05-07-2025
Karen Gillan says her wedding at Scots castle was a bit of a 's**tshow' although her Big Day there was still 'great'
Karen Gillan has described the run-up to her lavish wedding at a Scots castle as a 's**tshow,' saying the venue was like 'Fawlty Towers'.
The Scots actress married American actor Nick Kocher, 39, at Castle Toward, near Dunoon, Argyll, in May 2022.
However, while she said the big day was 'amazing', she reeled off a list of issues she claims she encountered at the 19th century mansion, including a lack of hot water and cooking facilities, loose door handles and exposed wires.
Ms Gillan, 37, also recounted an awkward moment when she praised the owners' relationship – only to later learn they were going through a 'bitter divorce'.
The Inverness-born former Doctor Who star told the Comedy Bang Bang podcast: 'I got married in a castle and, let me tell you, it was a sh**show. But it was amazing.
'The days leading to the wedding were sh**shows.'
Entrepreneur Denice Purdie and her husband Keith Punler paid £1.2 million for Castle Toward in 2015 with plans to turn it into a five-star wedding and events venue.
However, Ms Gillan's comments suggest there were still snagging issues by the time of her wedding.
The event, which was attended by around 75 A-list guests, took place at Castle Toward with Gillan later sharing an image of her taken inside the venue wearing her wedding dress
She said: 'No, the wedding itself was great, but just everything went wrong in the lead-up that could possibly go wrong.
'This lovely couple were showing us around the castle a year prior. They were like, 'We're going to do it up. It's going to be lovely'. It was a construction site.
'Then four days before the wedding, it was still a construction site.
'My wedding planner went in and she just saw one man with a hammer called Keith. He was like, 'I'm sorry, Gina. I should have sorted this out'. I was just like, 'what's going to happen?''
Ms Gillan, who gave birth to her first child, Clementine, in January, revealed she had initially planned for some of her nearest and dearest to stay in Castle Toward in the run-up to the ceremony, but that became impossible.
'There was no hot water. There was nowhere to cook,' she said.
'People were meant to live in the castle for a few days. There were like wires coming out of the walls and also this beautiful couple that had hosted us – and we were like, 'We would just want to end up like you' – have gone through a bitter divorce since.'
However, Ms Gillan has fond memories of the day itself, saying: 'It was genuinely the most incredible time.
Everyone said it was their favourite wedding that they've ever been to. But it was like Fawlty Towers, like door handles were coming off and things were going wrong, but it added to it.
'I think it just makes you go like, abandon all these expectations that you had and just sort of roll with it.'
Responding to Ms Gillan's comments, Mr Punler said the castle's restoration was set back by the pandemic with 'construction costs ballooning' and a 'shortage of labour'.
However, he insisted he and his staff put in a mammoth effort to get the venue ready for the event 'right up till the last minute'.
He said: 'Yes it's true, there were a few snagging matters that we had to address in the lead-up.
'These are inevitable in any large-scale construction project, and for sure it would have been easier to celebrate the completion of the restoration with a smaller, low-key 'soft' event than to play host to 75 A-list guests for four nights.'
Mr Punler added that, despite the 'odd hiccup', the wedding day was faultless and he has since invited the couple and their daughter back to the castle.
