Photographs by Kang

Weddings are such great fun. Weddings always mark a moment of reflection, be it if you are attending as a guest, or whether if you are more deeply connected to the couple. Weddings are defining, memorable, melancholic, alcoholic, touching, beautiful, romantic, traditional, unrelentingly human.

I’ve known Jon for close to four years now, spent about a year seeing him on a daily basis, as we share the same working space. We got drunk together, we’ve debated the wide, the ridiculous, the mundane over several lunch hours, and we’ve rubbed shoulders on the basketball court many a time.

I was elated, fortunate and immeasurebly humbled to have had the chance to witness Jon and Susan’s marriage. The ceremony was fantasy, it was pure bliss and it was resplesdent. We gathered, initially under the threat of a stormy afternoon, at Pettycur Beach in Kinghorn, Scotland. The jitters were not just butterflies, we were shivering a little in the breeze. As momentum built, as the witnesses arrived en masse, as we settled to the blue seats slowly sinking into the sand, the bag pipes began its rhythmic march, and as the groom and his merry ushers and his best man stood proudly, ready and waiting to receive the bride to be, we braced.

She arrived, she is beautiful, aglow in a glowing gown and then the heavens had to burst open, gracing the afternoon with warming rays of golden light. Jon shook the hand of the man who gave Susan away.

One last embrace. For me, the moment occurred right at this point of the ceremony, as Jon & Susan prepare to become Husband & Wife, I noticed Jon furrowing his brows, controlling his emotions, folding his lips and fighting to contain his tears of joy.

Jon & Susan, quite literally tie the knot, scooped soil into a common bucket of life and became Wife & Husband.

As the night worn on, I reflected over my second dinner of nips, tatties, stovies and haggis. I felt fortunate, tearful, inspired, happy and a little drunk. I thought of my life, my love, my parents, my brother, my mistakes, my triumphs, my friends, my career, my ever expanding waistland and played a love song in my head. As I watch the guests loosen their ties, discard the high heels and bust their buns on the hardwood, I broke a smile.