More Norton House Hotel weddings

Last two weeks for some reason have been exceptionally busy. In addition to the fact that we are right in the middle of the wedding season, so my camera’s hardly get chance to draw breath, there’s a few wedding venues working on new brochures right now so I am at the same time trying to fill their requirements for fresh images and new photographs as well as the magazine requests I mentioned last week. I have a sneaky feeling next week will be even busier as I have back to back weddings starting Friday and through until the middle of the week which I have been looking forward to since the beginning of the year.

When it comes to weddings I am of course exceptionally fortunate that I get the most fantastic couples book me for their weddings. Last weeks wedding was yet another example. Alana and Colin first
saw my wedding albums at the Corn Exchange wedding fair. There’s always around ten Edinburgh wedding photographers at Edinburgh’s largest wedding fair and we are all slightly different, both in price, quality and style of working. For me, the main thing I want couples to do when they visit my stand at a wedding fair is look through my albums because they are what enable me to stand out as different from the other wedding photographers in Edinburgh. On the Saturday Alana and Colin visited the wedding fair I was away photographing a wedding so they had a chat with Diane and she showed them our albums. A couple of days later they were on the phone making an appointment and subsequently booked me to do their wedding photography and an Engagement Shoot.

We did the engagement session five weeks ago and had a great time! It’s a good opportunity to work together, do some coaching, and come away with a gorgeous set of photographs. As with all my Engagement Shoots Alana and Colin selected their favourite image from the session which we had printed and set into our wedding signature mount that is then put out on display on the wedding day for all the guests to sign. Check out the portrait page on my website for more details if you’re interested in booking an engagement session.

Alana and Colin wanted photography from pre-wedding 'getting ready' shots through until the first dance. So we started at Alana’s mother’s house with a few detail shots, then hair and make-up finishing with some posed photographs in the garden. For the most part I carry out the photography at the home photo-journalistically, so I like to just move around as unobtrusively as possible and capture things in a natural, relaxed way. You can see the advantage of this in the first photograph here, which is one of my favourite photos taken at the house. Alana had bought presents for her bridesmaids which she was wanting to give them once the two of them were ready. I quietly made my way to the top of stairs and without any interference took a series of photos as she handed the bridesmaids their gifts and the girls then opened them. It’s one of those lovely, natural moments that show the happiness and pleasure on all the girls faces.

We arrived at the church half an hour before the ceremony was due to start giving us plenty of time to get some photos of Colin and the groomsmen and a quick word with the minister. The bridesmaids arrived shortly after and I did a couple of posed shots of them with the flower girl on the church steps before photographing Alana arriving with her mother. Running ahead I then photographed the walk up the aisle before heading over into the area the minister had designated for the photographers at the front on the left hand side. I work with a mix of lenses that enable me to get a variety of photographs during the ceremony including wide shots showing off the grandeur of the church, mid range photographs that capture the setting and also close ups which are more intimate, particularly when going through the declarations, ring exchange and vows.

The register was signed in a small ante room and then the bridal party proceeded out of the church. Colin and Alana had requested three family group shots on the church steps as they exited, which of course didn’t take long, and then following all the congratulations we were heading off for Norton House.

As an Edinburgh wedding photographer I’m by now very familiar with Norton House as its one of the most well known wedding venues in the capital. This was my third wedding here so far this year and I am due back twice more, including the winners of Forth One’s Win Your Wedding contest. It was a mixed day with sunshine and showers and Alana and Colin’s wedding was in the Garden Suite. Norton House can accommodate two weddings at the same time using the Garden Suite and the Ballroom Suite, however, today Colin and Alana’s was the only wedding booked so we were allowed to do photographs in both sides. Whilst it was dry we quickly did their group photos on one of the lawns within the walled Garden Suite. We had a small shower following this so I used the cover of the walkway canopy for the first ten minutes of the bride and groom session and then we moved across to the main house and borrowed the staircase for a further ten minutes.

I mentioned in last weeks blog that the wedding flowers and bridal bouquets were all done by Flowers by Rhona. Rhona also did the flowers and bouquets for Alana too and being a friend of mine I deliberately colour touched the black and white shot of Alana, keeping the bouquet in colour, as I knew Rhona would love it. Not only is this a very eye catching photo but also very natural as well. I had initially posed Alana for a photograph of the dress and after taking it she thought I’d finished and looked off to smile at someone just out of shot. I was quick enough to zoom in and catch her smile, which of course is the most important element of the photograph, but at the same time I composed things so you could see her wedding band and the bouquet at the bottom of the frame.

Following the half hour of bride and groom photographs it was back into photojournalism mode as I moved around the guests as unobtrusively as possible capturing people having fun and enjoying themselves. It wasn’t long until everyone was called through to be seated for the wedding breakfast and the speeches which were to preface it. The cutting of the cake ceremony was held later in the evening prior to the first dance and I got some great atmospheric photographs of both in the low disco lights. Another great ending to a great wedding!