Five Canines & A Castle| David & Teresa

BY TERESA BUCHAN | PHOTOGRAPHY BY GREGG GILLIGAN

David and I had an absolutely amazing all-vegan wedding. Even before we actually got engaged, whenever we talked about the idea of a wedding, it was always a given that our wedding would be all vegan. When we looked at potential venues, the question whether the venue would be happy to cater for us completely cruelty free, was one of the key points along with being dog friendly.

An important factor as our guest list also included five canine guests: Munro and Lui, our dogs of honour and Alfie, the King Charles Spaniel; Aurora, the pug and Vivi, the German Shepherd. We also had guests from Germany, Denmark, Canada and various distances in Scotland.

WEDDING ATTIRE

My dress is a beautiful Maggie Soterro piece which was amended to my taste by Lorna Forbes, our local dress designer.

My bouquet was not traditionally made with flowers; instead, I handcrafted a button bouquet. I used a polystyrene ball and used many different buttons given to me from family and friends. Many of the buttons were from my grandma Oma Toni and also from David’s grandparents and because the buttons came from so many people the bouquet contained a piece from everyone which made it even more special. It also had feathers in it from Patrick, the African Grey parrot; an old feathered friend of mine.

David’s kilt was hand-made from polyester fabric in House of Tartan in Comrie, Perthshire, as we could not use a traditional kilt as they are made with sheep’s wool. His jacket and waistcoat were also made from polyester and he wore non-wool socks. David’s sporran was made from artificial leather and artificial fur. His shoes were black brogues from Vegetarian Shoes and complimented his outfit perfectly.

OUR CEREMONY

As our first dance song, we chose “The Best of My love” by “The Eagles”.

THE MENU

Bill, the manager at Kilconquhar Castle, was immediately very open and accommodating to the idea and had asked us for suggestions closer to the time. We then got a further surprise when we went to visit the castle for a chat and to catch up with Bill, when he had arranged a surprise food tasting: The chef had experimented in the kitchen and presented us with a choice of two starters and two mains. All options were wonderful and even though we had a slightly different menu in mind ourselves, we stuck with the chef’s ideas.

Our two options for the starters were: Carrot & Coriander Soup and a warm beetroot salad with smoked nuts. Our two options for the mains were: Vegetable strudel served with steamed new potatoes and seasonal veg and Mediterranean vegetable crumble. Our choice of dessert was a vegan tiramisu. As a late night snack, we had veggie haggis, neeps, and tatties. All wines and champagnes were vegan and Bill had provided the bar with vegan only beverages.

In general, we would say it was fairly simple to find a venue who was happy to cater to our vegan wedding. Throughout the wedding planning and when it became more clear to the guests that there would be no animal ingredients served, we received the typical unwelcome comments, of course. Roughly about half of the party were vegan or vegetarian anyway and the majority of guests were fine with the plant-based feed; however, a small handful of people made their negative remarks about vegan food. Those remarks would have been along the lines of asking why we wouldn’t cater to the meat eaters when in comparison a meat eater wedding would happily cater for veggies and vegans. We could, of course, have done without those conversations but as vegans, we are pretty much used to it anyway. The other classic question would have been what it could possibly be that will be served and is it all vegan? When the menu choices were then explained people seemed surprised at the ‘normality’ of the dishes (I suppose they must have expected us either to have served grass or some really fancy food).

These are just the general struggles us vegans have to cope with – the stereotypical comments from non-vegans.

Overall, people enjoyed the food very much and we received lots of positive feedback. Especially the tiramisu was popular and guests were asking for the chef’s recipe. The staff said to us that there hadn’t been as much waste as with traditional meals; they said generally people have cleared most of their plates which is seldom the case with meat-based dishes. Especially the veggie haggis, neeps and tatties which was served as our late night snack was a hit – a classic Scottish dish full of flavour and enjoyed by everyone.

Our wedding cake was a four-tier cake made by Emma from Missy’s Vegan Cupcakes based in Edinburgh. We had chosen four different flavours: Carrot cake, black forest gateux, chocolate orange and red velvet. Everyone loved the cake (but as it is apparently common we ended up taking most of the cake home and have it in the freezer).

Our table decorations were mostly handcrafted: The centerpieces were all individually crafted from ceramic plant holders and different hanging decorations. They had a sand base with shells from Montrose and St Cyrus beach to weigh them down and were placed on wood slices from my best friend’s firewood. As table numbers, we chose written out German numbers (e.g. Einundzwanzig = 21) written with chalk on a slate heart and hanging off a wooden cooking spoon. Our candle jars were handcrafted from pickle jars, old notepaper, and string by our friend Angela who used those at her own wedding a year ago. The tables also had love hearts scattered all over the place and each table had a sweetie jar with vegan sweets. One of our tables was dedicated to our beloved and sorely missed cat Pauline as we wanted her there with us on our wedding day.

ALL NATURAL FAVOURS

As wedding favours we had chosen laser-cut wooden love spoons (because I love Wales!) which had our names and wedding date engraved. We also had little personalised sixpence pieces and laser-cut wooden letters D&T scattered on the tables. Part of the wedding favors were also a packet of Walkers crisps for everyone as we figured by the time everyone sat down we’ll all be starving. As a special wedding favor for family members I had made little wood slices and used a wood burning pen to engrave. The tables had love hearts scattered all over the place and each table had a sweetie jar with vegan sweets. One of our tables was dedicated to our beloved and sorely missed cat Pauline as we wanted her there with us on our wedding day.

The feedback we got back from our guests was that everyone loved the wedding! Everyone enjoyed the ceremony – especially our guests from Germany who aren’t used to the Scottish traditions or a humanist ceremony. The piano and harp music was just beautiful and gave the ceremony a lovely touch. All guests had a lot of fun in our photo booth for which the queue never died down all night. The popcorn machine was another hit supplying the guests with sweet and salty popcorn. (Here we were very lucky indeed as we actually won the hire of the popcorn machine on Candy Corner’s Facebook page through one of those Like & Share competitions). The speeches were fantastic and entertaining and it seems that all the guests mingled well and got on nicely – especially when the dance floor opened!

All we can finally say is that our experience has been wonderful. The castle manager, all staff, photographers and all other people involved did a fantastic job making our day as special as it could have been. We had no difficulties organising an all vegan wedding – it took time to research it and iron out the details just as it would have for a non-vegan wedding. We can happily say that everyone was as accommodating as possible and our enjoyment was always their first priority. We are so grateful for all the help we have received from family members and friends – without their support our big day would not have been possible. A truly wonderful memory.