New Member from NC

[GunnHighlander]

Welcome from the Highlands of Central Pennsylvania. I used to live in North Carolina for two years in the Raleigh/Durham area, and I just loved my time there. I would move back in a heartbeat.

Congratulations on your marriage, and kudos on the Scottish theme. My wedding was of a Scottish theme, complete with rain! However, it turned out awesome. We got married at a local ski resort (in the autumn), so the scenery was nice, and appropriate. We had a lone piper, in full highland regimental dress, off at the edge of the woods, piping all the bride and grooms party in. The Wedding was color coordinated with the colors of our kilts, which was the Scottish national. I struggled with having all different family tartans of me and family and all my friends, or a more uniform look. So we compromised and had the groomsmen and myself in the scottish national tartan, with the prince charlie coat. VERY SHARP! The reception was decked out in coordinating colors of deep blue, white and some red. we found (online) a place that had mini castle/church type candle holders for every table, and at our (main) table was an old vintage 5 tier cast iron candelabra that was my great grandmothers. And we decked the place out in flowers, leaves, plants, more candles.......etc. It had a very "old world" feel, and very Scottish feel of course. There were more men in kilts than there were women in dresses!!!! I'd post some pics, but I'm at work.

So.....have fun, and be creative. What we did was awesome, and very reasonably priced. Good luck, and god bless.

[Kiltedmusiclover]

Always good to another member from
North Carolina. A hearty welcome from
the Western Foothills.


Are you going to purchase your kilt or rent (hire) it?

[Panache]

Congratulations on your upcoming nuptials and welcome to X marks the Scot!

There is a lot of good information here.

Search the forums and ask questions, but most of all have fun.

Cheers

Panache

[Aggie]

Congrats on the upcoming wedding and welcome to the forum from east Texas.

Cliff

[Arlen]

Welcome to the group and congratulations on the wedding.

As far as Scottish traditions, it really depends on where you're from.
The traditions my family observe come from the eastern Highlands and from the Western lowlands alike, though there are a few that are from all over the U.K.
Here are a few of them.

1: Have a horsehoe boy or girl. Just a young member of the family, usually a toddler, who will present a decorative horseshoe to the married couple at the end of the vows for luck in their future.

2: Have a 'scramble.' When you and the wife are about to get driven away in the car, lean out of the window and throw handfulls of change out onto the street for all the children at the wedding to pick up. This is, as far as I know, supposed to symbolise your future prosperity and providing for your own children in years to come.

3: Put a silver sixpence or a copper penny in the bride's shoe and have her walk around all day with a it in her shoe. I've been told it can cause blisters, and yet all the woman in my family insist their marriages wouldn't have lasted had they not stuck to this particular tradition.

4: It's considered good form for someone from your family to present your wife with a sash made of your tartan after the wedding. It's usually referred to as 'Pinning the tartan' because it would get pinned to her shoulder to symbolise her joining your family.


5: Buy some kind of blade, usually a dirk these days but it used to be a sword, and present it to your wife just before you're given the horseshoe.
This used to be a very important custom showing that you would protect her and that the blade would be passed to your firstborn son.



Good luck with the wedding and with your future. It's always nice to see other people who want to continue honouring their heritage.

[smoothbronco]

Duplicate post, sorry.

[smoothbronco]

Wow! Thanks for the warm welcome. I appreciate some of the ideas that have been given.
Has anyone heard of a tradition of using the dirk to cut the cake? Didn't know if this was a worth while investment.
As for me, I'm near Raleigh, so anyone in the area, I look forward to meeting anyone in area some day.
As for my kilt, I own it, I beleive it is from the Scottish Lion and is in my family's hunting ancient. It's a nice story, my sister was having a scottish wedding so my father bought me and my brother's kilts for X-mas so we would have them for the wedding.

MoMo

[Pour1Malt]

walcome tae the rabble!

we had a Scottish weddin' an used Scottish traditions that pre-date christianity...

[Pour1Malt]

we foon a 'script' o' a pre-christain weddin' ceremony an adapted it fur oor use...

it wuz quite fun- it had audience participation! (shoutin' and drinkin' !!!)

yin thing we did wuz- tied the knot (hand fasting)-

where oor twa clans tartans were tied roon oor wrists...

later to bae replaced by the rings....

(ai can gie ya maire details if ya want... just ask)

[Macman]

Welcome from Vancouver Island, B.C. and congratulations on your upcoming wedding. I got a dirk to cut the cake for our wedding, but it hasn't seen much use since!