Friday 10 April 2026

This report should start with the fact that 16 years, 7 months and 10 days — or 199 months and 10 days, or 866 weeks and 4 days, or 6,066 days, or 145,584 hours, or 8,735,040 minutes — ago, Alex and I sat on a sofa in DCA and fell in love 💘 Fast‑forward to 10.04.2026.

After many years of trying to convince Alex that “if he likes it, he should put a ring on it,” 💍he finally agreed. After a few changes of date, we ended up signing our civil partnership on the day of the DMC BBQ. Originally, we imagined a quiet, uneventful moment with just our closest family… but things got out of hand in the best possible way, and we somehow ended up with a full‑blown wedding-not‑wedding 👰‍♀️🤵‍♂️ ceremony combined with Ruth’s birthday 🎂.

Ruth barely made it — sandstorms and flight delays tried their best — but she managed to get back to Dundee just in time. Berenice banned me from saying that we felt a bit guilty the day became mostly about us, but honestly, it was such an incredible night that we couldn’t have wished for anything different.

Our families joined our DMC friends in Sandy’s and Chaz’s party barn,  beautifully decorated by the best “bridesmaids” ever who put in so much effort to make the place look magical. So many people contributed to making the night unforgettable. Our “maid of honour” 🥰 delivered a hilarious speech that was absolutely spot‑on! 🤣

We had Michelin star chefs and word renowned DJs. Our friends also organised a fabulous keepsakes, the best wedding cake ever, and even a quiz — though I was mildly disappointed that none of the answers was Marie Curie. We even had paparazzi from Fife taking brilliant Polaroids 📸. It was a night we’ll remember forever.

When the madness finally calmed down, we retired to our five stars honeymoon-not‑honeymoon suite… which we shared with my mum and my sister. As you can imagine, our wedding-not‑wedding night was extremely uneventful.

We also received a very generous gift that we fully intend to put to good use. We’re planning to book a shark‑cage diving experience 🦈 for our honeymoon-not‑honeymoon. And now that Alex has signed the papers and I can finally get his pension, we might even go for the cheaper option for him — a shark dive without the cage. “Oh dear”!

Jokes aside, we truly couldn’t have imagined a better celebration. A massive thank you to all of you. We are so, so lucky to have you in our lives. As our family summed it up –  “we have the best friends ever”.  ❤️❤️❤️ 

• Report by Paulina