This is the story of two equally important but very different envelopes…
Then I’ll begin.
Workplace romance can be tricky, as Allan discovered when he realised that he’d fallen for his colleague Fiona. They’d been colleagues for years, and during that time, they’d both been in long-term relationships, but coincidentally both their relationships had ended around the same time.
One day, when Allan was at home and feeling especially lonely and miserable, his beautiful daughter Danielle asked him the all-important question: ‘Dad, is there no one that you like?’ Allan thought about it for a while and said, ‘actually there is a girl at work who I have always liked – and she is single!’
He decided – as Valentine’s day was fast approaching – that he would send Fiona a card, and see what came of it.
Now Allan is quite a shy and private individual, unversed in the subtleties of office romance, so he made a schoolboy error in sending the card by internal mail, forgetting that Fiona shared her mail box with three colleagues…
The card was duly collected by one of them who, noting both the date and the red envelope, correctly guessed as to the contents, so the rumour mill duly swung into action. It was the talk of the steamie, with everyone speculating as to the identity of Fiona’s secret admirer!
When Allan realised what was going on, he thought “I can’t admit to this: I will be a laughing stock and I’ll never live it down!”
But then, just a few days later, he was working with two colleagues, one of whom was another of Fiona’s not so secret admirers. He said that as no one had come forward to claim responsibility for the card, he was thinking of saying it was from him and chancing his luck.
Allan thought: no way! He decided to find Fiona and own up, but this was easier said than done.
Fiona was in meetings all that day and the following day she was due to go on leave.
Allan decided to put all his thoughts in a message and send it to Fiona through Facebook. He spent ages writing it and ages more plucking up the courage before he hit ‘send’.
Fiona got the message just before she boarded her flight out of the country. She looked at her phone and thought “Why would Allan be sending me a message?”
You’ve probably guessed by now that the story worked out rather well in the end, and so it was that in June of this year, Fiona and Allan brought their families and friends to witness their wedding at the wonderful Prestonfield House Hotel.
The ceremony was every bit as entertaining as the above excerpt suggests.
We were all gathered together in the Garden Room, where Gregor gave us a reading of ‘Look to this Day, and Lucy read ‘I’m so Lucky to have found You’.
Then it was time for the vows, and the all-important Legal Declaration, which they spoke directly to one another.
The next thing we had to do was sign the Marriage Schedule, the document that makes the whole thing legal. Except we couldn’t find it…
So I suggested to Kris Soul, the photographer, that he take some of the portraits he would usually do later while we tracked it down.
It took a while.
It turned out that Allan had given the white envelope containing the Marriage Schedule to his son Dale that morning. Dale in turn had handed the envelope to Fiona’s mum, but she, unaware of its importance, had left it in Prestonfield’s Whisky Room.
Fortunately an eagle-eyed member of staff had spotted it, and taken it for safety to Allan and Fiona’s bridal suite, so after only a few frantic minutes it was retrieved, and Fiona was able to breath again!!
As I have said before, ‘all’s well that ends well’, Fiona and Allan! Thanks again for letting me share your wonderful story, and thanks too of course, to Kris Soul, for these lovely photos.
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