Max and Kelly’s Assynt NC500 Wedding

Max and Kelly’s Assynt NC500 Wedding

I am sure that most people, on their wedding anniversary, have a relaxed day with their other half, perhaps having a nice lunch together or doing something fun. We certainly always try and do that. This year, on the other hand, I drove my wife Fiona, and my dog Chip, almost to the very tip of northern Scotland to photograph somebody else’s wedding. Was it worth the drive? Absolutely. Max and Kelly’s wedding in the wilds of Assynt, right by the famous NC500 route, was one of the most spectacular I’ve ever photographed.

So, you might be wondering why anyone would drive north for hours and hours on windy Scottish roads, then trek though the heather to the edge of the super-remote Allt Chranaidh waterfall for their wedding? Well, the part of Scotland known as Assynt, in Sutherland, is one of the greatest wilderness regions of the UK. It attracts landscape photographs from all over the world and is a National Scenic Area for good reason. The iconic North Coast 500 driving route also passes right through it, although fortunately we were there just before the main tourist season began as it can get very busy there in the summer.

One of the most amazing things about getting married in Scotland is that you can have the ceremony anywhere you want. I have photographed weddings and elopements in every type of environment you can imagine, from beaches to mountaintops, from forests to the centre of Edinburgh. This means that your wilderness wedding can be truly meaningful for you. Max and Kelly chose the Allt Chranaidh waterfall (sometimes called the Wailing Widow falls) because they had passed it some months earlier and immediately fell in love (with it, and each other obvs.).

I met them and their small family group at the nearby Newton Lodge, close to the famous Kylesku bridge. It was warm and cosy and made a perfect base for their wedding. After photographing both Kelly and Max, and had given up trying to convince Kelly that the wind was going to do whatever it wanted to her hair so she may as well just plait it again, I headed just a few miles up the road to meet up with everyone else at the agreed spot. After a brisk first-look I walked with Kelly and Max to the location they had picked out the day before, and with awe-inspiring views in every direction I can see why they had chosen it.

Humanist celebrant Lynn Munro had traveled from Ullapool and performed a brilliant ceremony that featured a re-run of the proposal, with a Haribo ring, in front of the gathered guests. Kelly and Max cast their oathing stone back into Loch na Gainmahich and crowded into my campervan with their witnesses to sign their paperwork and shelter from the very, very cold and fierce wind (it might even have been windier than April and Colin’s Dunscaith Castle Elopement). After a few photographs at the base of the Allt Chranaidh Waterfall it was back to the Lodge for some of the windiest family photographs I think I have ever taken and, finally, some confetti photographs that happened so fast that I had to rely on my camera’s speed to capture them.

All in all it was a fantastic day. If you have found your own special place in Scotland have you ever considered actually getting married there? It’s much easier than you think and I am always more than happy to help with the planning. There are plenty of well-known spots such as Glencoe and the Isle of Skye, but there are so many more that are barely on the map that are even more fabulous and will make for a perfect wedding or elopement location.

Oh, and don’t worry, my wife Fiona and I had a lovely day on our anniversary. Once the wedding had finished we had a picnic at the nearby Ardvreck castle, walked the dog along beautiful Oldshoremore beach and I treated her to freshly caught fish and chips from the Fish Box on our campsite in Scourie for tea.