The final wedding report from 2006: Helen's & Duncan's affair with medieval flair

My regular readers know that I went to zillion, well, four weddings last year. At the beginning of 2006, I received no less than six wedding invites. As I'm not working in the City, but in academia, I couldn't possibly afford to attend all of them. However, I did manage to witness my Scottish friend Annemieke marry her Greek beau Georgios on Santorini in June. In July, I attended a lovely wedding in Stockholm, where my Swedish friend Annika said 'Yes' to her British fiance Ben. (And consequently missed my friends Eve & Risto's wedding in Tallinn at the same weekend). In August, I feasted, gluten-free, in Brussels to celebrate Helen & David's long-awaited marriage (note the unusual 'cheesy' wedding cake) , and in September danced away in Tallinn, at Helen & Duncan's wedding.

As the 2007 wedding season starts tonight with the wedding of my one of my best friends, Erika, then I better finish writing about the weddings from 2006 before I open the chapter of 2007 weddings.

In early September, my Edinburgh-based Estonian friend Helen & and her Scottish man-of-her dreams, Duncan, said 'Yes' to each other during a beautiful bi-lingual ceremony at Holy Ghost Church (Pühavaimu kirik) in Tallinn. We then descended along the Holy Ghost Street/Pühavaimu tänav to a champagne reception at The Scottish Club, a restaurant dedicated to all things Scottish. Quite appropriate, considering that the groom, the best man and half of the guests had flown in from Scotland!



After the reception, some of us popped for a quick coffee at the enchanted little café, Chocolats de Pierre - probably one of my favourite gems in Tallinn (I hope Doughboy agrees, as I dragged him there in late December:)

The wedding dinner & dance took place at the House of the Brotherhood of Black Heads, just weeks before the Queen of England dined there (you can read more about this medieval guild of unmarried merchants and ship owners here). As we had moved from a medieval church to a medieval courtyard to a medieval guild house, then it's not surprising that the catering was provided by one of the medieval restaurants in town. After all, Tallinn is very proud of its well-preserved medieval old town.

Here's what the menu looked like:

The Wedding Menu
The Brotherhood of the Black Heads

Soup:
Cock-a-Leekie Soup (a traditional Scottish recipe)

Main Dish:
Oven roasted Norwegian Salmon fillet in the Bearnaise Sauce with favourite vegetable and rice casserole, fresh herbs - dainties of the honourable mayor of Rewal

or
Crispy pork fillet and mustard-green pepper reduction a la Grand Merchant Peppersack with favourite vegetable and fresh herb dainties of the honourable mayor Rewal

Selection of wholemeal bread and buns with Blackheads Brotherhood green cheese

Dessert:
Caledonian cream

Ave'c
Selection of fruits
Plateau de fromages
Coffee or tea

Celebration storied cake: cottage cheese cream, hazelnut and fresh fruits/with berry-Old Rewal reduction