The couple’s family and friends played a huge role in their wedding day. The ceremony was officiated by the actor Alistair Petrie, who plays Connor’s dad in Sex Education, while Amber’s godmother gave her away. “My dad sadly isn’t very well, so he wasn’t able to do it,” shares Amber. “She is the godparent that he chose for me, so it felt like a nice way of having him there.” Another nod to Amber’s dad came in the form of his guitar, which her friend, the classical musician Sean Shibe, played as she walked down the aisle.
Fun touches included a reading from Maddy and Marina Bye, who together make up the comedy duo Siblings, who performed an aura cleansing of the groom (“It was a wonderful moment of humiliation for Connor,” laughs Amber). Meanwhile, Moose, the couple’s pet rescue dog, served as ring bearer, complete with Anderson tartan bandana. “The tone was set for a wedding that was meaningful, but not overly serious—just how we wanted it,” says Amber.
Before the drinks reception, the couple did a Celtic quaich ceremony. “It was originally to do with clans meeting—it’s a cup which you hold with both hands, with the symbolism being that you can’t have a sword in your hand if they’re both holding the cup – and you put whisky in it and drink from that,” explains Amber.
Many guests described the dinner by local business the Lunchbox Boys—which included haggis, neeps, and tatties—as the best wedding food that they’d ever had. In lieu of a wedding cake, the couple opted for individual chocolate nemesis cakes in a nod to one of their favorite restaurants, the River Café. The decor was folksy and colorful, with the brief for the flowers by Wild Gorse being unstructured ’70s. Fee Greening, another friend of Amber’s, illustrated the invitations, place settings, and menus, while Anderson tartan ribbons were tied to the back of the chairs.
“We also asked Autumn, director of Emma, to do a speech during the drinks reception,” shares Amber. “It meant so much to us to have her speak—we met because of the movie she made, and over the years she has become a best friend, spiritual guardian, advisor, and adopted auntie. She means the world to us.”
The night concluded with a ceilidh hosted by Amber’s music school friends, the Haggis Chasers. The couple had their first dance to “The Orcadian Strip The Willow,” and Amber changed into a second Vivienne Westwood look, this time a tartan corset and skirt, with ceilidh-friendly biker boots. “I love weddings that have ceilidhs because it feels like no one can not have fun,” Amber says. “You don’t have to know the dances, you just pick them up.”
With a few sore heads the next day, revelers were invited to join the newlyweds at the Kimberley, a pub on the North Sea, for fish and chips. “Everyone ran and jumped off the end of the pier into the sea,” laughs Amber. “I think that might have been my favorite moment of the weekend.”