Glorious weather today as I headed off for Linlithgow on the first leg of today’s wedding with Fiona & Scott. My first brief was to catch up with all the guys to do some shots around St. Michael’s Parish Church and also the adjacent Linlithgow Palace. I’d been asked to get one specific shot of the guys walking up the cobbled road on the approach to the Palace so I readied myself at the top of the road and waited. On cue, I spotted Scott and the rest of his groom’s party in the distance and fired away –couldn’t have asked for any better spacing between them all…all six in the perfect position for the shot.
With guys shot (not literally), I headed back up the road to Larbert to join up with Fiona & the girls. Scott had laid on some “interesting” bridal cars and Fiona had no idea what they were and, on that point, neither did I (despite my probing). Scott had wanted me to capture Fiona’s reaction as she stepped out of the house and saw the cars which, having now arrived, I could see where a VW camper van for the bridesmaids and a VW Beetle for Fiona…great choices. Thankfully, neither car nor van travelled too quickly, which enabled me to get ahead of them as I raced back to Linlithgow for the ceremony, getting there about 10 mins ahead…just enough time.
Church ceremonies can be a bit hit and miss as to what you’re allowed to photograph. Sometimes, no photography is permitted at all. Today, however, I was given carte blanche to pretty much go where I wanted, providing I was not interfering. St. Michael’s is a beautiful church, so it seemed only right to ensure I captured this in some of the images, so a position at the back of the altar seemed like the best place to go and, luckily, this also provided some great light streaming in from the high stained glass window providing some of my favourite images from the day.
With the ceremony complete, and everyone now back outside, we headed off to do a handful of group and bride & groom shots. Fiona & Scott are a great couple to work with, and, as on the pre-wedding shoot, didn’t need an awful lot of direction from me to get some great looking images. Lighting was a bit of challenge, with harsh sunshine and shaded areas hard to come by, it was flash all the way – I guess it must always look a bit odd for any onlookers to see flashguns being used on bright sunny days but, as any photographer will know, it is usually the only way to get well exposed shots in these conditions.
Fiona & Scott had chosen the Norton House hotel as the venue for their reception, which, from what I could gather from the speeches, was the umpteenth venue that had been visited during the search. Great choice though, in my opinion. I’d only been asked to stay until for the cake cutting & speeches which, I must say, were some of the best I’ve ever heard – well done guys, certainly got some good reactions for me to photograph.
Here are some of my fave images from the day. The full set can be found in the online gallery (password required).
