Amanda and Gareth’s Wedding at Boturich Castle, Loch Lomond

A Scottish Welsh Wedding at Boturich Castle on the Banks of Loch Lomond

[Note: Remember that you can click any image to see a larger version!]

Ever since I first heard about this wonderful place I really wanted to take some wedding photographs at Boturich Castle, and Amanda and Gareth kindly gave me the opportunity to do so in June. I already knew that Gareth (a Welshman), and Amanda’s wedding would be a really good one as I had met them when they were guests at another wedding I was photographing last year. They seemed to have a great plan for their day and I was sure that my informal documentary style of photography was going to suit them very well.

This was my first trip to Boturich Castle, although I had heard of it before from other clients and fellow photographers, and I must admit that I was quite excited about it. Over the  years I have been to a lot of venues on the western side of Loch Lomond but this was the first place I had been to on the east. When I arrived in the bright sunshine that morning I was blown away by the setting – it is an absolutely magical place. They even have some resident chickens which made an appearance later on on the day.

Amanda, her twin sister bridesmaid and their mother were all getting ready in the castle itself when I arrived. Luckily for me they all had their wedding roles printed over their tops otherwise there might have been a bit of confusion. The hair and makeup were expertly dealt with by Glam R Dust while Amanda’s sister and her mum tried to force-feed the bride sandwiches to keep her going throughout the day. Gareth and his groomsmen were supposed to be arriving in a nice vintage bus and they really wanted me to get some pictures of this. The plan was that they would call me as they were arriving and I could run down to meet them. Unfortunately I kept getting text messages instead that told me that the bus was late, then even later and, eventually, that it wasn’t going to arrive at all. Not to let it ruin his day Gareth jumped into a Mini, prettily adorned with some weeds from the side of the road tucked under the window-wipers, and arrived under his own steam.

The ceremony was to be held outside the castle in a little dip next to the herbaceous border. It would be difficult to find a nicer setting for a wedding ceremony. Unfortunately we had used up our quota of sunshine for that day and the clouds had rolled in but it didn’t matter. The red carpet had been laid out and hoovered by Laura, with help from her spaniel, and we were good to go. Once Amanda had walked up the aisle with her father, and then had been romantically hoisted up the embankment at end by her husband-to-be Gareth, the ceremony began with the usual humour and jokes I have come to expect from Rev. Ian Miller, surely one of the very best ministers for a wedding. Just as at Steven and Susan’s wedding at Cameron House in March he did a brilliant job, getting the ceremony done in a very informal and, much of the time, amusing way. It is hard to incorporate tales of the naturist holiday resort on Inchmurrin Island into a wedding but he managed it brilliantly. Unfortunatly for the Church of Scotland he has just retired although, apparently, he intends to keep performing wedding ceremonies for a little while longer yet.

After the ceremony it was Gareth’s turn to take a slide back down the little hill and back through the castle to greet a corridor of guests waiting to throw confetti over them. The guests then made their way to the nearby marquee for some drinks while Amanda, Gareth and I went for just a few pictures on the beautiful grounds of the Castle. All the while I was trying to keep an eye on Amanda’s lazy eye as she was so convinced that it would ruin all her pictures that I even made a note of it in her file after we met. Not only did I not find a single shot where the offending eye was half-closed but Amanda herself seemed unable to even remember which eye it was supposed to be. It’s a good thing that I am used to these kinds of bizarre bridal worries – every bride I work with seems to have a ‘thing’ that bugs them and, more often than not, it doesn’t turn out to be an issue at all.

Amanda’s father, Jimmy, is an excellent professional piper who I have heard play before. Of course it was only fitting that he get to play just a little bit on his daughter’s wedding day and the picture below is one of him warming up with the shadow of Ben Lomond behind. If anyone is looking for a piper then I can highly recommend Jimmy – his contact details are at the bottom of this page.

Once the guests had all been served their frozen margaritas we enjoyed listening to four excellent speeches before dinner was served. When I was prowling around the tables after dinner looking for some nice informal guest shots I came across one chap conducting highly dangerous experiments by adding a whole packet of Space Dust to his neighbour’s coffee. The results were actually quite disappointing, even after the addition of a second packet, but it still made for some amusing photographs.

Gareth had opted out of the kilt for the whole day and, as far as his new wife was aware, that was how it would stay for the rest of the evening. However, Gareth had a plan. He had secretly obtained a kilt in a Welsh tartan and went off to change before the first dance. In theory this was to be a simple task however it was actually pretty hard to keep Amanda out of the castle as she wanted to go off and find him. It took a combined effort of several people to restrain her – I played my part by thinking up as many little photographs as I could that had to include the bride. When the moment came Gareth arrived, looking resplendent, and walked in to rapturous applause from everyone. Amanda’s first course of action, rather than running up and hugging Gareth or perhaps commenting on how great he looked, was to try and look under his kilt. Such romance. (PS – was he a true Welsh / Scotsman? I have no idea.)

Useful Links:

Boturich Castle – http://www.boturich.co.uk
Rev. Ian Miller – member@bonhillchurch.freeserve.co.uk
Piper Jimmy – 07920 430123 / jimlunneythepiper@gmail.com
Glam R Dust – http://www.glamrdust.co.uk
Helensburgh Flower Shop – http://www.helensburghflowershop.co.uk
The Executives (Band) – http://www.theexecutives.co.uk
Regis Banqueting – www.regisbanqueting.co.uk
Andrew Lenihan Videographer – www.glasgoweddingvideos.com
Cupcakes by Valerie – http://www.cupcakesbyvalerie.co.uk