An Oxenfoord Castle wedding

Firstly let me remind you that if you click on the first photo it will open up a large viewer so you can see all the photo spreads at a much bigger size and then scroll through them gallery style.

Well what a beautiful day it turned out to be for Sarah and James wedding at Oxenfoord Castle. This was my first time photographing a wedding here and I thoroughly enjoyed it! It is only a very short distance away from where I live so ideally suited for this happy Edinburgh wedding photographer! :)

Sarah and James booked me to photograph their wedding 18 months ago. Although living in Edinburgh themselves they didn’t feel a need to meet up with me beforehand as Sarah had spent considerable time studying and analysing the wedding photographers in Edinburgh online and simply booked me straight away once she had determined the best one for the job. Booking well in advance ensures you get the photographer you want before anyone else who has the same date as you attempts to book him. It also secures your price as my pricing is fixed at the time of booking.

Although I had previously popped across to Oxenfoord for a pre-wedding recce I still left early on the wedding morning as I like to just double check everything on the day. Sometimes little things can get changed, moved or altered at the last minute so it makes good sense. It also was to prove beneficial for Sarah, too, or more specifically Sarah’s dress.

The ceremony was to be held in Cranford church which is in the same grounds as the castle. The main entrance to the church lies off the main A68 road but there are also two other entrances at opposite corners. The wedding car was to bring Sarah to the main entrance but from experience I know that sometimes things can go wrong on wedding days so I had to prepare myself for the possibility of it going to one of the other two gates instead. I had checked out these entrances earlier on the off chance this may happen and noted that one gate was totally out of use whilst the other gate was very picturesque but there was a gap of about 4 to 5 feet between the road and the pathway which was rather muddy due to the overnight rain.

When Sarah and her father arrived at the church the wedding car stuck to the plan and arrived safe and sound at the main entrance. However, as they were disembarking it was suggested to them that they use the alternative gate for their departure after the ceremony. Everyone thought this a good idea but no one realised about the muddy ground which would have definitely soiled Sarah’s dress even with her taking the utmost of care. So fortunately my prior scout round helped avoid this from happening.

For the ceremony itself I had use of the upper gallery along one side which as you can see from the photos gave an excellent over head view of the proceedings. I got my usual good variety of ceremony photographs using a combination of wide angle and telephoto lenses and of course no flash (I mention that simply for the benefit of any wedding officiate who may be reading this as I consider the use of flash during the ceremony itself to be rather disrespectful and unprofessional, this is a marriage ceremony after all, and although I take it for granted other wedding photographers must think the same I gather from comments I get from many ministers and registrar’s that I am among the minority).

Following the ceremony and of course all the congratulations we headed across to Oxenfoord Castle. Sarah had asked me to do their group photographs in the Green Dining Room which you can see was a splendid room, very spacious with a magnificent ornate ceiling and lovely bay windows. I positioned all the groups in front of the elegant bay windows to give a pleasing backdrop in keeping with the Castle setting of the wedding.

Our bride and groom session centred firstly right in front of the castle for a couple of shots with the grand fortress as an arresting back ground. We then just walked around the grounds a little doing a few different combinations and set ups. Although with these photographs the newly weds are being directed I avoid going in for what is known in the business as 'over posing' as I like to keep things looking natural and relaxed which compliments the over all storybook style of photojournalistic photography. Creative use of my lighting ensures a stylish, striking look to the photographs, too.

We finished off with a requested photograph of "All the Kilts", a popular choice for weddings in Scotland. After which it was time for James and Sarah to go for their wedding breakfast. As everyone was heading into the dining room I completed my duties with a couple of shots of the wedding cake which had a miniature, and very lifelike, James and Sarah atop of it. I must say it looked Yummmmmm!