A Hotel Wedding in Glencoe: Weather-Proof Scottish Photography

This year I seem to be photographing elopements in Glencoe just about every week. I really don’t mind that at all and honestly cannot believe that I get to be there so often.

Every one of those elopements is completely unique but they mostly follow the same formula of two people, two witnesses (of which I am often one), a ceremony outside in the hills and then some pictures in the Glen itself. This works absolutely brilliantly, but what if you want to invite more guests? And what if you are worried about the very real potential for bad weather? Alicja and Dawid had the best of both worlds.

Preparing for the Weather in Glencoe

I met Alicja, Dawid and their families at an incredible giant wooden lodge called, appropriately, The Logs, just north of Fort William. They had chosen this as a base for their stay because it was large enough that everyone there could stay together and have a wee holiday in a beautiful place with the sun-kissed top of the mighty Ben Nevis as their breakfast view.

After a first-look in the garden, and a few pictures with the alpaca next door (Dawid told me it was his spirit animal due to their identical hairstyles) we drove up the road to the Ballachulish Hotel just outside the village of Glencoe itself, one of my favourite Scottish Highland wedding venues. It was here in this wonderful location that Alicja and Dawid had their wedding ceremony with Humanist Celebrant Alex Moore of the Humanist Society Scotland.

Now, it might have been a beautiful warm and sunny day outside but there is definitely something reassuring knowing that, whatever happens, you aren’t going to get rained upon during the ceremony no matter what the weather is doing. This is probably even more important when you have guests with you. You might not mind a bit of drizzle but you guests may not be delighted.

A Hotel Ceremony, Still With Plenty of Mountain Photographs

The thing about Glencoe is that it’s actually quite compact. There’s a heck of a lot of beauty squished into just 12 miles of valley. This means that although Alicja and Dawid had their ceremony at sea-level on the shores of Loch Linnhe (or Loch Leven – or both??) in 15 minutes we were right up in the glorious hills that everyone associates with Glencoe.

We had a tight dinner schedule that day but we still managed a little hike to a couple of viewpoints to get both a wide view of the mountains and the valley and also some nice photographs in front of the river Coupall and the mighty Buachaille Etive Mòr.

I would like to give my sincerest thanks to Alicja and Dawid for letting me share the story of their day! If you would like some more Glencoe inspiration or are looking for a Glencoe elopement photographer there is a whole page on this website here.