Covid in Scotland: Curfew bride says wedding 'no less special'
- Published
Photographer Wattie Cheung captured this candid moment on Friday night
A bride who was photographed on a Glasgow street minutes after the Covid curfew cut short her wedding has said nothing could ruin her special day.
Rowan McCabe was snapped by press photographer Wattie Cheung on Byres Road just after 22:00 on Friday.
Dressed in a full, white bridal gown, she was looking for a taxi with new husband, Jason.
They were supposed to marry in spring but rescheduled in the hope lockdown restrictions would have eased.
But on Friday, new rules came into force which forced bars and restaurants to close at 22:00.
Mr and Mrs McCabe were wed at a distillery
The wedding ceremony took place below a waterfall at Glengoyne Distillery near Killearn, where Jason, 32, works as a distiller.
It was followed by a meal at The Bothy restaurant, just off Byres Road in Glasgow's west end, with 17 close friends and relatives.
Shortly after the reception came to an end, the happy couple darted across Byres Road to the taxi rank so they could get back to their home in Milngavie, East Dunbartonshire.
Wattie Cheung's photograph of that moment has since attracted substantial attention on social media.
He was there to take pictures of pubs and restaurants emptying out on the first night of the curfew for the media.
Speaking to BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland, he said: "Everything just came together when Rowan walked across the road. There was two cars lighting her dress up. It was just quite lucky in some sense."
The new Mrs McCabe - who was Miss Foxley until Friday - said the couple had made a few attempts to marry, the first of which was in May.
After other dates and plans were cancelled down to Covid, the couple decided to go "full steam ahead" for the September date - no matter what restrictions were in place.
'A long time coming'
Mrs McCabe, 22, said: "Even with things ending at 22:00, it felt like a really long time coming for the two of us.
"We'd planned for years. Obviously we couldn't plan for coronavirus happening so it was a really stressful time, but Jason - my now husband! - made me a promise that by 25 September this year we'd be married couple and he fulfilled that for me.
"We keep joking he was the bride this time round 'cos he planned everything!"
Current restrictions meant they could only have 20 people, external at their ceremony.
Mrs McCabe told the BBC: "It was socially distant - we got married up at Glengoyne distillery... They kindly stepped in and rescued the day for us.
"They set up at the waterfall behind the distillery. There were chairs for our 17 guests socially distant in household bubbles at the waterfall.
"Everybody was then taken for a tasting where they grabbed their masks and sat socially distant from each other.
Afterwards, everyone made their way to the reception at The Bothy where they sat with their households.
"It was nothing we could ever have imagined would have happened but it didn't make it any less special," she added.
