On August 18, 2011, Becca and Christian had their reception. It was a pretty stressful day trying to get there as Roberta was trying to line a bolero for Sarah's dress, and everybody else was trying to get rented kilts and hairs and nails and everything done beforehand. I set out on my own for the first time, trying to hunt down a needle in order for Roberta to hand sew the lining. It was fairly nerve wracking. Some how, we made it relatively on time? Becca and Christian disappeared for pictures and we got to listen to the bag piper.
It was held at the Edinburgh Botanical Gardens. We had heard predictions that it was supposed to rain all day, but luckily, it was just really overcast -- like a wall of gray clouds -- but no more than a few sprinkles until the end of the night. That made for some really good pictures, I think, because we didn't have to worry about weird shadows or anything like that. The gardens were beautiful and the grass was so green.
We had the dinner first for family members and members of the wedding party. It was held in this beautiful stone building. It was exquisitely decorated. Becca, Christian, Sarah and Will (the best man) were seated in a table up front. I was next to Will's fiance and Christian's friend, James and they provided amusing dinner companions. Becca and Christian both stood and said how and why they loved each other and thanked everyone for being there, then Becca's dad, Sarah and Will all gave toasts. Toasts at a Mormon function are very strange and I don't think any of us really know what we are doing when it comes to them, but everything that was said was really nice. Even Jason, who was acting as emcee, said a little something and seeing this big, gruff man expressing his love for his sister and his joy at her finding someone that made her happy was enough to make everyone tear up -- even him. So that was fun.
Afterward, they cut their cake.
And then the party started. The rest of the guests began to arrive. Some were decked out in kilts, which was really awesome, especially for the dancing portion of the evening. Becca and Christian danced to Then by Brad Paisley for their first dance. It was really sweet. Becca had hired a Scottish band that played traditional ceilidh (pronounced keel-ee) dancing. They had a call person that told us how to do each of the dances, but those that grew up in Scotland were taught in school, so a lot of them -- including my dance partner -- knew how to do most of the dances. They were really fun. I was laughing so hard, because of course, I am a terrible dancer. By the time I got most of the steps down, the dance was usually over. There was a tent set outside for when it got too hot and stuffy in the dance hall.
The evening was sogreat, and a ton of fun. I think it all went without too much of a hitch. Aside from Becca's phone being misplaced, and me freaking out about it, I think it was quite a perfect evening.
The next morning was the wedding. We didn't have hair and nail appointments to get to, so we tried to recreate Becca's look from the night before. I was in my pajamas when we arrived at the church, and we had to quickly get ready to go. We were late getting the ceremony started, but I hope that most people anticipated that...
Since Becca and Christian needed to be married civilly before going to be sealed in the temple, we did the ceremony at the church building, in the chapel. Flowers from the night before were put out to decorate the chapel. Sarah and I walked down the short, little aisle to Pachebel's Canon in D, and then Becca was escorted down with her dad. We sat in the first pew and the Bishop welcomed everybody to the wedding. We sang For the Beauty of the Earth and had an opening prayer. Then Sarah gave a little talk about the difference between being married civilly and being sealed in the temple. The bishop got up and spoke for a second and called the couple, "Brother and Sister McDermott", which was pretty funny. He really did give a very good talk. Then he married them and they signed the marriage certificate with Sarah and Roberta being the witnesses. After that, Roberta, Sarah and I sang How Great Thou Art. I was super nervous about it, because of course, Sarah has had voice lessons and is really good and not only did we not have the music, but we hadn't had time to practice. At all. But we mustn't have sounded too bad because I got a lot of compliments and I know that Sarah and Roberta both were told that we did a good job. Then we had a closing prayer and it was time to go to the temple.
But first, I had to run to the hotel to get Roberta's pills. Christian's friend, James, had his car and was nice enough to drive me over there and to the train station where we said good-bye to him and hopped on the train to Preston, England, where the temple is located. The ride is three hours long. We had them announce over the PA that Becca and Christian were getting married, and everyone cheered for them. I think I read most the way, while everybody else slept. The countryside that we passed made me extremely sad that I was going home shortly after. I would have liked to have seen much more of Scotland.
We got to the train station and had to wait around for taxis to come pick us up and take us to the temple grounds. I think Preston has the most beautiful grounds I have ever seen. Surrounding the temple was a real English garden. Red roses were everywhere, making me think of Alice in Wonderland, Painting the Roses Red...I was singing that the whole time Becca was in the temple. Becca and Christian were off taking pictures, and unfortunately, we ran out of time before we could get group shots with everyone. They went in to be sealed, and those of us who weren't able to join them in the sealing room waited around. I spent a lot of time walking through the gardens and taking pictures, but when it started to rain, I decided to head in to the waiting room.
After the sealing, we didn't have long before our train back to Edinburgh. So, the wedding dinner was McDonald's. It was very classy. We waited for our train, said good-bye to Sarah, who was leaving to go home. We had one stop where we had to change trains, and we said good-bye to Christian and Becca, who were headed to Glasgow for a few nights. By the time we made it back to Edinburgh, we were pretty tired.
Over all it was an absolutely beautiful wedding, and aside from running late and behind, went without a hitch. I was so happy to be able to be a part of it and be a bridesmaid for one of my very best friends.
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