A year ago this month, we got married. In fact, we eloped – to Scotland. We know we don’t share too much personal stuff on the blog (or, at least, we share things that are very personal, but less about our private life) so we umm-ed a bit about sharing this. But 12 months on, we’re feeling reflective. And we hope that our story of eloping to Scotland inspires couples with similar questions about life and travel.

Eloping to Scotland
Photograph by Bill Baillie – http://www.billbaillie.com/

We became engaged while we were travelling in New Zealand in 2015. We were in the middle of six months away, and we weren’t sure what would happen after that. But we thought vaguely of plans, of guest lists, of venues, sure that we’d sort it out once we returned.

But here’s the thing: we never really went home. And our idea of home changed a lot anyway: less geographical. We took our idea of home on the road with us: it became as simple as getting inside our tent, finding an English channel on a hotel TV, having a cup of tea.

We were out exploring the world just as we dreamed. But it did beg the question: how exactly were we going to get married? Because when you think about it, weddings are all about settling down, putting down roots – and declaring that to your friends and family. That physical place we simply did not have.

Then one person -we forget who- mentioned to us Wee Weddings. It was a little company who leased a cottage, out on the far west of the mainland of Scotland. And along with that, they’d get you married good ‘n’ proper. Set you up with a celebrant, advise on paperwork, provide a photographer, flowers, a wedding breakfast – just for you.

For us it had huge allure. First of all, it’s easier to get married in Scotland than in the rest of the UK. You can get married where you like, and there’s few forms. Easy.

Second though, it also felt like it fitted us. Eloping to Scotland, renting a cottage in the highlands – it felt wild, intrepid, but also powerful, simple. And as anyone who knows us can attest (or has read our Skye blog post), we love Scotland. It has a completely unique, mystical pull to us that we have not experienced in any other country.

Eloping to Scotland
Photograph by Bill Baillie – http://www.billbaillie.com/

We knew that if we were going to commit to this, it’d have to be secret and we’d have to do it alone. That didn’t feel so difficult for us: we’d just spent the last four months entirely alone together, walking the Via Francigena pilgrim path. We kinda knew (or maybe hoped) our families would understand.

So think of us this time last year: secretly buying rings, secretly buying clothes, hiring a car. Sneaking off in the middle of the night (we are not kidding) to start our journey north so no one would see us carrying suspicious packages. You know, anything that felt like it had ‘eloping to Scotland!’ branded on it. It was unbelievably exciting, and felt like a whole new travel adventure.

We drove up to the west coast and arrived to brilliant sunshine. This didn’t matter really to us either way – it was October after all. We also knew we could get married at whatever time and wherever, be it on the nearby beach or by the log burner in the cottage. It had this weird feeling of being right, whatever happened.

Eloping to Scotland

But sunshine we had. Windy, cold, purple cloud sunshine. Three people arrived in the morning: our celebrant, Annie, our photographer Bill and (this is the best bit) our bag-piper, Iain. And with the sunshine dipping in and out, we chose to walk down to the beach.

Eloping to Scotland
Photograph by Bill Baillie – http://www.billbaillie.com/

A note about having a bag-piper at your Scottish elopement. It might sound slightly extra, but it was unbelievably beautiful. It fits, you know, with the landscape and the sea. It’s not the type of thing you regret.

We picked the type of service we had, going for a humanist ceremony but keeping the traditional vows because they feel incredible to say. We had a Celtic hand fasting with ribbons we’d bought from Edinburgh. After a bit of delving we picked two readings to read aloud:

“Little Gidding” from Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot; and a reading from A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemmingway. Look them up if you like, they speak about travel and home and identity.

And we got married. Saying the words to the wind.

We had photographs, we went back to the cottage with the fire and had huge platters of local seafood and champagne. We rang our families (they laughed out loud).

At sunset we walked back to the beach again to watch the sun set – we both soaked our outfits up to the knee running around in the surf.

Eloping to Scotland
Eloping to Scotland

This wasn’t a wedding. It was just a different type of getting married. It was a day with clean, bold edges, unworried, unhurried. Outside in the wild, with wide expanses of time to breathe it all in.

It’s not for everyone. It’s probably not even for most people. But it was for us. We went our own way – as in travel, as in life.

Happy 1st anniversary to us.

We’re still travelling one year on from eloping to Scotland, and you can keep up with our journeys and adventures on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter.

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Eloping to Scotland