Another Barony Castle wedding

I’ve photographed many weddings at Barony Castle but this was the first one where I ended up photographing the newly weds in the bath at the end of the day! In fact it’s 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 workedwith 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!

Win Your Wedding - Norton House Hotel

Things are incredibly busy right now and I’m loving it! The wedding season is beginning to tail off a touch and so I’ve been doing a lot of portrait sessions and shoots following a highly successful promotion after being signed up by Edinburgh’s Great Deal’s. I also think it’s highly likely that a well known fashion name will be running a Kool Kids photo contest in Edinburgh sometime before the end of the year but at the moment that’s top secret so please don’t tell anyone.

I had a great time at Ocean Terminal last weekend for the Debenhams Wedding Weekend and now I’m getting ready for the Edinburgh wedding fair this Sunday at the Hilton Edinburgh Hotel. That’s providing I survive my shoot at the National Mining Museum Friday night, of course. For the first time in over 30 years the National Mining Museum Scotland is going to be illuminated at night and the Switch On is this Friday. The switch on itself is being carried out by a top secret prominent well known person (yes lots of secrets this week) and after photographing them pressing the Switch On button the museum want to hoik (my spell checker is telling me that 'hoik' is spelled wrong...it doesn’t realise it’s this weeks new word) me up on to a precipitous, over hanging rooftop so I can get some dramatic photographs of the floodlit Colliery. I’m really looking forward to it! The photos will be amazing!

Last weekend of course I photographed Diane and Steven’s wedding at Norton House Hotel. Diane and Steven were the lucky couple who won the Forth One Win Your Wedding contest. This is justabout the biggest prize on Scottish radio where Forth One pooled together some of the finest wedding companies in Scotland who donated their services for free giving the winning couple a dream wedding day worth well over £15,000. The wedding venue was the superb Norton House Hotel, one of Edinburgh’s most popular and delightful wedding venues and other winning prizes included Diane‘s wedding dress, flowers and decorations and arrangements, wedding cars, honeymoon, hair and make-up, photography, wedding cake, piper, fly over by the Red Arrows and first dance song performed by Lady Gaga. I missed photographing the Red Arrows flyover because Lady Gaga was busy asking me if I thought her hair would look okay in the photographs ;)

The day went great with nice sunny weather and a fun filled humanist ceremony. As with all weddings I am there to do whatever you want me to soI was more than happy to do a few family photographs with Steven prior to the ceremony and then I was awaiting the bridal arrivals. I got a few quick photos of Diane with her bridesmaid and flower girl both in the wedding car and then at Norton House entrance. I also photographed her alongside her Uncle Eddie who was going to be walking her up the aisle and giving her away before we headed inside, too. I love the Ballroom suite at Norton House because it is so spacious and I was able to photograph the ceremony from many different angles and vantage points whilst remaining as unobtrusive as possible. Earlier in the day I photographed the set up of the room, the floral arrangements and decoration as well as the cake that was on display just for the benefit of the other companies who had supplied them. I do this at most weddings as I’m always happy to help out other wedding suppliers with photos and images of their beautiful products.

I received a phone call this week from Sky TV’s 'Four Weddings' who are wanting me to put forward one or two of my future brides to be featured on the program in the near future and also later in 2012. So if you have booked me for your wedding photography or are about to book me please let me know if you are interested. I’ve discussed this with one or two of my forthcoming brides so far and the consensus of opinion is that it seems a rather scary proposition! lol. Anyway, if it’s not too scary an idea for you let me know and we can work things out.

If you are planning on coming to the Edinburgh wedding fair this Sunday you may be interested to know we will have the new Kate Middleton replica Royal Wedding dress featuring in the exclusive Pretty Woman fashion show. It looks absolutely amazing close up - even to a guy! There will be complimentary drinks and canapés, performances throughout the afternoon from Scotland’s finest string quartet, John MacKintosh will be piping the opening of the fashion show, I’ll have the award winning Wedding Album of the Year 2011 on my own stand and there’s also the chance to win a free engagement photo shoot followed by a romantic meal for two at the Hilton in the Prize Draw at 4pm. If you stick around for a while after the conclusion of the fashion show we should be doing a mini fashion shoot with the models which you are welcome to watch. I’ll even do you your own portrait too if you like :)

I won't win the VOWS this year :(

With the announcement of the VOWS awards nominees having been made since my last blog I thought I’d take the opportunity to say a big Thank You to all the newly weds whose weddings I had the pleasure of photographing this year and who gave me a vote. In the photography category to reach the final shortlist of eight each company required 15 votes and sadly I just missed out with 25 (scratches head confusededly).

If you read my blog regularly you will know that I have been thrilled to pick up a remarkable number of awards for my photography so far this year. As the year progressed and I photographed more and more weddings I received some lovely Thank You cards and gifts from my newly married couples. Although I have never actively promoted the VOWS many of these couples mentioned in their cards that they had voted for me in the VOWS awards and when the number reached 16 I began to think it might be a good idea to write to some of my other couples asking if they would consider giving me a vote too. So at the beginning of September (closing date for VOWS votes was Sept 20th) I did this and nine couples replied that they would indeed send in their votes for me.

I was rather chuffed about this. I target 30-35 weddings a year (as most of my couples usually add on a Storybook album to their packages this allows me to dedicate enough time for their album design as well as to fit in some portrait sessions and magazine assignments, etc) so I thought 25 votes was a pretty good percentage. However, when the short listed finalists were announced I was not among them (breaks out the violin, lol). To be honest I wasn’t unduly concerned as I’m an Edinburgh wedding photographer who runs a small family company and I do not employ other photographers so obviously I don’t photograph as many weddings as the larger companies. But I was interested to know how my votes compared against the finalists so I emailed the VOWS organisers for the stats and figures. They kindly sent back the following information...

In the photography category they received a total of 1,059 entries. For a company to reach the eight short listed places as finalists they needed 15 votes. Philip Hawkins Photography fell short having only 11 votes. Pooo! (Please note the organisers didn't actually say 'Pooo', that was me!)

I certainly cannot see 16 couples, totally unprompted, sending me Thank You cards which say they have voted for me making it up. I hadn't even mentioned anything about the VOWS to them. And even if none of the other 9 remembered to vote if my maths is right I'm still above the 15. Oh, well, I guess next year I’ll have to ask the counting officers to check under their desks and chairs, lol.

Although it does sound rather confusing (btw, I hope you spotted this weeks new word earlier) I didn’t dwell on it for long as the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers results for the September monthly contest were published beginning of October and I managed to pick up no fewer than four awards in the categories of 'Weddings Contemporary', 'Weddings Photojournalism', 'Weddings Traditional' and 'Bridal Portraiture'. All from the same wedding! So I was a very happy photographer! (Grrr, I meant to say wedding photographer Edinburgh as it’s good for my SEO, lol) So the four images are the ones you see here.

It’s a big day for lots of people tomorrow (Friday) especially Diane and Stephen who were the Radio Forth winners of the Win Your Wedding 2011 contest. I’m charging up all the batteries and stuff as we speak in readiness to do their photography for their Norton House Hotel wedding in the afternoon. I’m then at Ocean Terminal shopping centre Saturday and Sunday for the Debenhams Wedding Weekend followed by the Edinburgh wedding fair at the Hilton Hotel the next again weekend.

I am already receiving great interest in our first photography course in Edinburgh for 2012 (details are now up on my website). Date is January 7th at the Edinburgh Hilton Hotel. It’s an all day course Getting to grips with digital photography. So if you know anyone who has perhaps recently taken up an interest in photography or maybe receives a new digital camera as a Christmas present or anyone who simply wants to understand their camera more or improve their photography level please pass on the details to them. Places are limited so its first come first served. We also have several other classes and courses coming up too so you may like to bookmark the link.

Once again may I say thanks to those of you for all the Thank You cards, emails and presents. I’ve popped a selection of them up on the Testimonials page on my website and I’ll also be using others in various promotional and marketing materials. I know that last week I was talking about news and rumours so I’ll finish up today with the rumour that one of my weddings will be a feature article in the next issue of Best Scottish Weddings magazine and another one will feature in Hitched Real Life Weddings!