Reality TV star Michelle Visage described Scots Finlay Wilson and Alan Lambie as the “most gorgeous couple I have ever seen” – before marrying them over the internet.
The big day for online star Finlay, 33, best known for his Kilted Yoga videos, and husband Alan, 41, happened last month during lockdown – but will be shown today on Michelle’s BBC3 show How’s Your Head, Hun?
Michelle, who is a judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race and took part in Strictly Come Dancing, is an ordained minister.
For her new show, she wanted to officiate at a wedding during Pride month and ran a competition to find a couple before choosing the Scotsmen.
It was perfect timing for Dundee-based Finlay and Alan, who had postponed their June 7 wedding because of the coronavirus pandemic.
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Finlay, whose first Kilted Yoga video in 2017 got 43million views in five days, said: “We had given up because we’d passed the point where we should have been organising the wedding and were at the point where we would have had to delay it to the following year to get it on the same day.
“So to get the chance to get married within seven days of our original wedding day was really amazing. And our street showed so much support. They brought us flowers and swept the road and were looking over garden walls on ladders and throwing petals. It was really lovely.”
Alan added: “It gave us all something to dress up for. Everyone has been in jogging bottoms for three months.”
Alan said the couple saw Michelle’s competition advertised just a few hours before the it closed and decided to enter.
She then called the giddy couple in person to tell them they’d won and they had 36 hours to get ready. She told them she would ordain them via Zoom from LA and that there would be cameras from her TV show.
Alan said: “So it was an emergency run to B&Q to get everything ready.”
Finlay added: “We had 36 hours to turn a garden that wasn’t expecting a wedding to make it look presentable for television.”
Meanwhile, in America, Michelle’s husband David, father to her two daughters, was busy creating an arch of rainbow-coloured balloons where she would stand to marry the Scots.
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In accordance with Scots law, Michelle was a “celebrant” in the role of minister and the couple will still need to get a legal wedding certificate in due course.
Finlay said: “It’s as official as it can be during lockdown. Our wedding was just like a Vegas wedding.
“Only Michelle Visage via Zoom in LA was our Elvis minister, Dundee was our Vegas and our back garden was the chapel of love. As soon as we can we will be registering our wedding, and be making it legal, but for us we are happily married.”
The wedding was on Friday, May 29, but despite being regular posters on social media, the boys have had to stay silent about the nuptials until today when the episode of How’s Your Head, Hun? is out.
All their family and friends who should have been there in person were on another laptop watching and listened to the ceremony via Zoom.
As well as a BBC3 camera crew, the pair’s neighbours were out in force, decorating the road to make it a day they’ll never forget.
Of course, both the boys were in kilts. As they arrived at their front door, their makeshift altar, Michelle joked: “Boys wearing skirts. I feel right at home.”
The Scots couple met three years ago at a difficult time in both of their lives. Alan, who is a retired dancer, was a yoga instructor and Finlay was too. He did a guest workshop at the Edinburgh studio where Alan was teaching.
The pair stared messaging but it was purely about yoga initially.
Alan said: “My husband was very unwell when we first met and I had a lot on my plate.
“I then became a widower and Finlay recently had gotten a divorce so it wasn’t love at first sight. We both had plenty going on.
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“He was a social media pal who did yoga for a long time. Eventually I plucked up the courage to ask Finlay on a date.”
In 2017, Finlay made a video for BBC’s The Social doing yoga, stripped to the waist and in a kilt against beautiful Scottish Scenery, becoming a viral star.
He went on to write a book Kilted Yoga: Yoga Laid Bare. Finlay broke the internet again in June last year when Finlay proposed to Alan during a Pride parade in Washington. The next day they already had 800,000 likes on Twitter for the video.
A year later, Covid-19 had changed the world – but it didn’t stop the boys having a day they’ll always treasure.
The couple, who live with their rescue dogs Annie and Bond, are now planning a big one-year anniversary party for 2021.
Alan said: “This year, lockdown is still with us and there are still fears of a second spike.
“So rather than put a date in to get everyone together this year, we are just going to do it next year.”
● How’s Your Head, Hun? is out today, BBC3, and will be on BBC iPlayer from 6am.
