Dunkeld Cathedral and the Atholl Palace, Pitlochry

Fiona and Jean-Christophe at Dunkeld Cathedral

It was an early start on Saturday 21st August – up at 6.00am to get all my equipment ready and pack for an overnight stay. On my way to Pitlochry, I stopped at Dunkeld Cathedral to look at the setting. I had worked there previously but the last time I had to work inside as it was wet. It is a great setting on the banks of the River Tay and I was looking forward to photographing there.

Click here to see the "formal" images, and here for the informal, and the speeches and dancing shots are on this link

It was then on to the Atholl Place to get a few shots of Fiona, the bridesmaids, and her Mum getting ready. This is often a good opportunity to get some fun shots.

I also set up a black background and took some shots of the Bridesmaids and the Bride’s Mum.

Sandra and I set off for the Cathedral and had a busy time photographing Jean Christophe, Niall, Grant, the ushers, and the 190 guests before the arrival of Mum and the girls, and Fiona and her Dad. We had a very long queue of guests but got everyone photographed and were waiting when the bridesmaids arrived. After the service, we took shots on the banks of the River and with the Cathedral in the background. Unfortunately we could not take in the ruin as it was closed off as work has to be done after damage caused over the winter. We headed back to the Atholl Palace where I took only a few more shots of Fiona and Jean Christophe including the one below.

I took shots of the bridesmaids and their partners so that Fiona and Jean Christophe could go and mix with the guests. We had planned at the pre-wedding meeting to leave some of the group shots until after the meal so that they could mix with their guests and this worked very well and we managed to stick to our timing plan all day even although we had a lot of shots to take.

After the meal, we took a group shot of everyone and some groups with friends between the end of the meal and the dancing starting. It is sometimes easier to get fun shots at this stage of the day.

Then it was back to the reception to start the dancing. There was a nice surprise in that a lot of the French ladies dressed up and performed the can can and the guests joined in adding a very French influence alongside the Ceilidh and the traditional Scottish dancing.

It was a long hard day and I finished photographing at 12.30am and had taken over 1400 photographs but I am fortunate to love what I do and hopefully this comes across when I work – see below the nice email I got from Fiona’s Mum.

"Dear Neil,

Firstly can I say how delighted we all are with the photographs you and your colleague took at Fiona and Jean-Christophe’s wedding on Saturday. Your attention to detail, patience and good humour even at the end of a very long day were much appreciated and we are so pleased to have such a wonderful record of the happy day. The bride and groom are in New York at present but I know have had a chance to see the photographs and they look forward to making their choices for the album.

Kind Regards,

Rosemary MacKenzie (Bride’s Mother)" 

To see a slideshow of some of the images from the wedding, click on play below.

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