‘Outlander’ Actors Excited About Young Ian and Rachel’s Unique Wedding and Night: “Being Unconventional is Awesome”

Outlander Season 7 Episode 13, “Hello, Goodbye” showcases the heartwarming conclusion of a captivating new love story in the series. This episode revolves around a Scot who has become a Mohawk scout and a strong-willed Quaker who has a kind heart. After longing for each other for months, they eventually get married and deepen their bond on the Starz series.

**Spoilers for Outlander Season 7 Episode 13 “Hello, Goodbye,” now streaming on Starz**

Young Ian Murray (John Bell) and Rachel Hunter (Izzy Meikle-Small) became husband and wife in a perfectly unconventional Quaker wedding ceremony. There was fittingly no priest, no script, and no way for their friends and family to know how it would all shake out. While the hallmarks of a traditional Quaker meeting briefly thrust Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire (Caitriona Balfe) into awkward territory, Outlander stars John Bell and Izzy Meikle-Small thought the ceremony — and the subsequent wedding night — were perfect for Young Ian and Rachel.

“I think it speaks to their characters quite well,” John Bell said of their unique wedding ceremony. “They’re not the most conventional couple, you know what I mean?“

“We obviously have had a couple of weddings on Outlander that were all iconic in their own way, and so it’s cool to be iconic in a different way,” Izzy Meikle-Small said. “And like John said, our characters are a bit of an unconventional match. So I think that an unconventional wedding was just the ticket.”

However, before Ian and Rachel could profess their love, they needed to get some marital advice from the best in the biz: James and Claire Fraser.

Early in the episode, Jamie and his nephew bond before the ceremony with Young Ian going so far as to ask his uncle’s advice dealing with the wedding night considering Rachel was a virgin. Jamie cheekily remembered how the situation was reversed when he wed Claire. Meanwhile, Claire and Mercy Woodcock (Gloria Obianyo) helped Rachel prep for her big day and imparted their own words of wisdom for the days and years ahead.

“The three of us had like the most fun that day,” Meikle-Small said. “The girls don’t often get to all shoot together, so when the girls are together, we’re like [mimes chatting].”

“And I feel like Caitriona gives me so much life advice generally that it just felt like Caitriona was giving me some advice. I was like, ‘Okay, noted.’ So it felt pretty natural and normal in that way.

“I don’t know, John,” Meikle-Small asked Bell, “do you often talk to Sam about your intimate dating life?”

Bell laughed and admitted he thinks Sam “will give great advice” in real life.

“I don’t know, like the Young Ian/Jamie scenes, you can really plot Young Ian’s growth as a person, as a character, into adulthood throughout them, and this is really just the cherry on top of that whole journey of their scenes together,” Bell said. “This culmination where he kind of gets to pass the baton to him and say, ‘You know, you did it, kid.’”

“Maybe the surreal of it all is kind of the realization that these are the final big moments for these characters. It feels like you’re kind of wrapping up their story a little bit. You’re taking them to that happy place.”

Speaking of taking Young Ian and Rachel to a “happy place,” we would be remiss if we didn’t address the characters’ equally unconventional wedding night. It kicks off with Rachel huskily asking her husband to unlace her and features the newlyweds describing each other rear ends. Rachel accidentally gets too aggressive at one point, biting Ian, and ultimately leaving him taken slightly aback by her enthusiastic passion.

Izzy Meikle-Small said she wasn’t totally surprised that the “single-minded” Rachel went to her wedding night knowing her own desires.

“I think that ever since she met Ian, I think she knew what she wanted,” Meikle-Small said. “I think that really it’s just been a matter of time and I think she’s been slightly champing at the bit to get her alone time with him.”

“They bring out all the best things in each other and he made her feel comfortable enough to express herself in that way.”

When Decider asked the actors if any part of the wedding night sequence was harder than another, Bell said they “laughed throughout” the whole thing.

“Not in like a kind of like, ‘This is awkward’ kind of way. Just like, ‘This is so sweet. This is so cute.’ It’s really exciting, this journey we’re taking them on,” Bell said. “So the giggles and the laughs came from a really joyous place.”

Then he admitted there was one “sticky” bit of filming the love scene: “Maybe having to cover up my tattoos?“

“The tattoos,” Meikle-Small nodded.

“I have a tattoo on my back that took a lot of covering up and because there was some rolling around the bed, there would be like a sort of fake tan smudge at the end,” Bell said.

“It wasn’t so white by the end, it was quite orange,” Meikle-Small said.

Given that this is Outlander, and Outlander always throws complications in the paths of its lovebirds, should fans be worried what the future holds for the newlyweds?

“If you think that Rachel and Ian have a happy ending now,” Meikle-Small teased with a big smile, “it’s going to be an even happier ending.”