Pollok House, highland cows, non-stop torrential rain, a barbecue and a red-headed (ginger) bride set the scene for a lovely wedding that was surely about as Scottish as a wedding could be.

As an experiment, rather than choosing all the photographs from a wedding myself I thought it might be interesting to see what Kellyann and David would choose themselves so I asked them to pick their 20 favourite shots. As a photographer I might choose pictures that were perhaps technically successful or nice in a purely aesthetic way, but I have long been aware that clients often choose different pictures to me, which is why I offer couples over 200 pictures to choose from. I find it interesting that brides and grooms often focus on pictures that aren’t necessarily the most exciting, dynamic or artistic choice and instead sway towards shots that simply include their close friends and family.

Asking Kellyann to choose just 20 pictures was, perhaps, slightly unfair. There were 270 to pick from and I know she liked a lot more than this selection as she decided to upgrade her 40 page album to a 50 page version to fit in the 80 pictures she’d selected.
 
Here are the shots that Kellyann and David chose.

I had been to Pollok House only a few weeks before this visit (you can see that post here) and I was really looking forward to returning. This was also due, in part, to knowing that Kellyann would be a great bride to work with as, from reading her daily wedding build-up on Facebook, she was very excited about her big day.

I started, as usual, at Kellyann and David’s house which wasn’t too far from Pollok House, to capture some of the action before the wedding. It was all very relaxed but when the two beautiful wedding cars arrived everything stepped up a gear and it all got a bit more frenetic.

I left ahead of Kellyann and the bridesmaids to go up to Pollok house to capture a few shots of whatever was happening up there and was surprised to see some of the bridesmaids arrive just after I did, but in one of the guest’s cars. It turns out that the very Glaswegian weather had made one of the poor old wedding cars chug to a halt at the side of the road. However, as luck would have it, one of the wedding guests was driving along the same road at just the right time and, after a quick transfer of the bridal party members they were en route again.

The Humanist ceremony (not all weddings in Scotland are Humanist – it is just beginning to seem that way!) was conducted by Leslie Mitchell in the library. As with all the Humanist celebrants I have ever worked with they are very relaxed about photography and I was, more or less, allowed to take whatever shots I wanted as long as I was as unobtrusive as possible.

After the ceremony I was expecting to be staying indoors as it couldn’t have been raining any harder outside but Kellyann was undeterred and out we went with umbrellas in hand. With all the rain recently I have been getting quite adept at propping my own umbrella under one are whilst taking photographs… We managed to get some nice shots with the one remaining wedding car and then we even went into the gardens. I take my hat off to Kellyanns resilience!

Here’s what Kellyann and David had to say:

“It was lovely being able to see our wedding photos when we were on honeymoon in London. We are just over the moon with them. They were exactly what we wanted them to be so thank you. All of our guests commented that they didn’t even notice you were there especially our parents who are very camera shy. Everyone who chatted to you commented after that you were a lovely man who made them feel very at ease. Its just a pity you were away at the time I got a dance from the guys in their ‘See You Jimmy’ hats. [This is a picture I would have loved to have taken - unfortunately somebody forgot to bring them to the wedding and had to go back for them...] We’ve had so many lovely comments from people about the photos, everyone loves them!

Despite worrying about the weather in the week leading up to the wedding when the day finally came we never gave it a second thought. We were just so excited about the whole thing and couldn’t wait to see each other. So many people had told us that the day flies by, so we were expecting that. Time seemed to stop for us though and we were able to take it all in and enjoy it. We honestly had the best day ever!

Tried my best with the photos but found it really hard, feel as if I’ve left out loads of favourites!!…”

And, of course, I couldn’t resist adding a few pictures that they didn’t pick themselves.