WATCH: Music practice's romantic twist sees French couple proposal at Inverness Cathedral
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A FRENCH visitor to Inverness was moved by music played in a city church to propose to his fiancée.
Rémy Pruvost (31) and his girlfriend Naïs Merlino (32), who live in the south of France, were on a tour around Scotland when Mr Pruvost found the perfect moment to pop the big question while visiting Inverness Cathedral during a music rehearsal.
Mr Pruvost was swept away by the music of organ and bagpipes and that led him to get down on one knee.
Organist at Inverness Cathedral, Adrian Marple, said he and Spud the Piper were practising Highland Cathedral shortly before a wedding.
He said: "As we were practicing to us a visitor to the cathedral from Provence got down on one knee and proposed to his fiancee. Luckily she said 'Yes'l and they told me afterwards that he was so moved hearing the bagpipes and organ together, he was swept away enough to propose. I think he had been planning the perfect time, and the music gave him the courage he needed!”
Mr Pruvost, who works in the building trade and is originally from Paris, said he knew he was going to propose in Scotland.
He commented: "I knew she would love it, she's always loved northern European countries, especially when there's a lot of gothic architecture, I thought Edinburgh was too early in the holiday and I wanted to let her enjoy discovering the country, Inverness was the furthest north, halfway through the holiday, and I saw the cathedral, symbolically I thought it was time. The bagpipes started to play just as I decided to ask, the planets aligned.
"The cathedral was symbolic, I don't know how it works in the United Kingdom but in France you can get married in a church or at the town hall, and I really want to get married in a church because I'm a Catholic and I think traditions and spirituality are getting lost, and I know she feels the same way. Plus, Naïs loves the rain (it was raining) and churches since she was a child, when we walk around France we visit all the churches. She loves the gothic style.
"I was very stressed because I had the ring with me since the beginning of the trip, and I had to find someone to film the proposal without her noticing, with my poor spoken English. Luckily she reads everything during the visits, and I was able to find a cameraman who understood me when I said "wedding". And then there was a lot of emotion, I was afraid of not finding my words. I know she wasn't expecting it at all, so she was very surprised, it took her a few days to realise it completely, I think, we talked about the wedding sometimes without thinking that we were going to get married. She didn't think she'd ever get married, and she didn't think anyone would ask her. But we're very happy, and she keeps telling me that she's very happy and that she liked the proposal very much. The return to France was difficult after all that. It was our first holiday together because of Covid."
The couple, who have been together for three years, met at a gym in Marseille and plan to come back to the Highlands.
Mr Pruvost said they think they will get married in September 2024 in Provence, where Naïs' family comes from.
"Scotland is beautiful, it's very exotic for us who live in the south of France," he added. "We're already planning to come back to go through Inverness and Edinburgh and then on to the Highlands and some smaller towns.
"The people of Inverness were very welcoming and the people of the parish very cute and nice, it made us very happy!"
Callum Fraser, also known as Spud the Piper, said the day was very special for him too.
He said: "Adrian asked me if we could do a rehearsal before a wedding. I needed this because I need to tune my pipe with this organ. We did this twice as the cathedral was filling up with people.
"After Adrian started playing Highland Cathedral I joined in, and then I walked to the front of the cathedral, where then I saw the gentleman going on his knee to propose.
"When I finished piping there were all these people who were clapping and hugging the couple. Even people they didn't now looked emotional.
"It was a very special moment. I pipe at over one hundred weddings a year, but I've never had anything like that.
"I think there is no two ways about it – in any cathedral in which I played the pipe together with the organ, you could see grown men absolutely crying. I don't think there's anything better!"
