A Highland Wedding.

[Jock Scot]

My wife and I attended a Scottish Highland wedding yesterday and since I have been a member here at Xmarks for a while now, I took note of the attire of the guests as I thought some of you may be interested. This was not a "society wedding" and there was no "big house" so we are talking of a more traditional wedding held in a barn with tented extensions to cater for 200 or so guests. There were three clan chiefs, crofters, stalkers, farmers, servicemen/women, nurses, doctors, ghillies and a whole cross section of Highland people. Right then, I think you have an idea of the wedding scene.

"What were the men wearing?" I hear you ask. Well, I counted 86 kilts, all of the traditional style. All were worn at about top of the knee height, most wore tweed Argyll type jackets, mainly with waistcoats, with green and brown being the common colours with the odd charcoal ones being worn by the younger generation and the occasional pullover too. Interestingly there were NO "silver" buttons insight. All the sporrans were leather(no animal fur) day wear, mainly black but some brown, and matching shoes. I saw very few ghillie brouges and thank goodness no white hose! The other interesting thing was that no bonnets were in sight and no plaids either. I did also spy 3 pairs of tartan trews.

The lassies were wonderfully dressed too, but interstingly they all chose not to wear any tartan at all. All sorts of floaty stuff,tweed,silk etc., mini skirts(thank goodness!), long dresses,trousers and for them, also, not a bonnet in sight.

All in all a very happy day and night!

[Beertigger]

Thanks for the report, Jock!

I take it this was a day-time wedding, w/ the festivities continuing on into the night?

[Jock Scot]

Thanks for the report, Jock!

I take it this was a day-time wedding, w/ the festivities continuing on into the night?

The service was at 1630hrs( by a waterfall) and then proceeded from there. I have just driven past the barn and it is still going on!

[Carolina Kiltman]

Sounds like a really gala affair. Thanks for the report.

[Howard Clark]

Thanks for the information. Very informative.

[McMurdo]

That sounds just about how I would expect it, I'm sure the tartans were all various Clan tartans as well, you wouldn't happen to have any photos would you?

[Birddog]

Great report, with an eye for the details! Very informative. I find the all leather day sporrans interesting. I wonder if this was just a choice for this wedding, or if it might indicate a trend.

[starbkjrus]

The service was at 1630hrs( by a waterfall) and then proceeded from there. I have just driven past the barn and it is still going on!

Now this sounds like my kind of wedding!


Thanks for the info, Jock.

[Jock Scot]

Great report, with an eye for the details! Very informative. I find the all leather day sporrans interesting. I wonder if this was just a choice for this wedding, or if it might indicate a trend.

The leather day sporran is standard practice up here as is the tweed Argyll which does for everything from BBQ's to meeting the Queen. I think the tweed Argyll bit all goes back to the days of no central heating, no double glaizing, draughts and continual damp in the Highland houses(there are still plenty of places like that!) so people wore the warmest thing they could find----tweed.Common sense above fashion and it has stuck up here! So, no need for fancy sporrans! In fact we, up here, don't go in for all this agonising over what goes with that and what time of day or night the event will be----- its tweed and leather sporran------out of the Highlands a wee tad more "head bending" is required!

Sorry McMurdo, I thought that it would not be right to take and publish pictures of people who had not consented to that.

[Hamish]

A perfect description of a wonderful occasion, Jock. The choices of clothing as worn by the men are just as I would have expected for a day-time country wedding - tweed jackets (with horn rather than silver buttons) and all-leather day sporrans. I have long been of the opinion that day sporrans should be of plain leather, not fur fronted.

Ghillie brogues (ghastly things!) should be seen only after twilight or with full dress wear, certainly not with tweeds!

These are my opinions, of course, but they also reflect the traditional etiquetteI was brought up to follow over 50 years ago. So often nowadays, one sees weddings where the men are so overdressed they resemble Christmas trees. Such a shame - there is beauty in simplicity!

Take care,
Ham.

[PS: I am still in Welsh Wales, enjoying Derek and Elaine's warm hospitality. Fortunately, they have now stopped giving me all those domestic chores - of which there will be plenty of my own when I return home!!]