“We had an absolutely unbelievable wedding weekend, and then a lovely few days away in Mallorca to recover”, said Jenny when she sent me a link to her album of photos by my old friend Loraine Ross.

Loraine’s a bit different because she shoots analogue as well as digital, and that brings a special something to her work. As she says, “My journey began with 35mm film, fuelled by my passion for art, nostalgia for old movies, vintage fashion, and the romance of Scotland.”

I think you can see all of those passions in these great shots!

Sam and Jenny got married at a quirkily elegant venue I’d never been to before; Netherbyres, down in Eyemouth.

They’ve written their own blog about it too, saying, “This has got to be one of our most fun weddings to date!” Reading that post reminded me that there was a small panic just before the wedding started because nobody knew where the Marriage Schedule was, but thankfully one of the many groomsmen tracked it down to Sam and Jenny’s car!

It really was a fun ceremony. Sam and Jenny made a point of introducing the wedding party, which is a great idea, not just because not everyone will know who they are but also because it allows the groom to get his retaliation in early for the Best Man’s speech…

They also gave a nod to their parents and grandparents, including the ones who weren’t able to be with us, and we took a moment of quiet contemplation to remember them before I told their story.

Their story began in January 2018 when Jenny started working alongside Sam at a recruitment company in Leeds. It didn’t take long before the flirting started, and only three months until Sam drunkenly showed up at Jenny’s flat with a couple of bottles of wine and a bunch of tulips, which – although he didn’t know at the time – are Jenny’s favourite flowers. What made that even more spooky was that Sam sent his mum Boo a picture of the two of them, saying he’d met his future wife…! Even then, Jenny knew Sam was the one and that they would get married one day – she just didn’t anticipate having to wait quite so long for the proposal… 

Before that happened, they rented a place and moved in together, bought their first house, had socially distanced rooftop get togethers and baked copious amounts of sourdough during lockdown, before in 2022 biting the bullet and moving to live in Scotland. It was only after they’d settled into North Berwick life that a long-anticipated event occurred, on ‘remember, remember” the 5^th of November that year.

Since then they’ve moved again, bought a new house, and fully embraced Scottish life, making the most of beach walks, sea swims, golf courses and of course, Tennent’s lager!  

Holly & Emma gave us a reading called “Everything I know about love” which isn’t the Neil Gaiman one It’s by Dolly Alderton – I wonder who wrote theirs first?

I like their thoughts on the meaning of marriage. As I said, “Jenny and Sam value each other’s reliability, honesty, openness and affection. They love to have fun and enjoy making those around them happy. For them, marriage means a lifetime of fun, laughter, commitment and trust. It means supporting each other to be the best versions of themselves, whilst always having each other’s back.”

When the time came to speak their vows, they promised the same things, but personalised the last line. Sam promised always to come up with new ways of making Jenny laugh, while she promised always to laugh at his rubbish jokes!

It was obvious to me how much everyone enjoyed the ceremony on the day, and a conversation I had with Best Man Andrew prompted me to write a post all about ‘The Speeches’.

As you’ll see if you click through, the point I’m making is that a humanist wedding brings everything that used to get said after the ceremony into the ceremony, so it’s a good idea to have a chat to anyone who expects to speak later.

The ceremony was absolutely brilliant! It was one of our favourite parts of the day and we also had so many people telling us how much they’d enjoyed it and how different it was to other weddings they’d been to. 

Thank you for all your help and guidance in the run up to it, you made the process very smooth and enjoyable. 

It was really nice to have the opportunity to reflect on our relationship, why we fell in love and why we want to get married amid the stress of planning what is essential a big party!  

Thanks again and hopefully our paths will cross again in the future! 

I hope so too, Sam and Jenny – and who knows? You found me at Millie and Sam’s wedding – I wonder if I’ll get a call from any of your guests? It would be lovely to keep that family tree a-growing!