Gillian entered with this story;
"Mark and I met while we were at Glasgow University together studying Politics.
I am an Essex girl by heritage, but grew up in East Fife, and he's a 'rugged hometown boy' from Pennsylvania, USA. I'm a liberal politics nerd, and he went to Military School in North Carolina. I have a little white cat, he owns a bulldog. I like vegetable soup, he likes steak. But somehow we work and we make a great team.
When we finished our uni courses last year, we both had to move back in with our parents in order to find jobs, (start to) pay back our student debts and figure out the rest of of our lives.... this means being 3336 miles apart!
We chat and share and connect through Skype, emails, letters and postcards, with regular phone and video calls when we can. I went out to the States for Christmas 2009, where I met his family and he proposed.
We're having the wedding here in Scotland, in St Salvator's Chapel in St Andrews, where my parents got married. He's wearing a kilt, my mum is making my dress, his parents are getting passports especially for the occasion, which will be their first ever trip to Europe. Our Scottish guests are going to have to teach their American and English counterparts how to Strip the Willow like the best of them!
We've got a lot of planning and arranging to do, and after the wedding, it won't stop there. We're not even sure yet if we'll have a honeymoon, because after we get married, we need to start the lengthy, complicated (and expensive) visa process so we can eventually be together. We're hoping to move to the States and pursue politically nerdy careers, so there is a lot hanging in the air, yet we're just going with the flow and taking it as it comes.
I think we should win your fabulous competition, because our wedding is going to be a colourful amalgamation of our lives that span the width of the western hemisphere and will come together for this one spring day in St Andrews. It's be a wonderful honour to have a fun and gorgeous document of the first step in our transatlantic lives together!"
They came out winners and I photographed their big day, which certainly lived up to my expectations as being something a little different......
I started at a St Andrews B&B with the girls in the morning, where the vintage theme sprung out at me immediately. The dresses made by Mum were gorgeous, and the shoes; vintage blue for the bride, Irregular Choice Union Jack's for the chief bridemaid!
