More Harburn House Weddings

So blog post is early this week as I have weddings Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Yay! I love back to back weddings! Friday and Saturday I’m in the Newcastle area and then the Borders for Sunday. With blogging a couple of days early this week that allows me to be a little a late next week, ok? Of course it does! lol

Regular readers of my blog know how much I love weddings at Harburn House. It’s a popular venue for many wedding photographers in Edinburgh as it has such
gorgeous grounds and offers the entire Estate as exclusive use to couples for their wedding. I’ve been on Harburn House’s recommended wedding supplier list for a few years so photograph weddings here on a regular basis. Harburn House weddings are particularly enjoyable when the ceremony is at the Haymains as it means the bridal party will be travelling between the main house and the granary and then back again which affords numerous photo opportunities.
We were booked from noon through until the first dance for Joanna and Richard’s wedding. I arrived at about 11.30am as I wanted to just go round everywhere double checking all the photo locations. No matter whether its wedding photography in Edinburgh or wedding photography in Newcastle or anywhere in between I do this at every wedding day even though I will have already carried out a full venue check a couple of weeks earlier. It always proves beneficial especially when you have such spacious grounds at your disposal. It had been raining for a few days earlier in the week and a couple of spots I would normally include in the bride and groom session I found the ground to be a bit too wet and muddy so I wouldn’t be bringing Jo and Richard to these. With such a plethora of beautiful locations for photos this of course wasn’t a problem.

At noon we started with some details shots which included the wedding dress, veil, flowers, shoes etc. Also some getting ready photos as Jo had her hair and make up done. I also squeezed in some photos of the marquis being decorated and set up even though I planned on getting some more later in the day prior to the wedding breakfast. Sometimes as the day unfolds circumstances can change and if the proceedings start running behind time its good to know I already have some good shots of things already in the bag.

The ceremony was scheduled for 2pm and by 1.30 everyone was just about ready. This enabled me to get some nice posed photographs of Joanna and the bridesmaids at the house and then head up the Haymains where the guys would be ready. I did a few shots with Richard and his bestman and then brought in the ushers. The pyramid shot came after I’d finished and the guys started discussing whether they could do a pyramid in their kilts. They’d done one earlier in the morning when they were all attired in jeans but the thought of trying it again in kilts was more of a challenge. I think this is something they’ve perfected on the rugby training ground (Richard plays for Stewarts Melville RFC and has also played for Scotland) and it certainly worked in kilts! I took the shot laying on the ground so that I was slightly looking upwards which lent a bit more impact to the photo.

Joanna and Richard’s guest list was around 150 so it was a fairly tight squeeze in the Granary for the ceremony. Their was also a string quartet performing up on the top platform so it was impossible for me to get in behind the minister, so after shooting Joanna and her brother coming up the aisle I moved to the rear of the room and switched toa telephoto lens. The curtains of the Granary had been closed to prevent the guests seeing Joanna as she made her way from the car to the ceremony which meant very low lighting. I do not use flash during a ceremony as it kills the atmosphere and I also feel it is rather disrespectful of the occasion. When I used to do more commercial work I developed a reputation of being something of a low light specialist and I spent a year being sent around the country photographing many of our iconic building and landmarks including their interiors. Nowadays, with the majority of my work being weddings I find the skills and experience I learnt during that year to be invaluable particularly with weddings in old and historic buildings like Castles and Stately Homes.
Once the ceremony was over everyone was transported back to the main house for drinks and canapés on the front lawn. It was here I did Richard and Jo’s group photographs before taking them away for their bride and groom session. Prior to the ceremony there had been a small hiccup with the coach which had delayed things somewhat so Jo and Richard asked if we could just do a quick ten minutes as they felt they hadn’t much time with their guests. Although we had originally planned on doing a little longer than ten minutes I’ve photographed enough weddings to know that things rarely go 100% to plan and as my
style is predominantly reportage or photo-journalistic this is no problem whatsoever. You can also now see the importance of things like my pre-wedding venue recce and also the double check I carried out on my arrival. I can now use this to select the best locations that are in close proximity and that will provide the maximum amount of photographs within a short ten minute segment.

Following the bride and groom photos we were across to the marquis for the cake cutting, speeches and the wedding breakfast. After the meal we were back for the first dance, something I always enjoy photographing as it's great fun and very atmospheric.