Lindsay and John Paul Harkins
For 36-year-old John Paul Harkins, the royal wedding wasn’t the big event he was worried about his wedding clashing with yesterday. The Celtic fan wasn’t too amused when the Scottish Cup final date was set on the same day. “He’s not happy about that, but he was the one who picked the date so he’s the one to blame,” laughed 24-year-old bride Lindsay.
Kirsty and Johanna O’Neill
THE big day had been on the horizon for 27-year-old Johanna O’Neill and her new wife Kirsty for much longer than the royal couple. The pair have been engaged for three-and-a-half years. “What’s different about me and Johanna is we’ve never been in a same-sex relationship before,” Kirsty, an auxiliary nurse, said. “We just met, fell in love and we’ve been together ever since.” For Kirsty, also 27, sharing the day with Harry and Meghan made it even more memorable. “As soon as the Royal wedding date was announced, my cousin texted me to tell me the news. I thought, that’s something you can always look back on,” Kirsty said.
The couple hope to start a family: “That’s the next step we’re taking,” said Kirsty. “It’s all coming together now, it’s nice.”
Marcin and Barbara Malm
IT was a 1940/ 50s-themed wedding for 37-year-old Marcin Malm and wife Barbara, 48. The couple have been together for nine years and May 19 is a very special date for them. “The reason we picked that date is because that’s when we met nine years ago,” explained Barbara.
A friend of Punk fan Barbara’s even went the extra mile for the pair and created a sign in the style of the Sex Pistols’ iconic Never Mind The B******s, Here’s The Sex Pistols album cover, which said: “Never mind the Royals, here’s the Malms.”
But it took a while for Marcin, who’s from Poland, to get Barbara down the aisle: “He’d asked me various times to get engaged and I always said no, but when we were on holiday last summer I thought, why not?” she said.
The couple, who are foster carers, managed to compromise on the entertainment for the wedding reception. “We had a ska band playing,” Barbara said. “Marcin loves his reggae and I was brought up on punk so ska was a happy medium.”
CAMERON'S SCOTS ADVISER
David Cameron’s former Scotland adviser Ramsay Jones got married yesterday to Jennifer Manton on Jura. Jones was tweeting about his big day yesterday using the hashtag #NotTheRoyalWedding.
Responding to one tweet which mentioned Jeremy Corbyn “sending best wishes” to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Jones said: “I’m sure it was a simple oversight that they didn’t mention (his wife) @MantonJen and I."
Ramsay Jones was Scotland Advisor to former PM David Cameron, and worked for the Scottish Conservatives at the Scottish Parliament. He is now managing director of Gen Comms.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here