Jack & Wendy tie the knot with a little help –

The day arrived, and we arrived together from different directions – Wendy still sniffling but looking perfectly gorgeous!

Jan Miller had decorated the outside of the house with flowers and greenery, and our dear friend Jean Lockhart had organized all the food for afterwards. We had gotten the supplies of wine from a shop next to Jean’s house and had it stashed in the garage at the bottom of the garden so as not to offend Wendy’s parents.

Aileen Carr’s house was the venue, and she had turned it completely over to our use for the day.

The officiant clergy in charge was Linda Bandalier (American storyteller resident in Edinburgh), my best man was my musical buddy George Haig, and Wendy’s bridesmaid was Donna-Marie Emmert from Abingdon in Virginia (Aka the Haintmistress).

As we took our vows, I felt an enormous swell of support throughout the room, not least because of musical contributions from Jimmy Hutchison and Aileen’s group Palaver. Jimmy went to a lot of trouble to learn ‘Believe me if all those Endearing Young Charms’ specially at Wendy’s request, and the female unaccompanied quartet Palaver sang “My Love is like a Red Red Rose,” reflecting the invitations we had printed.

I was quite surprised at the turnout, which was a real mixture of family, musical folk, storytelling friends and colleagues of mine from the college where I worked. A hale clanjamphry, in fact!

Finally, we were off on our honeymoon to the Atholl Palace Hotel in Pitlochry, which was our base for a few days while we toured around the highlands. While there, the Omagh Bombing cancelled the storytelling festival in Ireland where Wendy had made new friends the previous year and who had come to the wedding.

When we returned, we got a message from Linda to say that one of our forms hadn’t been signed, and until it was, we weren’t married!

If Wendy’s parents and my mother had known, it would only have confirmed their worst suspicions – that we’d been living in sin all the time anyway – – –