Destination weddings in Scotland have become popular. Scotland has something of a reputation when it comes to quick and easy marriages. Up until 1939, when Scottish law abolished the practice, the rite of handfasting was a common and legitimate way to wed. The rite traditionally bound the couple for a year and a day and after that time, the couple were free to renew their vows or go their own ways without any guilt.
During the days of the Regency, English couples would rush across the border to the Scottish town of Gretna Green to elope, making it a popular choice for determined aristocrats and underage lovers (Scotland’s age of consent is 16).
Today, Scotland is a still popular wedding destination for people who want to get married without much fuss, albeit for a rather different reason: unlike the more restrictive residency requirements of England and Ireland, Scotland has no residency requirements whatsoever, though 15 days is required for the banns to be posted.
Scotland has thus become the de facto wedding location for international couples who want to have a destination wedding in the United Kingdom without having to put up with the stuffier requirements of Scotland’s fellow nations.
In addition to the legal ease of weddings in Scotland, the country also offers its own touch of romance and magic to the wedding. Scotland is famous for its jaw-dropping beauty, what with its endless reaches of heather-covered moors, deep still lochs and majestic ruined castles.
Also, weddings in Scotland are rather in vogue at the moment, as many couples follow the footstep of celebrities such as Madonna, Stella McCartney and Kirsty Hume, who all chose to tie the knot there.
Most weddings in Scotland occur in a church, and there are an abundance of historic churches to choose from. For a more unusual ceremony, there are also plenty of places available; the rocky beach of a quiet loch, a heather-scented hillside, even in a picturesque little cottage. Gretna Green, with its history of forbidden romance, secrecy and thrilling escape, is still a very popular place to marry, accounting for a whopping 17 percent of all weddings in
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Scotland!
For sheer beauty and romance however, there’s very little that can beat a castle wedding. Fortunately, Scotland is one of the few countries in which castles are not only available for public hire, but are even reasonably priced for wedding parties!
A few of the these, such as Inverlochy Castle and Culcruech Castle, are set up as hotels and offer wedding packages which include rental of the entire building and the services of an experienced wedding planner to make the arrangements for the ceremony and reception. Weddings at these locations can start from as low as EUR 1500, depending on how simple or elaborate the bridal couple wish it to be. Marriages held in castles or outside locations have usually been religious ceremonies conducted by a minister, priest or other such member of the clergy, though recent law changes means that a civil ceremony can now also be held outside, rather confined to a stuffy old registrar’s office.
Strangely enough, the only stipulation for a civil ceremony is that the wedding must have held at one specific location; if you choose to get married on anything that moves, such as a boat, plane, train, car or bus, you must be stationary for the actual ceremony! Incidentally, the law changes has made it so that couple may now also choose to go through the rite of handfasting, if the ceremony is conducted by an authorised Pagan.
Other than the usual round of paperwork to be filed with the registry office, weddings in Scotland are about as fast and simple as you can ever hope it to be in Europe. About the only cautionary note related to Scotland is that an international couple should remember to register the wedding in their country of residence for it to be legal, or they may go through the same hassle Jerry Hall did when she was divorcing Mick Jagger.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
