It's a nice day for a Scottish wedding

I visited Wick in Scotland not solely to see my family friends, but also to see one of my friends get married.

This was my first ever proper Scottish wedding, while I had seen Scottish friends at Australian weddings dress in their traditional kilts, I had not seen a whole wedding party kitted out with man skirts.

Apart from every male wearing a kilt, I didn’t know what else to expect from a Scottish wedding, so I was eager to see what it would be like compared to the standard Australian wedding. I was even more eager than usual due to hearing a Scottish friend tell me that they found Australian weddings quite informal with the guests not putting much effort into their attire. I didn’t really understand what he meant except for the men at weddings probably being more laid back in their dress, but as far as the women go I thought they dressed quite nicely and appropriately for weddings.

Maybe not though…

I had taken with me a real pretty dress for the wedding, but as a result of tiredness from travelling I really wanted to leave my hair it’s usual waves but I mustered some effort and straightened my hair properly to make sure I didn’t leave any messy kinks (which takes ages which is why I never do it). Now at the weddings I have been to in Australia (which isn’t many I might add) the women don’t really go out of their way to get their hair done, and if they do, it’s usually just a blow dry to make it lovely and straight, but no ever really gets their hair done up in pretty waves or buns unless they are a bridesmaid (and of course the bride). So, with this in mind I thought I had done quite a good job with my hair and would fit in quite well. This was not so much case… While I’m sure I did look lovely, to my surprise these women at the wedding were dressed with lots of effort and care. Majority were all wearing long dresses, some looking like ball gowns even! Not just this but they all had their hair done really lovely – I had only ever got my hair done up properly for my ball – and most were either wearing hats or fascinators (I have seen women wear hats at weddings before, but it’s usually the older generation, whereas I’ve only really seen young women wear fascinators or hats at the horse races). I have to admit, I did feel slightly under dressed and felt like everyone might think I didn’t make as much effort (but it’s not about me anyways, it’s about the bride and groom!). After seeing these women though, I could comprehend why my friend thought people were under dressed at weddings in Australian. I was actually overwhelmed how different it was here with the women! There were many men in kilts, as I knew and expected, and I must say I loved it. I don’t know there’s just something about men in kilts, perhaps it’s due to my curiosity of whether they are going commando underneath their skirt or not…

(Note: while I did threaten to get drunk and lift up many kilts before the wedding, I held on to my pride and acted like a proper lady and only got slightly drunk but lifted no kilts)

Another cool thing about Scottish weddings was how EVERYONE got up to dance, literally everyone! It wasn’t just people dancing around on their own either, they had a variety of slow dances for couples and also fast paced ones which many couples danced too. It was lovely to see, because apart from after the first couple dance where everyone is invited to the dance floor, most people just dance solo in a group with others but there is no more couple dances. What else was lovely was the traditional Scottish dances (which again are all with partners), I absolutely loved watching them but I was pretty gutted I didn’t know how to do them otherwise I would have been up on the dance floor as well. Ah well, there is always another Scottish wedding I’ll hopefully be invited to and I’ll make sure I learn the dances before the day.

There’s another tradition, which comes before the wedding day, and it is a really weird one. I have never in my life heard of this tradition before, supposedly it’s Scottish (I thought it might just be the highland towns) but on further chats it seems to be the coastal fishery towns in Scotland. It’s called a ‘doing’, basically during the week of their wedding the bride and groom are taken by friends in their town tied to chairs and have all sorts of stuff thrown up them, and this is apparently meant to give them good luck to their future together. I was told usually it’s flour and eggs that are thrown at them, but this has changed. The bride and groom had everything disgusting you can think of thrown at them: fish guts, soured milk, manure, bloody raw meat, even the groom had a bucket of urine thrown in his face (I don’t think this is usually done, I think someone went a step too far). I can’t think of anything worse! And it’s meant to be good luck! The only thing I could relate to how that’s meant to be good luck is the saying that it’s good luck if a bird shits on you, and the joke goes that it’s only good luck because your day can’t get any worse, well if I had all that stuff thrown at me I definitely would think my whole year couldn’t get any worse to that! Not only this, but even as I sat there shocked listening to this ‘tradition’ they were all shocked with me! They couldn’t believe I had never heard of a ‘doing’! I said if you did that in Australia people would think you’re bloody crazy insane! Now maybe if it was just flour and eggs I would let this happen to me, but when filth and rotten stuff get’s involved there is no way I, or any of my friends in Australia, would let this happen to them. While I did laugh at how shocking this tradition was, I still find it strange as to how it is good luck to have piss or fish guts thrown in your face.

Back to the wedding though,

Overall the whole wedding was absolutely amazing. I enjoyed every single second of it, and I definitely think the Scottish weddings are the best weddings to be a part of. Kilts, bagpipes, fresh seafood, loads of booze, loads of dancing, loads of laughter… what more could you ask for?