Some requests to conduct a wedding ceremony are just irresistible.

In the section marked location was the following “on a beach near Arisaig”. Mind you, that was three years ago and this was the third rescheduling of the date but we made it. So turning left off the Glenfinnan to Mallaig road, down through the campsite to park in a field and then through the dunes towards the sound of the best piper I have ever heard. You see, years ago, many years ago, Dougie was the lead piper with the Red Hot Chilli Pipers so any piper at his wedding was going to have to be better than good. Most of the rest of the original band were there as well all milling about, moving chairs and sorting stuff out.

Guests arrived, tramping through the dunes and then we waited for Eilidh and her bridesmaids. They were late. Of course. It is the bride’s prerogative after all.

Eilidh’s brother Donnie read for us.

“All of those conversations that were held in a car, or over a meal, or during long walks – all those conversations that began with, “When we’re married”, and continued with “I will” and “you will” and “we will” – all those late night talks that included “someday” and “somehow” and “maybe” – and all those promises that are unspoken matters of the heart. All these common things, and more, are the real process of a wedding. The symbolic vows that you are about to make are a way of saying to one another, “You know all those things that we’ve promised, and hoped, and dreamed – well, I meant it all, every word.”

We had a Handfasting and we drank from a Quaich.

It was magic.