Meet Andrew Scott

Well, for all you Brides and Grooms who are looking for a “big, heavy, hairy, bearded guy in a kilt that goes a bit Billy Connolly” on your wedding day, Andrew Scott is your man!

Instagram: @andrewdscottcelebrant

Voted best Wedding Officiant at this years Scottish Confetti Awards, there are so many reasons as to why Andrew deserves such an accolade.

Let’s go back to the start of Andrew’s journey before he became a celebrant, his warning is “get comfy!”.

“So I have been self-employed for 21 years, my day job is or was, I have a hospitality consultancy business. Which means I go up and down Britain fixing hotel, restaurants, bars, pubs and clubs., and when I'm not doing that, I also own a coffee shop”.

At that point Andrew was consulting on lots of venues that done weddings. 2020 came along and the pandemic hit,  during that time Andrew was asked to go and consult on a wedding up in the Scottish Highlands, where the wedding had been brought forward by a couple of years, due to the groom being terminally ill.

Andrew said: “I went up and I watched a really disappointing wedding ceremony that wasn't bespoke, it wasn't about the couple, it didn't really going into them, their story. When did like become love? When did dating become a couple? How did they meet? When did they get engaged? Why him, why her, et cetera, et cetera, and the person officiating the wedding actually got the bride's name wrong. It said to me that the person officiating didn't know them, hadn't researched them, hadn't listened to them. This was almost score out Alyson writing Emma. It was just a bit bland”.

It then came to the father of the bride speech, the groomsmen speeches, in which there were five, saying goodbye to their pal.

“It was brutal, it was absolutely brutal”, Andrew added: “and the fifth guy couldn't do it. So I picked up his speech and I read it on his behalf. And as I went to leave, the groom came up, gave me the biggest cuddle in the world and uttered the immortal lines. ‘Thank you for putting sparkle on an otherwise dark day’”.

It was at that point Andrew thought “I need to do this”.  So he spent 14 months qualifying, at the end of 2021, as an independent celebrant and marriage officer and here we are now in 2024 and he is now fully booked up until 2026!!

Andrew spoke about going on holiday a few weeks ago and being stopped by a member of the cabin crew, who knew him instantly after following him on social media, said: “I'm not even engaged yet, but I've said to my other half, see if we can get engaged, he's the guy that's going to marry us”. Andrew said: “And you think, wow, somebody's already figured out, they've not even got engaged, they've not even got a ring, they've not got a venue, but they already know the person they want to look after them on the day”. He added: “Mind blowing!”.

For Andrew being a celebrant is amazing, he says: ‘It’s an absolute privilege meeting people as strangers, but standing there on their wedding day as their pal and marrying them”.

Andrew is very involved with his wedding couples, he might only see you less than a handful of times before the big day, but he is always still in constant contact. He sends countdowns to the big day for couples, saying “only 10 months to go for Jill and Fraser”, or for those who book three years in advance, “36 months till your big day Malcom and Davina”. Andrew adds: “A lot of them screenshot it and tag you in it and share it on social media, and it just shows other potential clients that do you know what he’s okay, he’s a good guy, he’s in here for the long haul and just wants to look after us”.

Now, Andrew seems to never be out of his car. He says: “There probably isn’t a part of Scotland I haven’t been to”. Over the last few weeks he has been down in The Borders, across to Cumnock, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Andrew also sees himself up in the Cairngorms. Glencoe, remote locations with old castles and ruins, as at least half the weddings he does are elopements. Doing these weddings does have some downside, like not having a table to sign the register, however, Andrew has came up with a solution…just use his back as the table!

“I’ll say ‘Now normally if we were inside we would have a signing table…but, we don’t! We have the next best thing’ and I’ll then just bend over and they use my back”, with the bride and groom giggling at this point, Andrew jokes when the groom goes behind him, “woah woah woah you’re now a happily married man!”.

As Andrew says: “It’s just anything you can do that makes people laugh on their wedding day”.

There’s no stopping Andrew, He said: “So for as long as people want me at their wedding I will keep on doing it. If you see me being that old hairy Gandalf or Yoda thing at weddings going “I remember back in the day….”.

Andrew leaves you lovely brides and grooms with not just one but two great pieces of advice.

1.  "DON’T listen to anyone else’s advice because its NOT their wedding its your wedding”.

And

2. “Take things slow,  because once you have bought your dress, you don’t have to buy your dress again, once you have organised your bridesmaids, you don’t have too worry about that, once you have bought the kilt or the suit or pick the crockery, the cutlery, the events styling, the hair, the makeup, the cars, the flowers, the band, the piper, the harpist, you know just whatever that looks like its sorted. So, just really just take your time enjoy the journey. I don’t mean milk it I just mean slow down there is no rush”.