I once saw a bride having her photograph taken in the Botanic Gardens in Glasgow. One half of her dress – the “skirt” part – was beautiful: off-white, diaphanous layers of silk. But the top half, oh, the top half … well, it was a cherry-red tartan bodice. And when she turned round, I discovered it had a huge green tartan bow at the back.

Yikes. Don’t get me wrong, she was beautiful – all brides are beautiful, are they not? – but, in my opinion, this dress was the epitome of what not to wear.

The road to the MYB Textiles factory, in Newmilns, Ayrshire, is lined with derelict buildings – former factories that once represented a thriving machine lace and madras cotton industry in this, the Irvine Valley.

Kate Weston describes the moment she and her husband first saw their future home: "We arrived in the drive and I could see my husband's shoulders relax. We saw the views and both thought 'We have to live here'. It was such an instant emotional reaction to such a special place."