Fiona and Mohsin, Braid Hills Hotel

I’ve spent the whole day today processing and editing the photographs from Fiona and Moshins wedding which was a week past Saturday at Braid Hills Hotel, Edinburgh. It was a great Wedding, I really enjoyed it, Fiona looked stunning, she told me that she had done some modelling before – I was not surprised.

It was Rugby weekend so I was concerned about parking in Edinburgh near the Church, I need not have been as it was all ok. Paul the Minister was very laid back and casual, he gave me permission to do pretty much as I liked which is very refreshing. It was  Brethern Service, a first for me, very upbeat and musical but longer than most services these days.

I started off at the hotel photographing Fiona and her Bridesmaids then a little bit of detail shot of the room which was not quite finished. I took a lift with Mosh and his best man to the Church and we shot off a few frames there as we waited for Fiona to arrive.

 

Fiona did arrive, bang on time.

She looked very nervous as she came in with her father, come to think of it he looked pretty nervous too!

Mosh was delighted to see her.


After the service, we did a few shots in the Church as it was quite spacious and well lit. The hotel had me under pressure to get them in their seats for 4.30 as they had another function on. I was pretty sure that would be impossible and we negotiated a bit and I had until 4.45 so I had to rattle through the shots as quickly as I could. This is the point of a Wedding that sorts the Men from the Boys, not only do you need to think about which lens to use, what the ISO setting should be, is the background ok, will the highlights be blown out by the window, should I balance to ambient or let it provide the key light – or (unlikely) kill the ambient and use flash for the key light, what about shadows if I use flash, you also need to do it all in a tight timescale, making sure that the next person to be photographed is available and not wandered off, trying to make it look like you have it all under control when your brain is working out a hundred different things – and you need the toilet!

After the Church I was given a lift back to Braid Hills and then I had all of 20 minutes to do the group shots that were asked for as well as take the Bride and Groom away for some personal shots – not likely!

We made it, just. The meal was served and I had a meal in the bar sorting through the shots just to make sure I was happy with them. I photographed the speeches, Mosh made a very moving speech that had everyone laughing, especially Fiona. His best man was Japanese and he sang a Japanese Wedding song, he provided sheets for the guests to sing along – that was a laugh.

Then the dancing then I headed home – a long day but very enjoyable.