The date is 24th May, 1997. It's a beautiful, sunny day in Glengarnock and
Nicola and Iain are getting married. We gathered at Claire and Irene's house
to show off our wedding outfits to each other before going to the church.
Despite my protestations, Claire insisted we drive the half mile to the church,
as her feet were sore. This turned out to be for the best, as we'll soon find
out.
The wedding starts at 2pm and we get there about half past one. Everyone's
quite relaxed and looking forward to the ceremony. Then Paula tries out her
stereo and finds it is broken. Cue the music from Starskey and Hutch! Claire
and I rush back to the car, zoom off to her house, grab Irene's stereo and
fly back to the church to see if that's OK. It worked fine and Paula could do
her solo.
The wedding service was quite short - just over half an hour. We sung three
songs and Paula sang a solo while they signed the register. Surprisingly, the
minister, Mr Ewing, didn't do the "you may kiss the bride" bit, but Iain and
Nicola made up for this later in the car to the reception.
After the service, which ended with a good rendition of 'O Happy Day', to much
clapping along by the Nazarenes and a little tutting by the Brethren, Iain and
Nicola left the church by the front door, ran around and entered by the back
door, while everyone was squeezing out the front to get a look at them.
Eventually they came out again for much taking of photos.
This photo shows the next bride, Claire, with her three bridesmaids: Irene,
Nicola and Kim. Well, Nicola won't be a maid by then, so what will she be? A
matron? Whatever. Anyway, on with the story. We went back to Claire's for a
while, then headed off to the Dean Park Hotel for the reception.
The happy couple posed for photos outside the hotel before we went in for
dinner.
Dinner was at the Dean Park Hotel and started with the bride and groom entering
and cutting the cake.
I was sat at a table with David and Marie Renton, Kim, Scott, Schultz, his wife Leanne and Claire. I had egg mayonnaise, chicken and profiteroles (not all together), then we heard the speeches from Mr Ewing, Mr Reid, Iain and his best man Bruce. After this we waited for the dance hall to be made ready, then filtered in.
The dancing was a mix of slow, rock and party tunes, with a fair dollop of
Celeidh thrown in. These were played by a man who will hereafter be referred to
as the mad DJ.
This photo is notable as capturing one of the very few occasions Sean has ever
been seen dancing.