I too have mixed feelings about this one. It depends who will finacially benefit- mebbe she means it will bring even more folk to Orkney which is no bad thing, after all tourism is one of Scotlands main industries. Those folk who live in Orkney and rely on tourism (although I doubt many Orcadians rely solely on tourism- I knew a crofter in the Western Isles who was a bus driver, post man, worked at a hotel, ran his croft etc etc) for a living have to make most of their money in about 6 months of the year to see em through the winter. I guess the Council would also want a return on their initial outlay. I mean, I pay Historic Scotland to visit the sites they look after and am (reasonably) happy to do so- if the money made from these sites is put back into preservation, education, etc.
We'll see.....

I have a confession we were at one point going to marry at callanish as it was special to us but then some other people did who were apparently the first to do it for 1000 years so it kind of pissed on our fire and the specialness of the idea wasn't really the same plus it would have been difficult to get my granny and her bad legs over to lewis and other guests.
Now though I'm quite glad we didn't get married there, but it still remains special to us.
I don't see a big problem with people getting married at stones as I doubt it would happen that often already in orkney they have the bus tours taking people round sites so people wise i can't see that increasing hugely and causing more damage plus the weather can be crap there so i doubt if many folk would find it ideal.
I do think though to get married at a replica is a bit odd doubt if it would feel quite the same as the real thing or have the same vibe.

There are however alot of replica pictish stones around more often than not to show in a solid way what the stones were originally like (if damage has occured or they have been moved to bigger museums for preservation) I 'm not sure if they have erected any of the 'fakes' in original sites though but I don't find that too bad an idea with repect to preserving the location of the ancient site I suppose with an ornate marker.
any way thats my tuppence worth!
love
carolinex