Morag and Iain's wedding at The Hub

Well 20th February was the big day for Morag and Iain and I arrived at The Hub about 2pm. It was a 3pm ceremony and I was booked to start at 2.30 through until the first dance. The day went against the weather forecast and we had rain which wasn't a problem but it meant the big dramatic shot in front of the spire (which I spoke about in my recce post) wasn't going to be possible with Morag as the ground was too wet and we didn't want her dress getting spoiled before the dancing. So, instead I did it with Iain and his bestman. Because of the rain I didn't have the deep blue sky behind the spire as on the day of the recce, so instead I coloured touched Iain and his bestman against a black and white background using a special trick I employ to enrich the texture and tones of black and white images. The result is pretty much what I anticipated and I hope you agree it looks really effective.

Morag arrived in a Mark II Jaguar and I grabbed a couple of quick shots of it outside the entrance as well as one of Morag and her father, and the two bridesmaids sitting in the back. Normally I would ask the bride and father to pause for a couple of seconds beside the car and shoot a full length and then a close up, but due to the rain I didnt hold them up at all but shot informally as they entered and then made their way along the upper gallery aisle and into the ceremony. The ceremony was lovely, the registra being a close friend of the family, and I was able to shoot from the corners of the room and capture the spontaneous smiles, laughs and a couple of tears. Following the signing of the registra, which I shoot live without them being aware of it and then also do a couple of quick posed shots just so they have both sets, the bridal party took their champers down to the foot of the main staircase for the formal group shots. It took me about 15 minutes to do the usual bridal party groupings then another 5 or so for any special requests then I did another 20 minutes with Morag and Iain by themselves getting them back in plenty time for their wedding breakfast even though up until that point they had been running behind schedule.

We had four speakers, the father of the bride, the groom, bestman and then grooms father who had been asked especially to say a few words too. I move around inbetween the tables to shoot the speeches from various different angles and viewpoints. At the same time Diane will shoot from the back of the room with a long telephoto lens so we get a really good range and variety of pictures and then argue about who got the best! lol Following the speeches was the cutting of the cake and then a few drinks in the bar before the dancing.

I always love photographing the first dance. I'm something of a low light specialist and find the ambience and atmosphere when the lights are brought down low for the dancing to offer enormous creative potential (have a look at the two examples I've just uploaded into my main Wedding Gallery on my website). I stayed down on the dance floor whilst Diane went back up into the gallery with the long lens so she could grab some overheads to add variety to the main set I'd shoot from the floor. Basically I'll follow the couple around the dance floor getting a mix of close ups as they exchange intimacies and looks, full length shots, and also wide shots of the whole dance floor. I have a few secret tricks which I enjoy bringing out towards the end of the first dance but obviously I can't mention them here or they'd no longer be secret!!! ;)

The Hub's website is: http://www.thehub-edinburgh.co.uk/

More wedding images are in my main Wedding Galleries on my website.