Melville Castle Wedding Show Spring 2010

We had the busiest wedding show ever at Melville Castle on Sunday! I’ve done just about every wedding fair at Melville Castle over the last five years or so and they’ve always been popular but Sundays was just amazing! Not only did we have the entire car park full but also vehicles parked all the way up the drive, and if you’ve been to Melville Castle you’ll know its an awfully long drive! lol

As you may know Melville Castle is now owned by the Aurora group who also own the renowned Airth Castle and Glenbervie so we had a few exhibitors from Airth and Glenbervie as well as the local recommended wedding suppliers from Edinburgh. As you can imagine the three venue’s get bombarded from wedding suppliers wanting to jump on board and exhibit at these three illustrious establishments but Stephen McLeod, the chief executive of Aurora, has been whittling down the recommended suppliers list to a select few so that only the very best appear at the wedding shows and on their recommendation list. Personally, I wholeheartedly agree with this approach as it is good for all our reputations to be associated with the best in the business and it means we can all refer between us thus keeping the standards high and providing bride and grooms the highest possible level of service. Throughout the show I met with several couples looking for a wedding photographer but for dates where I was already booked so it was advantageous to simply show them along to one of the other photographers at the fair knowing they’d get looked after well. All in all I had a busy and exciting day chatting with couples, answering questions and giving advice. And, yes, I did get asked plenty of times which venue’s in and around Edinburgh I’d recommend! I had four couples book me for dates in November and December 2010, and then June and July 2011. I also have several meetings to arrange for next week, too.

I’ve mentioned before how every album and book I design is unique and exclusive to each wedding. And with not having to resort to template software I can employ lots of little personal touches to each design that otherwise would not be possible. Well the last two or three wedding books I’ve designed have incorporated a number of beautiful, personalised elements that have really given the album its own individual intimacy. So I managed to get a couple of samples produced in time for the show and I was really pleased at the enthusiastic reaction to them.


Do you remember me telling you about the guy I met at a Melville Castle wedding fair last spring who was looking for a wife? He loved my photography and albums but then when I asked about his wedding he told me he hadn’t yet found a wife. Well, he was back again! And he still hasn’t found a wife! To be honest, although I didn’t have the heart to say this to him, but I wouldn’t have thought a wedding fair would be the best place to find one as surely all the girls there are already taken, lol.

I was also at Photovision, along with many other Edinburgh wedding photographers and portrait photographers this week too. Photovision is a bit like the Scottish version of Focus on Imaging, only about one tenth the size lol. But it was good to have a look at many of the local wedding and photographic manufacturers and all the latest products. I’m going to be introducing a really cool new portrait service within the next few weeks so I’m excited about that. I let you know more about it later.

There’s a few pictures of Melville Castle weddings posted for you just to fit the theme of the blog and if you are planning a wedding at Melville Castle or anywhere else in Scotland and you haven’t yet got a wedding photographer in Scotland I’m always available for a chat or a consultation.

Fiona and Keith's wedding

Fiona and Keith were married Saturday at Cockpen Carrington church amid beautiful blue skies and lovely warm sunshine, despite the forecast being for rain all week. I’d originally met them at a wedding fair at Melville Castle several months ago and they booked their wedding photography the very next day. I’m exhibiting at Melville Castle’s wedding fair this Sunday so I hope to meet many more ’Fiona and Keith’s’ lol.

It was a great wedding and a fantastic day all round. I started half an hour before the ceremony at the church with Keith and the groomsmen and was booked through to their first dance. There had been a hiccup with the church during the week and the minister who was schedule to conduct the proceeding had to be changed at short notice. Although his replacement admitted to me prior to the ceremony of being rather nervous he did a great job and conducted a beautiful service.

Both Diane and myself shot from the upper balcony throughout the ceremony, one of us one either side of the church, and captured all the magical moments as we went through the declarations, the ring exchange, and the vows, etc. After the signing of the register I ran ahead of the newly weds and photographed them as they made their way back up the aisle and exited the church. After a few minutes of sharing congratulations with the guests we ran through their group photographs in the church grounds and then we were heading off to the Minto Hotel in Edinburgh for their wedding breakfast and reception.

The Minto has its own small private garden which we were allowed to use for photographs so I took Fiona and Keith out for a twenty minute session and then we brought all their family out for a couple of group shots in the garden too. The wedding breakfast was small and intimate with just sixteen family and close and friends. This meant I was able to get a shot of the whole room with everyone seated at their tables which were laid out horseshoe style. Likewise during the speeches, as well as the close ups of the speakers I grabbed a few wide angle shots of the whole room as the guests enjoyed the speeches. My favorite was the one shown here with the sun bursting the tiny gap in the window blinds.

The evening guests started arriving at half past seven and while Fiona and Keith and the bridal party greeted everyone on arrival we had previously arranged to set up and run a mini photo studio for twenty minutes giving guests opportunity to have some profession portraits taken if they wanted to before the dancing got underway. A couple of years ago I did some photography for the Minto Hotels website so I knew I wouldn’t need to bring a mobile background as one of the walls behind the dance floor would be ideal. This was the first wedding where we’ve ran the Portrait Booth and we were really pleased with how popular and what great fun it was and we are now offering it as an additional service to all our wedding clients who have booked us through their evening reception. There’s not many wedding photographers in Edinburgh, or even wedding photographers in Scotland for that matter, who offer a unique, bespoke service as this so its always exciting to be at the forefront. The advantage of a mini photo studio as opposed to a Photo Booth (which I believe are popular in the USA) is that I can quickly pose the couples and control the lighting to ensure the resulting images make high quality, beautiful portraits as you can see from the example here where I simply turned both girls forty five degrees to the camera, weight on their back leg which relaxes their upper body, and lighted them with a white shoot through umbrella and a soft box. We photographed about ten couples and six or seven groups inside the twenty minutes. For our next wedding we are booked for the entire evening so we’ll run the digital studio for a couple of hours after the first dance adjacent to the dance hall and we’ll also have on site instant mounting and printing so guests can take away their portrait before the end of the night.

While Keith and Fiona’s evening guests were arriving their cake was brought in and set up on the dance floor. When everyone was ready Keith and his bestman officially welcomed everybody and then we had the cake cutting ceremony. As is often the case at weddings I was called upon to give the instructions as Keith and Fiona weren’t too sure what they had to do. So we set them up and had the lights brought down low and got a nice set of atmospheric photos as they cut into the beautiful cake and then went straight into the first dance.

Flying Focus and folks planning weddings

Busy week for me last week, and an even busier one this week, lol. I went down to Focus on Imaging last week in Birmingham. If you’ve never heard of this it is the biggest trade show in the photographic industry and its held every year at the NEC in Birmingham. All the leading suppliers to the photography industry are there as well as the main album manufacturers and a host of other companies too.


For a wedding photographer in Edinburgh it’s not exactly local lol, but I managed to track down a couple of cheap flights which worked out less than what it would cost me in petrol if I’d driven down. If you want the really cheap flights you have to be prepared to travel at the off peaks times, which for me were early in the morning and late at night. So it was dark when I left and dark when I got back, as you can see in the photos :o

I flew down with BMI baby and it was super smooth and the most beautiful morning imaginable! Coming home in the evening I was with Flybe. The thing I love about Flybe is not only are they cheap, but their planes are so rickety it makes the flight incredibly exciting! Our engine must have conked out about five times, several hundred rivets went apopping from the wings and it was touch and go whether or not the wheels would come down on the undercarriage before touching down. I cant wait for the next trip!

A full day at Focus on Imaging enabled me to get around all the equipment and album manufacturers I wanted and also take in a couple of seminars. Its important to me to check that my own product and album range remains at the fore front of wedding photography and also assess the latest products and releases as well as try them out for quality and longevity. I also needed to check and try some equipment, too.

We are going to be adding a Portrait Booth to our services this year with on-site printing which we are really looking forward to and already have bookings coming in for it. So Focus on Imaging gave me the opportunity to try out some mobile lighting set-ups and decide which ones were going to be most suitable for the venue’s we will be working. All in all I had a great time and it proved to be very productive.


I’ve also been fitting in several meetings with couples whom I met at last weekends wedding fair and getting things organised for a wedding open evening this Wednesday at the Queensferry Hotel. So if you are looking for a wedding photographer in Scotland come along for a chat. We have weddings this coming weekend at the Minto Hotel on Saturday and Dalhousie Castle on Sunday, so I’m looking forward to them very much. No doubt I’ll tell you about them later.

Edinburgh's largest wedding show

We were at the Edinburgh Corn Exchange wedding show at the weekend and had a great time! This is the largest wedding fair in the Scottish capitol with over 100 exhibitors, three fashion shows and more than 3,000 visitors. Our stand was right at the front next to the cat walk, which meant we were really busy all the way through the weekend, which was excellent!

I met literally hundreds of brides and grooms, and MOB’s too, all in the throes of planning their forthcoming weddings. We discussed just about every wedding topic imaginable from venue choice to colour schemes. Visitors come from all over Scotland to this show so it wasn’t just couples planning to marry in Edinburgh. In fact, I even got asked if I’d travel to Germany to photograph a wedding and another one in Hungary!

Of course, the majority of couples were looking for a wedding photographer in Edinburgh and it was nice that many of them were getting married at venues where I have very recently worked, so they were keen for any insider information I may have, lol. One bride that Diane and myself were talking to is getting married in St. Mary’s Cathedral and then back to the Apex hotel for the reception. You may recall from a previous blog a few months ago we photographed Katrina and Paul’s wedding at this Cathedral and then back to the Apex for the reception. By strange coincidence the bride we were chatting with at the wedding show is also called Katrina. Same name, same Cathedral, same hotel for reception! Not the same husband tho. Phew! lol

I was able to catch up with a few other wedding suppliers that I know, too, which is always nice at these events.
And also try out some of Jane’s new wedding cakes which she’d brought samples of for her companies stand, Sweet Unique. Jane’s the owner by the way so don’t worry, she wont get into any trouble for letting me taste the goods, lol. The trouble is it's very difficult giving an informed opinion on only one slice, so to make sure I did my job properly I had to have quite a few ;)

Anyway, as usual after a wedding fair I now have lots of information packs to send out and meetings to set up so I’m posting a few quick photos I managed grab during the show and then getting on the phone. Next wedding fair is March, 28th at Melville Castle. If you are looking for a wedding photographer in Scotland then Melville Castles main recommended photographer will be there to answer any questions and show you some exclusive, bespoke designed albums. Hope to see you there!