Scottish Wedding Stories

Adventure Day: Chris waiting in front of our hotel, the Cuillin Hills Hotel, for Lauren to finish getting ready.

Our first look with the colorful Portree Harbor in the background!

When Sam, our photographer, asked what our top 5 shots would be, the very first was "THE COOS"! This was the ONLY time that we saw the coos on Skye, and we were beyond excited!

This was truly THE DREAM.

Sligachan Bridge

Lauren shed the blanket to brave the elements!

Black and white against the landscape hits different...

We saw literally THOUSANDS of sheep over our entire week in Scotland, and were so exited to have some as wedding crashers!

Between Lauren's dress and Chris's shoes, trekking along the river was...interesting!

Normally, Chris is the one who leads the way when jumping across rocks over rivers, but roles were reversed! Lauren was far more graceful than usual in a wedding gown than in workout clothes!

If you look on Lauren's dream wedding Pinterest board from 15 years ago, the first picture of shoes were white, sparkly heels. 18 year old Lauren would NEVER have believed she would be wearing boots!

There were certainly no "soft smiles"...only crazy laughs and the most expressive faces!

Our next stop was the Quiraing. If you look really closely, you can see Chris and Lauren on the left-hand side. This place was astonishing and truly felt like it was a whole other world.

While we certainly had a lot of mist and some rain, the skies opened up and the wind started gusting as soon as we got here!

Looking at this picture together, we can still imagine how this physically felt! The rain and wind (as you can see) became so strong, and we could only laugh at what was happening!

What you can't see in our adventure pictures is our photographer's husband, who was truly the star of the day! Between locations/shots he would sprint back/forth with jackets so we could warm up!

Not pictured here is our get-away car waiting just out of the frame so he could scoop us up as soon as we were done running this hill!

You may notice that Chris doesn't have his suit jacket on...that's because it got soaked because Lauren accidentally forgot it back in the hotel room in the craziness of getting ready to leave!

The GORGEOUS colorful harbor-side houses in Portree, the town where our hotel was located!

Portree Harbor!

This was where the rehearsal dinner was held!

Our thank you gifts to everyone was a sponsorship to a highland coo through Dumble Farm. The sponsorships came with stuffies, and the hotel staff dressed them like a cruise ship would in the morning!

Details...the invititation, jewelry, quaich, & Lauren's bouquet. The flowers almost didn't arrive...the mail delivered it to the wrong place, but the amazing manager, Anna, somehow tracked them down!

Chris's tie, rings, and boutonniere!

Our handfasting ribbon and vow books. On the back, there's an inscription that says, "I love you as such", which is an idea that's become a cornerstone of our partnership.

Florals, the blanket Lauren used as her shawl, and the purse Lauren used. The purse was originally the one Kim used on her wedding day, and Julia borrowed it for hers as well!

Since we did our first look on our adventure day, we were able to spend some time getting ready together the morning of the ceremony!

Lauren's bff Sally, couldn't come, but she still did everything she could to be involved! This is them FTing when Sally woke up at 5am with a champagne glass of water to cheers while getting ready!

Kim buttoning Lauren's dress.

Lauren helped Julia put on her converse at her wedding...so the roles were reversed!

Converse are so much easier to put on than hiking boots!

Matt waiting for his first look with Lauren...

Matt waited in the lounge before Lauren came down. During their first look, they played "Little Miss Magic", by Jimmy Buffet, which would have been their father-daughter dance song!

The entry to our gorgeous hotel, the Cuillin Hills Hotel!

Thrilled that we had a break in the weather as we were leaving for the ceremony!

Hugs to the make up/hair artist, Zoe! She was an absolute rock-star that we got to know so well in the two days we spent with her. She not only did Lauren's hair/make-up, but helped with so much more!

We knew there would be a walk to the Fairy Glen, where we had the ceremony, but we didn't realize the hike up would be as uphill as it was!

The "fairy circle" at Fairy Glen! Unfortunately, we did not step through a portal into a faerie realm like Lauren had desperately hoped would happen...

Fairy Circle with "Castle Ewen", the rock formation, looming in the background.

Chris is known for climbing any rocks and/or hills wherever they go...this was no exception!

Kim and Lauren & Chris's friend, Marg, spent so long scrubbing the bottom of Lauren's dress the night before to get out the dirt from the adventure day...it didn't stay clean for long!

We went to the Fairy Glen before our guests so we could read a longer version of our vows privately. Lauren had to hide her phone in the vow book because she finished writing them in the car!

Because we got there before everyone else, we were able to take portraits while we waited!

Instead of walking up to our guests, we had our guests walk up to us!

Our guests walked up with processional song... a wedding-ized version of the Formula 1 theme song!

Though we had a break from the weather during our private vows and portraits, it started drizzling again during the ceremony...but that meant we had the ENTIRE place to ourselves!

The drizzle slowly became stronger and stronger, and hoods/umbrellas were necessary!

This was the moment our officiant, Mike, surprised us with lines in his script where he used a lyric from "This Love" by "our lord and savior" Taylor Swift.

We read a shorter version of our vows during our ceremony in front of our guests.

We both had stand-in bands after we got married in December '22, but bought our forever bands for this ceremony!

There were a couple Scottish traditions we wanted to incorporate into the ceremony. This is the historic "handfasting" ceremony, where you, quite literally, tie the knot.

First kiss!

Group toast with a bottle of scotch Sally and Pat gifted Lauren and Chris from Talisker Distillery, which is located about 45 minutes away on the other side of the Isle of Skye!

Our quaich, with a highland coo inside!

The quaich is the second tradition we incorporated...in this ceremony, each person holds one handle of the two-handled cup while they drink together. It represents the love and trust between partners.

The DeLeo side!

The rain started getting harder...

The Hall side, Chris's sister, Cat!

Lauren and Chris's friends, Marg & Ian!

Chris and Cat's mom, Rebecca, has a slow camera on her phone, so they have a long-standing joke where they do "civil war portraits" where neither one of them smiles so pictures don't become blurry!

This is where the skies OPENED UP and we suddenly had gale-force winds...

...and HAIL (which does NOT feel good on open back/shoulders/chest!)!

The quickest of whole-group photos in the hail before the sprint back to the "car park"!

Marg helping carry the dress she so painstakingly helped clean the night before...

Our photographer didn't realize this until she was editing the pictures, but if you look closely, you'll see that this sheep is staring her in the face and PEEING!

We were soaked and freezing, but seriously so so happy. The rain, wind, and hail made for memories we will truly never forget.

Our amazing coordinator, Anna! She seriously saved the day multiple times and worked absolute magic and added so many touches we never would have even thought to ask for.

Even though we didn't have any dancing, we still wanted to have a first dance. We've had our song pick out for almost 8 years..."I Can't Help Falling in Love with You" by Elvis.

We decided to do our dance privately instead of in front of our guests...but Kim and Matt, of course, found a spot to peek out!

Our table setting. The rose petals were one of the little touches Anna did on her own that made everything perfect!

Even though she couldn't be here, we were able to FaceTime with Sally so that she could still deliver her maid-of-honor speech! Lauren truly could not stop crying!

Ian is Chris's best friend, who he has known for even longer than Lauren & Sally have known each other. This is him delivering his speech.

Chris's turn to cry...

Our reception dinner was held at the restaurant in our hotel (which had been featured in the Michelin Guide!). Each of our three courses was paired with wines selected by Mike, who ran a tasting!

The moment Chris spilled red wine...

A moment with "the kids" outside after dinner.

When we first met, Chris said that he didn't like dessert...so instead of a traditional cake, we did a CHEESE cake! Peep the cake topper...another detail from Anna!

Gotta love a 2 outfit wedding...especially when outfit #2 is a pair of personalized sweats!

We had to have a moment with our bear, Reggie, who is truly the cornerstone of our relationship. This was Chris's first Valentine's gift and he has an entire personality and his own character arc!

Cutting the "cake"...

Lauren shockingly actually caught this from the air!

Our post-dinner "party" was held in the lounge where we all just hung out in front of the fire, drank, and played board times games all night!

Our late-night snack spread!