Dalhousie Castle, Brigitte and Peter's wedding

I usually photograph three or four weddings a year at Dalhousie Castle and my first one for 2010 was Brigitte and Peter’s. We met up about four weeks before the wedding day at Dalhousie for a chat and a look around the castle. Having worked here so many times over the years I’m familiar with all its nooks and crannies and how it looks in different conditions. Brigitte and Peter particularly wanted to utilise the castle as a backdrop for their group shots and they’d suggested using either the north or the west facing side of the castle. However, from experience I know that the north facing side, which is where the main entrance is, will get blocked off with visitors cars which will spoil the castles backdrop and as their ceremony was 2pm the west face of the castle would be facing the sun which would cause everyone to be squinting. So I took them for a short walk to the opposite side and showed them how the east facing view of the castle would make for an ideal back ground. I took a couple of tests shots of the two of them and let them see on the back of the camera and they immediately agreed it would be ideal. You can see further down this post how well this worked on the day from the group photograph shown.

I was booked to start half an hour before the ceremony through to the wedding breakfast line up. As usual with this level of attendance I start off by finding the groom and his bestman and ushers and do a few quick pre-ceremony combinations. The first image shown here is Peter and his bestman and two ushers in front of the castle. I plan to use this shot as full page spread in the wedding album and I’ll use a close up colour portrait I took of Peter by the Castle doors as an inset in the sky on the top left of the picture, which is why I’ve converted this image into a magazine style black and white so the colour shot of Peter will be an ideal complement and set the page off perfectly.

About fifteen minutes before the ceremony I went up to Brigitte’s room where she was getting ready with her three bridesmaids. I got some pre ceremony bridal portraits of Brigitte using the nice window light in her room and then we took her out onto the balcony for some quick three quarter and full length shots. Brigitte also wanted me to do a shoe fashion shoot, too, lol.

The ceremony was nice and relaxed with a mix of happiness, laughter as well as the all important elements, the vows, declarations, ring exchange and first kiss. The minister had allowed me to photograph during the ceremony providing I stayed in the bottom corner of the chapel and didn’t move, breathe or make any kind of noise, lol. Anyway, throughout the ceremony I was very much aware of the gorgeous light pouring in through the front chapel windows and how it would make a fantastic shot from behind the couple. Despite my ministerial restrictions I waited until the final hymn and decided to chance my luck. So creeping out of my corner and into the middle of the chapel I crouched down behind Brigitte and Peter and splayed the back of Brigitte‘s dress out and quickly took half a dozen different shots before the hymn ended. Fortunately I made it without any lightening bolts from heaven striking me down!

After some champers we did a Big Group shot outside the castle chapel and then took the family and bridal party around to the opposite side for the formals. It didn’t take very long to photograph the requests on Brigitte and Peter’s list, and I also threw in a couple of extra’s too. Then the family went back inside for more drinks and I took the newly weds for a walk around the castle grounds and we did a contemporary mix of romantic, fun and classic wedding photographs. When we got back to the castle I grabbed a couple of photos beneath the dramatic ceiling of the castle foyer just before the line up was organised.

Dalhousie Castle is popular with Edinburgh wedding photographers as it provides some gorgeous backdrops both inside and outside in addition to having beautiful grounds too. With Peter and Brigitte as we moved from one location to the next I simply let them take the time out for a walk and a chat whilst photographing them with a telephoto lens from an unobtrusive distance. This gives a selection of totally natural, relaxed images to complement the shots that we also set up. The photograph here at the end is another one I set up with their album in mind. It’s a classic image in its own right but it also has free space on the top left hand side for a small vertical inset and the bottom right hand side for a horizontal inset.

At the moment I have another two weddings at Dalhousie Castle booked for this summer so I’ll look forward to them coming up in a few months. This coming weekend I am down in Newcastle so I’ll tell you more about that another time. Although the vast majority of my work is as a wedding and portrait photographer, I still keep my hand in with other work too, both commercial and editorial. Next week I have the feature article in The People’s Friend magazine. They sent me to one of the most remote, far flung corners of Scotland to do a feature on the Bealach na Ba, the highest minor road in Britain. If you manage to find a copy, which is often hard as it has a readership of well over a million, you can find out how I got on.

As usual may I finish with my usual advert (c’mon it is my blog afterall! lol) if you are currently planning a wedding anywhere in Scotland or the north of England and wanting superb wedding photography then check out either of the following websites for more details and sample galleries: Edinburgh Wedding Photographer - Newcastle Wedding Photographer - Wedding Photographer Scotland.