’s Lauren’s account of their trip.

David and I had a lovely mini moon in Skye and Harris. Slightly unlucky with the weather at the start of the week but thankfully it cleared up and we were blessed with blue sky and sunshine and fell in love with Skye. We stayed in a lovely cottage in the north west of the island and our German shepherd pooch Arya (our ring bearer at the wedding) was there to enjoy lots of walks and a log fire to curl up in front of at the end of each day! What more could you ask for?

So the Trash the Dress! I’m not sure if Stuart told you much about this but it really was wonderful and felt like an achievement in itself even just getting there. Everything was against up during the planning stages as our ferry from Skye to Harris crashed a couple of days before we travelled, resulting in all sailings being cancelled. David and I had a mad cross country dash from our cottage in Skye to Ullapool where Stuart was waiting, cursing storm force winds which had threatened to cancel all sailings again that day. Thankfully Stuart, David, Arya, and I together with kilt, dress, veil, bouquet, camera and 2 cars sailed across to the Isle of Lewis and drove South to Harris. The next morning we were up at the crack of dawn and in utter disbelief at the sunshine! We had a fantastic photoshoot that morning on the tropical beaches of Harris where Stuart got some stunning pictures of David and I. This also gave us an opportunity to include Arya in the fun which is what Stuart probably told you about!

Arya and I take part in a sport called Cani-cross which is cross country running with your dog… and its great fun! As a team, I give Arya commands and she leads the way, attached to me with a bungee style rope and encouraged to pull. The speed we can go together is just incredible! Arya and I compete in races across Scotland therefore it just seemed natural to want to run cani-cross in my wedding dress… especially given our beautiful location! This was too good an opportunity to miss! So at the end of our photoshoot, a beautiful rainbow appeared just as Arya and I started running across the beach… much to Stuarts amazement and this was something he had never seen before! I’ve attached some of the photos so you can see for yourself!

I’ve attached some photos of the wedding too. Our day really was special and everything we could’ve wished for and more. David and I are both delighted we chose to have a Humanist ceremony and the feedback from our guests was wonderful. And to think we wrote it ourselves…!

I won’t lie – at the time of doing the homework this was definitely something we continually put off and off… it sounded rather daunting writing a ceremony whereas choosing flowers, music, food and drink sounded much more easy and fun! The ceremony was so personal though and meant so much to us. I don’t think David will live down being called ‘cuddle bear’ in front of all our family and friends though!

I had to save the best shot for last: one of these days I hope somebody will invite me to marry them on Luskentyre beach, but until then, this amazing photograph by Stuart Craig will just have to do.

Thank you so much for this, Lauren and David: I wish you both every happiness (and I wish that to Arya too of course!)