Little Lady’s Tower Elie Wedding – Silda and Matthew
So the coronavirus lockdown has eased up a little bit and weddings have started again, thank goodness. The end of the year is actually lining up to be fairly busy for me with several little weddings coming up. Only a couple are near my house in Glasgow but hey, I love traveling so that’s OK. Silda and Matthew’s Lady’s Tower Elie wedding is actually the fourth I’ve photographed since March but I thought I’d blog this one as I have just finished editing it and the images are all still on my computer.
If I had to choose just one word to describe this wedding it would be windy. I arrived in the tiny Fife fishing village of Elie (about one hour north east of Edinburgh) early and went to the Lady’s Tower to scout the location. I opened the car door and nearly lost a finger as the door immediately slammed shut again. It was very, very windy indeed. Still, if we were to do away with awkward masks and tight social distancing measures then the ceremony would still be better outside and Silda and Matt are hardy folk. The weather got me thinking a bit about bridal hairstyles actually – If you are a bride reading this would you think about having a backup hairstyle that is more suited to an outdoor ceremony in less than ideal weather? Let me know in the comments.
The Lady’s Tower, incidentally, is a small stone tower set right at the edge of the North Sea and was apparent build for Lady Anstruther who partook in a spot of skinny dipping from time to time. I doubt that she would have been out this day in particular but maybe folk were made of hardier stuff back then so you never know.
Silda and Matt have two dogs – a sprightly young labrador named Lochan and the much more distinguished Jess – and both were guests of honour at their wedding which I think is always really nice to see. There was a dog at the wedding after theirs too – I am really liking this trend and it is yet another good reason to think about having your wedding outside somewhere. Once I had been suitably licked (by the dogs obvs.) I zipped around the large cottage they had rented and managed to capture some nice images of both the bride and the groom getting ready at the same time. You will see that one of the photographs shows Silda writing on the bottom of one of her wedding shoes. This is a Greek tradition (I also saw this at Georgios and Anthoula’s Rhodes wedding last year) that involves writing the names of every unmarried woman on the sole of your shoe. Whichever name is the last to rub off is the one most likely to get married next (I wondered what would happen if they all rubbed off, and do you have to keep checking to make sure that doesn’t happen prematurely?).
We reconvened at the nearby car park and I followed the little bridal party over the top of the beach to find everyone else nestled down in a handy little dip that was surprisingly well sheltered from the wind. I am sure Lady Anstruther had the foresight to have it dug for this very purpose. After a wonderful ceremony by Sarah Morrison from the Humanist Society Scotland, during which some new dogs came to say hello, and then Jess decided to try and make a break for home but was recaptured, we went back to sign the marriage schedule and then the sun actually came out!
Right next to the Lady’s Tower is a beautiful beach and, seeing as it wasn’t exactly bikini weather, we had the whole thing to ourselves for our short photoshoot there. This is one the many advantages to working by the seaside in Scotland – compared to down in England it is almost always mercifully peaceful and quiet. My next four weddings are all by lochs and the sea and I know that at each of the locations there will be very few people about. Silda and Matthew had arranged to have a little dinner in a wonderful little harbourside building that is part of the famous Ship Inn in Elie. The Ship’s Cabin, as it is called, is a great spot for a little wedding, especially at the moment because they are only using it for events exactly like today’s because of Covid. Perfect!
I really enjoyed working with Silda and Matthew, their close families and the dogs at the Lady’s Tower Elie wedding. If you are considering having a smaller wedding, whether it is to beat the current coronavirus restrictions or just because an elopement or little wedding is the way you would like to do things, take a look at this page on my website and have a read through my last blog post all about tiny weddings.
Silda and Matt were kind enough to leave me a review too. You can read it here.
Dress: https://lanovia.co.uk
Hair: Ariana Marcantonio
