I find myself driving north almost every week these days to photograph different Glencoe elopements and small weddings in the surrounding areas. Glencoe itself is a little picturesque village nestled at the lower end of a long and mountainous valley.
Towards the top of the Glencoe valley is the iconic mountain, Buachaille Etive Mòr, a stunning backdrop for many of my elopements. Around the base of the mountain is a second road, heading south, that follows the small but feisty river Etive. If you drive down Glen Etive to the very end you will come across the wonderfully serene Loch Etive (which is actually where I will be this weekend!).
In the village of Glencoe itself, aside from a wonderful bakery, is Glencoe Lochan. A perfect sheltered spot for elopements if the weather is a bit iffy and one of the locations of the two small weddings I’m featuring in this blog.
During the first weekend of April I had two weddings to photograph in Glencoe, just two days apart. They were more or less in the same place, but both ended up being very different from each other. I wanted to write a little bit about them because it is this variety of weddings that really excites me when it comes to wedding and elopement photography. I am very much an outdoors type person and really enjoy capturing not just the wedding itself, but the amazing Scottish scenery too, whatever the conditions.
The Storm Kathleen Elopement
The first of the two Glencoe weddings was on the very day that Storm Kathleen hit the UK. Fortunately Tom and Adele were very outdoorsy people and they were very used to being out in the wind and rain. As keen kayakers they wanted to have their ceremony outside, right by the rocky edge of the river Etive. Apparently, in the kayaking community, the Etive is a particularly great place to paddle although, to me, it looked absolutely terrifying that day.
The rocks they had chosen as a ceremony location were swamped by the higher-than-usual river so we found another close by to perch on. I’m not exaggerating when I say that it was very difficult to actually stand still with the gusts of strangely warm gale-force winds howling up the valley. It wasn’t raining during the ceremony (thankfully) but the spray was blowing up and off of the river itself. It made for some very challenging photography but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Tom and Adele have written their own blog about their wedding and you might like to have a read through to hear about the wedding from their side of things https://delkayaks.co.uk/2024/04/28/our-wet-and-wild-kayaking-wedding-eloping-to-scotland/
The Sunny Glencoe Lochan Elopement
The second wedding was completely different. Two days after Adele and Tom’s wedding the storm had passed and, miraculously, the sun was shining. Harnisha and Cal, along with a few of their close friends and family, gathered in a secluded spot on the banks of Glencoe Lochan. Behind us was the forest and then, on the other side of the small loch, was the towering Pap of Glencoe, Sgòrr na Cìche.
There wasn’t a breath of wind that day and the peaceful and calm ceremony was a huge contrast to the previous wedding. After the ceremony, and the sharing of a wide selection of Indian sweets that I was obliged to try, Harnisha and Cal wandered around the edge of the loch an for a few photographs before we headed up into the hills for a few more mountainous photographs.
Here were two very different Glencoe elopements. The actual outcome was exactly the same – two couples were married – but the weather and location changes everything. Tom and Adele were perfectly happy to get wet and muddy and, I suspect, Cal and Harnisha weren’t quite as keen to go too far off of the beaten track. When it comes down to it I really don’t mind how adventurous you feel on your day and will always let you decide where you’d like to go.
These days more and more of my couples are asking me to photograph their adventurous weddings and elopements up in the mountains and beaches of Scotland and I absolutely love that! I don’t mind the odd country house wedding every now and again but nothing beats getting outdoors into the wonderful wilderness Scotland has to offer. How much outdoors is entirely up to you but rest assured that wherever you choose to go on your wedding day, I will be happy to follow along.
Here are some the photographs from both the brilliant weddings I’ve mentioned. Tom and Adele’s Glencoe elopement and Hal and Harnisha’s little wedding by Glencoe Lochan. Both weddings were absolutely beautiful to photograph and I shall remember each of them very fondly.
