The Hunt for a Venue

This took a while...

I'd originally imagined getting married in Glasgow uni chapel - seeing as we both met at the university. But neither of us were particularly keen on any reception venues in Glasgow. Gerard really wanted to get married somewhere that would mean a weekend away for our guests so that the celebrations could be extended somewhat and everyone could enjoy a bit of a holiday feeling at our wedding. But we still wanted the wedding to be in Scotland. Gerard suggested Aviemore - a village that means a lot to both us as we go there every year. The hotel that we first wanted to look at wasn't available on day that we suggested. We instead arranged to view the MacDonald hotel a few days after Christmas. That morning we were up early to prepare for the long drive. Rhona decided to come with us - the journey not putting her off giving her opinion on the venue.

We had a fantastic lunch in our favourite place - The Mountain cafe in Aviemore- before meeting with the venue's wedding co-ordinator. Unfortunately none of us were blown away by what the hotel had to offer. Mum was very keen that we have a look around at a few more venues before making any decisions, and suggested popping in to the Dunkeld Hilton on the way back down the road. It was then that I remembered that there is an impressive looking hotel at the top of a hill along the A9 (this was the limit of my knowledge of the place at the time). Mum told me this was the Atholl Palace in Pitlochry, about an hour from Aviemore and not out of the way at all to nip in and take a look. We phoned first and were told that the wedding co-ordinator wasn't working that evening but that we were welcome to come and have a look anyway.

We drove up the long winding driveway and were gobsmacked when we reached the front of the hotel - it was absolutely stunning. Before even getting inside Rhona turned to me and said, "If you don't get married here I will!" I knew it had the seal of approval then. Her opinion of the previous hotel had centred around her dislike of the carpet in their ballroom.

We were blown away by the Atholl Palace, and although Dunkeld was nice it was very much overshadowed. They would also only have been able to accommodate us in a marquee, which wasn't something we were willing to consider. The next morning we rang Megan, the wedding co-ordinator. When she said they were not available on our chosen date my heart sank. However she did suggest another weekend not long after - the first bank holiday weekend in May. We agreed this could be a possibility and we arranged to drive up again a few hours later to be shown around properly.

We settled on a package that will include reception drinks and canapes in a beautiful room overlooking the Glen, a four course dinner in the Atholl suite ballroom and drinks for dinner and the toast as well as an evening buffet. We also persuaded the venue to decorate the suite with fairy lights and throw in the chair covers to make the room look extra special. 

Start Spreading the News

I loved our few days in Dubai, keeping such an exciting secret to ourselves until we could officially tell everyone when we got home. After arriving home I arranged with mum and dad to chat to them on skype later on. After Gerard's phone call the week before they obviously knew what was coming but I couldn't wait to tell them anyway. Dad answered the skype and made some joking gestures to his ring finger whilst he called mum and Ailsa in. Everyone was so excited. Almost as soon as Ailsa heard she ran off to call her friend Emma. Mum told me to call Rhona on skype who was in her Glasgow flat. Rhona practically fell off the couch when we told her which all added to my own excitement. Mum said she was just desperate to give me a hug so we quickly looked online to price out flights for the next weekend. Discovering they weren't too bad  we booked a flying visit the next week and arranged for Gerard's family to come to my house for dinner on Saturday to celebrate.

After telling our families Gerard updated his facebook status and suddenly we were inundated with well-wishes.

On Friday night our plans were almost spoiled when our flight from London city was cancelled due to fog. Thankfully we were able to re-schedule to fly from Heathrow instead. Mum and dad collected us much later in Glasgow. When we got home we were all so excited we stayed up and made our way through two bottles of cava and didn't go to bed till 3 am.

In the morning Ailsa showed me the fabulous cake she had made for our engagement. It looked stunning and tasted delicious - madeira cake with white chocolate ganache, and hand-made sugar roses for decoration. After such a great gesture we asked her if she'd be willing to try a few more tiers and make our wedding cake for us.

We had a lovely, albeit brief, weekend with our families. Dinner was great and we loved seeing everyone. Gerard's Gran and my Nonna came through as well. My Granny and Grandad were on holiday and had no idea. I'd emailed them and asked them to call me whilst I was there but they hadn't received it. I called them as soon as they were home and they were both so happy.

The Ring and Farewell Dubai - Gerard's story

Leaving the Dusit was in itself quite sad because it was a fantastic hotel and all the  staff were superb but the ring awaited collection in Cara's. The taxi to was a pretty quiet affair because all we could think about was the ring.

When we got there it was just as busy as last time however our assistant immediately spotted us and his collegue took over his current sale to finalize ours. Out came the ring and Fiona was extatic. I had looked at the ring under a microscope so definately knew there had not been any dodgy switch although I did not expect it I still wanted to check! Fiona just had it on dazed in the sparkle!

The only sad part of that morning was handing over all that money. It hurt.

However to celebrate my new found poverty we headed to the Atlantis for our last night. I also upgraded us to the imperial lounge so we had access to food throughout the day and Champagne at night.

The great thing about the Atlantis is the free waterpark next to it. If I get away with it I will upload the pic of me and Fiona in one of the rides. Her face is hillarious.

Our flight left very late the next day so we just relaxed by the pool after what was possibly the best hotel breakfast I have ever had. They catered for all cultures so there was a British area (fry up), American (pancakes, chocolate fountain), Indian (Curry), Chinese  (I did not have this but Fiona liked it) and  all the usual items you would find in a French bakery.

Back to the UK. Operation Sparkle was a success and the fun of telling the families would soon follow.

The Wait for the Ring - Gerard's story

A full day to wait for the ring we pretty much distracted ourselves with as much as Dubai had to offer. First up was a trip to the Dubai mall to pick up a pair of sunnies (I had forgotten mine) before then heading to the Mall of the Emirates.

The Mall of the Emirates contains the biggest indoor ski slope in the world but the heat outside made us not particularly keen on this (although we did see some penguins). We did however take advantage of Shake Shack. An amazing burger place we discovered in NY that for some obscure reason made its way across to the UAE before EU. Very tasty.

After shake shack we went to the cinema to watch Skyfall. Great film. Sony had a competition outside the cinema which we both entered. It was very Bond. We had to enter the phone both and utter the phrase "The name's Bond....James Bond" and if the doors to the Aston Martin opened you won. Unbelievably Fiona had the better bond voice and won a 007 hat.

Afterwards it was back to the Burj Khalifa and the Dusit for the last night before picking the ring up and heading to the Atlantis hotel.

The Hunt for a Ring: Gerard's story

For three nights we were staying in the Dusit Thani hotel right next to the Burj Khalifa. We had been to Dubai before so we knew that we can pay a little extra for an upgrade to get breakfast, happy hour drinks and dinner. I had also contacted them before hand to tell them the occasion. They were all top class and had scattered rose petals everywhere  built a swan towel and provided a complimentary box of chocolates.

We were still full of adrenaline and Fiona was desperate to begin the hunt for the ring so we began operation sparkle. Operation Sparkle was the code folder I made in my gmail account which contained all my research into diamonds. This included the design I wanted, tips on looking at diamonds through a microscope, the importance of the four Cs and where the best place to go were and what other people had recommended. http://www.truthaboutdiamonds.com and http://www.jamesallen.com/ were the inspiration and sources for all of this. Below was the design I had in mind!

Fiona had mentioned a lot over the past year what she wanted in a ring: two sapphires with the diamond centre. So this was what I based all my thoughts own. I actually preferred pear sapphires to make it look slick and lead into the diamond which is the design she ended up choosing.

The shop that was recommended on the web was Cara's in the gold and diamond park. Of course we were both nervous still as we knew no-one that had done this before but our concerns were alievieated when we saw how busy the shop actually was.

We were given our own booth and assistant who asked us what we were after. I explained the exact size and spec diamond I was after and he proceeded to get a massive photo album esque book containing nothing but diamonds. It was like dealing with cards as Fiona flicked through the different diamonds. They were in a credit card casing with the attributes for each diamond. I estimate the $ worth for that one album to be around 500K (it was a big book). The scariest thing was that was one album in an entire bookcase.

Fiona was flicking through all the diamonds and she was in here element. Clearly she was looking for the sparkle factor so the cut was more important to her than anything else. There was one diamond that stood out to the both of us  which none of the others matched and we were done. Well not quite.

Next up we had to choose the pair of sapphires. We were advised to choose them to be of equal size and shape as possible and their jewlers will shape accordingly. This did not take long. Fiona being Fiona insisted on a platinum band and then we were ready to negotiate and haggle!

This took a very long time. I asked for a calculator to slow down the negotiation so I could find it "easy to translate to GBP" but really the longer it goes on the more it plays in my favour as they have a vested interest to complete the sale and move onto the next customer. It really was a busy shop.

We narrowed and narrowed our differences and once we were within the "call" range I went for it and said the phrase lets shake on it for x. Deal done and once I paid the deposit we were told it would be ready in two days.

I was not 100% sure until we got out of the shop whether or not Fiona was definately happy and I was delighted to hear she was ecstatic. Operation sparkle was over and I had done it!

The Flight: Gerard's story

Our flight was not till 10pm the next day so I was working the next day. You can imagine that we got very little sleep that night as we were both very excited about the holiday, finding the ring and planning the big day.

The one thing which plagued my mind all day was not getting Stephen's permission. I tried calling several times that day but again could not get through. Eventually in the terminal I decided to call their home phone but I had to come up with a story as an excuse to speak to Stephen if Sheena were to answer.

Of course she did and I made up a story about looking at ipad prices and wanted his opinion. When I did answer I asked him to go into a separate room and asked him. If I am brutally honest I expected him to wind me up and ask me loads of questions about why he should give his blessing etc but he did not and sounded absolutely delighted. I asked him to keep it a secret until we got back but to feel free to speak to Sheena.

Now I could relax and look forward to my holiday. I wonderful surprise was that because the Abu Dhabi grand prix was on that weekend the flight was full and due to all those lovely air miles I built up with BA we were upgraded. A smooth flight with once again very little sleep and we were in Dubai. 7am but still wide awake.

The Proposal: Fiona's story

So Gerard came up with an idea to use my study leave in November to go to Dubai for a few days. With my first Master's essay looming I was reluctant to give up so much time. After talking endlessly with some girls from uni they convinced me that I could do it and so we booked up.

The night before we left I was sitting at home on my own - finishing off my dinner before beginning the task of packing. Gerard came back and called to me from the hallway that he had a surprise for me. He presented me with my coat that he had kept at his work for months! I began laughing as it was past the season for wearing it by now. He then asked me to close my eyes again but told me to stand up this time. When I opened my eyes he was down on one knee - a bunch of white roses in his hands and he popped the question! I was so shocked my first response was "Are you serious?" although I did say yes immediately after. We opened the champagne and searched online for ring designs to have an idea what to buy when we arrived in Dubai.

We kept the secret to ourselves for the next week and had a ball in Dubai, very excited to tell our family and friends when we returned. Gerard's research paid off as we made our way to the Gold and Diamond Park to a shop called Cara. The counters were crowded with customers but we were made welcome and spent a good couple of hours sitting chatting to the jewellery designer. He offered us a choice of diamonds within a similar price range and both of us spotted our one at once. We then had a long discussion about the design of the ring and picked the sapphire stones as well before Gerard began price negotiations with the jeweller. A few anxiety-ridden but enjoyable days later we returned to the shop to collect my ring.It was perfect -exactly as I had pictured and fit exactly. I couldn't wait to show it off!

The Proposal: Gerard's story

Better late than never. After the magic number 7 years I had always planned to propose to Fiona. Knowing Fiona so well I decided I would be safer for her to have a big choice in the ring but I wanted to be a bit different and have it built for us. Research told me that Dubai was a great place to do this both for cost and quality.

Now the problem I had was getting Fiona to commit to taking a holiday to Dubai during her course time. For so long she dithered and left me hanging on whether or not she would agree to a trip. Can you imagine the anguish I was going through? Finally after much negotiation she agreed to go on a 5 day trip in November. I was so happy and she had no idea what was coming.

I decided to propose the day before we were due to fly. This day was perhaps the most stressful day of my life. Not only did Stephen (father of bride to be) not answer his phone but I was dealing with several production issues with our trading systems which left me working very late. On top of this the tube was also operating with minor delays so by the time I got out into Camden I had missed my chance to buy a cheap ring from Argos as a place holder for the real thing.

I decided to improvise and head to M&S and buy some flowers. I had never bought Fiona flowers before as I think they are a big waste of money (they are just going to die within a couple of days) so I was in the shop for at least half an hour deciding on which ones to go for. I know there were several she does not like the smell of so I went for the safe option and grabbed some white roses and a bottle of champagne.

To make it seem more of a surprise I finally picked up her jacket that was in repair for a few months but had been too lazy to get it. I made her close her eyes and presented the jacket. After which I made her close her eyes and stand up. Then I got down on one knee with the flowers and champagne. Thankfully she said yes and the true reason for going to Dubai became obvious!