I was booked to start half an hour before the ceremony so we started with some photos of Philip and the ushers. There is a slight canopy overhanging the entrance of the hotel so I grabbed some quick pictures of him with his bestman here before doing a couple of portraits with Phil back inside one of the hotel corridors. I knew Michelle wouldn’t want to hang around longer than necessary upon her arrival at the hotel so first of all I waited at a large window in the lobby looking down the long drive and photographed the wedding car with a telephoto lens as it made its way up the drive with Michelle and the bridesmaids in the back. I then quickly went out and shot informally as they donned their umbrella’s and made a dash for the shelter of the hotel.
Inside the lobby I shot some nice portraits of Michelle and her father and then the whole bridal party including the three bridesmaids, page boy and flower girl. Before proceeding down the aisle the bridesmaids were asking me the best way of holding their bouquets. There is a common tendency to hold the bouquet too high. It feels natural to be holding the flowers at chest height, but it looks far better to lower them slightly and hold them around the midriff. It also makes you look more flattering holding them in this position as well as you look more gracious and elegant. To be honest the girls didn’t need too much coaching anyway as all three of them looked fantastic and the deep rich colour of the bouquets was an inspired choice as it complemented their beautiful green dresses perfectly!
The humanist ceremony went off brilliantly being a great balance of fun and dignity. I worked around the couple in the two corners at the front of the room whilst Diane shot from the rear with a long telephoto. As usual we got a great mix of shots capturing all the fun, laughter and spontaneity of the proceedings. From the six hours we were booked we ended up with over 250 photographs, the majority of course being photojournalistic capturing all the magic of the day as it unfolded naturally. However, I am going to talk more about the formal photography part of day and use photos from it, simply because it will illustrate why you shouldn’t need to worry about rain on your wedding day.
Firstly, lets talk about the formal group photographs. Houston House has gorgeous grounds and of course Michelle and Phil, and myself too, were looking forward to doing all the formals outside in the gardens. However, as that was not possible I had a look around the hotel and commandeered a small room behind the bar where I did the group shots. What I liked about the room was it had plenty of character, and there is always somewhere like this to be found at virtually all venues if you know what to look for.
I set up a couple of mobile studio lights around the fireplace in the room which I knew would create some beautiful lighting. I think this is one of those occasions where you have an advantage being a full time professional photographer as opposed to a part timer. Most photographers who dread it raining on a wedding day are usually the ones who have nothing more than a flash gun atop their camera. Flashguns, of course, create very harsh light, especially when you are restricted to being indoors, and if you don’t know how to get around this I can imagine it giving them quite a cause for concern. Studio lighting on the other hand is superb! And also affords opportunity for creating several different styles and effects. 
Now normally on a fast paced wedding day you are not going to get the time or option to set up a studio type environment. Except...when it rains. Have a look at the first two photographs in this post. I positioned the groups in front of the fireplace and set the lighting left and right at forty five degrees towards the subject. We call this butterfly lighting, as the two lights will cross over as they light the group in a kind of butterfly effect. It is one of the most even and flattering styles of studio of lighting. The first image illustrates this with a full length group shot. You can see how everyone is lit beautifully and the detail in the pattern and texture of the dresses and kilts are preserved perfectly.
The second photograph is a three quarter length shot of Michelle and her bridesmaids and again you see how first of all the skin tones are preserved accurately and the lighting is at its most flattering. Not only do all their faces look beautiful but it also creates wonderful highlights and shadows bringing out texture in the dresses. Following the group shots we did a twenty minute bride and groom session which simply utilised some of the nooks and crannies I had earmarked around the hotel. As I mentioned earlier, every venue will have its own unique and quirky little corners and settings which provoke so many creative idea’s you usually don’t have time to use them all. So you can see why I enjoy photographing weddings no matter what the weather does on the day. It is great fun which ever way it works out!
One of the shots Michelle and Phil really had been looking forward too was all the guys in kilts. This is a popular photograph at Scottish weddings and always looks particularly good. It was still raining a little but we decided to go out and get everyone standing under the hotel’s canopy. Well, everyone except me of course! lol I don’t mind at all getting wet if it means great photographs so I was all for it, even though I had to virtually climb into a bush and flower bed (which you can just about see as the tips encroach into the foreground of the photo) in order to squeeze everyone in, lol!
Although I have no worries over the weather on a wedding day, at Michelle and Phil’s wedding I was under pressure as there was another Edinburgh wedding photographer working at their wedding as well. She was younger than me, had more energy than me and being quite a bit smaller than me was able to squeeze into places I could not. I can’t wait to see her photos however and hope she didn’t mind me grabbing this last shot of her at work ;)
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