Celebration - A Runaway Marriage!

Who doesn’t like a celebration of one sort or another? A time for merriment, gladness, a sense of positivity and the feeling of “joie de vivre”.

Dictionaries list a myriad of events which are classified as a “celebration” mostly determining happy occasions but these days it is popular to celebrate the life of a loved individual on their passing from physical existence. In essence, to celebrate is to pay tribute to the good times in our lives, to the moments we remember mostly allowing us to reminisce years thereafter; memories which flood back with clear detail, allowing us to visualise in one’s own mind as though it was just yesterday.

I’ve been fortunate to have experienced many different types of celebration in my life to date and, hopefully, many still to come. But there’s one celebration I will never forget.

The 6th September 1979 was the day. A celebratory marriage day which will not easily be forgotten.

My fiancée, Michael, and I were both Registered Nurses working shifts in a busy teaching hospital and the stress of arranging wedding plans was starting to take its worst on our mental health. Arguing parents with conflicting ideas and interests without agreement of the “important couple” was a constant battle and all totally irrelevant in our eyes. So, we made the earth-shattering decision to leave all this grief behind us and – elope to Gretna Green!

Why Gretna? Well, the history of sensational runaway marriages was one reason but the freedom to make our own decision and be married in, what was then, a quiet old-fashioned village with no fuss, seemed an idyllic setting to start our new life together.

We were determined that no one would be told of our plans and that was the case except Michael bottled out and told his dentist, but we both thought, really that didn’t count. As both of us had not formally requested any annual leave, the best time off from work we could get was 2 days, which meant finishing an early shift at 4pm on a Wednesday, wedding day Thursday, honeymoon Friday, then back to work at 2pm on the Saturday for a late shift.

Of course, it all had to be arranged at a minimum of 6 weeks in advance, to allow the banns to be displayed, hotel booked, arrange the Registrar, a photographer and all this to be done under a veil of secrecy. We would still prepare for the day like a traditional wedding with the white wedding dress, bouquet of pink carnations, etc but without any outside interference, which all went perfectly until the day itself.

It rained – oh, how it rained! The car journey turned into a nightmare. We were held up with roadworks outside Edinburgh making time impossibly short. I remember crying all the way down to the Borders! Then suddenly the rain stopped and the sun burst through the disappearing clouds like we were being given a good omen. We found the small private hotel with little time to spare to prepare ourselves for our life-changing event and get back in the car to the registrar’s office. Then, big problem! In my haste to travel, I forgot to pack my white silk wedding shoes, there was no parking nearby and we could see the Registrar and photographer anxiously looking out for us as we were late.

So, there we were, likely the only couple ever to be seen running down the main street of Gretna in full wedding attire with the bride wearing red sandals and the groom looking like a frantic 1970’s hippy.

As we arrived alone, the photographer pulled in two of the most, ugly people he could probably ever find from the gathering crowd, which the official photographs will testify, then the ceremony took place, all the while, I kept thinking, “My Mother’s going to kill me!”

After the ceremony it was time for the bulk of the photographs to be taken at the blacksmith’s shop, which by this time being mid-afternoon, attracted quite a crowd including 2 coach loads of German and Italian tourists who thought we were dramatizing a wedding over the blacksmith’s anvil especially for them. Our photographs must have been viewed by hundreds of people from all over Europe by now.

The proprietor of the small hotel we had checked into had some “celebratory drinks” awaiting our return and by the looks of things he had been toasting us “the happy couple” throughout the afternoon, ensuring us it was just one or two “brighteners” as it was a special occasion!

Later, after all the excitement, Michael had the daunting task of informing family and friends of our marriage which was met with the expected dismay and mixed responses including, ‘Well that’s not going to last!’

Well, 41 years later as I write this, we are living proof that the celebration of marriage isn’t all about arranging a fancy event which cost a king’s ransom to satisfy the needs of others, it’s about facing the demands that life throws at you, together.

The year 2020 presented its own challenges globally due to the presence of the COVID-19 , making celebrations of any kind out of the question for everyone (with the exception of a few renegades), but it has demonstrated how resilient we can actually be. We accept the abnormal and change our life patterns accordingly to weather the storm, but we also can see the light at the end of the tunnel and the day will come again when we can celebrate all the good things in life.