I love November weddings! Mainly because you don’t have to wait until 10 o’clock for a sunset! lol In all seriousness though weddings that occur towards the end of the year always have such beautifully atmospheric lighting due to the fact that the nights are drawing in quicker. Jemma and Mark’s wedding at The Quay in Musselburgh turned out to be a perfect example and from the 393 photographs that we took throughout the day we got some real crackers!
This was the first time I’d photographed a wedding at
The Quay and hopefully I will get many more here in the future. It is a very popular wedding venue and as an Edinburgh wedding photographer I will very much look forward to working here again. I was already very familiar with The Quay as I live only a short drive away and have carried out several magazine commissions in and around the Firth of Forth coastline including the picturesque Fisherrow Harbour which sits adjacent to The Quay. I have also eaten many times in The Quay restaurant which is well known throughout the Lothians for its superb food. 
Jemma and Mark booked me for their wedding photography as last year I had photographed the wedding of one of Jemma’s friends, Gillian. Gillian and Gary had a fantastic wedding at Craighouse which I thoroughly enjoyed photographing. You can see some of their photos in the next issue of Best Scottish Weddings magazine which comes out the first week in December as it is being run as a Real Life weddings feature.
Jemma and Mark had booked us for pre-wedding 'getting ready' photos through until the first dance. As we drove through to Jemma’s parents home on the morning I could see that the weather was shaping up pretty good and with a bit of luck we’d get a nice sunset at the end of the afternoon, something all wedding photographers in Edinburgh enjoy! We arrived just before noon and started with a few photographs of the wedding dress, shoes, flowers, etc before grabbing a few hair and make-up shots. I also snatched a couple of photos of the wedding cars parked outside the house just as we left to head down to The Quay for some photos with Mark and groomsmen.
Jemma and Mark’s wedding party was quite large, somewhere in the region of 140 guests. Most wedding photographers in Edinburgh will probably agree that 80-90 day guests is about the average. The Quay complex is equally large however and also has several function rooms so can accommodate things with no problem at all. I did the photographs with Mark and his bestmen, two of them, in one of the side rooms overlooking the harbour. Although I had planned on doing the group photographs after the ceremony in front of the large window of the ceremony room the way things worked out following the newly weds
exit I could see it would be more advantageous to use this same room instead. Most weddings never go 100% to plan and its part of the job to be flexible so that everything still runs smoothly. As usual I captured plenty of photographs of the ceremony itself working quietly in one of the corners. Everyone enjoyed a wee drink for a few minutes following the marriage and then we got the group photographs underway. I deliberately timed these carefully so that we’d finish for around 4pm. I knew the sunset time was quarter past four and I really wanted to be outside doing the bride and groom session so that it would coincide with the setting sun. Things went pretty much perfectly here and we got out for some photos on the beach and then by the harbour for the first ten minutes or so before I took Mark and Jemma around to the opposite side of The Quay so that the sunset would be behind their heads. As you can see the sky was a glorious colour!
Following the sunset shots the other image I wanted to finish with was the bride and groom at the main entrance to capitalise on The Quay’s lighting. Most lighting is enhanced at night when things get darker and subsequently the artificial lighting appears more dramatic. However, the secret with night photography is to catch the sky as it turns deep blue. It is quite easy to assume that night photography will always have black skies, but in between the dusk and the skies becoming black there occurs a brief period of time where the skies are actually deep blue. This is the optimum time for night photography as it is far more dramatic than having a plain black sky. The last photograph here is a reasonable example.
It is not perfect as really I would prefer the sky to have turned a touch deeper blue but I am aware that at this time of year I don’t want to keep my bride and groom outside too long as I don’t want them becoming cold. As I knew that the sunset shots were going to be stunning I was happy to compromise on the night sky.Mark and Jemma’s evening reception went over beautifully. Some great speeches, a scrumptious meal and lots of fun! Between the meal and the cake cutting I had plenty time to do a few requested photographs for some of Jemma and Mark’s family and friends, and I also made sure I got a photograph of Gillian and Gary, too. We were then back in for the cutting of the cake which was carried out on the dance floor before going into their first dance. All the photos I’ve blogged today are from Mark and Jemma’s bride and groom session, simply because I love the striking November lighting. When I blog next week’s wedding I’ll try and use more of the reportage images.
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