A Canadian couple’s romantic elopement at Dunnottar Castle unexpectedly became a transatlantic search after it was accidentally captured by a drone operator.
“You have gone viral” are probably the words very few couples expect to hear on their honeymoon.
But that was exactly what Alice Leys and Andrew Lampert were told by their Stonehaven celebrant Andrew Scott a week after their wedding.
While the couple had thought their small ceremony of four had gone largely unnoticed on the cliffs at Dunnottar Castle, a drone operator had accidentally captured the romantic moment.
The worldwide hunt that followed – helped by Canadian radio station Virgin Radio Montreal – to reunite the couple with the footage was something none of the participants had expected.
Decided to do one special shot
Robert Peachy, from Glasgow, was in Aberdeen for work on August 31 when he decided to take his drone out for a spin.
Seeing the lovely weather, the spray painter at Tesla, found a “prime spot” on the cliffs near the famous Stonehaven castle and started to take out his equipment.
When a man in a kilt and beautiful bride turned up he moved to the side. However, once the wedding ceremony began, Mr Peachy tried to exit but ended up trapped.
He said: “I was at the bottom of a cliff. I could still see them standing at the top, they were like two little figures on a wedding cake, so I took a picture of that.
“And I thought I’ll do a special shot with the drone. So I did that and it just snowballed from there.”
During the vows, he heard Montreal being mentioned and assumed the couple were from Canada. Not wanting to interrupt, he left, but days later thought he should try and find the mystery couple.
The 47-year-old added: “A few days went by and I thought, you know what, I’m going to see if I can get them a message because I would want that footage and everybody I said it to said they would want that footage.”
Bride’s phone started ‘blowing up’
After getting in contact with Virgin Radio Montreal, the radio station began to help search for the couple and eventually found them through their celebrant, Andrew Scott.
When Mr Peachy contacted the couple he said they were “very appreciative of it”.
He said: “It turns out my mum’s name is Alice. And when I started talking to her husband I found out his name is Andrew, which is my stepdad’s name. And I thought, I was meant to get in touch with them.
“Alice said she loved it. She said thanks so much for going above and beyond it’s amazing it’s just added a little bit extra to our special day.”
The happy couple were honeymooning in Greece when Mrs Leys’ phone started “blowing up”.
Being fairly private people, the couple were a “bit taken aback” at first.
While they had spotted My Peachy using his drone on the day, when he moved to the side they did not think much of it.
Mrs Leys, aged 27, said: “We just went about our business and went on our honeymoon. Right the day after we flew to Greece and it was really beautiful there.
“So obviously we were not on our phones paying attention to the internet so all this while for a week straight, Montreal is broadcasting to find us and we had no idea.
“It was just super bizarre.”
Family links to Aberdeen
Although they said Montreal was where they met and fell in love, the couple now live in Ontario.
They decided to get married in Scotland as Mrs Leys has links to Aberdeen through her dad who is from Aberdeen and who regularly photographs castle in Scotland.
When they asked for ideas of places for the ceremony, Mrs Leys’ dad said: “I have the perfect one and it’s right by where you can get a rowie as well”.
Getting married on their seventh anniversary, they even had to call Mrs Leys’ dad for advice after Mr Lampert said it was his first time wearing a kilt.
After a “funny” how-to tutorial, the couple were driven to the romantic spot by their celebrant in a motorhome after their taxi failed to show up.
While it was a “dramatic” start, they said the weather was “unbelievable” on the day.
Mrs Leys said: “I was ready to stand there drenched in the rain reading my vows. I was signing up for that when we set the Scottish wedding and then it was beautiful. So that was the biggest gift of all I think.”
They were very grateful to Mr Peachy for the footage, especially as Mr Lampert, 29, had planned videoing the ceremony on his own drone but was unable to on the day.
In the end, the senior software developer said: “The footage is really great. I was really sad that I couldn’t bring my drone. I also didn’t want to be operating a drone during my wedding ceremony. But it was a nice coincidence that Robert happened to be there.”
Mrs Leys added: “It was definitely a next-level memory level for us because not everyone can say that their wedding was so good that it made the news.
“We’ll be able to remember the wedding very fondly because of that. It’s like the cherry on top to an already perfect ceremony.”
Conversation