Dayna & Dan met through two mutual friends. Dan proposed to Dayna when they were at home celebrating an accomplishment of Dayna’s. Dayna told us “toasting to whatever it was, he kind of just handed me the ring. We went out to dinner afterwards to celebrate.”
Both Dayna’s engagement ring and wedding band belonged to her late Grandmother on my mother’s side. When Dayna was 11 years old, her grandparents took her on holiday from the US to Scotland. She recalls “We met my cousins in London and then all took a train up Scotland. It is probably one of my fondest memories of childhood and I thought it would be special to honour them as we exchanged their rings by choosing Scotland as the wedding location”. Fernie Castle was chosen as the wedding venue and Dayna told us “they went above and beyond my expectations. I was easy to see that weddings are their speciality and they had every last detail down to a science.”
Because Dayna was coming from overseas, she was unsure about booking professional hair and makeup without the opportunity to meet up and practice how she envisioned each to look. So as Dayna told us”the makeup was actually just some version of my daily face and for my hair I had my Mom accompany me to my regular hair dresser where we found a simple version of the hairstyle I liked that she could replicate. She did a great job and it looked exactly the way I wanted even though under stress she had to redo it a couple a times.”
Dayna bought her dress from a local shop to her in Denver called Angela’s Bridal. She told us “I chose it because it seemed simple yet unique and easy to get to Scotland (at that point we were unsure if we were going to try and carry it on the plane or ship it before the wedding). I loved the black embroidery and the lace up back.” She wore a black feather hair piece which her best friend had given her (the same friend that introduced Dan & Dayna) and an opal pin my grandmother left to me. Dayna said “Opal is my birthstone and she always wanted me to have things that represented that.”
Dan wore a tux for their wedding which he had bought in the States.
Quality pictures were one of the most important things for Dayna when she began to plan and she found Archibald Photography online. She told us “It was actually the first website I looked at when I was sort of “unofficially” google searching. The pictures on your website stood out through the whole planning process so when the time came to book a photographer, although I looked at other websites, the choice was simple.”
Dayna told us “the best thing about the day was that I got to marry my best friend. I loved how small and intimate the ceremony was. My brother married us which was special and I was able to spend time with both my parents before the ceremony (my mom did my hair and I had tea with my dad, another fond memory replicated from my childhood trip to Scotland).”
Dayna also told us “A funny, astonishing and very impressive thing that happened was Dan’s mother was going to be unable to attend but at the very last min. (as in 3 day before) she decided she could not miss her son’s wedding. She planned her entire trip in a matter two days from plane tickets and transportation to packing and her outfit for the wedding. She arrived the night before in what I considered GREAT spirits for traveling something like 15 or 16 hours straight. We were sooooooo happy to see her and her presence made for a wonderful day, trip and memories.”
Dayna would sum her day up as “Amazing!!!! The whole experience so perfectly represented us as individuals as well as us as a couple. I would not have changed a single thing about it and I am grateful to have such wonderful images to remember it by!”
