Nurse cancels £30,000 Scottish fairytale wedding after ‘rose-colored glasses come off’

A BEAUTY pageant finalist canceled her £30,000 dream wedding after a ‘light bulb moment’.

Sasha McDonald and Rory Allison booked a traditional white wedding at a stately home in Dumfries, Scotland last year.

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The couple, who have been together for nine years, paid £30,000 for the venue and vendor list for their big day, which was originally booked for 2025.

However, the fear of falling into debt and changes in their personal circumstances led the couple to question whether they really wanted such a grand wedding.

Sasha – a 24-year-old nurse and finalist for Miss Scotland 2024 – said she and 25-year-old engineer Ross had put their lives on hold to save for their wedding day before questioning whether their ‘sacrifices’ were really worth it .

Determined to put their wedding front and center, Sasha and Rory swapped their luxurious 100-person wedding for a more intimate affair in a Glasgow hotel, along with 25 members of their immediate family.

The new plans will see their bills reduced to less than £10,000, meaning they have reduced costs to less than a third of the original expected spend.

Sasha, who lives in Glasgow, Scotland, said canceling their wedding felt like a ‘burden lifted off their shoulders’ – and urged others to consider going the traditional route.

Sasha said: “We came across a location that we both really liked and it was what we wanted at the time. We booked it and were very happy with it.

“We booked the suppliers there and were quite happy with a traditional wedding. A lot happened that year between booking the wedding and deciding to cancel it.

“I got the news that a close family member was sick, my grandmother died, we lost our dog and it felt like the closing of one chapter and the opening of the next.

‘I competed in Miss Scotland and did fundraising and charity work. We were just busy with life.

“So a lot happened in a short space of time and it made us wonder what we were doing. We just looked at each other and said, ‘Why is this wedding coming in at £30,000?’ And that’s not what it’s about.

“We had challenged ourselves financially for one day to spend an excessive amount of money, but that just didn’t suit us anymore.

“We told each other from the beginning that we would marry each other tomorrow, so why are we doing this? The rose-colored glasses just came off.”

Sasha said the financial burden of spending tens of thousands of pounds in one day played a major role in canceling their wedding day.

Sasha said: “We didn’t think it was worth it. I just thought, ‘Why should we spend more on a wedding than a house deposit?’

“Financial strains were definitely something we were concerned about. And we thought, why would we start our marriage with debt?” I wasn’t willing to sacrifice vacations and dinners for this one day.

“We were also modeling for weddings in addition to our normal work and it made us realize that a lot of what we see in the wedding industry on Instagram and Pinterest isn’t real.

“Vendors are all coming together to make the industry look like this, but it’s not really realistic what people are actually doing.

“We just started thinking that we didn’t want to put our lives on hold for another year. We hadn’t been on vacation or anything, we were just working and saving.”

Instead, the couple opted to book a French-themed hotel in Glasgow for March 2025, opting to invite just a handful of their nearest and dearest.

Luckily, the pair only ended up losing £1,000 on the venue and were able to swap dates with suppliers.

Sasha said: “Canceling the original wedding and rebooking it felt like a heavy weight off our shoulders. We felt like we could stay married in the middle of it all.

“I decided to hand write and design all our invitations, I do all the flowers and bouquets myself.

“People put themselves in debt to have this perfect day. I think a wedding should be about marriage and the person you marry. It shouldn’t be a production or a show.

“I would say, if you have the urge to cancel your big, traditional wedding, look into it. Your wedding is one day, your wedding is every day.”