She asked him to an emo night. He proposed with a wine cork.

Their story

They matched on OKCupid in 2019, got on brilliantly, and then: two weeks of silence. Andrew came back apologising that work had been mental. Rachel, getting ready for an emo night and a few drinks in, decided to take charge and asked him out. Directly. To the emo night.

Andrew, showing either good sense or mild terror at the thought of a full eyeliner evening, politely declined and suggested a proper date instead. Drinks at Stereo. They stayed out far too late for a weeknight and have talked every single day since. They still wonder what happened to the couple at the next table, who were very obviously on a first date too.

Then lockdown. Rachel had just moved to the southside, they weren't allowed to see each other, and so they watched films over FaceTime. This is how Andrew was introduced to Twilight, and how Rachel was introduced to Andrew ranting, at length and with increasing passion, about Twilight. When things eased they met up in Queen's Park, where Andrew had grown a beard, taken to wearing a hat, and looked uncannily like Fidel Castro. By 2022 they were living together in Battlefield.

Their first trip abroad was to a friend's wedding in Barcelona, which ended with them and a plane full of Glaswegian Primavera goers sprinting through Frankfurt Airport to make a connection. They made it. Their bags did not. They call this the start of the era of weddings.

The cork

In 2024 they went to Porto, drank a great deal of port, and bought extra hold luggage while sitting in a winery so they could bring more of it home. Andrew was also taking very quiet phone calls from a jeweller. Rachel knew. Or at least strongly suspected.

At the cork museum at the World of Wine, where you can get your own corks printed, Rachel joked that it would be funny to get one made for when Andrew proposed. So he did. Back in Glasgow on the 1st of November, before heading out for dinner at the Dapper Mongoose in Shawlands, Andrew pretended to open a bottle of wine and handed her a cork that said “marry me”. She said yes, the wine got drunk, and the phone calls began.

Rachel's dad asked whether she had drugged Andrew. And the next day Rachel went through to Edinburgh to see The Book of Mormon, while Andrew stayed home and did a full inventory of his whisky collection. A perfectly happy couple doing exactly what they each wanted.

The ceremony

Rachel and Andrew asked for an unplugged ceremony, so the only camera in the room belonged to their photographer and everybody else simply watched. I'd recommend it to anyone. Harpist Sophie Rocks played Rachel in on her dad's arm to Paramore's “The Only Exception”, which landed beautifully on the harp.

I'd asked them each, separately, for three things they love about the other and one thing that could do with a bit of work. Rachel loves that Andrew can make her belly laugh, that he is kind and considerate, and that he is smart in both senses, brain and wardrobe. His room for improvement: winning the pub quiz. Andrew loves that Rachel is caring, that she makes him laugh, and that she is very patient, particularly, and I quote, with his sizeable collection of whisky. The room had already heard about the inventory.

We did a handfasting, and after the signing Rachel's brother poured a dram into a quaich Andrew's parents gave him when he graduated. During the signing Sophie played Mogwai's “Friend of the Night” (Andrew's favourite band) and then Robert Miles' “Children”, which on a harp is something else entirely. They went back up the aisle to Death Cab for Cutie, “I Will Follow You Into the Dark”.

In their own words, they are both sarcastic, best friends, and “both weirdos”. The best kind of couple to write for.

Marrying at Cottiers yourself?

Cottiers is a converted Victorian church off Hyndland Street, and the hall does most of the decorating for you. Rachel and Andrew added paper lanterns in autumn colours and flowers along the aisle, and the room looked like it had been waiting for them.

Three practical things. If you're thinking about an unplugged ceremony, this is the room for it: it is intimate enough that people happily put their phones away, and I'll ask them to at the start so you don't have to. A harp works brilliantly in here, so get your harpist set up on the stage early, as Sophie did. And the hall is lit rather than bright, so talk to your photographer about the light well in advance.

There's more on the room and the logistics in my Cottiers venue guide, and you can read Martha and Gavin's Cottiers wedding from August too. If you're marrying round here, my West End of Glasgow page and Glasgow wedding celebrant page are the place to start. I live in Kelvinbridge, five minutes away, so couples booking me for Glasgow weddings pay no travel fees. If the handfasting or the quaich caught your eye there are full guides to handfasting in Scotland and the quaich, and more on my handfasting celebrant page.