All aboard the love train to Middlemarch.
Emma Fletcher (34), soon to be Emma Kelly, wants to thank the Middlemarch residents who made her wedding a fun day.
''I feel very lucky,'' she said.
On a beautiful March day, the bride-to-be arrived at Dunedin Railway Station in a Belinda van der Zande gown and Melanie Child jacket, to meet her future husband, Matt Kelly (33), wearing a kilt.
The couple and about 80 guests boarded the Taieri Gorge Railway train, which stopped for wedding photos to be taken on the way to Middlemarch,''We got some stunning shots,'' she said.
At the final stop, school buses transported guests to a secret location for the wedding ceremony.
Piper Blair Robyn welcomed guests on Mount Ross Farm, as they walked to the top of hill with a view of the Rock and Pillar Range.
Miss Fletcher's parents, and two bridesmaids, walked with the bride towards the groom and two groomsmen, and celebrant Heather Reid.
In a nod to the Scots, the ceremony included a handfasting ceremony. The couple's hands were bound and vows were spoken simultaneously.
The buses then took the guests to the reception at another surprise location in Middlemarch, The Rocks Station.
''A fantastic picnic celebration next to the Taieri River, nestled in the willow trees. Macrocarpa slabs and wood stumps laden with good wholesome country baking - scotch eggs, sausage rolls, quiche, sandwiches, lamingtons, meringues and truffles - it looked amazing.''
Miss Fletcher had spent three months planning the wedding,while Mr Kelly worked for a mining company in Africa.
''I got to know all the ladies in Middlemarch.''
Some of the money for the wedding services went towards local projects, such as the development of the Middlemarch Hall.
''The money we paid the piper went towards the school pool. There was lots of that community spirit going on.''
After a return train trip to Dunedin, the celebrations ended in a Scottish bar in the early hours.
The honeymoon was spent cycling the Otago Rail Trail and at Milford Sound.
The couple had lived for five years in Perth and moved to Dunedin to enjoy a colder climate.
The transient couple chose Middlemarch for their wedding because they wanted a wedding which was ''community-based and a bit alternative with an old-school aesthetic, with a Scottish landscape''.
The wedding was everything they wanted.
''It was a nice, informal family vibe and lots of fun.''
Miss Fletcher wanted to thank Dunedin Railway and the Middlemarch community, especially Lynnore Templeton, Lorna Williams and the Middlemarch Hall Redevelopment Committee.
