Kilt Shortage Hits Scotland’s Wedding Industry

In another life, well certainly a while ago in 2005, I organised a European tour for the three boys from Discovery’s hit TV series American Chopper and it wasn’t a lot of fun. I don’t know if you remember it, but it was a USA family business that customised Harley Davidson motor cycles for customers with more money than sense and fought each other tooth and nail in front of the TV cameras. It was a highly successful format and ran for many years. But it was cable and so everything was on a budget.  The family were very concerned that they would be swamped by avid fans from the 90 million who watched the series world-wide, but in reality hiring two very large men with walkie-talkies to shadow their every move was not necessary and often looked a bit ridiculous. They were an absolute handful to organise as the main attraction for the viewers were the constant family spats, lots of motor cycles and a tour round their heritage in Scotland, England and Ireland. And they were hungry beasties and food had to be laid on every half an hour or so, or my mobile phone would be melting in my hand.

The Edinburgh leg of the tour was a doddle to organise and they had their own champion piper who followed them around. They took part in a Braveheart re-enactment, it was the boys’ favourite film and so they each had a claymore and tartan and took part in a right stooshie. The problems came after when the production company got an enormous bill for kilts. Kilts all round. Why had I authorised a kilt for each of them at a cost of several thousand pounds? Well I hadn’t and luckily I had the email saying only one, but that almost cost me my job. I learned two things, kilts are very expensive and secondly put everything in writing.

Now a shortage of kilts, which would have delighted me when we were making that TV show, has led to a shortage in a wedding pile-up after Covid.  Now obviously many prospective couples wanting to celebrate their marriage were denied the expensive pleasure of a fabulous wedding, but with the relaxation of constraints wedding planners and kilt suppliers  and kilt hirers have been overwhelmed by a Tsunami of demand.  Couples waiting for two years to tie the knot are queuing up at the door and occasionally banging on it. The wedding sector is feeling the strain in over booked venues and now the wedding demanda has led to a shortage of traditional kilts for men. Obviously these days, it’s not just the groom and maybe his best man who need a kilt it’s a thing to have all the men in matching outfits. So a significant amount of planning is now required to make sure that any Scottish wedding is properly kilted out in this record summer of Scottish weddings. An tempers can be short as some couples have been waiting since 2020 to get hitched.

And if want a stress free piece of the nation’s heritage then whisky is one of the pride and joys of Scotland. And our excellent whisky gifts range is a great way to find that perfect something for that important person in your life, without breaking the bank. So take a look at Kintyre a playful collection of favourite wildlife animals expertly engraved on hand cut crystal tots and tumblers. My particular favourite is the majestic Stag. It’s on offer too!

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