Modern-day interpretations

We certainly don't expect your groom to carry a pile of stones on his back! So, here's a top 10 list of SWMS's favorite Scottish traditions that can still be practiced today:

10. Provide an oatcake or bannocks (a barley and oat flour biscuit) for after the ceremony. Guests break these over the bride’s head in the doorway of her new home before she enters for the first time.

9. Select an engraved silver teaspoon for the groom to present to the bride at the wedding to ensure that the couple will never go without food.

8. Follow the old tradition of getting married just outside of the church doors. Following the vows and “joining ceremony” (or marriage), enter the church for a nuptial mass.

7. Exchange either claddagh rings or gold rings with Celtic knotwork designs instead of plain gold wedding bands

6. Plan a grand wedding reception at a Scottish castle or country manor, or go the traditional route of holding it at a relative’s house.

5. Give a Scottish brooch (called Luckenbooth) as a token of your love or as a betrothal gift.

4. Consider having part of all of your ceremony performed in Gaellic.

3. Rent or buy a kilt for the groom to wear that represents his clan.

2. Hire bagpipers to play during the wedding party’s entrance and recessional.

1. Plan a grand wedding reception at a Scottish castle or country manor, or go the traditional route of holding it at a relative’s house.