All posts tagged Scotland

Secret And Beautiful Wedding Venues In Glasgow

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If you are having your Scottish wedding in Glasgow and you are looking for a more unusual type of wedding venue for your ceremony or reception, then any one of these beautiful wedding venues will be worth a look.

Trades Hall
Situated in the trendy Merchant City area of Glasgow, the Trades Hall is truly a hidden gem when it comes to wedding venues. Built around 1790, it is probably one of the most important historical building in Glasgow. Impressive, sumptuous, and elegant, it is a truly memorable venue to have a wedding. It can accommodate up to 230 for the wedding meal.

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
This massive Victorian building is arguably Scotland’s best art gallery and museum. It contains one of the most unique art collections in Europe with paintings by Picasso, Botticelli, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Millet, and Monet. The ground floor is a spectacular place to have a wedding and there are many great locations, inside and out, for wedding photographs.

The Barony
Owned by the Strathclyde University, The Barony is a spectacular, Victorian church with impressive architecture and imposing stained-glass windows. It is a truly magnificent and sumptuous venue for any wedding. It can accommodate up to 200 guest for the wedding meal and 350 for the evening reception.

The Tall Ship at Glasgow Harbour
The Glenshee is a romantic 19th century sailing ship berthed a Glasgow Harbour. The ship has been fully restored and is a popular venue for weddings and events. It can accommodate up to 216 people for the wedding breakfast and 350 for the wedding reception. What more could any swashbuckling bride or groom want?

House For An Art Lover
This beautiful house was designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in 1901 and is now one of Glasgow’s top visitor attractions. It is situated in Bellahouston Park and is next to a superb Victorian Walled Garden. It can seat 120 for the wedding meal and accommodate 130 for the evening reception. Mackintosh’s brief was “to design a House in a thoroughly modern style, where one can be lavishly entertained” and he certainly did that. It is a wonderful venue for smaller weddings.

People’s Palace and Winter Gardens
Situated in Glasgow Green, The People’s Palace is Glasgow’s social history museum. Attached to the Palace is The Winter Gardens, which is a large, elegant Victorian Glasshouse full of exotic, tropical plants. Directly outside the Winter Gardens is a grand driveway with the Doulton Fountain in the centre. It is the largest terracotta fountain in the world and is quite spectacular when lit up.

Glasgow University
Glasgow has one of Scotland’s oldest and most impressive Universities. The Cloisters and Chapel are breathtakingly beautiful and the Bute and Randolph Halls are architecturally magnificent. So, whether you are having a religious or civil wedding, Glasgow University can accommodate your dreams. The Bute Hall can seat up to 400 guests for the evening reception.

So, there we are. A selection of great wedding venues, that will suit any type of Scottish wedding and the most discerning of Scottish brides.

Interesting Wedding Night Rituals From Around The World

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Weddings are occasions of lasting traditions and rituals. All over the world, people’s beliefs, culture and history has affected this memorable event. It is common knowledge that wedding ceremonies are different all over the world, but did you know that the diversity extends even on the wedding night? Read this to know the interesting activities that couples, families and friends do before letting the newlyweds reach a night of wedding bliss!

It is customary in an American wedding for the bride and groom to hop into a get-away car with tin cans attached to the rear of the car, off to their secret honeymoon, immediately after the wedding. Did you know that this rooted from escaping a Celtic wedding night tradition?

In Gaelic cultures, it was a tradition for friends and family of the couple to mess with the couple’s wedding night. In the olden days, when couples spend their wedding night in a barn, girl friends of the bride would dress her for bed and ask each of the male guests to kiss her good night. The friends would do other things to prevent the groom from seeing her new wife. Even if the couple finally comes together, they would disturb the union by making noise outside the barn and even peep into the couple, while drinking the night away. The couple waits for everyone to get too drunk to eventually leave them alone. This kind of prank is something that newly weds want to get away from, thus, they keep their honeymoon destination a secret and speed away after the wedding.

More Celtic wedding night ritual come from Scotland: sleeping in the barn on the first night, sprinkling water on the marriage bed for luck and staying for a week with the bride’s parents before moving into the newlywed’s home.

The Germans and the French do a similar tradition of “disturbing” the wedding night, called Chiverie, known in the US as Shivaree. They make noise outside the place where the couple spends their first night together. Some even play around with the room where they will stay, like put plenty of balloons, spread food all over the bed, and hide alarm clock everywhere, just for fun.

The Romans believed that it was bad fortune when the bride stumbles when entering the newlywed’s house for the first time. Thus, after the wedding, male friends of the couple would carry her over the doorstep. At present, the groom is expected to do the job himself.

In Benin, western Africa, they value virginity. The bride’s mother rewards her with cash if she’s a virgin at their wedding night! In the morning, the sheets that the couples used are inspected for bloodstains. Some mothers even fly the flag out the window, showing off their daughter’s bloodstained nightgown. Seriously!

For the Chinese, at the night of the wedding, candles designed with a phoenix and a dragon is lit to drive the evil spirit away. The newlyweds will drink wine from goblets tied together with a red ribbon, while arms intertwined. Then the bride will be given half-raw dumplings, which symbolize prosperity.

Marquesasian (from Polynesia) brides have a notable wedding night ritual: they are expected to have sex with all the male guests and then saving the groom for last. Now that can make your wedding night … extremely unforgettable!

The Irish Grushie Or Wedding Scramble – A Celtic Tradition

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The Grushie or Wedding Scramble is a wedding tradition which comes to us probably from Scotland originally; Possibly, when they were seeking refuge in Ireland during one of their many wars with England. Before that, the influence was likely purely Irish, which was a favored place to hide from the English, lick their wounds and regroup. Prior to this, the tradition may have it’s influence from Rome. The Roman wedding tradition of paying by coin at various steps in the proceedings probably held some influence here. Since it was Rome who first brought the concept of coin to the Celtic tribes as a means of trying to corrupt them economically, this may have transmuted an earlier Celtic tradition.

The word Grushie in Scots means ‘healthy and thriving’, so in truth, this tradition is about prosperity and getting the bride and groom off to a good start. The best way to do that is by giving back a little. At the end of the ceremony as the bride and groom are to step into the carriage, the bride will throw her bouquet to see who may indeed be the next lucky bride.

Well for the men, there is the Grushie, which was traditionally a handful of coins tossed alongside the bouquet. The person who tossed it was generally related to the groom, his father, elder brother, sometimes the Best Man and even upon occasion the groom himself. There are different traditions for different places and times. Some places require thirteen coins; some require the highest denomination that can be readily afforded, while others recommend the least amount in denomination but the most in quantity. There are even some tales which talk about throwing bags of coins (small though they may be) while others sometimes talked of gifting them as party favors for each guest.

Today, Modern Grushies have survived and are often aimed at the children, where like a pinata falling, handfuls of candy, coins and small toys are tossed for them to scamper after, which is likely why in Scotland this tradition is now called a Scramble.

No matter what the source for this custom was, it is a useful and supportive tradition. It supports the cycle of prosperity for all concerned so in that sense it goes beyond merely the happy couple and moves into the wider community. In this sense it is also an honoring for the place and for the energies therein, always a strong sentiment for Celts of all tribes and affiliations.