Not getting married on Calton Hill

What do you do when your Wedding Day falls bang smack in the middle of a global pandemic? You take a walk up Edinburgh’s Calton Hill instead.

That’s what Carbon’s Associate Director Matt Duncan and his fiancé, Jane, did on 11th April when it became clear that they were no longer going to be able to marry on Dunglass Estate, surrounded by family and friends.

“It was disappointing”, says Matt, “but obviously, by the time 11th April came around, a wedding wasn’t an option. So we just tried to make the most of the day. We got dressed up and went on a short cycle ride to Calton Hill for our ‘daily exercise’, and people’s reactions were brilliant. Lots of people did a double-take and it prompted a few smiles too which was good.”

Matt wore full Highland dress while Jane swapped her wedding gown for an elegant ‘bridal’ cycling outfit, adorning it with handwritten signs, saying, ‘April 11^th 2020… is not my Wedding Day’.

Once home, the happy (not-yet-married) couple drank champagne and picnicked on the bench outside their flat, chatting to everyone who went past.

“It was actually a really good way to meet more of our neighbours”, says Matt. “One of them even insisted on coming back to give us a bottle of wine.”

Celebrations continued into the evening with the couple’s family and friends calling in on video calls, all dressed in their wedding guest finery.

The wedding has now been rescheduled for 31st October, but Matt and Jane are just hoping, like everyone else, that COVID-19 gets under control as quickly as possible and they will wait and see whether the day can go ahead.

But there’s possibly a new challenge now: “Not getting married was pretty good”, says Matt. “Family and friends were amazingly generous. After that, getting married has a lot to live up to!”

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