In just over a year I’ll be getting married. August 2, 2025, which, as I write, is a smidge under 365 days away. I proposed to my partner of two years in the Spring, on a trip to Chicago.
The ‘Windy City’ was blowing favourably that day, and she said ‘yes’ on a pier on Lake Michigan, as the fog descended and shrouded us from Chicago’s skyscrapers. We got home to Aberdeen after a wonderful week and wedding planning began in earnest. What, when and who gets an invite, but firstly where the whole shebang should be.
Now, I am an Aberdeenshire loon through and through, and though I’ve now lived in the city for longer than I lived in the sticks, there was never any choice about where the venue should be. Somewhere in our majestic Aberdeenshire countryside would make for the perfect wedding day. An Aberdeenshire wedding was always on the cards, but where? Would it be the Buchan coast, where I grew up? In-land, through Historic Banffshire? Garioch or Gordon; or Deeside or Strathdon, with their flowing, rolling hills? We, by which I mean my fiance and I, as well as everyone in the north-east, are very lucky.
We are spoiled for choice for venues and landscapes for our most romantic days. After running up a shortlist of nearly 20 venues and viewing seven of them we settled on the beautiful A Baronial castle, with beautiful views of Kincardine and the Mearns at the foot of the Mounth, the Wiki page claims it may have been the first house in Scotland to have electric lightin.