Julie and Allan's wedding in Oban

The north west coast of Scotland is one of the most beautiful places in the world and it has been a favourite of mine since childhood. I was given my first camera at eight years of age and the first roll of film I ever exposed was on the Kintyre peninsula. Twelve years later I was travelling up and down the west coast of Scotland working within the Scottish tourism industry and shooting multiple rolls of film every day. Nowadays I usually pick up at least two or three commissions each year which gives me the chance to work regularly amid this stunning, dramatic landscape so I’ve been to Oban on many occasions. However, I’ve never actually photographed a wedding in Oban, so it was great to be back on Saturday for Julie-anne and Allan’s wedding!

I first met Julie and Allan back in February 2009, which sounds a long while ago, but the time seems to have flown over. I travelled across on the friday via Loch Lomond but this time driving up the opposite bank to which I’d photographed the monster last week, lol. This gave me ample time to carry out a recce of the church and the Argyllshire Gathering Hall where their reception would be held. The forecast for the weekend was sunshine and showers but as Allan and Julie had booked my 'sunny and dry' package I had to make sure there would be no rain after 3pm on the Saturday afternoon, which meant arising early on the wedding day morning and getting everything ready. Naturally this is a trade secret! ;)

The wedding was to be held in the Corran Esplanade Church. This is a prominent white building that sits atop a small hill dramatically overlooking the Oban Bay. It’s a gorgeous setting and so are the views, too, as you can see from the first couple of photos. The first photograph was taken before the ceremony as guests started arriving and the second was taken just after the ceremony as the newly weds were being greeted and congratulated on their marriage.

There are narrow lawns along the side of the church which I’d earmarked for the group shots. It would mean that not only would the groups be backlit (so no squinting because of the sun) but also they would have Oban Bay as a striking backdrop. The example I’ve used is the main bridal party (bestman, bridesmaids, both sets of parents) and as you can see the town is spread out behind the group and includes Oban’s legendary landmark, McCaigs Tower, up on the hillside above the Bay.

Julie and Allan are a wonderful couple, and as Julie almost never stops smiling I knew we’d have a great set of wedding photographs from their day. We’d planned to go down to a secluded little spot further up the esplanade and right on the waterfronts edge following the group shots. Amazingly, when we got there we had the whole spot to ourselves! Each time I’d visited it yesterday there had always been a few tourists using it. Anyway, at least that saved me having to chase them all away!

We had a superb time doing the photo session and lots of fun, too! We set up a few different shots, but all the while concentrating on very relaxed and natural looking images, which is not only my favoured style but suited the location beautifully. As we moved from one position to another I did my usual running ahead of the couple and photographing them informally as they walked across the grounds. This gets some totally natural photographs as well as showing off the setting.

Working as an Edinburgh wedding photographer I’m familiar with tourists cheering and waving at the bride and groom, taxi’s and buses honking and tooting them and even on the odd occasion coinciding with the firing of canons from Edinburgh Castle. But I’ve definitely never experienced a passing Calmac ferry sounding his foghorn at them! I was actually rummaging in my camera bag when I heard the blast of the horn. I looked up to see the ferry passing by with everyone on the decks shouting and waving at Allan and Julie. I quickly grabbed a camera and fired off a couple of shots before it passed out of frame. For those of you that read my blog from outwith Scotland, Caledonian MacBrayne is the leading ferry company in Scotland serving all the islands and peninsula’s off the Scottish coast and their ferries are something of an iconic sight around the country and are a highly popular photographic souvenir amongst residents and visitors alike.

I always like to get a couple of good individual portraits of the bride and groom along with all the photographs of them together as a newly married couple. My favourite two of Julie-anne and Allan are the two shown here. I asked Allan to sit on top of this craggy, rocky outcrop close to the waters edge. I then took Julie lower down the grassy bank and positioned her with Allan now up above her in the background. This was one of the shots I’d envisioned when I did my recce of the location the day before and I knew I could create several contemporary variations within just a couple of minutes, which proved to be the case. But as I finished up I quickly grabbed the camera with my telephoto lens on and zoomed in tight on Allan for the photo shown here. He looks so comfortable and relaxed I think it’s a good reflection on how much he’d enjoyed the day and how content he felt now being married to Julie.

My favourite portrait of Julie from the day is the one shown here after Allan’s. I must confess I was torn between this shot and another one I’d taken down by the water where Julie looked absolutely stunning. But the photo here was totally natural as Julie wasn’t aware of being photographed. It was taken not long after we’d got to the Argyllshire Gathering Hall. The original is in colour but I did a black and white conversion which in my opinion gives the image a timeless look that I like very much.

The Argyllshire Gathering Halls are a great venue for a wedding reception. And the food was divine! The main course was a choice between chicken with stuffed haggis and roast beef. I opted for the beef, not because I don’t like chicken and haggis, but just because I know its easier for the Highlanders to catch cattle than it is to catch the haggis as being much smaller, nimble animals they can run much faster around the hillside ;) Anyway, my dinner was roast beef, potato pie, cauliflower cheese, veg and gravy. And it was one of the most sublime meals I’ve ever had! So a big thank you to Julie and Allan and their families, and Amanda at the Argyllshire Hall for looking after me :)

Now one of the requests Julie had asked for was a Big Group photograph of all the guests on the dance floor. There are not too many venues in Scotland where you are able to do a Big Group on the dance floor, but the Argyllshire Halls have a small balcony that juts slightly out over the dance floor, so she’d asked me if this would be possible. Of course, pretty much anything is possible with me, lol! The real question though was not whether it would be possible for me to get the photograph, but whether or not it would be possible to fit all the guests on the dance floor! Anyway, we’d soon found out!

So while the room was being turned around for the dancing I went and set up a couple of lights on the balcony. When everything was ready Allan and the ushers started herding all of the 3,500 guests through to the main hall (okay there maybe wasn’t quite that many!). I positioned Julie and Allan at the front and central and then arranged everyone else around them and behind them. I got everyone to snuggle in nice and tight and there ended up being space left over for a few more if we’d wanted to! I took one photograph with everyone looking straight up at me. Then I asked for the bride and groom to kiss and shot off another. I then asked for ’everyone to kiss’ which gets people looking at each other in confusion wondering if I was being serious before they all burst out laughing.

We were then into the dancing and I went down onto the floor to photograph the first dance from dance floor level. After getting a good range of shots including closeups and full lengths of Allan and Julie and also some wide shots of the whole dance floor as other couples began to join them, I ran back up to the balcony and photographed them from overhead. I also shot a few images with slow synch lighting creating motion blur which really captures the atmosphere of a good Scottish ceilidh.

The last image posted here is from when we were finishing up at the water front earlier in the day. We’d had such a good time and enjoyed a few good laughs that I thought I’d finish off by trying something fun but unusual. I don’t think it’s worked out as good as it should have but I’m sure you get the idea, lol.

Anyway, I really hope I get to come back for another wedding in Oban sometime in the future. If you are reading this and planning a wedding somewhere over on the west coast please don’t be put off because I’m based in Edinburgh. I go all over Scotland photographing weddings and absolutely love my job! Julie and Allan are back off honeymoon at the end of the month and they’ll then begin the process of selecting photographs for their album, which I can assure you is a really hard job when they are all so good! I’m off to photograph a wedding in the north of England next weekend, which is actually nearer than Oban, and if the food is half as good I’ll be happy enough!