Philip Hawkins storms Barony Castle

Gail and Robin were married at one of my favourite Border venue’s, Barony Castle. Edinburgh wedding photographers really enjoy making the short trip down the A703 to this idyllic white walled castle on the outskirts of thebeautiful Eddlestone village as it is such a glorious setting for photographs. You will recall that the last time I was here was for Zena and Scott’s wedding in the autumn of last year, so I was really looking forward to coming back again in the spring!

I first met Robin and Gail at the Edinburgh wedding fair last year. As soon as they had finished looking through my albums they booked me immediately. I then did an engagement shoot with them at the Hilton Edinburgh Hotel about a month before the wedding day and they were so good throughout the session, and we ended up with so many great photos, that I knew their wedding day would be even better! If you’ve never considered doing a pre-wedding engagement session its well worth considering it. Generally, we’ll do about 45 minutes and I’ll shoot a whole variety of images, many of which will be similar to things we’ll do on the wedding day itself which gives us a chance for some coaching, and also as it’s a little more relaxed and informal we’ll get a nice set of informal and contemporary photographs. We ended up with between 45-50 photographs from Gail and Robin’s shoot and they then select their favourite to get printed and mounted into a signature display board for all the guests to sign on the wedding day. The opening photograph posted here is the one they chose from the session and if you scroll down a little you’ll see how it looked on the wedding day after a few signatures had been applied. As a full time wedding photographer in Edinburgh I have good working relationships with many of the top fashionable venues in the capital and as many of them also use me for marketing and PR work they are happy to let me bring along my wedding couples for engagement shoots, so just let me know if you’d like to arrange one.

For the wedding day I’d been booked for pre-wedding 'getting ready' photos through until the first dance. Getting ready pictures are always good fun as well as getting many timeless memories. I started off in Gail’s room as she had her hair and make-up done and then flitted back and forth between her room and Robin’s. Robin and the groomsmen had been given a small function room to get ready in which had two huge bay windows. I shot some natural photographs as they grappled with their cravats and shoe laces and then did a few posed shots when they were all ready. One of my favourites is the one of Robin you can see here. I just loved the way the light was pouring in through the windows of the room so I asked Robin to stand just on the edge of the nearest bay window so that he was slightly side lit and I then moved position so the far window was showing just over his right shoulder. This gave the effect of the window light cascading in around him but at the same time retaining detail in his face and kilt tartan. Given that this was taken just about twenty minutes or so before the wedding ceremony, possibly the most nervous time period, I think he looks remarkably smart, cool and relaxed. It also marries nicely with their engagement print too as it has a similar look and feel.

The wedding ceremony itself went off beautifully! I was working alongside Robin’s brother, Bruce, who was doing the wedding videography. Bruce is a television cameraman and the last wedding he shot before Gail and Robin’s was Prince William and Kate Middleton’s. Robin, Gail and all the family were very grateful to the Royal couple for allowing Bruce to get in some practice ahead of the big day!

I’m going to now jump ahead a little to the Big Group photograph. Many couples request a Big Group shot, and if there’s opportunity to do one I definitely recommend it. It’s quite special having a photograph of all the family and guests. If it all possible I will try and take the Big Group photograph from a height, ideally an upstairs window. With so many guests the easiest way to ensure you can see everyone’s faces is to have sufficient height. I knew ahead of the day that Robin and Gail wanted a Big Group shot so I checked in with Barony Castle the day before to see if they could make available an upstairs window, which they said would be no problem. As it turned out, on the wedding day, I wanted to do the Big Group in the central courtyard and Barony Castle said they had a door that opened out onto the conservatory roof which overlooks the courtyard. So once I’d got everyone positioned I ran inside, and the hotel staff took me upstairs and into a little office type room whereupon I was told I’d have to scramble out the tiny window! To be honest I didn’t mind this at all. I’ve scrambled out of tighter and more uncomfortable spots than this to get good shots, lol. But once I climbed up onto the window ledge I had to jump off and down onto the roof, and unfortunately I didn’t see there was a drainage gutter teeming with water so I ended up landing right in it! I jumped out of it as quickly as I could to be followed two seconds later by Bruce doing the same thing. Fortunately, it was a nice warm day so our shoes and socks dried out fairly soon.

The Big Group photograph I’m showing here is the full frame, wide shot. I shot it this way because I wanted to not only get the whole
group but also show off the lovely location and surroundings. To add an additional point of interest I asked the piper to stand in the background too, which he was delighted to do. The quality of the photograph files I shoot are so high that should Gail and Robin prefer to have the group itself emphasized more I can just crop in tighter around them all and eliminate the background.

After climbing back in through the tiny window I went back downstairs and we did their family and bridal party group photographs before heading up alongside the stream to do the bride and groom session. The last time I was here it had been raining beforehand so the stream was more like a river, but today it was much shallower which made it easier for me crossing out onto
the small stone walkway across the water to get the shot of them at the head of the tiny waterfall. Before we finished up and went in for the meal I took Gail and Robin round an ill frequented corner of the castle for a shot in front of one of the circular turrets and then around the front of the castle for one with the square turret. In the post editing of this image I had to remove a car that had parked right underneath the main turret and was sticking its nose into the photo. Grrrr! I don’t know why castles have to have car parks located right up to the front facades! They should move them further back so they don’t encroach on our pictures! (Rant, rant)

Anyway we had a fantastic day, which passed so quickly, and we ended up with well over 300 photographs. Robin and Gail are now making their way through them selecting which ones they want to go in their album. I can’t wait to get started on the design! I’m back here for another wedding at Barony Castle in a couple of months so looking forward to that :)