the first time I’ve ever photographed the bride and groom in the bath! But first I’ll back track and go from the beginning.I first met Karen and Norman many months ago at a Melville Castle wedding fair. Impressed with my Storybook albums they made an appointment with me for later in the week at which they booked. I meet with all my couples again about four weeks before the wedding day for their pre-wedding consultation. As a part of this meeting I discuss with them album design and preferences. Norman and Karen had chosen to add the award winning Bellissimo album to their overall package, which of course recently won the industry’s Wedding Album of the Year 2011. Every album I design is bespoke to each couple and their wedding, I do not use the generic album design software that most wedding photographers use as the template system results in many of the pages being duplicated by many photographers and therefore
all the albums end up looking much the same. Starting from a complete blank canvas is just so much more creative. The page designs and layouts will be tailored to fit the wedding and the couple themselves giving them a unique and exclusive album. One of the reasons I like to discuss idea’s ahead of the wedding is just so I can have a good idea of the look and feel that each couple will like so that I can get my first draft as close as possible to how they want it to look.For their photographic coverage Karen and Norman went for eight hours coverage so we’d start with some getting ready photos at Karen’s parents home and run through until the first dance. Karen’s parents live just outside Edinburgh so not far for an Edinburgh wedding photographer to travel. Karen’s sister
was to be bridesmaid and her two young sons pageboys so we got some great shots at the home of everyone getting ready and enjoying the pre-wedding preparations. We are able to get plenty of details shots at this point including things like the dress, shoes, bouquets, jewellery etc as well as getting the reportage shots as the hair and make-up is done. It was a nice warm, sunny morning and time seemed to fly by.I finished up at the house around 1pm and set off for Barony Castle to be there in time to get a few photographs of the groom and groomsmen prior to the ceremony. I was really looking forward to the wedding. My last two Barony Castle weddings both resulted in me winning awards from the SWPP (Society of Wedding & Portrait and Photographers) so it’s
a venue I’m fond of. Amazingly, in the short time since leaving Karen’s parents house and arriving at Barony Castle it had started to rain. Although this isn’t a problem as there are plenty of alternatives for photographs on a rainy day I knew Karen had set her heart on taking the walk along the riverside up to the gazebo for some photographs, so I was hoping for her sake things might clear up.After doing some photos with Norman, his bestman and ushers myself and Mike, the videographer from Watch the Birdie, were patiently waiting in the lobby for the brides arrival. By now it was raining quite hard and as there was limited space, both in the lobby and at the castle entrance car park, we worked out the best way of working to ensure we both got the photographs and footage we wanted. I’ve worked
with Watch the Birdie many times (probably because I recommend them so much lol) and they are a great company to work with who produce a high quality product. It was nice on this occasion to be working with Mike for a change as Geoff (the owner) usually eats half my dinner and dessert at the weddings we work together! At least today I wouldn’t go home hungry ;)Karen duly arrived and we dodged out to get some shots in the back of the car and then a couple of posed photographs before we hit the aisle. From here on in I’m working photo-journalistically all the way through until the group photographs. The declarations, vows, ring exchanges etc always make for great moments and I move quietly from one
corner to the other capturing these. The ceremony room at Barony Castle creates quite a difference in light levels when everyone is standing compared to when they sit down and I know from experience this upsets the camera’s metering (you would think a £2000 camera wouldn’t get upset over anything wouldn’t you!) so I switched everything to manual and selected the settings myself as we went through the proceedings.Drinks and canapés after the ceremony, then the group photographs followed by a half hour session with Karen and Norman. It was still raining so we did everything inside using a few well known locations together with a couple I’d earmarked on my pre-wedding venue check. After these the rest of the day is photographed photo-journalistically again with shots of everyone enjoying themselves and having fun and of course speeches and toasts. At the
end of the meal it had momentarily stopped raining so I asked Karen if she wanted to nip out for ten minutes and get the photographs along the riverside and at the gazebo. She was delighted! When we returned the band were running a little late and so Norman asked if I’d go up with them to the bridal suite and get a couple of photographs there. I’m there to do whatever my couples want on their wedding day so was happy to oblige.We went up to the bridal suite and did a few shots positioning them in various locations in the large, spacious room, including the mirror shot you see here which I’ve just entered into this months SWPP image
contest (so fingers crossed). When we finished Norman and myself were commenting on how gorgeous the bathroom was. Which resulted in me suggesting how about you climbing into the bath for the 'bride and groom in the bath' photograph that appears here. As you can see they were happy to oblige!We still had a little time before the dancing got underway so Karen instructed me to go down and get something for myself from the chocolate fountain. I ran down eagerly down the stairs however once I’d gotten there I discovered Mike had beaten me to it and all that he’d left was a strawberry! Pfff! Come back Geoff all is forgiven!
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