10 of the most unusual weddings in Scotland

Generations of couples have crossed the border to get hitched at Gretna.

But many Scots have also come up with their own bizarre ways to celebrate their nuptials.

Here we present 10 of the most unusual Scots weddings.

1. Head for heights

Groom John Clark from Kirkintilloch took his wedding to Jackie Burns to new heights in 2011 when he arranged for them to jump out of a plane at 13,000ft on their big day. This was just one of many surprises that the groom arranged as part of BBC television show Don’t Tell the Bride. He also arranged for a Christmas-themed reception in their local miner’s club – although the wedding took place in the middle of the summer – complete with a nose-shaped wedding cake and cat-themed toilet seats.

2. Picture perfect

Claudio Crolla came up with an unusually romantic way to pop the question to his girlfriend, Emelia Colaluca. The romantic film buff spent hours making a four-minute marriage trailer then persuading bosses at the Cineworld cinema in Glasgow to play it before a screening of romantic comedy I Give it a Year. At the end of the trailer – which featured a montage of photos and videos of the couple – he proposed and luckily she said yes.

3. A recipe for romance

Marco Zonfrillo and his bride, Maria, decided that the kitchen really is the heart of the home and opted to get married in theirs. The couple from Ayr swapped vows in front of the kitchen sink with just seven guests looking on in 2013. The thrifty couple then partied the night away at their local bowling club. The groom prepared for the humanist ceremony by working a shift in his shop and then watching Bruce Springsteen DVDs with his best man.

4. Animal magic

Gillian McMillan from West Kilbride shunned traditional attendants when she married Gavin Wilson in Troon in 2012. The eccentric bride chose Lucky the sheep as her page boy and Fifi the miniature husky as her flower girl. The animal attendants became best friends after Fifi helped nurse Lucky back to health when he was struck down with hypothermia after being born prematurely.

5. Wrecking ball

In 1996, Edward Benson and Wendy Disberry said their vows underwater on top of an old wartime shipwreck in Ardmucknish Bay off Benderloch near Oban. Their ceremony on  a sunken Second World War munitions ship, the Breda, made them the first couple to tie the knot in the sea off Scotland. The bride wore a black and purple drysuit and the couple signed the register on board a support vessel to which their ceremony was relayed by a speaker system.

6. Bungee-jumping bride

Sarah Wilkinson from Bridge of Cally in Perthshire chose her wedding day to perform her first bungee jump. The dare-devil bride jumped 130ft from a bridge in a 1950s wedding dress and then just hours later donned a vintage rockabilly-style wedding dress to jump 40 metres backwards from Garry Bridge near Killiecrankie. Sarah’s husband, Kev, who is not an extreme sports fan, looked on in admiration as his bungee bride pulled off this unusual wedding-day stunt.

7. Lifeboat to the rescue

A lifeboat crew saved the big day for a couple who were getting married on Inchcolm island in the Firth of Forth. Bride Leigh Manson and Gregor Jamieson were horrified when they realised that the celebrant who was to conduct their ceremony was stranded on the pier at South Queensferry, rather than on board the ferry on which they were travelling to the island. The Queensferry RNLI agreed to lay on an exercise and whisked the tardy celebrant to the island in double quick time.

8. Phenomenal day

Luisa Prete and David Kennedy from Airdrie ensured their big day at Glenskirlie Castle in Stirlingshire was a ‘phenomenal’ success by choosing an Irn-Bru theme for their wedding. The fizzy drink-loving couple and their friends enjoyed an Irn-Bru flavoured wedding cake before the Irn-Bru double decker bus whisked them off to Glasgow Airport to fly to New York for their honeymoon.

9. Never too old

Scotland’s oldest newlyweds tied the knot in November 2013 at their local parish church in Leith, Edinburgh. Jane Pollock (90) and Bill Burnett (87) had lived together for 30 years before finally deciding to make their relationship official.

10. The £1 wedding

Georgina Porteous and Sid Innes bucked the trend for extravagant marriages by spending just £1 on their Highland wedding. The thrifty couple from Inverness paid the £70 statutory fee for their ceremony, but their only other expenditure was £1 for Georgina’s vintage wedding dress. The groom wore his old tweed suit, the bride made the wedding rings from antlers, the bride’s mum conducted the ceremony and the couple were pronounced husband and wife by a local minister who offered his services free of charge. The ceremony was held in a barn decked out in wild flowers and hay bales and the guests brought along their own food and drink.