Wedding Troop at Loch Ness 3rs September 2011

Friday 2nd Sept found Ian and I waiting for Craig to arrive so we could pack up and ship out,  good job we had the Top Box on the car, without it we'd never had fit everything in! But we managed and off we set on our way to Inverness, a long drive ahead but with Craig's chatter and all the stories we had a great drive up, often mentioning Nigel on the way, lots of comments we know he have enjoyed, you know the type, 'I can fit it all in no problem' etc!! We stopped once along the way for a 'wee' break (when in Scotland) then we decided once we got near to Inverness that perhaps we'd not been in the car long enough, so set ourselves a mission to catch the Sunset over Loch Ness, so off we went chasing the sun as it went down over Urquhart Castle (sneaking in through the NO ENTRY gates) to get a few sneaky pics! Which I will attempt to add one now! here goes...

Breaking in!!!!

 Mission accomplished We're in and we got our Sunset.

Eventually we made it to our Hotel, a quick unpack, few texts exchanged with Louise (our bride) and we met both Louise and Ade (hubby to be) at the pub for a heads up of what's happening, I'll just go off on a tangent here and say ooooh the Snow Goose meals were out of this world, fantastic food!! We were all stuffed! Anyway, enough of the food, meeting Louise and Ade was great, a lovely couple who gave us their ideas of what they wanted us to do for the wedding, they gave us a little keyring Stormtroooper with a ribbon tied on with their names and wedding date on, love them, so kind and they're so cute :). Once we'd sorted out, off we all went for an early night....I don't think Louise slept much, we received Postcode by text at 1.30 in the morning.....

Saturday morning, bit of a lie in then a walk around town, we gave up the idea of catching the sunrise, can't imagine why! Inverness was lovely, warm and sunny as we wandered about, found a small Market where we ha a good mooch about, Craig got chatting to someone about religion, that was him lost for half an hour! After he totally confused the woman, we headed back to get out kit, time to Troop.....bit of a sticky moment at the traffic lights, TEN minutes we sat waiting!!!!!!! C'mon, don't they know we had a wedding to attend? We found the Hotel, tucked away and wow, how gorgeous it was, we were greeted by Ade, who introduced us as the other musicians who were playing later,...nobody knew were were going to be there, I loved it, fab idea! Ade showed us to our room where we were to get changed, bless, they let us use their Bridal Room to get ready, gorgeous room with the most amazing view, but no time to wait, we had to get ready, me in the Loo, trying to hide while putting facepaint on with two windows in there, had a major panic when the paint I use stained the sink, just don't ask me what I scrubbed it clean with!!!! 

Louise and Ade

Having got ready we sneaked down and waited outside the room the guests were in, Louise was very fashionably late, but we were entertained by a Hornet who decided to hang about oh er, he was a big un! Louise finally arrived and I have to say she was beautiful and amazingly she piped herself down the Aisle, wonderful! After their ceremony as they left that's when we were given our cue to go in and keep the guests in there, the reaction as we walked through the door was 'in Craig's words, Mega! They loved us, we did cause quite a stir, great fun and more so that a lot are Star Wars fans, we even had someone doing Wookie noise, brilliant...finally the guests were allowed to leave and that's when we got to mingle, fabulous friendly people, musicians were there playing and were fantastic too, then of course we had TARTAN TROOPER, Ian came down with a Kilt over his Stormie (courtesy of Louise and Ade) as if they didn't have enough to do, they took time out to bring a couple of kilts and a Busby (photo opportunities)....Some fun with the kilt as our Stormie was checked out under the Kilt to see if he was a true Scott, thank god for the undersuit  ;O). 

Checking the tackle!!

On his wandering to the next room with all the guys in, he was told his kilt was wrong way round so he was jiggled about and his sporran moved etc until he was suitably dressed in the correct way! After many photo's, which we were included in the wedding pics, great fun, it was time for everyone to eat, we were in a room with the photographer and his assistant,great sitting in purple facepaint in my civvies! Fabulous meal, just to make you all jealous, all 3 courses of fabulous wedding food and in fabulous surroundings, totally fantastic...

Later we were to be ready for 7.00 to greet the evening guests, again, all friendly and all loved us, plenty of photo opportunities, I have to say, John the photographer was great, he enjoyed taking photo's, I have a sneaky susupicion some were more for him than anyone else..soon is was time to lead the Bride and Groom onto the Dancefloor for their first dance of the evening, ahhh it was lovely, we stood guard 'menacingly' as they danced, then come the next song, harassed the guests to get them up too, many of whom did get up and then as I looked on the dancefloor, there is Craig and a kilted young man getting jiggy with it and oh dear, another one, Ian getting jiggy with our Groom!!!!! after he'd got jiggy with the bride tut tut, that's when our wookie wannabe grabbed me for a dance too, all on a little video which most of you will have seen...if you haven't, take a look, it's brilliant, it's on my Facebook page. After the dance and a bit more wandering it was time to leave, so half 9 we finished, back to Hotel to shower quickly and back to spend the night with the wedding party, we were invited back which was a lovely gesture and how many guests came up and said how wonderful we were and what a great day they'd had, I'd say the whole day was a resounding success, hence the length of this blog, I do apologise and top marks if you got this far!!! my butt is numb sitting here doing this I can tell you!... After our return we were treat to Stovies, none of us had every had Stovies, but we all enjoyed it, with some Oatcakes? (I think that's what they were) very hearty and warming, then it was time to get up and dance, Ceilidh style I think it was, Craig got up for this, as the band played, they danced, Ian and I got up to try a Jig too but the couple we paired with legged it so we missed that one, but never mind, all good fun,  and not a pop song in sight, our first experience of a Highland Wedding and I have to say, the best wedding I've ever been too and of course a MEGA troop at the same time......we loved it, the guests loved it and I do think Louise and Ade loved it too....phew, blog now over and out...

Nessie, we found him!!!

Actually no, it's not, well yes it is really, apart from our little visit next morning round Loch Ness to find Nessie, which we did,..not the real one of course, he was hiding I think! a few photo's of Loch Ness then headed home via Aviemore where we bought Haggis, now wondering what Craig's Emma did when Craig got his home! Mine is for Mark so he's having his tonight, oh and one more stop on the way home after seeing a sign for Ice cream, home made (farm made) 3 flavours in one tub and believe me when I say, it's a big tub, the girl says 'you'll only get a little of each'... A LITTLE? she's having a laugh? I think I skimmed half an inch off top of each before admitting defeat, Craig however managed to polish the whole lot off..way to go Craig!!  And there you go, finally home and exhausted but happy after an amazingly wonderful weekend Troop......thanks guys for being such fun and many thanks to the Bride and Groom, family, friends and Hotel Staff for their warm welcome.............

Marie, Ian and Craig ;)