On a scorching hot spring day in April I photographed another brilliant wedding in Edinburgh. I shoot so many weddings on the east coast I have seriously been thinking about relocating – I think I would miss my garden too much though…

Kirsten’s parent’s house was conveniently located next to the lovely Liberton Kirk in Edinburgh and after a few shots in the house we couldn’t resist nipping out into the garden in the sunshine for a few more pictures.

After the ceremony we managed to cover a lot of the more formal photography in the church grounds whilst the guests enjoyed the Prosecco that Kirsten and Matt had brought along. In fact, as the ushers were perhaps very busy elsewhere, Kirsten took the role of waitress and served the drinks too. I knew in advance that Kirsten wanted a group picture of all of the guests – a detail that I wish more people would tell me before the wedding – I had brought a tall stool along with me to give a bit of extra height for the picture!

The guests then led a procession through the cemetery and overcame their nerves (no doubt helped by a glass of fizz) to cross the busy A701 to a waiting old school bus. The bemused driver told me that he couldn’t understand why they didn’t want to hire one of their many luxury coaches and when I tried to explain that it might be a bit more fun on the old school bus he just tutted and walked off…

While the guests enjoyed their bus ride to the Sheraton Grand Hotel and Spa complete with streamers, apparently, I followed the bride and groom’s car on a slightly hair-raising circuitous route to Holyrood Park, the site of Matt’s propsal to Kirsten. I don’t often visit a ‘midway’ venue specifically for photographs but I have absolutely no objection and was very happy to visit the park with them. It is a part of Edinburgh that held a special meaning for them and, equally as important, there was an ice-cream van there as well.

After Kirsten had attempted to mimic the cover of the Beatles Abbey Road album cover we thought that it would be a good idea to have an ice-cream. The queue got shorter and shorter until we were almost at the front and then, with a grinding of gears, the machine broke down right there and then… And then, just as I was leaving the park, I was collared by a park warden and asked to leave or pay a fee to keep taking pictures there – this wasn’t something I was aware of so future brides, take note!

The party theme continued on at the reception too. There was a giant Connect 4 game, bags of sweets and a sweepstake on the Grand National which was running that very afternoon.

 After some amusing speeches I finished my day witnessing something I have never seen before in my life, let alone a wedding. This aspect of the wedding was so critical that Kirsten and Matthew had even made an instructional video for their guests prior to the big day (I’d link to it but Kirsten would possibly kill me). So, after the touching romance of the first dance the first lyrics of Beautiful Sunday spead across the dancefloor and upwards of 30 people joined the happy couple to dance the Slosh.