Ruth and Jamie in Border Country

Ruth and Jamie’s wedding was certainly spectacular! For starters the scenery was simply breathtaking. The reception, with 200 guests, took place in a huge marquee at Ruth’s parents farm in the shadow of Soutra, with lovely views over the valley beneath, while the ceremony was at a exquisitely located nearby church – which according to the Minister had not seen a 200-strong congregation for a long time! The Minister’s sermon was particularly moving, and despite the enormous congregation, or perhaps partly because of them, the whole ceremony felt particularly intimate and touching.

Every detail of the ceremony was meticulously and long-planned. Ruth’s parents went as far as rebuilding their house – when we visited a few weeks before the ceremony, the house had a gaping hole where the facade was supposed to be, and the grounds where the marquee was to be erected were busy being landscaped.

By the day of the wedding, everything was immaculate, and you would never have guessed at the months – perhaps years – of preparations. True to the attention to detail shown throughout, the cake was a model of Girton College, Cambridge where Jamie and Ruth met. As you can see from the photos, there was also the excitement of chinese lanterns – an extraordinary sight seeing them drifting over the hills of the Borders in the still night air.

Enough description, a picture is worth a thousand words! Here is a taste of the day:

Sharon and Simon at St. Salvator’s Chapel, St. Andrews

Sharon and Simon met at St. Andrew’s University, so where else to get married than the University Chapel of St. Salavator? One of the many things that I learned about St Andrews on this trip is that it is a bit of a mecca for surfers – and Simon is more than a bit of a surfer himself.

True to the laid-back surfer’s paradigm, the aim of the day was for the happy couple and guests alike to have a relaxed and happy day, enjoying themselves without too much rigid formality. So, with St Andrews being on the sea, that seemed to good an opportunity to miss and, while the guests were tucking into their drinks, we managed to sneak down to the beach with Sharon and Simon for a few photos…

Sarah Jane and Andy in Sir Walter Scott country

One of the things we love most about our job as photographers is the fact that we not only get to spend time with people on one of the happiest days of their lives, but our brides’ and grooms’ adventures take us to all sorts of beautiful places that we might not otherwise visit. Abbotsford is a place that we know we really should have been to – it’s not so far from Edinburgh, and the beautiful home of one of Scotland’s most famous sons – Sir Walter Scott. Sometimes the closest and most obvious places are the ones that you end up not visiting though – when I worked in London for a few years, it took me many years before I visited the Tower.

Anyway, thanks to Sarah Jane and Andy, we put that right, and as a bonus we were treated to a visit to Hawick Rugby Club, the venue for the reception, too! Abbotsford has a beautiful, cosy interior, with many beautiful artefacts, perfect for wedding photography. Fortunately the weather held off so that Sarah-Jane and Andy didn’t need to take advantage of it for the ceremony, which was held in the idyllic walled garden outside, so we took a few portraits inside instead.

Hawick Rugby Club was a really interesting location for a party – as you can see, we put the stadium to good use, and the pitch provided the perfect launch pad for some chineses lanterns late that night. It was a fantastic and (as I think you can see from the pictures!) beautiful day.

Lianne and David at the Royal Botanic Gardens

Well, this was a jolly one! Once the emotion of the ceremony was over, Lianne and DavidĀ  and their friends and family certainly knew how to let their hair down (only metaphorically not literally, since despite some pretty vigorous dancing, Lianne’s hairstyle somehow managed to look as immaculate by the end of the evening as it had when she first arrived).

Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Gardens are a bit special, especially when the weather holds off to allow an outside ceremony, and behind the joking and good spirits there was a lot of emotion – as you can see from the pictures! The one downpour was perfectly timed until the ceremony was well over and most of the guests were safely in the marquee. And as soon as drinks were served, the sun beamed again, just in time for the group photos.

Here are some pictures from the day!

Louise and Matty

A destination wedding this time – last week we headed abroad over the border into the exotic wilds of Northumberland for Louise and Matty’s wedding near Berwick Upon Tweed. In fact it was only just abroad, as the wedding was within a stonesthrow of the idyllic banks of the River Tweed.

The wedding was a wonderfully intimate one – Louise grew up in the area, and the reception was in a marquee by the family home.

This July has been one of the wettest months of the year, and it was perhaps inevitable that we would be caught by the odd shower. This did nothing to dampen the spirits of the friendly gathered party though, and happily the showers held off for the ceremony, and the heaviest shower waited until the wedding party were safely ensconsed in the marquee, so the timing was good! Just one shower caught a few of us off-guard. For the photographer, this just introduces more photo opportunities, and a slight misting on my lens at one of the damper moments gave an interesting ethereal arty glow to one or two of the pictures.

The happy couple paid especial attention to details, with lots of lovely little touches carefully prepared with a yellow and green colour scheme.