Just Married
The big day!
We awoke and went down for breakfast to find that Caroline and Iain had got us a card and present for our wedding day. How lovely. It was amazingly nice of them. It was a wooden picture frame. We made arrangements to leave the dress and my suit there until we needed them after lunch and the, after breakfast, we walked into Ayr so that Alicea could get her hair and make-up done.
While she was doing that, I wandered around the town, returning to the B&B around midday. Alicea phoned shortly after to say she was done and I went to pick her up. We returned to the B&B to pay and say our goodbyes and got big cuddles from Caroline, the landlady. We then left for Troon where we had to pick the flowers up. That done, we drove to Culzean, stopping en-route to get some hairspray. The weather was staying dry, but getting very windy.
We arrived at Culzean and were met by Gordon who informed me that he was to be my best man. We were shown up to the Eisenhower apartment and given a quick tour by Kelly Jo, who was arranging afternoon tea and dinner for the evening. I then got changed and went to wait in the drawing room where an afternoon cream tea and cakes was waiting for us. After eating some scones, jam and cream Alicea went back to the bedroom to get changed.
Denise, the registrar, and Robert, the photographer arrived, along with Isabelle who was to be our other witness. Gordon is quite a character and along with Robert and Denise kept the banter light and relaxed while we waited for Alicea. At one point Denise even ended up doing an impression of the Monty Python knights 'galloping'.
At 4pm, Alicea arrived looking absolutely beautiful and the ceremony began. I was quite nervous and concentrated on getting my words right, all the time thinking how wonderful my bride looked. Alicea was quite nervous too I think as she got my forenames around the wrong way, but quickly corrected herself. Once we were pronounced husband and wife Alicea's eyes filled with tears (of happiness I hope) and I gave her a big kiss. Robert had been taking pictures throughout the ceremony but to be honest I'd hardly noticed as he kept out of the way. We signed the register, had some photos with Gordon, Isabelle and Denise and it was time for Robert to do his stuff.
I was really pleased that we picked Robert to do the photos, as he new the castle very well and also knew the people that ran it. This meant that he knew the best locations to take the photos and also managed to get into other parts of the castle. We had quite a few pictures taken outside, but it started to rain before we had a chance to go to the beach to have some pictures taken there. Once Robert had finished, he left and we then had some time to relax before dinner was served.
We had a drink - Alicea had a gin & tonic and I had a whisky - and we decided to phone our parents. They were all thrilled with the news. We put some music on the CD player and had a dance, but the player kept switching itself off.
At around 7.30 we went into the dining room where we were served Cheese Souffle and Stuffed Peppers for starters (which we shared) Alicea had Sea Bass and I had Vegetable Pie for main and a chocolate torte for sweet. This was accompanied by wine.
Once we had finished dinner we sat in the lounge for a while, in front of the fire that they had lit. By this time, we were on our own in the castle. There was a weird moment when the door opened and nobody came in – perhaps the castle has a ghost!
After the fire had started to die down, we went to bed.
