Wednesday 27 October 2010

Zena and Scott's wedding, Barony Castle

So here’s the plan. Get to Barony Castle for 12 noon for photographs with Scott and the groomsmen, who will all be adorned in their finest kilts, around the castle entrance. That allows plenty of time to drive into Eddlestone and get to the Horseshoe Inn where Zena and her bridesmaids will be ready for 12.30 for some nice pre-wedding portraits.
Then I’m to go up the road to the church for 1pm and photograph Scott and the guys arriving with a few informal shots too before Zena and the bridesmaids arrive for the 1.30pm ceremony.

So I leave in plenty of time, picking up my coffee from costa to sip on the drive down, and arrive at Barony Castle for 11.30am. I came down last week for a good look around but I still like to do a quick double check that nothings changed. Which I did, and it hadn‘t! lol. So I’m in the lobby awaiting Scott and his bestman and two groomsmen at the appointed time of 12 noon. When no one shows up I talk a walk along to Scott’s room. Scott was stood out in the corridor talking to his bestman so we see each other as soon as I turn the corner into the corridor. He’s still in his jeans and t-shirt! So is the bestman! We both burst out laughing!

We have a chat for a few minutes and decide that as it’s pouring down with rain anyway we’ll skip the 'guys outside the castle' photos and I’ll meet him up at the church just before 1pm. This is fine as it will give me a little extra time with Zena and the bridesmaids at the Inn, which has plenty of rooms for inside photographs so we don’t need worry about the rain. However, when I arrive there I find she too is nowhere near ready, lol.

This is fairly typical of a wedding day where the best laid plans seldom work out 100% accurately. Zena was full apologies but I assured her I was used to it and she had nothing to worry about. I got some shots of the wedding dress while I was there which we wouldn’t have got if everything had gone strictly to plan anyway. I very much like to photograph the day naturally, as it unfolds so I’m never fazed by anything that does, or does not happen, or deviates from the scheduled order.Zena and Scott’s wedding was the first wedding for quite some time where I was actually there as a guest as well as their photographer. Those of you who read my blog regularly will know that Zena runs Ivory White Events, who specialise in chair covers and other wedding decoration throughout Edinburgh and the Borders. I first met Zena a few years ago now when we both were asked by Melville Castle to become recommended suppliers for them. Since then we’ve worked together many times and become good friends. We both have very similar business ideals too, in that together with supplying a high quality product and service we believe in good old fashioned customer care.

Barony Castle is a well known wedding venue amongst wedding photographers in Edinburgh being only half an hour drive away from the capital, so I certainly wasn’t the first Edinburgh wedding photographer to work there. But not many folks get married in Eddleston Parish Church. I think I heard the minister say they only have two or three weddings a year. So that was something a bit different. When I went up the road it had stopped raining so the shots we’d planned to do with Scott and the guys earlier at Barony we did in the church grounds instead. I also got a few informal photographs has different guests arrived and of Scott and the bestman awaited news of the imminent arrival of the bride.

It was still dry when Zena arrived too. She had planned to walk up the hill from the Inn to the church, but had a car on stand by just in case it was too wet, so I was pleased for her that that worked out as she had hoped. As I usually like to do I paused her with her father in the church doorway for a quick full length and close up photograph, and then added in the two bridesmaids either side for a group shot. After that I ran ahead and took up my favoured position about three quarters up the aisle to photograph father and bride as they walk up the aisle.The ceremony went over beautifully! I was located in a row of empty pews at the front, to the right of the proceedings so was able to get some lovely shots of the two of them throughout the service. I also snuck around during one of the hymns for a shot from the back of the church, tidying up the back of Zena’s dress I did so. I do this all the time actually, but its one of those things that in the hustle and bustle of the day often isn’t thought about until afterwards when you look back through the photos. Every brides dress once they’ve arrived at the front of the church besides their groom is bunched up at the back after there walk up the aisle and a few twists and turns as the minister moves them into position. The photo from the back of the church is often very dramatic, particularly when there is an ornate, stained glass window rising up behind them. And the shot bugs me if the brides dress is all bunched! lolWhen the service was over the minister took the whole bridal party into the church closet for the signing of the register. Naturally I followed them in…or at least tried too. The closet was so small we could hardly fit the family in never mind me. But fortunately I was able to move a mop out from the corner and steal its place. After Scott and Zena and their witnesses had signed the minister allowed me to wriggle my way in front of the table to take the official ‘signing of the register’ photos. One of my camera’s has a wide angle lens on it for situations like this where you are tight for room (as quite a lot of ministers seem to favour signing the register in a closet) so I was not only able to get photographs of Scott and Zena, but also we squeezed the two witnesses and both sets of parents into a couple of shots too.The main group photographs and the confetti shot were done outside the church and then we were all heading back to Barony Castle. The weather was still dry and we had hoped to be able to go for some photographs alongside the river and out to the gazebo, so we decided to leave other group photos until later and go off with Zena and Scott right away. I did a quick change of clothes because there was a couple of shots I’d earmarked on my recce last week that meant clambering over a fence and across a muddy field and out into the river to get the right angle and vantage point. Don’t worry I’m meaning ME not Zena!

The autumn colours were superb and we got a great set of different photographs as we walked along and then inside and outside the gazebo. I positioned Zena by a fence that ran over a tiny waterfall, and also placed Scott in the gazebo entrance off in the background behind her. I then ran down stream a little ways, clambered over the afore mentioned fence, tramped across the sodden grass and arrived at the river bank. There is this stone wall thing that protrudes out into the river and by walking out onto it I was able to get to a unique vantage point where I could see Zena standing above the falls with the gazebo in behind her and Scott casually leaning in its entrance. I then took the shot which you can see posted with a telephoto lens, which I think has worked out really well and was worth all the effort.

The photograph you see with one of the castle turrets rising behind the bride and groom was one of the last I took before getting back into my suit for the wedding breakfast. I had to lay on the ground with the camera angled sharply up to create the exaggerated effect. This was another image I’d earmarked from last weeks visit and an another reason for the old clothes. Although Diane will tell you I do this type of shot quite regularly even without old clothes! lol

Speeches were before dinner and between Diane and myself we came away with a good variety of pictures. I would have
got more but the bestman cut his speech down a lot as a bat entered the room and flitted around the tables for several minutes before finally exiting after the hotel staff opened up a door. That was certainly one unique trick to save extensive embarrassment, Scott ;)

During the evening I did a few more groups requested by the family amongst my usual informal, reportage photographs. Also the cutting of the cake and of course the first dance. I finished up around quarter to nine as I had Melville Castle’s wedding fair to get ready for the following morning, which I’ll tell you more about next time. Scott and Zena’s private wedding gallery went online Monday evening and they’ll get their disc full of all the photographs as soon as they get back from honeymoon. I have to say a big Thank You to Scott and Zena and their families for inviting me and enjoying such a wonderful day and meeting so many of their other friends. I can’t wait to get to work on your album design!

Friday 15 October 2010

The Edinburgh Wedding Fair

Well what a great afternoon we all had on Sunday with the first Edinburgh Wedding Fair at the Edinburgh Hilton Hotel! I exhibit at many wedding fairs in Scotland and the North of England but this was the first time I’ve been involved in organising the event itself. As you know from a couple of previous blogs my aim was to put on a fresh and different kind of wedding fair that focused on quality and genuine interest in couples planning their big day. I was delighted how well everything turned out and especially the reaction and comments from all of our visitors. I don’t think I’ve ever been at a wedding fair where so many couples made a point of going over to the hotel staff and saying a big thank you for such an enjoyable and pleasurable afternoon.

"Thank you for the afternoon. This is was the nicest atmosphere of any wedding fair I’ve ever been to". "This was the friendliest wedding fair we’ve been to". "This was so different to the wedding fairs we visited last week and yesterday. They were manic. We are so glad we came". "The quality just jumped right out at you". These were just some of the comments that were made by visitors. Needless to say the Hilton were thrilled! And of course me too, lol.

Although the wedding fair started at noon, for me the day began at 7am as I had to be there first to check everything was set up and laid out and that all the exhibitor requirements were ready too. Rhona and Zena, from Flowers by Rhona and Ivory White Events, were in shortly after me as they were doing the decorations, chair covers and floral arrangements. I also had to be ready for a Fashion Show briefing and rehearsal with the bridal company, DJ and the models at 10.15.

Do you remember me telling you about Natalie’s wedding last month? Yes, she was the one with the twenty six bridesmaids ;) Well she and the bridesmaids had been so great throughout the wedding photography I asked them if they’d like to model for the catwalk show. They were absolutely thrilled! As was Julie-ann who’s wedding I photographed back in May. We opened the Fashion Show at 2.30pm with a performance from Pandy Arthur, who in my opinion is the finest wedding solo-ist around, accompanied by the Rose Street Quartet and then the girls came out and did their stuff with the bridal couture of Maida Veil. Everyone was fantastic! And if any of the girls are reading this, which I know they are lol, let me tell you that amongst the comments given to the hotel were several compliments about how enjoyable the fashion show had been and how well you had all done! So a big thank you once again! And by the way…the flowers were from me, even though some one else snuck in and gave you them! lol

The Hilton are now wanting me back in for a meeting next Wednesday to discuss making this a regular, twice yearly event. So look out for the next one probably towards the end of February. I’ve also been contacted by an event company down in the north east of England who put on some of the most popular wedding fairs in the region and are looking for a wedding photographer to run a Wedding Photography Master Class along the lines of “How to look great in your wedding photographs” for the brides and grooms who visit. This would involve giving me a dedicated area where we set up a small digital studio and then doing a twenty minute class covering posing and camera confidence tips with practical demonstrations and a Q&A session. It also means couple’s who wish can have a professional portrait done on the day. As my family live in the Newcastle area I photograph quite a few weddings in the North of England already so not only will this be beneficial to the north east couples but will also give additional promotion to the Newcastle Wedding Photography side of my business. And of course it’s an idea I’ll discuss with the Hilton about incorporating into our next wedding fair here. I would love to hear any comments or opinions on what you think about this idea.

A few other wedding events are coming up soon too. Melville Castle’s autumn wedding fair is on the 24th (the day after Zena’s wedding, yikes! lol) and then I’ve been asked to be the exclusive Edinburgh wedding photographer at the Ravelston Hotel wedding fair on the 31st. So please come along if you haven’t already booked me. You are also welcome to come along if you have already booked me too of course, lol. And if anyone wants to bring me along a coffee from costa I’ll do you a real good discount off your wedding photography package, providing its still hot ;)

Hope to see you soon.
Philip Hawkins
Wedding Photographer Edinburgh
Wedding Photographer Newcastle

Wednesday 6 October 2010

Wedding Fairs and the end of Craighouse

Well October is a busy month for wedding events in the capital of Scotland such as wedding fairs and shows, wedding weekends and wedding open days. I get invited to many of these events but as a photographer I cannot do all of them so I have to be selective about which ones I’ll attend and exhibit at. I’ve always endeavoured to go for quality events where I feel there is genuine value for couples planning their wedding.

Many of the wedding fairs, especially the large ones, are organised by companies looking to make a profit from the event itself rather than actually having the interests of the wedding couples at heart. They do this by charging an exhibitor fee from the suppliers and also an entrance fee from the visitors with a portion of this income used to advertise the event. It is for this reason they try to cram as many exhibitors into the floor space as possible as the bulk of their revenue is from the suppliers who may be paying anything from £500 to £2000 and upwards for their stand and exhibitor space. There often seems to be no actual vetting of the companies other than their willingness to pay, so the priority ends up being quantity over quality.

I note with interest that many of the shows that operate on this basis have seen quite a drop in visitor interest this month. Others planned and advertised for the near future have actually ended up being cancelled altogether! I also know some wedding suppliers who were recently contacted just days before a recent event and offered huge discounted rates as the organisers were desperately trying to fill all their stands. To be honest this does not surprise me as I’ve felt for a long time events like this do not serve the interests of the wedding sector at all. They have diminished value for the suppliers and are not a great source of help to couples planning their weddings either.

Anyway as many of you know from past blog posts this Sunday see’s the new, fresh Edinburgh Wedding Fair which I have been involved in organising in partnership with The Hilton Edinburgh. Based heavily on quality over quantity you will not find fourteen Edinburgh wedding photographers and eight cake makers and six florists, etc but instead we have a total of twenty of the very best wedding experts and suppliers across twenty wedding categories. So it will be possible for visitors to book or obtain sound advice on every major wedding category. As well of course as having a lot of fun and picking up loads of idea’s for their own big day. Check back next week to see how it all went.

The other major wedding news in the Scottish capital this week concerned Craighouse. You may recall in one of my posts last year I said I had heard Napier University were going to sell off Craighouse. At the time this wasn’t confirmed, it was just inside information I had picked up ;) but it was announced on the Scottish News a few days ago that Napier has now put Craighouse up for sale. As a wedding photographer in Edinburgh this is one venue I will definitely miss working at, and I know many other Edinburgh wedding photographers feel the same. It stands on an elevated hill overlooking the city with a host of beautiful nooks and crannies making for superb photographs as well as its commanding outlook over Edinburgh. The feeling is it will be bought up by property developers so it really does look likely we’ve seen the last weddings here.

I’ve photographed several weddings at Craighouse and I still have one more to blog about very soon. All the photographs I’m posting today are from Craighouse weddings and if you check back in a couple of weeks there will be some new ones from Gillian and Gary’s wedding, too.

If you are currently in the throes of planning a wedding then please do not miss Sunday’s wedding fair at the Hilton. There will be some amazing offers and promotions including the chance to win an Engagement photo shoot at the Hilton followed by a romantic meal for two and a voucher for £200 off your wedding video in the free prize draw! Alongside the exclusive Catwalk Show we have performances from the sublime Pandy Arthur and the unbelievable Magic Woody, one of Scotland’s most finest wedding entertainers. Plus you can enjoy complimentary drinks and canapés with our special guest. Hope to see you then.