A Matter of Wedding Photography Scotland » Kilts

Sabrina and Craig’s wedding at St Paul’s and St George’s

fiona — Fri, 28 May 2010 19:20:14 +0000

Sabrina and Craig’s wedding was unusually close for me – not only was it in Edinburgh (I am after all an Edinburgh Wedding Photographer – even though around 70% of my work so far this year has been over an hour away), but it was on the east side of Edinburgh around Leith, the top of Leith walk and the Bridges. All areas I know well from university and from where I live now.

Sabrina and Craig were unfortunately hit by the recent ash cloud problems as many of her family were coming across from Ireland. Luckily and due to some heroic travelling on the part of relatives only two people didn’t make it in the end.

This was a Gold Package wedding (see our packages for full details) so I first travelled to where Sabrina was getting ready. Due to the amount of family she had over they had rented a lovely flat in Leith. This was ideal as the rooms were bright and airy, just perfect for photography. I took images of the dress (which was a lovely number from just down the road from me – Pretty Woman in Leith), shoes and flowers. I absolutely love their choice of flowers. I love sunflowers. Probably second only to daffodils, which I am still waiting for someone to use as their wedding flowers. Unfortunately my wedding was too late in the year.

After the still life photos I took pictures of the bride getting into her dress assisted by the bridesmaid and then some pictures of her family.

It was then quickly off the the ceremony venue to get some pictures of the groom and best man as well as the rings and guests arrivals.

For this wedding the celebrant was a friend of the family from the Salvation Army. Luckily I was able to take as many photos as I wanted from wherever I wanted. Which was a nice change from the wedding in Dumfries.

St Paul’s and St George’s is a huge church that has recently been refurbished inside and is now very modern. Unfortunately the dreaded tram works were still going on in Edinburgh and were just outside the door. The good point of this was that the celebrant and I managed to convince the tram workers to make a tunnel with their spade’s up for the bride! I’m sure that it was quite unusual.

It was a lovely ceremony, the minister was fantastic and I particularly liked the unity candle ceremony. During this the mother’s of the bride and groom each light a separate candle which the bride and groom then use to light the central candle. They then blow out the parent’s candle and are left with a single burning candle. Lovely.

After the ceremony I took pictures of everyone together in the church.

It was then off to the botanics for some family group shots and images of the couple. On the way back out I spotted the most gorgeous tree in full blossom which I had to have some pictures of. Trees in blossom are just fabulous.

The reception was being held in the Carlton hotel on North Bridge – this hotel has the most fabulous enterance stairway. It is just wonderful and dominates the enterance hall. Many pictures were taken here.

The speaches were after the meal – which is getting less popular these days although it is the traditional way round. The most memorable points was the presentation of a See You Jimmy hat and the bride’s heartfelt and tearful thanks to everyone for making such efforts to get to the wedding.

Finally came the cutting the cake and the first dance. The cake was gorgeous and suited their colour palette perfectly. Particularly impressive as it was made by a friend.

Edinburgh Wedding Photography – Jane and Duncan

fiona — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:46:44 +0000

Jane and Duncan were (are?) a lovely couple who got married at Lothian chambers in Edinburgh. It was one of the larger registry office weddings I’ve done as they had around 80 guests so we had one of the larger rooms downstairs.

Despite it being September we had absolutely fantastic weather – better than most of the weather in August actually. It was just beautiful. The whole city glowed.

Jane wore a gorgeous empire line dress and Duncan wore full kilt. Jane’s family was from England and Duncan is Scottish so there was a real mix of kilts and suits there. One of the things I love about Scottish Weddings is how colourful the guys are.

The ceremony was fantastic. Duncan was obviously blown away when he saw his future wife for the first time and love just radiated from the pair. They also had a great sence of humour for the inevitable hiccups in the ceremony. It was one of the more moving ceromonies I’ve been to and I did feel a bit chocked up by the end.

After the ceromony I got everyone out the back in front of Saint Giles for group photos. It was pretty much like herding cats and even worse than normal as there were so many distractions. The pictures were however worth it.

We then moved on to their reception which was at the tower restaurant in Edinburgh museum, with a quick stop on the way for a picture at greyfriar’s bobby’s statue.

We took formal group shots and some couple shots at the museum and then the speaches started.

I love staying for speeches, and these were particularly good. We got to find out what special people Jane and Duncan were – who both work for non govermental organisations in less than safe parts of the world.

Jane and Duncan had hired a red wedding bus to take thier guests on a tour of Edinburgh. It was one of the really old types of bus with a conductor on the back and was just fantastic. One of the things I love about my job is that you get to see things a little out of the ordinary. The hire company had gone to great pains, the bus even had wedding ribbon and sprigs of flowers decorating it!

Please see Jane and Duncan gallery for the full set of images.

Edinburgh Civil Union – John and Jong’s – 8th August 2009

fiona — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 20:51:12 +0000

John and Jong came all the way from Australia to get married. John was originally from here and so wanted to tie the knot here.

They got married in the Scotsman hotel in Edinburgh which is a lovely old building with a particularly fantastic marble staircase.

It was a lovely ceremony. A lot of their foreign friends had even hired kilts and were having a great time! Jong himself wore the traditional Korean wedding garb which looked absolutely fantastic.

They had a lovely day for it which was great as they had access to the little enclosed garden out the back.

It was quite an intense session. There were 28 guests and they wanted pictures of each couple, pictures of the couple with them and a group photo. They wanted these photos printed by the end of the day and then inserted in triple folders and given to each couple as they left! It was tight as the whole thing only went from 11:30 to 4:30pm. We did manage it, but boy was it tight and included fast editing on our laptop and printing at Jessops. Unfortunately Jessops printer broke down which left me pacing a tad.

The Gathering 2009

fiona — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 18:19:38 +0000

This weekend Edinburgh was hosting The Gathering, a huge international clan gathering. This is usually held abroad in Canada or America, but this time it was “coming home” to Edinburgh. It was being held on Arthur’s seat – which as it happens is around 5 minutes walk from my door. So I took a break from my busy scedule, grabbed my camera and went.

I was not disappointed. I have never seen so many people in kilts. Particularly with American and Canadian accents. I actually felt slightly out of place! We were also very lucky with the weather. It had been pouring down all week but it stayed dry all day.

Anyway here are some pictures of the fantastic day:

Fantastic feathers!

Competitors for the heavy games from as far away as America and New Zealand. Not the sort of people you would want to argue with.

No Scottish event would be complete without a piper. Here there were full pipe bands!

As well as the modern alternative.

There was also a scary amount of weaponry on show!

There was also some absolutely mouthwatering Scottish produce on show

Mmmmm – yummy I do love some good food.

Of course no Scottish event would be complete without Robert Burns

And a nod to the changeability of Scottish weather

Fiona