It's not a surprise to me that Scotland was voted the most beautiful country in the world. Since our 1st trip, we have visited this magical place 6 times in the last 3 years. The crazy part is that isn't all of our trips!
How I even discovered Scotland is all thanks to the Zika virus.
All along my main traveling goal was to visit all 6 inhabited continents. I decided from a young age that I would make it a priority to travel overseas every year. From 2007-2011, I completed 5 continents off the list with only South America remaining. From 2012- 2015, we visited Barbados, Israel, France, Mexico, and Tahiti, but I still had not traveled to South America to complete my goal.
In 2016, I started planning a trip to Brazil and Argentina.
The bad part was that I just wasn't super excited about it. The visa fees alone were going to be $600 for us both and the Zika virus was a hot new issue in the media. I asked Jacob would he rather do the beaches of Rio or castles of Scotland. Needless to say, I never made it to South America.
From the moment we got to Scotland, it just felt right.
At this point, I feel like I have gone so many times that I should go back and lead tours! Who wants to go!!!! I'm only partially kidding.
We have friends all over the country and it feels very homey to me. Like I have always been there. But apparently, I am not alone and according to many Scottish people I've met, a LOT of Americans feel like that. I was so attached to the point that I literally thought about it or talked about it every day. Ask my friends.... they can vouch. I am sure they are tired of hearing about how everything reminds me of Scotland, lol. And despite my goal, I keep going back to explore new parts of Scotland and revisit my old favs.
Bottom line is that Scotland is ABSOLUTELY stunning.
Part of me even hates to tell you this because I want it to remain the unspoiled, walk back in time that is now. If you have only been to Glasgow or Edinburgh, you haven't visited my Scotland. We actually get out of the city as fast as we can when we arrive. Tourist spots are not my go to places. Renting a car and getting way out into the desolate wilderness is the only real way to experience the Scotland that I am obsessed with.
Of course, I decided I wanted to do a wedding in Scotland.
Deciding you want to do something and actually making it a reality are two different things. My initial thought (dream) was to do an elopement for someone on the Isle of Skye (still waiting). Another dream was to do a castle wedding (still dreaming). After concentrating my effort into booking a Scotland wedding, I actually booked 5 over 2019-2020! To those 5 Scotland weddings, I added 3 more other UK weddings as couples booked us from the Manchester and London areas.
Why did I want to?? Not only is the scenery too beautiful for words, Scotland is full of ancient places and history. Combining that history with a modern day wedding is SO my thing.
This year so far, we have done 5 UK weddings. This was my 1st in Scotland.
Thanks to awesome friendships we have made on our trips. Our last B&B host, Clare, recommended me to her friend and helped me get my 1st wedding in Pitlochry. Pitlochry is a special place to me for lots of reasons and not just because we have family roots there. It's the cutest little village with the warmest people.
All this rambling to tell you, here's my 1st Scotland wedding.
David and Patricia came up from Derby, England and made Pitlochry their destination wedding spot. They stayed at the fabulous Atholl Palace hotel and got married at The Hermitage at Ossian's Hall, built in 1757. Their reception was held at The Loft, a top restaurant in the area with the cake from the famous Hettie's Tea Room that my friend Clare (mentioned above) owns. He is English and she is originally from Ecuador, but has lived in the UK for years. I got a kick out of the fact that her family all had English accents.
Enjoy their beautiful wedding in the gorgeous land of Scotland, kilt and all!
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