A Skye community rallied together to help an American couple have the wedding of their dreams.
Paul and Amanda Riesel, from Orlando in Florida, landed in Scotland to discover all their luggage had been lost in transit.
Getting to Skye around midnight on Monday, exhausted after facing flight delays, the couple were ready to cancel their wedding and head home after “eating a frozen pizza”.
However after a request on social media, the community on Skye saved the day and the couple were married.
Due to the generosity of islanders, the couple were able to go ahead with an emotional humanist ceremony – dressed in beautiful borrowed wedding outfits.
‘Immediate’ offer of support
Wedding photographer Rosie Woodhouse of Love Skye Photography described it as an “exceptional” day.
After hearing the couple wanted to cancel, Mrs Woodhouse set about seeing what could be done to help them.
After posting an appeal on Facebook at midnight, she “immediately” started getting messages from people offering support.
She said: “I got up the next day at 7.30am, and someone had messaged me and said you need to look at your Facebook. I had offers of eight wedding dresses, two suits and a kilt. It was absolutely brilliant.”
Bride Amanda, a school dinner lady, borrowed her dress from another dinner lady who works in Broadford.
The dress…well, it fitted “like a glove”.
And although a few changes had to be made to the arrangements, the wedding was able to go ahead.
‘Everybody just wants to help’ in Skye
Mrs Woodhouse said the weather was “glorious” for the ceremony and the whole experience left the newly-weds “blown away” by the sense of community.
Having grown up in Skye, Mrs Woodhouse said: “That was exactly why I was trying to reassure them we would be absolutely fine, we would make this work because I just know exactly what Skye and its people are like.
“Everybody just wants to help. They just want you to have the best experience of being on Skye and of the people here and if something goes wrong, you will just be overwhelmed with offers.”
When she took the bride to be to meet the woman who gave her a dress, she said: “They were just so pleased to meet and they were hugging and crying. It was really, really lovely.”
She claimed the couple will always have links to the community in Skye now and it will remain a “memorable” occasion.
Conversation