Louise and Richard's wedding at Melville Castle

Well I was delighted to pick up three awards last month (August) in the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers monthly contest from three recent weddings. One of the winning images I had used in my blog a couple of weeks ago from Lisa and Richard’s wedding titled When it rains on your wedding day. It’s the black and white shot of my bride Lisa that appears midway through the article. And today I’m going to start with a shot that won in the 'Weddings Traditional' category from Louise and Richard’s wedding at Melville Castle.

For me, this photograph has just about everything, and I love it! It is a classically posed shot, hence why it fitted the 'Traditional Weddings' category, that capitalizes on the grandeur of the venue but also, because I’ve included all the guests milling around enjoying their drinks in the background and also managed to retain a relaxed look in the pose (the reason I asked Richard to have his hand in his pocket) it harmonises well with my storybook style of photography. I lay on ground to take the photograph as this angle creates more impact to the background increasing the drama of the skies and the castle. To avoid the technical problems of having either the couple thrown into silhouette or losing all the detail in the skies I exposed for the sky and bounced some external light up into the bride and groom. The image worked out exactly as I hoped and winning the award is ample compensation for the dry cleaning bill for my suit after clambering up off the damp grass, lol.

Throughout the day I constantly overheard guests commenting on how the beautiful Louise and Richard’s flowers were. You can see from two of the bride and groom photographs here how well the deep,rich colours looked in the photos. I’ve also included a couple of their detail shots too so you can see how their table arrangements and also their wedding cupcakes tied in with them.

You will know doubt have noticed that I have had many weddings this year at Melville Castle. This is because, as you may have heard, the Aurora Group will be releasing Melville Castle from their portfolio at the end of the year so a number of weddings that were already booked for 2012 have been re-arranged and brought forward to 2011. I have been Melville Castle’s main recommended photographer for many years now which is why I photograph so many weddings here. As to what will happen with Melville Castle from 2012 onwards we will have to wait and see. There’s a few possibilities being discussed just now and I’m sure it will continue to be used in some way as it’s too nice a venue to go to waste.

Richard and Louise had come up from the north east of England to marry at Melville Castle and they were really fortunate to have such gorgeous summer weather given all the wind and rain we’ve had in Edinburgh the last few weeks. I think all the wedding photographers in Edinburgh will agree that this year we’ve had some of the craziest weather I can remember! Anyway we all had a brilliant day and came away with a superb set of photographs! This is an extract from their Thank You card I received just a couple of days ago...

"Dear Philip,
Just a quick note to say thank you for everything on the day and for some great shots that we will treasure forever! Everyone has commented on the great service you provided on the day and the way you and your wife made our guests feel so relaxed and were so approachable meant that not only were the portrait style pictures fantastic but also the capture the moment shots are great too. Great news about the award too, much deserved! Thanks again.
Louise and Richard"

I’ve now got their card sitting on top of my 2011 pile for when I update the Testimonial page on my website at the end of the year.

Next for me I'm back for a wedding at Barony Castle on Saturday so really looking forward to another trip down there. Hope I don’t fall in the river, though :O