Maureen Watt, 34, a health economist, and Pieter Graham, 33, who works in PR, were married on June 17, 2017, at St Aloysius Church, in Glasgow
Pieter had almost given up on the idea that he would ever find the right partner, when a friend challenged him to make a list of the things that he was looking for in his ideal woman. He wanted someone fun, outgoing, and from a different country.
A year later, Maureen walked up to Pieter in a west London bar and took the direct approach: “You look like a man who is good in a crisis. I’ve got no idea what to drink.”
Pieter’s mind went blank and all he could suggest was red wine.
Maureen appeared to tick all Pieter’s boxes. As well as sharing his taste for red wine, he found her “very attractive”. He liked that she did not take herself too seriously and that she had approached him. “None of my friends ever believe that,” he says.
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Pieter also liked that Maureen came from Scotland. The daughter of two lawyers and the eldest of seven children, Maureen grew up in Glasgow and studied economics at the University of Strathclyde. She has an MA in health economics and is now a global director for a pharmaceutical company.
“She is very playful,” says Pieter. “She’s not scared of anything. You could put her in a room of strangers and she would be the one everyone wanted to talk to.” They are both outgoing, single-minded, ambitious, and like to try new experiences.
Not long after they started dating, Maureen realised that she had met her match when their plans were unexpectedly cancelled and Pieter quickly came up with ideas of things to do, including bingo and a silent disco.
Pieter was brought up in Surrey and studied history at the University of Sussex. He is a director at Hope&Glory PR agency. “He’s definitely a glass half-full kind of guy,” says Maureen. She enjoys his dry humour.
The first time that Pieter visited Maureen’s family in Scotland, he was so anxious about forgetting her six siblings’ names that he kept an aide-memoir in his mobile.
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The couple moved in together in south London in 2015. Maureen’s friends had wondered if Pieter might propose on holiday in Barbados on her 30th birthday. “Every time his hands went below the table, I was on tenterhooks,” she says. She was shocked when Pieter finally did propose on a trip to the Lake District last year.
The couple’s wedding plans took an unexpected turn when Maureen broke two bones in her ankle during a military fitness class in January. She had a metal plate fitted in her ankle and was in plaster for six weeks. She only stopped using crutches a month before the wedding. “Pieter really looked after me,” she says.
Maureen did not enjoy the process of choosing a wedding dress, so asked a friend, Carolina, who is a seamstress, to make her a skirt and top. After intensive physiotherapy, she wore a pair of blue satin high heels at her wedding.
“He was so anxious about forgetting her six siblings’ names that he kept an aide-memoir
They invited 150 guests to the service at St Aloysius Roman Catholic Church, in Glasgow, which has a link with Maureen’s former secondary school. Her five sisters were bridesmaids. Pieter had three best men. After the service. the newlyweds decided to drive themselves to the reception at Culcreuch Castle Hotel, in Fintry, which dates back to the 13th century.
After a sit-down wedding breakfast, Maureen and Pieter had their first dance to the National’s I Need My Girl. Maureen’s 90-year-old grandfather joined in the ceilidh. The Proclaimers and Deacon Blue drew a crowd on the dancefloor. Maureen’s aunt made tablet for the wedding favours.
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On returning from honeymoon in Bali, Maureen started a new job based in Zurich. They will now split their time between an apartment in Zurich and their flat in Wandsworth.
They have plans for lake swimming in the summer and skiing in the winter.
“Pieter and I have got a humungous shoe collection which we can store in two different flats,” says Maureen, who admires her husband’s fashion sense. “He’s dead stylish. He’s got a bigger shoe collection than I have.”