Emma and Rob's wedding in Dumfries

I photographed a lovely wedding in Dumfries on Thursday. A long drive – 2 hours from Edinburgh. However very scenic countryside with lots of little lambs and the venue made up for it.

Just look at that church! It’s just fantastic. It’s even set in beautiful grounds.

The wedding was between Emma and Rob, a really friendly and welcoming couple who were a joy to work with. Being a Wedding Photographer based in Edinburgh I get to shoot both Scottish and English wedding styles. This was more of an English style with morning suits and pinstripes rather than kilts.

The first thing I like to do when I arrive at a wedding is take a picture of the two rings. I like to get it out of the way quickly and it would be a bit of a waste to whisk a ring off the married couple as soon as they had given them to each other. Probably bad luck.

The bride’s ring is an unusual shape – this is to fit her antique engagement ring – which you will see later on.

After that I went straight up to the bride’s room. Unfortunately there wasn’t much space or light – and what little space there was was covered with the getting ready debris of a number of women. Cosmetics, clothes and bags of bits and pieces covered every available surface. I tidied up what I could and got to work on some photography.

The wedding dress was just gorgeous. A lovely floaty number.

The flowers were calia lilies – here they are with the bride’s amazing shoes. Look at the heels on those!

Next came the putting on of the dress. Always a big moment. This wedding dress had a corset back which takes a bit longer than other styles.

Doesn’t she just look gorgeous?

Unfortunately the minister was camera shy.  He originally wanted no photography at all during the ceremony. Luckily I managed to talk him round to photography at the back of the church. As you can see I was a long way back.

All celebrants have different views on photography during the ceremony. Particularly if they are conducting a religious ceremony. If photographs are important to you please do not just take it as read that these will be allowed and confirm this with whoever will be conducting the ceremony.

Luckily modern professional photographic equipment is pretty amazing. So I did manage to get some close up shots – including that all important kiss.

Next came the legal part – the signing of the register.

The newly married couple leaving the church.

We then set up a fair number of group and posed shots in front of the fantastic church entrance.

As well as a shot of confetti being thrown over the bride and groom. A slightly uncomfortable experience apparently.

I’m pleased with the posed shots. A combination of a beautiful setting, a gorgeous happy couple and a fabulous dress.

Finally a very relieved couple reached the reception.

I do love the back of this dress. Here’s a close up as it’s tricky to see in the wide shots (as ever click on any photo for a larger view).

Some interesting shots of her family!

A very elegant wedding cake. I do love iced flowers. They have always fascinated me for some reason.

They had candles as table centrepieces.

Here are the engagement and wedding ring together as promised. As you can see the wedding ring fits round the engagement ring perfectly.

The speeches were before dinner. Very popular these days – leads to better delivered speeches as well as a much more relaxed top table.

I actually really enjoy speeches. These were all great and as ever led to some very natural photos.

This was actually the bride and groom’s idea. As I say a great fun couple. The bride in particular was so vivacious.

The fake cutting of the cake became the actual cutting of the cake, as – well they wanted to. Although I do have to admit to encouraging them a little.

Just before I left I noticed that the weather had cleared up and the sky was now much more “photogenic”. So I took a few exterior shots.